What is the Meaning of Life?

What is the Meaning of Life?

We asked this question to our listeners and got some really interesting responses. Here's what they said:

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"To be truely happy while doing your best to make others happy."

"The main thing is to be with God and to be happy. Life on earth is a test."

"I think that one of the most beautiful things we have, that most of us live for, is to connect with people."

"Knowing that you are going to die."

"Until my baby died it was giving unconditional love. Now the hell with this shit. Why do all good things come to an end? You know what I think -- looking at how violent nature is, that all the religions are here confusing people, we just need to try not to kill one another"

"That varies from person to person and I don't have an answer. The meaning of life is whatever you want it to be"

"To me the meaning of life is to find your own peace and truth with honesty, courage, honor and love. In my opinion we are here so our souls can prosper and learn ... to grow spiritually so we don't make the same mistakes. So we can move on to a higher spiritual plane"

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I think that life is an accident. We are so lucky to be here, by this whim. The birth of consciousness has no purpose, but the meaning of it is of free interpretation. Personally I find it comforting to make the assumption that life is meant to learn. We as humans love to ask questions and we love even more to be sure of ourselves. So that indicates that we like to know shit.

We'd like to hear your thoughts on this question.

- Vincent

Does Feeling Good Matter?

Feeling Good Lately?

Its understandable that people will always have basic desires. But when does a desire become a leech for pleasure? When is too much just too much? Is having everything you want the answer to all your problems? Questions like these are not light-hearted. These are issues that touch on the subjects of poverty, wealthiness, sustainability, starvation, addiction, debauchery, and perhaps ... enlightenment.

The fact that we cannot imagine life without satisfaction may invoke memories of pain and the unbearable thirst that abstinence entails. Sure we all hunger for a drop of "feel good" on our tongues, and there was never anything wrong with that. However the endless adventure to seek pleasure is one not many will admit to be a path leading to more pain and anguish.

The path to enlightenment is not one of starvation though. Enlightenment is cool for guys who take it easy. The trouble with enlightenment is the fact that most people will not recognize it as enlightenment, but instead they'll refer to it as more of a "dead end".

When I was a kid I drank a lot of coka-cola, played endless hours of video games, had a short attention span, and kept avoiding the "torture" of work. Something about these activities have been designed to lead back into more of the same vices of life. There are far worse addictions in life than coka-cola and video games.

Emotions are considered to be a heavy drug many keep going back to. Have you ever met someone who was addicted to a thought? Perhaps they couldn't even imagine themselves thinking of anything else except the memory of what they once felt?

This becomes evident by the clear example of a relationship breakup. The person who's suffering tends to consistently think of the other person and everything reminds him/her of the relationship's history. It comes to no surprise that these memories are vivid, and its generally because emotions ARE memories.

But what about the premise of this blog? Does feeling good matter? Why am I talking about break ups? Would it seem obvious to the reader that I "need to get laid"? Perhaps. But the answer is no. I have a point to draw from these examples.

Emotions are memories, but they are also like drugs. Just like a pill allows you to draw a chemical effect from its nutrients, so do emotions. And so from drugs that can make you have withdrawal symptoms, so can your emotions. My reasoning is that any idea you're fascinated with could be considered an addiction.

I will not get into the variations of what makes a good addiction versus a bad addiction. That will be for another blog. For the sake of interest, I personally think that all addictions are bad one time or another.

Any who, back to my general point of inquiry. Feeling good is not an accomplishment in life ... it is an experience of satisfaction. I is easily recognizable when you go on vacation and you feel the need to stay at the spot where you relaxed.

In Buddhism, life is a cycle of repetition. We have chores and we have leisure. There are bad feelings and good feelings. One day you will feel up and the next down. The ocean will always have waves of uplift and waves of depression. Enlightenment is when you finally realized, or in this case "remembered", that you are part of the waves of destruction in this world and simulatneously part of the waves of peace.

Fear not:

“There’s no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves”
- Frank Herbert (American science fiction Author and Writer 1920-1986)