What is the Meaning of Life?

[Prober]

I don't know about Prober, but I was being fecicious. 42 is what my father-in-law told me the meaning of life was. I never forgot that (it meant, who knows?).

Oh, sorry, I thought you were referencing HG. My bad.

 

[manephelien]

Live our lives the best we can while causing the minimum amount of suffering to others. Parents setting limits for their children don't cause suffering, they help raise them into good members of society. When I say minimize suffering, I meant suffering for its own sake. It's the journey that counts, not some unknowable goal we attain at the point of death.

Do unto others as you would be done by is a good rule for everyone, not just Christians.

 

[Quahom1]

Live our lives the best we can while causing the minimum amount of suffering to others. Parents setting limits for their children don't cause suffering, they help raise them into good members of society. When I say minimize suffering, I meant suffering for its own sake. It's the journey that counts, not some unknowable goal we attain at the point of death.

Do unto others as you would be done by is a good rule for everyone, not just Christians.

Hard rule to live by if there is no guide.

 

[manephelien]

That's why I've always found organized religions distasteful. They're the struts for the weak who can't see for themselves that playing nice is better in the long run than grabbing everything for yourself if you can. Oh, sure, many religions have various rituals which aren't always that easy to live by, but that's just so that the practitioners can claim moral superiority over others by saying "we have to do this to be saved, what have you done?"

I do perfectly well without any guides, thank you, and resent the implication that only religious people who submit to some sort of dogma can lead a good and ethical life.

 

[samabudhi]

The purpose of life is to BE. I think we can only accomplish this in love.

luna

Life and death are two sides of the same coin,
being is delimited by none being.
The more you cling to the extremes of being / existing / owning
the more you will suffer at inevitable death.

 

[samabudhi]

If suffering were ended there would be no reason to go forward to challenge the darkness that causes it. Living would lose its reason for moving forward. Things would get very boring, very rapidly.

Isn't boredom a form of suffering/dissatisfaction?
An end of suffering is just that, a complete cessation of all afflictive states of mind, through pain, hunger, restlessness, envy, doubt, fear etc.

 

[Quahom1]

That's why I've always found organized religions distasteful. They're the struts for the weak who can't see for themselves that playing nice is better in the long run than grabbing everything for yourself if you can. Oh, sure, many religions have various rituals which aren't always that easy to live by, but that's just so that the practitioners can claim moral superiority over others by saying "we have to do this to be saved, what have you done?"

I do perfectly well without any guides, thank you, and resent the implication that only religious people who submit to some sort of dogma can lead a good and ethical life.

Until someone else decides they want what is yours, and there are no guides to deter that person from taking what is yours. That is part of the trouble with Anarchy, and with atheism. No boundries.

 

[Postmaster]

Desires are endless, and not everyone goes about their desires the same way. This only leads to suffering.

Hense why I included the last bit of my sentence. Although you can never change what everyone desires, Most people desire Good things, such as GOD and or the end to all suffering!

 

[Ciel]

Life and death are two sides of the same coin,
being is delimited by none being.
The more you cling to the extremes of being / existing / owning
the more you will suffer at inevitable death.

S - This feels a very negative existential approach.
It moves me to reach for my copy of the Lotus Sutra as antidote.
Full of wonder. Full of Life. Full of Love.

Do you have words of Bhudda nature to lighten the load?

- c -

 

[Ciel]

That's why I've always found organized religions distasteful. They're the struts for the weak who can't see for themselves that playing nice is better in the long run than grabbing everything for yourself if you can. Oh, sure, many religions have various rituals which aren't always that easy to live by, but that's just so that the practitioners can claim moral superiority over others by saying "we have to do this to be saved, what have you done?"

I do perfectly well without any guides, thank you, and resent the implication that only religious people who submit to some sort of dogma can lead a good and ethical life.

Wholeheartedly I'm with you on this Manephelien.

I believe we are born in pure grace, with every possibility of doing the right thing. I do not believe we are born sinners. We are born into choice even without knowledge of God there can be Godliness and higher aspiration.
Putting all names aside for whatever is the guidance there is love and light in the eyes of all new beings.

- c -

 

[Ciel]

The purpose of life is to BE. I think we can only accomplish this in love.

luna

Hi Lunar, Yes...............................

love - c -

 

[samabudhi]

S - This feels a very negative existential approach.
It moves me to reach for my copy of the Lotus Sutra as antidote.
Full of wonder. Full of Life. Full of Love.

Do you have words of Bhudda nature to lighten the load?

- c -

Thus have I heard. At one time the Lord was staying at Uruvela beside the river Neranjara at the foot of the Mucalinda Tree, having just realized full enlightenment.
At that time the Lord sat cross-legged for seven days experiencing the bliss of liberation. Now it happened that there occurred, out of season, a great rainstorm and for seven days there were rain clouds, cold winds, and unsettled weather. Then Mucalinda, the naga-king left his dwelling place and having encircled the Lord's body seven times with his coils, he stood with his great hood spread over the Lord's head (thinking) to protect the Lord from cold and heat, from gadflies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, and the touch of creeping things.
At the end of those seven days the Lord emerged from that concentration. Then Mucalinda the naga-king, seeing that the sky had cleared and the rain clouds had gone, removed his coils from the Lord's body. Changing his appearance and assuming the appearance of a youth, he stood in front of the Lord with his hands folded together venerating him.
Then, on realizing it's significance, the Lord uttered on that occasion this inspired utterance:

Blissful is detachment for one who is content,
For one who has learnt Dhamma and who sees;
Blissful is non-affliction in the world,
Restraint towards living creatures;
Blissful is passionlessness in the world,
The overcoming of sensual desires;
But the abolition of the conceit 'I am' -
That is truly the supreme bliss.

- Udana

 

[Prober]

Blissful is detachment for one who is content,
For one who has learnt Dhamma and who sees;
Blissful is non-affliction in the world,
Restraint towards living creatures;
Blissful is passionlessness in the world,
The overcoming of sensual desires;
But the abolition of the conceit 'I am' -
That is truly the supreme bliss.

- Udana

Truly, truly beautiful...