tecoyah

Lets just get to the root of it all.
From the depths of yourself, try to express the reason for your existance. No wrong answers are possible in this thread, as there are as many possibilities as souls.

My take:
We are here to better ouselves thru experience and interaction, thus preparing that portion of ourselves that is eternal for the next realm, whatever that may be. All the pain and happiness we live thru is *that which is*giving us the tools to grow.

please place your gods' name between the above stars

__________________
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

CSflim

Well I'm not sure what it is that you are looking for.

As far as I'm concerned, there is no intrinsic "meaning of life". You make your own meaning.

If you are asking, "what is the meaning of life", then I would respond that there is no such thing.

If you are asking what is the meaning of my life, then the answer is, that I am here to enjoy my (very short) life.

Now some people might make the claim that that is a very narrowminded and selfish way to approach life. It is neither.

I'm not a hedonist.
There are higher levels of "enjoyment", to be had from life than mere "pleasure". Also, I would suggesat that intellectual stimulation is also far greater than mere physical pleasure.

I'm not an asshole.
Taking a "selfish" approach to life doesn't neccessarily mean that you become a selfish person. Though this may seem like a contradiction it's not.
A selfish person will soon come to be know by others as being such, and hence people will act in a negative manner towards this person, and so that person will "enjoy" life less. The intelligent "selfish" approach to life is not to be a selfish person at all...be a nice person, and people will act in a positive way towards you!

__________________

tecoyah

Clarification- Yes the meaning of *your* life.

__________________
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

MSD

I'm here to enjoy it and hopefully help other people enjoy it. That's all there really is to it. Try to do good things and have fun, and you're just fine.

:::OshnSoul:::

I love all of your answers. THey are truly how you feel, from your view, and they are *your* Truth. Wonderful!

Johnny Rotten

I''m here to learn and to pass along what I've learned--to share of myself and recieve what others will share of themselves. I may have to go out and get it, and other times it will fall in my lap. But most of it, as is appropriate, is a matter of getting out of it what you put into it.

__________________
"The idea that money doesn't buy you happiness is a lie put about by the rich, to stop the poor from killing them." -- Michael Caine

Ustwo

We are here.

Thats all there is.

__________________
Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

ninety09

As CSflim said, it's a very personal thing.

I believe that the meaning of life is to reproduce. To raise your children to be the best people possible, so that they can help the society evolve. And they will do the same thing with their children..

KellyC

Meaning of my life:

To learn as much shit as possible, I dont care if it's useless or not, if it intrigues me, I'll learn what ever I can from it/about it. The only thing that saddens me is that when I die, all my "learnings" will go with me....FUCK!!!

Oh yeah...and enjoy all the shit that I've seen ppl on t.v do. this is lengthy and could be another thread it self....

__________________
Him: Ok, I have to ask, what do you believe?
Me: Shit happens.

Xell101

Default setting.

Nothing grand or spiritual, here I am and I shall be as I shall be until my incipient doom manifests itself fully.

sexymama

I couldn't have said it better! This is exactly what I believe. Add to it that we are also here to help positively influence the growth of others. That can be by providing them with negative or positive experiences (Although I like to believe our goal should always be to improve society, by human nature some of our interactions are "negative.") which produces personal growth.

__________________
If you can go deeply into lovemaking, the ego disappears. That is the beauty of lovemaking, that it is another source of a glimpse of god

It's not about being perfect; it's about developing some skill at managing imperfection.

hiredgun

But the problem lies in your intent, and it becomes evident if you modify the example. What if you could act in a 'negative' selfish manner with the certainty that no one would find out? If the consequences to you are your only concern, then your approach could easily lead to the "bad" sort of selfishness that you intended to avoid.

CSflim

then I'd feel guilty...not an enjoyable experience!

__________________

hiredgun

but your guilt comes from some value other than selfishness.

bonehed1

Do what you can with the time that is given to you. You only get one chance and there is no reset or delete and go back and fix it.

__________________
Stuff is Good

thespian86

I think that our outlook on life doesn't even grasp the concept of life. There are so many different factors to our life that trying to imagine that would makes us crazy.

If we are unperfect, as the bible states, then how could anything we say be true. Everything we say is a concept taken from another concept taken from another concept. True, we know how to make fire, but do we truly know why it happens? Since man made Science can it be real?

Anyways sorry about the small rant. I think that it is so hard to understand it will seem so simple. Maybe we are never meant to understand the gift we live each day. Think about it

__________________
EX: Whats new?
ME: I officially love coffee more then you now.
EX: uh...
ME: So, not much.

CSflim

Now we are getting into all sorts of behavioral questions....beyond the scope of this thread.

But in essence, my feeling of guilt (like all feelings) have biological origins. The reason we experience certain feelings as positive and others as negative is due to biological reasons. "Enjoyment" comes from maximising the positives and minimizing the negatives.
Guilt is one of the biological mechanisms used to give us a sense of "morality". As is the pleasurable feeling of "having done the right thing".
In this sense "virtue is it's own reward". We are biologically wired to enjoy "doing the right thing". This is where our internal "moral compass" comes from.
I eat food so as to avoid the pains of hunger. I make firends so as to avoid the pains of loneliness. I act "morally" so as to avoid the pains of guilt.

No doubt people will disagree with me, but this isn't really the thread for this debate.

__________________