This blog post is about a book titled “The Cafe on the Edge of the World” written by John Strelecky

The author of the book narrates a story of him being lost and ending up in a strange cafe called “The Cafe of Questions” where he gets answers to some of the common questions we all of us have as we go about our lives.

Hungry, lost and frustrated with life, the author lands up in the cafe after taking a new route on his way to his getaway. In the cafe, he sees a menu with three questions written on it

Why are you here?

Do you fear death?

Are you fulfilled?

The entire book revolves around ways to understand the above three questions. He meets Casey the waitress who points out the strange nature of these questions. Once you look at them carefully the words seem to change in to questions. The first question when looked attentively seems to be morphing in to “Why am I here ?” Casey further teases the author to explore the question and says that the seeking answers to the question might take him through a rabbit hole, a well worth exploration of a rabbit hole that he could probably emerge feeling more energetic and purposeful in life.

The author also meets Mike the cook and Anne a customer at the cafe and through his conversations, learns about the way to answer the three questions.

The key idea behind the book is that we all get sucked up in to external world or opinions of others and do not spend time to find out PFE(Purpose of existence). Once one finds one’s PFE, one usually stops fearing death and one is usually fulfilled. The flip side is that if one doesn’t find PFE, the answer to the next two questions are usually that one fears death and one is not fulfilled. This idea is expressed by the characters in the book via anecdotes and stories such as green turtle story, fisherman and the businessman story, the golfer’s story etc. A quick book to read though you might not really agree with the core idea of the book.

Quotes from the book

I think the turtle—the green sea turtle—taught you that if you aren’t in tune with what you want to do, you can waste your energy on lots of other things. Then when opportunities come your way for what you do want, you might not have the time or strength to spend on them

“You can quickly find yourself living a life that’s just a compilation of what everyone else is doing, or what people want you to be doing.

“When I got back to the beach after watching the turtle on the second day, I was filled with all these insights. I sat on my towel and wrote them in my journal. I realized that in my life, the incoming waves are made up of all the people, activities, and things that are trying to capture my attention, energy, and time but are not associated with my PFE.

“The outgoing waves are the people, activities, and things that can help me fulfill my PFE. So the more time and energy I waste on the incoming waves, the less I have for the outgoing ones.

“Well, I realized that for me, every day is an opportunity to fulfill the answer to the question you glimpsed on the back of the menu. Every day is a chance to do the things I want. I don’t need to wait until ‘retirement.’”

“What we were just talking about. Why is it we spend so much of our time preparing for when we can do what we want, instead of just doing those things now?”

“You asked why we spend so much time preparing for the life we want to live, instead of just living it. Part of the answer is if we aren’t careful, we buy into the mass of marketing messages we’re exposed to every day. We end up believing the answer to happiness and fulfillment lies in a product or service.”

“‘The challenge,’ he explained, ‘is to realize that something is fulfilling because we determine it’s fulfilling. Not because someone else tells us it is.’”

I mean if someone asked themself why they’re here. Then they chose what they wanted to do to fulfill their PFE. And then they actually did those things.… Why would they fear death? You can’t fear not having the chance to do something if you’ve already done it. Or if you’re doing it every day.”

“Everything in its own time, John. Maybe you did come across it before. But you just weren’t ready back then.”

I’m saying that for myself, I think if I figured out why I’m here, and I was doing what I determined would fulfill that—I’d probably be a lot less concerned about money than I am. That’s all I’m trying to say

The ones who know their PFE, and are doing what they want to fulfill it, do seem very lucky. Unexpected, seemingly random things happen for them just when they need it most.

‘Just like no one really cared about where I hit the golf ball from except me, in life only you truly know what you want from your existence. Don’t ever let things or people drive you to the point where you feel you no longer have control over your own destiny. Be active in choosing your path, or it will be chosen for you. Just move the golf ball.’”

Some spend time meditating on why they’re here. Others listen to their favorite music and note where their mind takes them. Many people take time alone in a natural environment. Others talk with friends and strangers about it. Some people are guided to their answer through ideas and stories they read in books.”

The thing is, John, life is an amazing story. It’s just that sometimes we forget we’re the author, and we can write it however we want.”

Takeaway

Sadhguru says life has no purpose. If someone magically tells you your purpose and you fulfill the purpose, what is left for you to do ? Well looked from that perspective, purpose might seem very narrow in scope and might even suggest that it is time bound. Hence one might think that there is no need to have any sort of purpose in life. If you pause for a minute and assume that you have no purpose in life, then it likely that you will be reactive and get pushed around by tasks coming from the external world.

The very idea of purpose is a mind made construct and as per Sadhguru, if it is a fixed purpose, our lives would lose the vitality. The fear that world will push if you yourself do not have a purpose is probably a wrong way to think about it. If you engage with life in its totality, have a sense of clarity, practice responsibility without compulsion and let awareness and conscious choice guide you instead of predefined rules, it is possible that we experience life in its multi-faceted dimensions

This sort of experiencing, learning and doing philosophy is also echoed in Mo Gawdat books - Solve for Happy and That Little Voice in your head. It is only by being in deliberate attentive mode, we can experience life in its entirety. Life should not be about some mind created construct. Be-Learn-Do is a much better framework to live rather finding for the elusive purpose that is supposed to feel energetic and alive all the time. In that sense, you might disagree with the main idea of the book that one should have a PFE - Purpose for existence.