Why Are We Conscious And Alive???

[Why?]

I am searching for the meaning of life and why we are living. What is the purpose of physical reality or the truth. Now I am asking the why of things.

[jjer94]

Because. 

"Why" is a question invented by language. It doesn't actually exist in reality.

[TruthSeeker]

who invented language?

[Guest]

I think I came to see things a new light when I stopped thinking of things as having agency, will. Rather things just are. It can be useful to see from the agency/ will perspective, but consider seeing things from another point of view. What if nothing is "invented?" Try thinking of it as a natural occurrence like any other as a result of a changing, but whole environment-- a universal entity. Ideas,inventions, civilizations etc. aren't truly created but just happen as naturally as the body takes a breath or a leaf falls from a tree.

 

I don't know if anything I said was useful to you, but I suppose that's up to "you". 

[Spider Jerusalem]

Note sure if you've seen the documentary called "Man on Wire." It's about Philippe Petit, the wire-walker who walked between the World Trade Center towers in 1974. The whole caper is both absurd and exquisite. When reporters questioned Petit about why he did it, Petit replied, "The beauty of it is, there is no ‘why.’" Perhaps, this quote could point you in the right direction?

 

 

[aurum]

Why not?

[Natasha]

I have yet to see a video on non-duality where a speaker sits in a third-world camp of diseased and starved people, teaching on how everything is happening for no reason. Children dying, poverty ruling and suffering is all around.  There would be no 'magical', 'beautiful', 'glorious', etc adjectives used for sure. Not trying to be negative, but the video above gives off this  New Age-y kind of feel, though I get the ultimate point of the teaching.  

Edited February 16, 2016 by Natasha

[Guest]

53 minutes ago, Natasha said:

I have yet to see a video on non-duality where a speaker sits in a third-world camp of diseased and starved people, teaching on how everything is happening for no reason. Children dying, poverty ruling and suffering is all around.  There would be no 'magical', 'beautiful', 'glorious', etc adjectives used for sure. Not trying to be negative, but the video above gives off this  New Age-y kind of feel, though I get the ultimate point of the teaching.  

Didn't watch the video, but yes, I agree. 

"there is no reason for everything happening", is not necessarily true...suffering of the self and of others points exactly to the path which we are following right now.

They say the buddha was moved to his quest for enlightenment when he left the palace one day and saw a sick man, a poor man, a beggar, and a corpse. 

We are too privileged. Even on this forum, we are blinded by the quest of our own existentialism, rather than motivated by the plight of others.

Edited February 16, 2016 by tryingforfreedom

[Spider Jerusalem]

45 minutes ago, Natasha said:

I have yet to see a video on non-duality where a speaker sits in a third-world camp of diseased and starved people, teaching on how everything is happening for no reason. Children dying, poverty ruling and suffering is all around.  There would be no 'magical', 'beautiful', 'glorious', etc adjectives used for sure. Not trying to be negative, but the video above gives off this  New Age-y kind of feel, though I get the ultimate point of the teaching.  

As far as I can tell, even if there is no reason for existence, this doesn't contradict the process of finding out how the mechanism works. Personally, even if I think that existence itself has no reason, I'm actually still quite interested in the causes of, say, hunger and poverty in the third world (your example). As far as I can tell, there is a strong cause and effect in play here. Centuries of pillage and looting by imperialist countries is certainly one way to explain the mechanism of how inequality works. Similarly, I'm also interested in how "free trade" works in destroying local agriculture as a result of western counries flooding poor countries with cheap goods via the subsidy mechanism. Moreover, if the environment is rapidly deteriorating, I think it's easy enough to find a cause there as well.

Certainly, a big priority is to alleviate suffering by honestly assessing the causes of social phenomena.

As to why anything exists in the first place, who knows? No reason seems to make sense. Anyway, it doesn't seem necessarily relevant to solving problems in the real world. Seems like a nice to have. And if there is no reason for why anything exists, even better! Less to figure out

[WelcometoReality]

We cannot know if there is a meaning to our existence or if it's all total randomness. Both are beliefs.

If you are seeking truth it is better to make it a spiritual question: why is this question important to me or to what is it important to. You can also just identify it as an activity of the mind and release it.

[30secs]

the question itself "why" is the problem in the first place. It's like Im asking you why Santa Claus like giving gifts during Christmas, we know Santa Claus doesn't exist in the first place.

