I am currently in a time full of lies and hypocrisy. Everything I see around me is lies and hypocrisy. Politicians and government officials promise prosperity and justice before they are elected, but once they come to power, they oppress the people and impoverish the people.
Not only politicians and governments, but even religious leaders are also full of hypocrisy. Religious leaders promise heaven for their followers who want to fight in the way of their religion, but they instead destroy local cultures and oppress women, and sometimes religious groups interfere with the comfort of many people's lives. The hypocrisy is very clear I see.
Then I saw various media, ranging from mass media to electronic media. Every media that I see also promises happiness, the media invites people to become consumptive, the media invites people to buy all kinds of products so that consumers are happy, even though it is not necessarily like that.
The motivators and business mentors also voiced, in a seminar, they said, "you will be happy if you are rich, you will be happy if you can show off your wealth on social media, your family will be proud if you have lots of wealth"
Cosmetics sellers also lie to women, they say that women will be happy if their faces are beautiful, white, and glowing. Not only women, but men are also the target of lies, clothing designers will say that men will be happy and look handsome if they wear fashionable and branded clothes.
Social media and advertisements continue to seduce users to buy products from the capital, they persuade us to become consumptive so that they become richer by being promised happiness that we do not necessarily get. They are today's liars.
Even though we are only briefly satisfied with wealth, beauty, and good looks, but that satisfaction will disappear, eventually we will seek to escape to get greater satisfaction, we will be entangled in a world that will make us more lost to achieve inner satisfaction. But still, you will not be satisfied.
Finally, we feel strangers, we feel strangers to other people as well as ourselves. This is what gives rise to depression. Some even want to commit suicide because of this depression. They are tired of living an unsatisfying life, starting from following the advice of the market, religious leaders, to the advice of their parents. It will still lead to inner emptiness. Life is full of distractions, from shopping, traveling, to being religious.
The question is, how can we get out of the trap of dissatisfaction like this? How can we fill the inner void? The answer is very simple, namely by being who you really are.
Then, who are we really? Our true selves are not thoughts and emotions, thoughts and emotions are just temporary things that reside within us, can come and go. We can be angry, but then the anger will go away, you become calm. Whatever is temporary is not real.
Our true self is also not a social identity because identities can change. The religion we profess can change, citizens can change, even gender can also change. Something that can be changed is not the real thing.
Something real doesn't change, something real is something that stays. What remains within us? The answer is awareness. This awareness is what observes all our actions. This constant consciousness is shared by all beings.
Self-awareness existed before concepts, thoughts, and emotions, but this awareness is stable, not changing when emotions and thoughts change. This is who we really are.
Then, how can our inner consciousness arise? For that, we have to train it. We must know our self-awareness, if we don't know self-awareness, then we will continue to be carried away by thoughts and emotions so that we will never be satisfied with what we have right now.
After knowing self-awareness, we must also be familiar with our self-awareness. We must be fully aware of what we are doing, we must be fully aware of the current state of affairs.
The world I live in is already very complicated, I need clarity. I must not get too close to the thoughts or emotions that I have, because thoughts and emotions will lead me to dissatisfaction. Clarity can only be obtained when I am familiar with consciousness. I have to observe my consciousness at all times. Consciousness is my true self, with full awareness, I am no longer lulled by the lies of an increasingly sophisticated world. I can be happy without any conditions. This is how I become my true self.
