Today, I’ll be revisiting and expanding on a rather old-school topic – what is the meaning of life?
Still, with all my life experiences in recent years, I’m confident of having a decent shot at answering it!
Alright, let’s go!
Hmm, if you ask a spiritual person this, they might straightforwardly in your face say that it’s really growth.
Like, you came to this life to learn lessons, develop and grow! Through suffering, even, as the Buddhists might say! And eventually, you grow weary of all the suffering and see past it and become enlightened? or summat.
Well, maybe we can scrap that for all intents and purposes.
Yeah, true, enlightenment’s great and all, but it isn’t really something achievable for the vast majority of us at the moment! And hey, we’re going down our own paths, all of us. Please give an answer which is applicable to all of us right here, right now, thank you very much!!
Hmm. Even so, though, it’s really undeniable that a major part of life is truly about learning lessons. Spiritual people might even say that we’ve entered this life with all the lessons we’re supposed to learn already decided prior to our incarnations, and we’ll repeat the lessons again, continuously, painstakingly if we don’t manage to learn them!
Everyone’s lessons are different, and our conditioning slash environment helps direct us to learn them!!
But hey! Let’s just forget about all that for a moment. That about life on Earth being some sort of university for souls that we gotta attend.
See, it sure isn’t the case that we can just do nothing in our lifetimes and just wait for these lessons to come to us!!!
Instead, we go about life, and the universe works ever so brilliantly in a perfect arrival of the lessons simultaneous to what we’ve set our eyes on huh!
So, instead, let’s forget about the objective answer to the meaning of life aka growth that is out of our hands! Because generally speaking, growth is more like a side effect that happens along the way. It isn’t the end goal which prescribes our actions in and of itself!
Rather, we should look at the subjective answer of how we should fulfil our lives by trying to live ’em, with growth merely being something that simply happens naturally to us in the process. Huh…
That being said… it seems pretty obvious that there can only be one answer to the meaning of life, which is to live the best we can! Hah!
I mean, if we look at polarities of good and bad, good is desirable whereas bad is undesirable, so naturally the answer is to have this literally most desirable life possible, innit?
And so we come down to some of the most major traps that we lil’ Earthlings have fallen into…
A most major one is this: Are you merely existing, or are you really living?
Do you go through your days just for the purpose of your continued existence, or do you actually enjoy your days and look forward to it with all your heart?
If it’s the former, hey bro, really, what’s the point of you being alive, truly, in the first place, where it’s literally just an act of going through the motions and there’s really nothing that liberates you!, fills you with joy and purpose? Well, I just find it a bit… sad.
Okay, let me correct myself. Yo, at least try to enjoy the present moment!!! For if ya do that, at least you’re having a good life!!!
Ah, and then there’s this other trap I’ve noticed which relates to the present moment.
As someone who is more of a big picture thinker by nature, I naturally try to max out my life, drawing a steady upward path into the future…
However, something I’ve noticed is that sometimes, this may well regretfully result in me not being able to fully live in the present as sadly, I’m actually just being a Zhuge Liang strategist for how best I should shape the present to result in that glorious future!!!
One thing’s for sure – the ultimate goal is that I really!!! gotta shift my focus into the present even as I try to max the future presents as well!
And so, I had a bit of an epiphany, as one might say, a few days ago.
So one way to see life is like that steady upward path as, heading into the future, I gradually make those little changes to max it out. It’s that sort of graph.
However, using that kind of graph, one inevitably tends to think this: hmm, am I maxing out the area under that steadily trending line now?
Is my overall content good enough today? Did I do enough? to shape this desired, resplendent future?
And then I think that there’s really a better way of looking at it.
Instead, let’s draw a graph of ‘how much relaxed contentment I am feeling in the moment’.
So it’s really like a hedonistic graph of minimum is pain, maximum is pleasure. And the main thing is, it applies to the present moment only!!!
At this present moment alone, am I living the best I can?
So, with that there’s literally no chance that you could be living just for maxing out the future at the expense of your present!!! Rather, seriously, you are making sure that your present moment now is best too!
Lesson learnt: Don’t live in melancholy at the future moments that are yet to come! That’s a waste of your life!!! Instead, treasure the one present moment that is only, only! available to your right now!!
