In The Magnificent Truths of Our Existence,
Daniel Parmeggiani takes us on a journey of self-discovery to find the key to
unconditional love, inner peace, lasting happiness, and real freedom. This key,
as Daniel states, is within each of us. We don’t need external pleasures to
create our happiness for us. It is all about how we see ourselves within our
world. Walking our own personal path to become more in touch with our
spirituality will allow us to uncover the guilt, shame, judgment, and
condemnation that each of us harbours on some level. Daniel will help us find and
release what weighs us down so we can manifest unconditional love for ourselves
as well as all others.
At a
young age, Daniel Parmeggiani lost his older brother to a horrible accident. Through
this tragedy and the inescapable grief and depression that claimed his parents,
Daniel also lost any support system, guidance, and link to pleasure in his
life. After exploring other avenues of support on his own, Daniel experienced
his emotional epiphany at the age of seventeen. “I am always doing the best I
can with what I know.” This statement gave Daniel the base to start his search
for who he was and what he wanted to be. He realized that how we feel at any
given time and in any given situation is all based on how we see ourselves
within our world. We are all working towards the same place with the same end
desire. Daniel calls this “destination happiness.” Anything we do, whether for
ourselves or for others, is done so that we can gain the most pleasure or least
pain from it. This is called “The Law of Pain and Pleasure.” “We are always
striving, behind every thought and action, to feel better.”
Throughout
The Magnificent Truths of Our Existence,
Daniel Parmeggiani gives us many good analogies and examples to explain his
point of view. He reminds us that humans are the only creature to dwell in the
past and present and to judge themselves negatively. Animals do what they must
in the moment and if they fail, they do it again without judgment. We have a
tendency to become harsh with ourselves for something that didn’t turn out as
expected or for the choices we made leading up to it. But as Daniel reminds us,
we are only doing our best with what we have access to in that moment. If
circumstances were different our choices, and therefore the outcome, would have
been different as well. Our inner judge prevents us from enjoying life in the
same innocent manner as that of a child.
Not all
of Daniel’s analogies were ones that I could agree with. He consistently shows
us how we are all working towards the same realm of happiness as equals, including
those like Jesus, Buddha, and Krishna. “Even Mother Teresa sacrificed herself
for the sick and destitute in India because her own feelings were on the line.”
I have a tough time seeing myself along the same path of spirituality as this
company. “But rather than demeaning us, this insight lifts us all to the same
level as the most revered spiritual icons.” Daniel lets us know that the only
difference was how they went about finding their own happiness. “They just
happened to know the way.”
The Magnificent Truths of Our Existence lets us see the difference between
life and death. Pleasure points the way towards integration and harmony (life),
and pain points the way towards separateness and chaos (death). Daniel
Parmeggiani believes that to choose pain, and in essence death, is not possible
as we only choose what will bring us pleasure. As a species of free-will, “…we
are free to choose what we want; it just so happens we always want exactly the
same thing.” That would be destination happiness.
Another
statement I had some questions with was this: “Any wrong turns along the way
only reflect our ignorance of what is takes to get there, and those who
navigate straighter do so only because their view of the return home is less
compromised.” Leaving out all the negative connotations that have been
associated with the word ignorance in the last 30 years, the basic meaning is
lack of knowledge. With that in mind towards the statement, I wonder why Daniel
sees it as ignorant to make a wrong turn? Is it not considered a life lesson
and possible knowledge that will be useful later on in life? Learning from what
we experience shouldn’t be presumed a wrong turn since it may very well lead us
down a road we were meant to go. How can this be ignorance if it may lead to
our destiny? And those who have a straight path may just have been there at the
right moment and not have learned a lesson that may lead to a more enriching
chance. I feel that this part of the book may have been making it too easy to
go down the right path in life and be questioning why we didn’t choose it to
begin with. With this in mind, I continued on reading and found that Daniel
believes we are ignorant as children because we aren’t aware of the possibility
of good or bad, beautiful or ugly, success or failure. I have found that
children see clearly and it is the extra debris that sways our beliefs as we
age that can create ignorance.
Daniel
Parmeggiani states that “we are incapable of being anything but innocent.” He
goes on to note that “virtually all of history’s most notable enlightened
masters and gurus all recognized that God’s divine quality of innocence was
present in all creation.” Daniel tells us that we are all innocent as we are
and we have the ability to live in complete harmony. Society has over thought
the complete ease to which we can all get along. Guilt is a society-created
entity as we are all born innocent. There are some communities in the world
that are able to live in harmony and peace without the use of shame and guilt
to keep people in line. Eastern philosophy tells of karma teaching necessary
lessons and bringing balance to those who have made unwise decisions. Are we
ready to live without the negativity and see ourselves as innocent entities?
The
second part of The Magnificent Truths of
Our Existence is filled with excellent exercises on how to free people of
guilt and shame, seeing ourselves as perfect spiritual beings just the way we
are with self-acceptance and self-love. Each moment of each day we live is a
search for our own inner peace. If we stop fighting within our own selves and
surrender to the concept that all things happen as they are meant to, we can
live with harmony, love, and oneness within ourselves and our world.
I was
unsure of what to expect when I began reading The Magnificent Truths of Our Existence. How could every being on
the earth be trying for exactly the same thing? And how could happiness be the
one goal of every soul? The further I read in this book, the more that Daniel
Parmeggiani made the struggle within each person and the desires we all have
make sense. Guilt and shame are killers to the soul and this book helps release
that negativity. Lifting the weight off your shoulders and learning to find the
beauty in life is a precious gift. That gift is what Daniel Parmeggiani wants
to help you find.
