Selma Chrifi Alaoui - Communication and Development

In the Fifth Part, the author argues that the main, central and only question that one should ask about his or her own life is: “Do you want to be happy?”. Meaning no matter the circumstances, the external factors and the choices that we have made or not made, none of it should be questionable except the decision to be happy or not. What the author means by wanting to be happy is that you would truly want to be happy no matter what happens, no matter the tragedies and difficulties in your life, because giving happiness certain conditions means that you would never truly be happy. Saying yes to happiness has to be unconditional, and it is the best and most direct path to achievement “Awakening”. Life will happen to you, it cannot be controlled. So the question is whether you would be able to stay happy, regardless of any events, and whether you will be able to enjoy life just because you’re living it. The author says to make it a game, because if you stay happy no matter what life thr...

At the beginning of this third part, the author evokes the idea of fear and how it affects our lives and our perceptions of what is around us. For people who have fear, change is very frightening. You would prefer having the semblance of control in order to feel safe, which is not compatible with change. But change is inevitable and is an undeniable constant, and having this fear of change means that you would live through life with constant fear. Instead of trying to avoid fear, or anxiety about certain specific matters, it needs to be addressed. We have to accept that there is nothing that we can control, and that everything we have and everything we see is external, meaning it is never a fixed state, and that there is nothing in life that we can count on always being there. If we do not realize this, our daily lives and every experience we have will be tainted by this constant fear of “losing control”, which is irrational because we never truly have control over anything. Instead ...

The book’s third chapter explores the question: “who am I?”. The author argues that the response to this question is not the ones we typically give when asked this question: We are not a collection of letters that make up our name. We are not limited to our relationship with someone, meaning someone’s spouse, child, etc. We are not our birth dates, our childhood, or any events that happened to us in our lives. We are not our experiences. We are not our appearances either. These are not ourselves, but things that we see or feel. Nothing except what is inside of us can qualify as ourselves. But then what is the answer? The author looks at ourselves in the form of our thoughts, but once again, thoughts are things that we feel, therefore they cannot be us. Emotions are ruled out from being our “me” for the same reason as well. The author argues that the truest form of a “me” can be qualified as our consciousness, and at its core, our awareness. Without awareness, we become nothing ...