That said, it’s time to look at how we should actually, through these present moments, shape a glorious!!! desired future for ourselves.
Really, towards this, I have… only one word. Passion.
So, a teeny bit of metaphysics. You see, in order to actually do things, surely we need to have a little bit of a driving force to do them! For otherwise, we’d never be able to get anything done!
And the one, true sustainable force the enables this is none other, honestly speaking, than passion.
Like, they say that with passion, work is no longer just work that’s draining and all that, something which sucks the energy outta you. Instead, there is a fire lit within you, fueling you to go for it! Yeah!!!
For someone who has passion, they’re really driven to go for what they want and they really enjoy it too. They’ll naturally be drawn to fully invest themselves into it, fully losing themselves into it and truly throwing all this time into it without reservation. Just happens thoughtlessly for them, like me with this blog. Hah.
So I got this definition for passion: Doing it for its own sake alone really fills you.
No other reason’s needed!
It simply, naturally, without you having to think, draws so much time and invested attention out of you, and hey it’s just totally effortless!
It’s irregardless of circumstance. Through good times or through bad, you’ll still be naturally drawn to continue living out this passion. Just find yourself going back to it without much thought ever so naturally!
And that’s why spiritual people may say that passion is your gift from God!
Think of it this way: in life, everyone has different roles based on their competencies and all that. Everyone contributes in their own way, and altogether, it forms a pristine woven tapestry which serves everyone’s good as all roles are fulfilled.
And so you could think of passion as a commandment from the divine which vests in you the authority to pursue a certain path, of which you will never fatigue!!!
For certain other paths, you might still demonstrate a certain competence in them. However, there’s still a definite difference.
Let’s say you have some talent in A. However, it’s only the thrill that you experience from it which fuels you, allowing you to go engage in said activity every now and then! You’re not like those people, who can somehow throw themselves fully into it and go learn everything about it yeah!
Well? That’s not your passion! That’s theirs!
Go find and redirect yourself to your own passion!
Let’s say you have some talent in B. However, it’s more like some sort of puzzle-piecing to you as you perform it clinically and derive some sort of enjoyment from it, finding it quite a fun exercise. That’s still… not exactly passion…
Well! Seems like a good way for you to earn your keep or something while you look for and develop your passion! Can call it something of your transitionary enabler, so to speak!!!
No, like still, while that is indeed a higher tier than the mere thrill, really it’s still not passion. It’s not your divine calling, so to speak…
Above all, locate your passion and pursue it! Even, people with high faith in the divine may say that all your previous life experiences, honestly speaking, are directing you to fit those pieces of the puzzle together such that ultimately, they gift you with that required capacity ya need to go live out that passion as your calling!!!
How marvellous is that!!!
So overall, back to the main topic of this article, the so-called meaning of life.
Indeed, the objective meaning of life may really be to go learn those lessons and grow as a soul.
However, that doesn’t change your pursuit of the subjective meaning, which is to go live to the fullest!!!
In the process, fulfil the life that the universe has so gifted!! you with, by fully developing yourself to the extent that you are an expression of your blueprint! Authenticity is the keyword to that respect, as there is no need to go try become anything that is not you!!!
But as for what is you, have no fear!!! Life itself, intuition, and whatever, will deliver it to you on a silver platter and you’ll know!
So, before I end, just two things that I’d like to emphasise for good measure.
One: Don’t compare. Everyone is on a different life journey for which the universe has geared them up for. Focus on your own. There is like literally no need for you to compare yours with theirs! Just do ya best!
Two: If possible, try to lessen the influence your ego has over your actions. Here, I’d define the ego as the needs of your body-mind, unconsciously programmed into you as a mere human being. Compelling you to go receive validation, require praise and all that… Sure, you gotta fulfil those needs sometimes, but make sure it’s you holding the reins and not those programmings of your subconscious!
And with that, alright, I’m done!!!
Hope y’all enjoyed this article!
Well, I for one, at least, did, and I’m actually attributing this activity itself a bit to my purpose as well yo! At least, it meets my quick definition that doing it for its own sake alone really fills me!
So, go live a great life peeps!!!
Let’s max ourselves out yo!
Booyeah!