YOUR meaning of life.

I'm not religeous, I don't think any of the worlds religions have it right but I accept that other people do and would never try to change anyones mind as everyone is entitled to believe whatever they want.

I'm curious to know what the other enlightened souls here on ATS think the meaning of life is. I mean, In your journey within the experience of being a human, What is the point???

What I have come to believe can be condensed to this:

The most important things in life are:

Love
I want to love as fully and completely as is possible for me to do. With my romantic relationships, family and friends. I also think there is another level of love which could be equated to unconditional respect for every other person.

Knowledge
I want to know as much as I can. Learning is the key to understanding and understanding leads to acceptance, appreciatoin and gratitude (even if i'm not specifically graitful to anyone or anything. Just for the fact that i'm alive and able to love, learn and experience).

Experience
I think that every experience is worthwhile, obviously the positive are easily appreciated but I also think that the painful or negative are just as important. Afterall, you can't teach experience, or be taught the lessons it yields.

I could elaborate and fill many pages but thats a brief overview of the things I believe are the most important in life.

How about you?



hmm, actually now i've read that back, it might be more appropriate in BTS, mods feel free....not that you need my permission or anything.


[edit on 20-9-2007 by Chonx]

I agree with you totally...I even express this to others, Love ,Knowledge...
and Experience....Nothing else in this Material world really matters.

Its amazing isn't it? how much people value their possesions and how important getting that new car or spending silly amounts of money on clothes is to a lot of people. I try not to judge, but when someone only cares about style, fashion, money and making sure they have the newest mobile phone, I find it difficult not to. Everybody is so focused on carefully crafting other people's perceptions of them that no one really notices anyone else anyway! of course this doesn't apply to everyone and i'm dangerously close to ranting here, but this is an issue which really 'grinds my gears!'

The universe, this life is so utterly amazing and breath taking if you let it be, but sadly a lot of people miss out on the wonder because of their pre-occupations.

reply to post by Chonx




watch the video its about material things and how it means jack.


my prospective is for one to better them selves and to advance and pass those achievments to the future generations

reply to post by bodrul


Thanks.
not my kind of music to be honest but pretty much sums up the pointlesness of materialism. Wish there were more people like these dudes, actively trying to convey that message.

Possesions you cant take with you when you die.

Materialism is only for supposed confort which is temporal.

God said it.

Love God with all thy heart and your neighbor as yourself.

peace.

I think that a good principal, as a life plan or just day to day, is to improve the world around you. Leave it better off having had you in it.

Save a life, show kindness, help each other, do good deeds, help the environment, etc... you dont have to dedicate youself to a cause, just do as the boy scouts do... leave the campsite better than it was when you arrived. Simple, honorable, and ideally if humans as a whole do more good than bad, wouldnt that be great?

Live, Love, Enjoy, See, Experience.

there is no meaning/point.
sure our big ole brains give us emotional attachments and things like that but in the end, we are here to try and live as long as possible, and possiblt have kids.

nothing else matters in the big picture.

it's a cosmic joke and we are the butt of it

The meaning of life portrayed in a woodcarving
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many moons and eclipses have passed since I last visited The Lake District in the U.K.-about 15 years.
One fine day I visited a public house in one of the lakelands towns for a snack and a beer.
In the main bar a large impressive woodcarving graced a wall. It had all the hallmarks of an antiquity and was the size of approximately two domestic doors. The border sported carvings of oak leaves and acorns.
In the frame was a distant castle with a winding track approaching a wood.
On the track a knight mounted on his steed stopped to tend to a beggar.
These words were carved under the scene.
" My journey through life is but short. It is my duty to my fellow man to help all those in need. I shall only be here once. I will not have a second chance to be a samaritan"
16th century knight.
Perhaps compassion and good will to all men was the message here and ultimately the carvers angle on 'The meaning of life'

Life is really what we all make of it. Perspective.

One persons garbage is anothers treasure.

Sow what we reap.

I'm for the most part, am very thankful that I can wake up, breathe, and type this to you all. I'm thankful for even the tiniest things that would make others think me wackier than ever!

We've all had our fair share of up's and down's; some more than others.

It's what we do with these moments that make all the difference.

Being 'appreciative' for the good and the bad may leave you scratching your head on this, but it makes perfect sense to me. Without the bad, how are we to know the difference of good? How will we learn from our mistakes. How will we know what is beautiful?

To be born, knowing 'everything', leaves no room for growth.

I love taking walks along the lake. After my legs tire, I'll pull up a log and sit down, and do some quiet contemplation. Re-charge my batteries so to speak. All kinds of thoughts will meander through my mind, but after awhile, when I'm calm enough, those thoughts will dwindle away. Important as they are, but what is replaced is a content demeaner.

I pray quietly. This is my connection to what I believe in. I relish in the fact, that, nobody can take this from me. Of the billions of people on this world, and all the billions upon billions of ways to find happiness, we ALL differ.

I deal with frustrations probably just like YOU. I get angry, can pull a hissy fit as good as the rest, but I'm learning on 'how' to deal with things in a better light. The 'fit' I made yesterday is 'laughable' tomorrow.

Life to me is sooooooooo beautiful. Yes, I'm speaking proably about my wee corner of the world. Yes, I do acknowledge the misgivings and hatefulness in the rest of the world. But all in all, I see people for what they really are. Life itself is very complicated. All the intracasies there-in.

