Some of you might have heard of Ghu Ren Zen and his infamous work Reverend Insanity about the transmigrator (read: otherwordly demon) Fang Yuan and his exploits in a Gu Cultivation world. Like any Xianxia, this one revolves around the rearing, cultivation and refinement of Gu Worms which allow Gu Masters and Immortals to use supernatural abilities.
Mastery in different aspects (read: Path) is measured in attainment. There’s the usual paths like Strength , Time, Food (!), Space and so on. One such path that stuck with me is the Human Path. A seemingly universal path but severely underutilized during the setting except for Venerables and Pseudo-Venerables. Even our protagonist given his other attainment has a rather low attainment in this path.
Human path or rather the human condition is unique. Revelations come to us at the oddest time, often times when we are engaged in something wholly unrelated. Perhaps its the monotony of what we do, perhaps its the time spent not worrying about how you’ll do something. Whatever it is, you understand something a little better, the cog of life rusty spins a little smoother.
Hindsight isn’t actually 20/20, it just feels like it. When you’ve had all the time in the world to go over a particular scenario, or the botched delivery of a joke you thought gold it seems so trivial. How could I have been so stupid!! or How did I miss all the signs!. Maybe, just maybe you didn’t have the time to do better.
I believe the greatest teacher is pain. This is not because of some profound reason but rather due to our aversion to pain. We like nice things, we do not like when those nice things we’ve grown accustomed to are taken away from us. By suffering in order to afford something nice we come to value it more and hence less likely to be in a position where we will have to suffer for it, at least as much as the first time.
It takes way less effort to maintain a decent physique than to achieve it in the first place after all.
Change slowly creeps up on you until one day you realize things that felt like pressing issues seem trivial now. Old jokes don’t make you laugh anymore, you don’t find the same things funny as you did a couple of years. Years have gone by and you take it in your stride. You find yourself growing more patient, you don’t have much energy for people. A few hobbies take up your free time. You can’t pull all nighters like you used to and you’re okay with you. You focus on eating right more often, you don’t mind spending more on food if it means having piece of mind, you start valuing the experience over the financial cost.