[vizual]

This is what Walter Russell has to say on the subject:

 

"GOD'S ONLY PURPOSE IN CREATING HIS WHOLE UNIVERSE OF BODIES IS TO EXPRESS HIS ONE IDEA OF LOVE, AS MANIFESTED BY HIM IN GIVING AND REGIVING BY EVERY OPPOSITE MATE IN NATURE TO EVERY OTHER OPPOSITE MATE.

 

GOD IS ONE. God created countless pairs of oppositely conditioned ones in order that they should manifest ONENESS through interchange of giving and regiving to void their seeming separateness.

GOD IS UNITY. God created countless disunited pairs of seemingly separate units in order that each disunited one of each seemingly separate pair could manifest its unity with the whole by equal interchange with the whole. Pairs of seemingly separated and disunited man-units will fulfill God's idea and purpose when these countless unit pairs know each other as the One Eternal Being beyond even that idea conveyed by the expression of UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD OF ALL MEN. When man finally knows of his unity with God as the One Universal Being, the One Presence in all this universe, he will have progressed beyond the idea of the brotherhood of the many, for the many will have become voided in their unity as ONE.

GOD IS BALANCE. , God divided His IDEA of balance in His Self by creating pairs of unbalanced conditions--each of which is the opposite of the other. He commanded each of these unbalanced pairs to seek balance through each other by interchanging their unbalanced conditions.

THAT COMMAND IS GOD'S ONE INVIOLATE LAW. IT IS GOD'S ONLY LAW. IT IS THE LAW OF BALANCED GIVING AND REGIVING. IT IS THE LAW OF LOVE."

 

I guess you could say God is playing a game of chess against itself by convincing his left and right hand that they are separate from each other. Without the left hand, the right hand would have nobody to play with and the game would be over. And the game will keep going until both hands have realized they are the same, after that there is no point anymore. 

Your highest desires in life is the balancing of the poles, giving and regiving. You can only do this effectively from your center--which is love. 

[ayokolomo]

Desire is the only thing keeping you tied to this existence.

[curiousyill]

The meaning of life is this: forget about it the question is too big, and we will never know. Drop it, throw it in the trash; well more like keep it in your pocket. Fill that void of not knowing with fun, learning, seeking out actively the things that make you curious. Just live man, just be; we are but tiny specs on a rock floating through endless possibilities. At any given moment a meteor could smash us, blah blah blah and so on; not trying to be scary. I'm just saying, I contemplated on this question for a long time. I became so obsessed with it I let it drive my fears and take me over, just drop it like a bad habit. The answer will come to us all, sooner or later; or maybe never. So my best advice is: fuck it (sorry about my French lol)!

[Emerald]

On February 15, 2016 at 6:05 AM, Why? said:

I am searching for the meaning of life and why we are living. What is the purpose of physical reality or the truth. Now I am asking the why of things.

Purpose, meaning, and reason are simply mechanisms of the human mind. They don't exist separate from human consciousness. 

[Emerald]

9 hours ago, Natasha said:

I have yet to see a video on non-duality where a speaker sits in a third-world camp of diseased and starved people, teaching on how everything is happening for no reason. Children dying, poverty ruling and suffering is all around.  There would be no 'magical', 'beautiful', 'glorious', etc adjectives used for sure. Not trying to be negative, but the video above gives off this  New Age-y kind of feel, though I get the ultimate point of the teaching.  

This is a difficult thing to understand. So, to understand you have to first understand the idea of paradox, where two contradictory things are true at the same time. That is because there are higher truths based more in the ultimate truth of non-duality; and there are lower truths based in the illusion of duality. At the highest level of truth (non-duality) everything is one, everything is infinite, everything is empty of meaning, suffering is illusory, life/death are illusory, beginning/end are illusory, creation/destruction are illusory. From this level of truth, everything is beautiful including tragedy, death, and destruction because they all are part of divine order.

Only the enlightened live in tune with this truth, and it is the most peaceful mindset to live because there is no fear of death in this paradigm. It is to truly embrace the temporal nature and inherent meaninglessness in all of existence. But the vast majority of people, including myself, live in tune with the illusion. So, lower truths will resonate more with us, because they seem more practical. And in some senses they really are. Enlightened people tend to respect the lower truths too, and go out of their way to practice compassion toward those who are suffering. So, from the illusion, there is suffering, corruption, greed, pain, and many other forms of hell to deal with. These should be addressed systematically. But if we, as a society, can realize the higher truth, then the hells of the lower truth will naturally dissipate. So, the higher truth is incredibly practical in this way, because it is the only truth that yields unconditional love and compassion.

