Immortality.

I’m busy reading Realizing Genjokoan, and a thought hits me. I am a human being living in South Africa in 2025, reading the work of a man born in Japan in 1200. Essentially, the core of this book is written by a man who is technically 825 years old. Isn’t that powerful? It begs the question: how did the work become eternal?

It is recorded that Dogen first wrote Genjokoan in the year 1227. Meaning, he wrote the core of his work when he was 27 years old. You see, I find this powerful because it makes me reflect on my life and ask the question, will I be remembered?

Contemporary poets like Tupac left this Earth just shy of turning 27. And like Dogen in discussing Zen, when discussing music and poetry, it is impossible to bypass Tupac. When Graduation was released, Kanye West was 30 years old. When Get Rich Or Die Trying was released, 50 Cent was 28 years old. Basquiat’s art is still being discussed in today’s age, and he died when he was 27 years old. At the time of his passing, he had created over 1000 paintings and drawings.

I find this incredible, and it leads me to ask myself another question: how did they do it? I’d argue to say that for every Tupac that lived in the 90s, there were probably 100 others. The same can be said about all the other names I have mentioned. What made these individuals different? What enabled them to be eternal?

Yes, we can point to the fact that today we have elements like social media, which make it harder for an individual to really become eternal. Think about it. 50 years from now, will we remember a Cyan Boujee? Will we remember Mihlali Ndamase? Will we remember a Kai Cenat? Even though their accounts collectively can reach millions of individuals, will they be remembered?

I mean, I am pretty certain that Dogen probably wrote Genjokoan for roughly 200 monks that resided in Eiheiji, his monastery, yet here I am reading this work. Or is it the fact that these individuals actively contributed and altered respective societies?

A Cyan Boujee can be likened to a Paris Hilton, who is famous for being a beautiful woman who is open about their relations with rich men. Beyond that, there is nothing they have actively contributed to society that will be remembered 50, 60 years from now.

Kanye West, on the other hand, changed the way music is created and consumed. He will be remembered for his contribution to music, even 50, 60 years from now, the same way Mozart and Beethoven are remembered. Tupac as well, he’s contribution to society through music and poetry will be remembered the same way the world still remembers Malcolm X and Steve Biko.

And the danger, I believe, is that the ones who want to be remembered 50, 60 years from now are following the path of social media influencers and not that of real-world influencers.

By this, I mean that most of us want to reach the views on social media. Who doesn’t enjoy the vanity of being somewhat famous? The other day, a person stopped me and said that he enjoys my content on TikTok. This random stranger, for roughly 5 minutes, was telling me that he enjoys my content. This played on my ego, and honestly, it felt good. And that’s the trap.

Social media, at the end of the day, isn’t the real world. Social media has rules that, if you break them, you will be removed from the platform. And so, your contribution to society is then sifted through the filtration system of social media.

Let me use this example to explain what I mean. If right now you want to discuss a sensitive topic such as GBV, murder, rape or genocide, social media will shadow ban you. If your content is not part of the trending topics, it will not get traction. We can see this in the fitness space of social media.

There are so many fitness influencers who spread different fitness hacks and tricks that are trending. And because they trend, they become popular. Yet, when you listen to previous Mr Olympia winners and real bodybuilders, 90% of them will indicate how these trending hacks are of no benefit to building muscle. A case I can think of is that of one of the biggest fitness influencers, Jeff Nippard, who literally creates content based on what’s trending in the fitness industry at the time.

People will listen to Jeff Nippard but not a Lee Haney. One of the reasons is that Jeff Nippard has 3.5 million Instagram followers while Lee Haney, 8-time Mr Olympia winner, has roughly 300 thousand followers. 50 to 60 years from now, however, the world will remember the 8-time Mr Olympia winner over the influencer who was promoting and selling whatever fitness program that was trending at the time he created it.

And so, falling into this trap, it becomes impossible for an individual to create a piece of work that will stand the test of time. Tupac was true to his Thug Life philosophy. He lived it, breathed it and was even killed by it. Even when faced with backlash from the world around him, he did not adjust himself to the trend and fit in. If he lived in the world of today, he would have probably been banned on many social media platforms for his Thug Life philosophies. More accurately, how he spoke about them and expressed them would have banned him, if not at least shadow-banned him.

