What's the meaning of life

[buck]

In 1990, during an emergency operation to remove my gall bladder, I had a cardiac arrest lasting 5 minutes. The doctor told my wife I might be a veggie when I came out . But apart from some memory loss I recovered. The week I spent in hospital is mostly a blank. Except for one thing. While I was under the knife I found myself walking in a vacuum toward my late wife and my mother. Patricia died in a car crash in 1979, my mother of cancer in 1984. Patricia was crying, my mother waving to me to go back.

I have no explanation for it, no intent to say there is life after death, but it happened and it remains in my mind as clear today as it was then.

[epiphany]

The meaning of life is that you are aware of your own being. Through both pleasure and suffering, your awareness of your being is constant and unchanged. The meaning is not that which is derived from your ego driven personality or opinions, which are malleable and merely projections of an image in your mind. It is beneath that, emotionless, still and ultimately meaningless. This is the most empowering realisation one can experience and is why people for thousands of years have turned to gurus, religions and other man-made spiritual decoys, expecting them to realise it for them. Many of them are all too happy to show you their own patented "path to enlightenment", conveniently away from the self.

 

Call off the search - you already know the meaning, and it involves nobody but yourself.

[Wildcat]

The meaning of life, like the meaning of anything, is that which we ascribe to it.

[GrooveArmada]

Life is a priceless free gift which is given to us all. Some of us look after it others treat it bad

[*_ash_*]

The meaning of life is that you are aware of your own being. Through both pleasure and suffering, your awareness of your being is constant and unchanged. The meaning is not that which is derived from your ego driven personality or opinions, which are malleable and merely projections of an image in your mind. It is beneath that, emotionless, still and ultimately meaningless. This is the most empowering realisation one can experience and is why people for thousands of years have turned to gurus, religions and other man-made spiritual decoys, expecting them to realise it for them. Many of them are all too happy to show you their own patented "path to enlightenment", conveniently away from the self.

 

Call off the search - you already know the meaning, and it involves nobody but yourself.

 

I think I know what you mean. This was partly what I was getting at in my earlier post (the last paragraph in #34).

 

Most people, I think, need to witness birth of their offspring to reach some sort of understanding of this. Or, reach an 'oldish' age, when they truly understand it using wisdom, experience, and something that clicks into place. I don't think most people ever achieve it fully though.

 

I've only met one person in my life [face to face] who is my age or younger, that I think does understand this concept.

[johncocker]

In 1990, during an emergency operation to remove my gall bladder, I had a cardiac arrest lasting 5 minutes. The doctor told my wife I might be a veggie when I came out . But apart from some memory loss I recovered. The week I spent in hospital is mostly a blank. Except for one thing. While I was under the knife I found myself walking in a vacuum toward my late wife and my mother. Patricia died in a car crash in 1979, my mother of cancer in 1984. Patricia was crying, my mother waving to me to go back.

I have no explanation for it, no intent to say there is life after death, but it happened and it remains in my mind as clear today as it was then.

 

same sort of thing happend to my mother (who was never very religious )under cardiac arrest ,only she saw her father ,who died when she was very young .number of times you hear or read about this makes you wonder .could it be more than imagination?

[johncocker]

The meaning of life is that you are aware of your own being. Through both pleasure and suffering, your awareness of your being is constant and unchanged. The meaning is not that which is derived from your ego driven personality or opinions, which are malleable and merely projections of an image in your mind. It is beneath that, emotionless, still and ultimately meaningless. This is the most empowering realisation one can experience and is why people for thousands of years have turned to gurus, religions and other man-made spiritual decoys, expecting them to realise it for them. Many of them are all too happy to show you their own patented "path to enlightenment", conveniently away from the self.Call off the search - you already know the meaning, and it involves nobody but yourself.

 

I don't know who the guru's are you refer to ,but isn't that teh whole point of most eastern religions,meditation ,and guru"s to show you the techniques to find a pathway to self. as far as ego and personality are concerned your personality(self) is expressed via your ego ,it only becomes a perversion when you become egocentric...just to add , personality is a product of self

[IamChiChi]

In 1990, during an emergency operation to remove my gall bladder, I had a cardiac arrest lasting 5 minutes. The doctor told my wife I might be a veggie when I came out . But apart from some memory loss I recovered. The week I spent in hospital is mostly a blank. Except for one thing. While I was under the knife I found myself walking in a vacuum toward my late wife and my mother. Patricia died in a car crash in 1979, my mother of cancer in 1984. Patricia was crying, my mother waving to me to go back.

I have no explanation for it, no intent to say there is life after death, but it happened and it remains in my mind as clear today as it was then.

 

Some may say that you had a dream.

[johncocker]

The meaning of life is that you are aware of your own being. Through both pleasure and suffering, your awareness of your being is constant and unchanged. The meaning is not that which is derived from your ego driven personality or opinions, which are malleable and merely projections of an image in your mind. It is beneath that, emotionless, still and ultimately meaningless. This is the most empowering realisation one can experience and is why people for thousands of years have turned to gurus, religions and other man-made spiritual decoys, expecting them to realise it for them. Many of them are all too happy to show you their own patented "path to enlightenment", conveniently away from the self.

 

Call off the search - you already know the meaning, and it involves nobody but yourself.

 

so how do you realise self? and where and when does self express its self in life?

[epiphany]

I don't know who the guru's are you refer to ,but isn't that teh whole point of most eastern religions,meditation ,and guru"s to show you the techniques to find a pathway to self.

 

Sorry yes I didn't mean to cast them all on the same pile. Still many eastern religions bring with them a lot of allegorical baggage that I don't think helps the process.