I'm not wearing rose colored specs. This is a CHOICE I made. I can choose to slap the face off of someone for off-handed remarks and such, or I can CHOOSE to not be at their 'level' and let it slide. Grinning to myself instead.

Someone told me way back in my past (forgot the dear soul's name) that "people have power over others because we LET them." Think about that for one second. We can pretty much apply this to everday situations.

Anyways.

I too, try to leave the world in a better place.

"Do unto others.."

I try to teach my kids about 'carefully selecting their words'. Be tactful and diplomatic. Speak to others as graciously as you can.

Always strive to seek higher knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual awareness. Open your minds, souls, eyes to everything around you.

Look back over your day, and 'find' something, ANYTHING, that has made you glad. It could be the smallest of things. Don't try to decifer every single moment as though you were reading through tomes of encyclopedias. Enjoy these moments. Relish them like they were the most expensive treasures in the whole world!

Let your children entertain you! Assist them in crucial moments, but for the most part, watch through their eyes. Seeing things in a different light is something else eh?

For the matter, take time out and put yourself in others shoes. Go on..go ahead..nobody's gonna fault you for it!

Where was I...oh yeah! humor. This one is a biggie with me. I for one, can find ALOT of humor in life. I'm a sick pupster sometimes. Mind you, I won't be laughing up a storm at a funeral anytime soon. There's a time and place for everything.

These words mean everything to me, and then some:

Love, compassion, empathy
intelligence, awareness
spirituality
family, friends
humor
greatfulness
sincerity
exploring, new discoveries
pets
colors, sound, all our senses

The list goes on to beat the band, but I wanted to give you a little taste of who I am.

This is what I'm making out of life so far.

It is very precious to me.




[edit on 21-9-2007 by TheDuckster]

reply to post by Boondock78


I felt like that for a while. When I was a teenager and had rejected the notion of god I figured pretty much the same thing. As I have learned more about the universe however, I'm now inclined to believe that our consciousness is not just the result of the bio-chemical and electrical activity within our brains thus implying a seperation of part of ourselves from this physical reality and in turn a greater meaning and mystery to this existence.

As a fellow ATSer put it in one of my other threads here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

"Consciousness finds organised matter to occupy"

I really like this idea and it seems to fall in line with what i've come to believe the universe is like.

Everyone is here to grow.

My personal belief and long-time feelings are that we are reincarnated, and each life-time we become a more mature and spiritual being. Eventually we will be so spirtual we will be like the great prophets and leaders, Jesus, Buddha, etc. Having a total awareness of things around us and how to manipulate the elements themselves with thought.

After our final physical form we become a part of the universe itself or reincarnate on another plane of existance where the beings are gods themselves. ( As we see Gods ). We will learn slowly over eons how to create mass, matter and always be growing and learning. In essence we become Goddesses and Gods.

So taking all this into account I think to live life embracing anything that empowers us to be more aware of our spirtual self and our potential is a good thing. I dont care if thats a religion or just a personal belief system, each path leads to our spirtual growth and we learn from it taking us into our next life.

So love, learn and remember that this life is a time to grow and become more intune with yourself.

My meaning of life? It has four stages:

1. Birth
2. School
3. Work
4. Death

Originally posted by Chonx
reply to post by Boondock78

 

I felt like that for a while. When I was a teenager and had rejected the notion of god I figured pretty much the same thing. As I have learned more about the universe however, I'm now inclined to believe that our consciousness is not just the result of the bio-chemical and electrical activity within our brains thus implying a seperation of part of ourselves from this physical reality and in turn a greater meaning and mystery to this existence.

As a fellow ATSer put it in one of my other threads here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

"Consciousness finds organised matter to occupy"

I really like this idea and it seems to fall in line with what i've come to believe the universe is like.

I agree with you there man. I like this quote from Babylon 5 (a scifi TV show just in case you haven't seen it) that you might like as well.

"Then I will tell you a great secret, Captain. Perhaps the greatest of all time. The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make up this station and the nebula outside, that burn inside the stars themselves. We are starstuff, we are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out. As we have both learned, sometimes the universe requires a change of perspective."
-- Delenn to Sheridan in Babylon 5: "A Distant Star"
OR
"We believe that the universe itself is conscious in a way we can never truly understand. It is engaged in a search for meaning. So it .. breaks itself apart, investing its own consciousness in every form of life."
-- Delenn to Brother Edward in Babylon 5: "Passing Through Gethsemane

Good show that was.




[edit on 23-9-2007 by WraothAscendant]

1. Birth

2. Mating

3. Offspring

4. Death

Sad, but true.

Love, Knowledge and expirience are the 3 meanings of life.

ProTo FF

reply to post by Kacen


Haha, your life sucks

reply to post by thehumbleone


Actually I shouldn't have said "your life." I should have said your worldview instead.

Well those that stated birth-some stuff inbetween- and death are just stating what we can be 100% sure is known to be behind and ahead of us. Afterlife and all that stuff none of us really know for sure. We may think we do but until we die we don't really know whats beyond if anything.

Though I disagree and think there is more. After all nothing is wasted in nature. Would not who we are be wasted if death was it. I go deeper than that of course but Im tired and don't feel like typing it.

Well those that stated birth-some stuff inbetween- and death are just stating what we can be 100% sure is known to be behind and ahead of us. Afterlife and all that stuff none of us really know for sure. We may think we do but until we die we don't really know whats beyond if anything.

Though I disagree and think there is more. After all nothing is wasted in nature. Would not who we are be wasted if death was it. I go deeper than that of course but Im tired and don't feel like typing it.