Monday, June 24, 2013

The meaning of life

Why on earth are we here? What’s our purpose, what’s life all about? Surely, once in a while everybody wonders about these questions. Here are some possible answers:

  • Life is a test - if we learn our lessons well, our soul will be rewarded with nirvana.
  • The meaning of life is to recognize its beauty.
  • Life is just a random occurence and means absolutey nothing.
  • We’re here to earn and spend as much money as possible.
  • Life is a game - we’re collecting points for good deeds; once we’re dead, we can cash in these points with God.
  • Our mission is to evolve into perfect robots.
  • To fall in love with ourselves.
  • And my personal favourite: Whatever meaning we give to life, that’s what it means.

BUT…does it really matter what life means? Do we need to have an answer? And do we actually need to ask all these damn questions? Because if we didn’t have any questions, we wouldn’t have to find any answers either. We’d simply BE!

“I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they’re looking for the experience of being alive.” – Joseph Campbell

As long as we’re obsessed with a certain goal – learning a lesson, becoming rich, looking for love – we're focusing on the future. We're searching for something that we feel is lacking in the present and so we're struggling, hoping and praying. We end up waiting for better times, for the ‘right’ moment to arrive. Maybe tomorrow? Next week? Next year? Maybe never...

Yes: we need to keep learning, we have to earn money and we ought to make some plans for tomorrow and beyond. But our biggest challenge is to remember that the actual experience of being alive can only ever happen RIGHT NOW! Be it laughing, crying or smiling, loving or even dying. Conscious of what we're feeling. Breathing. Healing. Giving gratitude to this moment of being.