It is said that Malcolm X, even though he had an issue with the Nation of Islam, remained loyal to them. It was reported that he was offered close to a million dollars in 1960s money to establish his own ministry. He refused because he was still loyal to the Nation of Islam. He did not waver about to fit the narrative, to fit what trended then.

This loyalty to one’s purpose is what I believe is the chief cornerstone of what made these individuals become eternal. Yes, they evolved with the times, but they didn’t change who they are to fit the new times. They were true to who they were. Through their individuality, they were able to actively contribute to their society.

This is something that Shohaku Okumura explains using one’s hands and fingers. Each finger is unique and can not be interchanged. One cannot use the pinky the same way they use the thumb, and in the same breath use the thumb the way they use the pinky. Each finger has its own purpose. Yet, collectively, all the fingers come together to form the hand. And collectively, the hand can carry out its purpose. Thus, the hand can function when all the fingers function individually, yet collectively.

A Kanye West dedicated himself to the world of music and contributed to the “hand” with his music. A Basquiat dedicated himself to the world of painting and contributed to the “hand” with his artworks. We can even take it further that Jesus, Buddha and Mohammad dedicated themselves to teaching the human spirit that they contributed to their respective “hands”.

These individuals, by rooting themselves in who they are and who they believed they are, were able to actively contribute to the societies they lived in. If we look at a modern influencer, like a Cyan Boujee, they are famous now, but one asks the question, who are they really? Is she a DJ? Is she a dancer? Is she a socialite? Is she merely a young lady seeking her own space in this world, and is yet to find it? Even a Mr Beast, these questions can be asked as well. Currently the biggest YouTuber, but we can see how he is shifting to making production for Amazon and the like. Talking about the biggest YouTuber, who remembers the ones before him?

We know a Ronnie Coleman. But we can still remember a Dorian Yates, a Lee Haney, a Frank Zane in the world of bodybuilding. They achieved something that was rooted in their respective “hand”. By achieving their goals, they contributed to the "hand" of bodybuilding effectively, and so, they are remembered even to this day.

It feels like in today’s world, most of us are flesh in a pan. We get a quick sear, and once cooked and ready, we are consumed with the next flesh to be sautéed. It feels like most of us are not rooted in something that grounds us.

I love the example of bodybuilding because there is no cheat to bodybuilding. Even if you use steroids and have access to the best gym facilities, to be great in bodybuilding, one needs to put in the work. There is no shortcut, unlike the fitness influencers who can buy bots, post controversial videos and merely hop on whatever trends occur in the social media space. And it is for this reason that it is so easy to forget most fitness influencers because they were merely posting for views, not for the betterment of the sport.

Granted, we are not all destined to be immortalised worldwide, this is true. But I bet you can be immortalised, maybe in your community. My grandfather, Dr David Sello, for instance, is not immortalised nationwide, but in the small town of Viljoenskroon in the Free State, there is a school named after him for his contribution to education in that town. In my small town of Harrismith, there’s a school whose greatest leader is immortalised with the biggest hall in Harrismith. But I bet individuals in the Northern Cape or London have no idea who Mr Losaba was.

And this is okay, the world doesn’t need to know who you are. But in the same breath, I ask myself, will my contribution be immortalised in my society? On the hand where I am the finger, am I assisting the hand to perform its functions, or am I a hindrance? A sickness, a form of arthritis, interrupting its work?

Kendrick Lamar asks these questions in Mortal Man and Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst when he asks if people will remember him when his gone. Leonardo Da Vinci’s (the man who painted the Mona Lisa) last words, he laments that he had offended God and mankind, for he felt like he had not reached his fullest potential alive.

What is your contribution to mankind? What is your contribution to your nation? What is your contribution to your community? Is it a fleet contribution as we see with most influencers? Or like fingers to a hand, is it impactful, meaningful and memorable?

Truly something to think about.