Edited February 16, 2016 by Emerald Wilkins

[Spider Jerusalem]

10 hours ago, Natasha said:

I have yet to see a video on non-duality where a speaker sits in a third-world camp of diseased and starved people, teaching on how everything is happening for no reason. Children dying, poverty ruling and suffering is all around.  There would be no 'magical', 'beautiful', 'glorious', etc adjectives used for sure. Not trying to be negative, but the video above gives off this  New Age-y kind of feel, though I get the ultimate point of the teaching.  

I found this article helpful.

Can Buddhism Save the World? by Michael Welton

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/15/can-buddhism-save-the-world/

[Natasha]

7 hours ago, Spider Jerusalem said:

I found this article helpful.

Can Buddhism Save the World? by Michael Welton

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/15/can-buddhism-save-the-world/

Yes, very interesting and helpful article. Thank you for sharing.

[Leo Gura]

Why questions are sorta moot.

It's like asking, "Why did that bird shit on my car???!!! I really, really, really need to get to bottom of this!!!! It's so important for me to know!"

[TruthSeeker]

Why did that guy open that business? Because he wanted to make money.

Why did that girl put on makeup? Because she wanted to attract that guy.

Why did they add that bump in the road? To slow down speeders.

Why did that guy get angry? Because someone said something to him that he didn't like.

Why am I writing all these questions? Because Im trying to prove a point?

Why don't I just say my point? Examples are a god way to explain something?

Why did that bird poop on my car? Because birds don't hold it in and he happened to be flying over my car!

"Why" questions are just as valid as other questions...and there are often multiple answers which overlap!

Sometimes we DONT KNOW the answer...and thats ok...its ok not to know something. Our minds are very small and have a limit to their understanding. Doesn't mean the question is not good or that it doesn't deserve an answer.

 

In my opinion the answer is simple. (Warning: this might be considered "dogma" in the eyes of some...if it is and you have a problem with that I apologize...please look away)

 

Why are you living? Well, whoever created this universe/reality is willing you to be alive. If he were to STOP his will for you to be alive...poof you would die. Every morning we wake up is a gift. A gift given to us by he who continues to will us into existence.

Why is he willing us into existence? What does he want from us? What can we do for him? Nothing! We can't do or give anything to him...he's infinite. You can't give something or do something for someone who is infinite and created the very reality that you are in. So why is he willing us into existence...And why is he willing reality into existence? Simple, he wants to do good to us. He wants to shower us with his awesomeness. 

What is that good that he wants to do to us? What is that awesomeness that he wants to give us?.......It's himself!! He wants to give us himself. Its the ability to connect with him that he wants to give us. It's the pleasure of getting close to him (like a spiritual infinite orgasm times 10) 

Ok thats great...so which religion do I have to join to get this? None. 

Do I have to "beleive in jesus" (whatever that means) NO! Thats dumb!

So, How do I get that goodness that he created this world in order to give me? (This is a little more complicated so I wont get into it now...but anyways your question was just about the WHY...not the HOW!!! [I can make a another thread for those interested]) 

Well, if he created this world and reality and is willing it into existence every moment and is willing us into existence every moment and the whole point is just to give us that wonderful goodness (which is just the ability to connect with him) Why not just give it to us? Why make us go through with this life of ours with these physical bodies and physical desires. Why didn't he just skip this whole physical universe and just give us that awesome pleasure (which is a connection with him). 

The answer is, because he understood and the best way to give someone goodness is to have them EARN it. If you give a poor man charity. He has this sick feeling inside of embarrassment. If you let the poor man EARN something (money, food) hell still get the same thing but now hell feel much better about getting it. This is wisdom. This is the wisdom of someone who wants to give in the best way possible. 

Ok now I know Leo might say a bunch of things in response to this. One of them is "Hey buddy, that God your referring to...IS YOU!!!"

Ok, well obviously it's not AS simple as that. Obviously, If there is a being that created the universe and reality and is willing it all into existence including me...Then obviously I cant BE him 100%. I see it sort of like we are in His daydream. Just like one of us can have a daydream and the people or figures in our daydream only exist in as much as we will them to exist with our daydream...So to, GOD is daydreaming all of reality and willing us into existence (in order to bestow that pleasure to us). So in a sense we are him...because we are part of his day dream and part of his "mind" But we are not him 100%...He gives us our existence. So in a sense Leo is right that we don't exist because we are just in Gods daydream...but in another sense we exist because existence is defined as God willing us into existence with his daydream. (I hope what Im saying is easy to follow) 

 

If you want to refute this please phrase your comments very well and be very very specific and read what I wrote carefully. Enjoy!