What is the meaning of life?

[know knot]

What is the purpose? Why are we here?

[Trivium515]

Well that’s kind of a big one to have a go at, but I truly believe there is a bigger picture, or at least that’s what I think to put my mind at ease whenever what I may be doing seems futile, that whole "everything that every happens or that will, has a purpose". So maybe this life is simply a vehicle to better our souls, to perfect our spirits until we are pure again and we return to that indefinable “whole.”
I don‘t know, just ponderings…

[MagnetMan]

The 14th Century sage, Shankara called life maya- loosly translated that means illusionary. Life is just conscious energy amusing itself. The Hindu's call life The Dance of Shiva

[Jupiter]

Whoa .....uh the purpose of life is to discover the purpose of life? I wish I knew the answer to this but then if we knew the answer to this maybe there would be no point to this. Pretty funny I'll get back to you on this.

[Kwan Yu]

jupiter said:

Whoa .....uh the purpose of life is to discover the purpose of life? I wish I knew the answer to this but then if we knew the answer to this maybe there would be no point to this. Pretty funny I'll get back to you on this.

Ha ha
I get joke
you funny man

[murex]

I think it's to experience life. Nothing grand to accomplish, just to experience being human.

[piper]

And that takes us to what is the purpose of death.........

[atman]

I'll go with the idea that Life has the meaning we assign to it.
It has the purpose we give it. I was given the gift of Life. My purpose in it is to extend that gift, to extend Life. What does that Life mean? What does love mean? I think it simply is.
-atman

[atman]

Or...maybe this by R.W. Emerson better "answers" it....

These questions which we lust to ask about the future are a confession of sin. God has no answer for them. No answer in words can reply to a question of things. It is not in an arbitrary "decree of God," but in the nature of man, that a veil shuts down on the facts of to-morrow; for the soul will not have us read any other cipher than that of cause and effect. By this veil, which curtains events, it instructs the children of men to live in to-day. The only mode of obtaining an answer to these questions of the senses is to forego all low curiosity, and, accepting the tide of being which floats us into the secret of nature, work and live, work and live, and all unawares the advancing soul has built and forged for itself a new condition, and the question and the answer are one.

...Yes, 'question and answer are one'...that works...-atman

[atman]

I should have included the definition as used above to be the original meaning from the Greek, "to miss the mark", (as in archery)...-atman

PS: What time do you guys get up? Too quiet here at 5:50 am!

[Lasher]

jupiter said:

Whoa .....uh the purpose of life is to discover the purpose of life?

lol. This is probably my favorite... and it rings the truest. Perhaps rephrased as what is the meaning of human life... or human consciousness? But if all consciousness is atomic...

piper said:

And that takes us to what is the purpose of death.........

Absolutely... and if the distinction between life and death is illusory than what is the meaning of the cycle?

atman said:

and the question and the answer are one.

Definitely feeling this one, atman. Thanks.

atman said:

PS: What time do you guys get up? Too quiet here at 5:50 am!

Dude, at that ungodly hour I'm still trying to escape the meaning of life!

------><-------

Here is
a test to find
whether your mission on earth
is finished:
If you're alive,
it isn't.
~Richard Bach

^ Paint it black! ^

[rainshine87]

I've put forward my theory in a couple of other posts, but I'll give a basic round up:
When formless consciousness seeks to know itself, form, or distinction, is born; for it divides itself into Knower and Known (or Knowledge) - active and passive principles. These are both forms as there is manifest distinction between them. In order for self-knowledge to be achieved, these two must then literally come together into one entity, which may be considered 'knowing'. This cannot be achieved by one acting on another, but must be done through the creation of a separate third form (the Son). In the creation of this third form there is a gradual blending (evolving) of the two, which is what we call 'creation', consisting of active and passive (the primal opposites), in the form of intellect and material formations. We are a manifestation of the Godhead seeking to know itself. Therefore, the purpose of life is self-knowledge, which is the same as Knowledge of God, as man and creation are the microsmic equivalents to the macrocosms of Divine Intellect and Absolute Wisdom.
But surely, you might argue, Consciousness cannot be formless, as it is a form itself. I don't believe so. For the essence of all form, that one which all forms rely, could be considered the 'distinction-principle', which would mean we could validly refer to it as 'the distinguisher'. What is the element in us which allows us to distinguish? It is consciousness! Therefore, consciousness is not a thing, but prior to distinction - the principle which allows distinction.
As for how something infinite can have a self to know - its self cannot be a thing, but it can be potential, for potential is no thing. Therefore, its self is infinite formal potential. How it manifests this infinite potential as form is more difficult to grasp. It is impossible for it to know infinity actually, so it must know it potentially. It does this through knowing the laws which govern all form. When it has done this, it potentially knows all forms. It must come to potentially know infinite potential, for it cannot know it actually.

(I rushed that, so it might be somewhat messy)

[atman]

rainshine87 said:

so it must know it potentially. It does this through knowing the laws which govern all form. When it has done this, it potentially knows all forms.

great stuff 'Rain'. Can you point me to something that will inform me on "the laws which govern all form"?

Thanks in advance...-atman

[rainshine87]

atman said:

rainshine87 said:

so it must know it potentially. It does this through knowing the laws which govern all form. When it has done this, it potentially knows all forms.

great stuff 'Rain'. Can you point me to something that will inform me on "the laws which govern all form"?

Thanks in advance...-atman

You make a fair point, I can't tell you exactly what these are, because I suck at mathematics, and I assume that is where the answer is to be found (and perhaps in science). All forms are subject to certain laws, they are all mathematical formulations. 1+1=2, would perhaps be a shoddy example of what I mean by mathematical law. Form cannot transcend mathematics, as it is based on distinction, which is number. In the formless essence, there is no number, as there is no distinction. To understand the fundamental rules of form is to understand the fundamental laws of mathematics. I may be in error, this is just my theory, which is I suspect very imperfect.

[MagnetMan]

atman said:

rainshine87 said:

so it must know it potentially. It does this through knowing the laws which govern all form. When it has done this, it potentially knows all forms.

great stuff 'Rain'. Can you point me to something that will inform me on "the laws which govern all form"?

Thanks in advance...-atman

The diagram on Divine theory is pretty clear on this.