The struggle that is personal
It appears that God deliberately made it hard for us.
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
...
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
What was once one, became multiple, but all point to the same essential source. The Tower of Babel poses as an interesting story to explain the diversity of languages we have. It hints though, that there might have once been a way to understand everyone, a single source of truth that is pure and unambiguous.
Instead of one word to explain a concept, you now have thousands of languages to do so.
Great.
If the concept is hard to explain, good luck transmitting the meaning. There will be permutations upon combinations of words in all sorts of cultural dialects, idioms and whatnot necessary to get at that complicated idea.
Even then, there are gotchas. See how you can translate something linguistically, but not culturally - a phrase like "I love you" - not something whose meaning you want tarnished the ever slightest when you're saying it to your loved one.
Invariably, when I do some of my Chinese to English Buddhism translations here, I face all sorts of problems. You can be academically accurate to the (romanized) Pali/Sanskrit word, but that's not something most people would understand unless they wikipedia it. Another way is to use an idiom or culturally significant phrase for English speakers, which is suited for the audience in this case, but pays poor tribute to the original cultural meaning and background story.
It's a common problem huh. This blog seems to have translation issues too.
So how does one get the meaning across?
One way global businesses get their franchises all over the world is via localization, if not personalization, that is, customizing things to the customer's taste. There are certain Starbucks frappuccino and McD burger flavours you can't get anywhere else, it's how they pull in local customers.
Previously in my old job, we were in this consultancy/development business that helped clients with their geospatial part of the platform. Basically, if an off the shelf product doesn't fit with what the client wanted, we had to figure out some magic to make the software work.
Boy, did this just turn into one of those sales pitches?
But wait! If you try, you could argue that even religion gets at the personalization business. There are eight Mahayana Chinese Buddhist schools, or ten if you include the other two Theravada tradition ones. A similar classification could be made for Christianity, Islam, etc.
In a way, those are just cultural divisions, i.e. you simple got into the school that your parents/community was in. Another way to look at them is that there are many choices that can cater to your particular taste. Much like ice cream flavours!
It's nothing personal, but I use Linux, and boy are there many distro flavours out there. And don't even get me started on vegetarian diet varieties.
Where is this going anyway? Well, the thing is, there isn't a one size fits all if you haven't noticed already.
Yes, things get personal.
Clearly someone lactose intolerant isn't going to like a lacto vegetarian diet. Also if you're wanting to use a whole lot of Microsoft Office products then Linux just won't be the one (unless you're fine with Office online).
Similarly, to achieve financial independence, or gain spiritual enlightenment, or attain some <insert-cool-goal-here>, there are sudden ways and gradual ways. For example, you could win the lotto or be instantly enlightened by some Chan verse, though the odds aren't very high. Alternatively, if you dilligently save up and invest your money wisely, or put in lots of meditation practice combined with right speech, mind and thought, you will get there too.
Of course if you're the sneaky type, then there are shortcut ways which I won't go into (don't even contact me to ask). I mean, there's always an exclusive club/cult you can get yourselves into (for a fee) right? Just saying.
Sometimes, I do want to help people when they're at a lost with choice. Like my younger brother who will have to choose a university course at some point in the future. Wouldn't it be great if I could just take all his school subject grades, give him a personality test, and out comes an answer to what's the best career path for him?!
Put simply, we are too spoilt for choice for our own good. No sooner than we think there's a holistic one-that-does-it-all, does it then kaboom into a myriad of reductionist this-fits-this-and-that-fits-thats'.
If we think that there is always another way that is better, then we seek for it. The grass is always greener on the other side so to speak, so the sheep will move around the paddocks in a cycle.
But if we are contempt with what we have, then we stay nice and cozy in our little bubble. Bubbles of the filter kind are problematic too of course. The bigger the bubble gets, the more dramatic when it pops.
The more the merrier; less is more. Left wing versus right wing. Lean FIRE and fat FIRE.
I really really really wish I could tell you what is the best/perfect way forward for your particular situation, but I can't.
What I think I know though, is that all roads lead to Rome. Our paths may vary, some hilly at first then flat, or vice versa. The destination is the same.
Rather than fixate ourselves at one form, or one method, or one way. Realize that there is no form, the method is irrelevant, and the way is created every step you take.
I leave you with a formless verse from the "Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch" by Huineng which I've been reading recently (the John McRae translation).
Bodhi is fundamentally without any tree;
The bright mirror is not a stand.
Fundamentally there is not a single thing --
Where could any dust be attracted?
So why are you struggling?