Through my random browsing on youtube today I have come across a very interesting little collage of a Sam Harris talk
This video inspired me to put some words to ‘paper’ on what I feel is an essential question to ask ourselves.
Every human constantly asks himself what the purpose of his time on this planet is. Especially after doing useless things daily.
Through my shamanic experiences, breathing techniques and just general life experiences – I have come to the conclusion that the main point of our time on earth is to learn.
In my opinion, our soul exists outside of our body and is eternal.
Our time on earth is similar to taking a class in university, a way to immersive oneself in an environment with a goal of gain knowledge, wisdom and experience.
There are 2 general opinions in my opinion on the subject.
#1: Our day to day life is meaningless
“The meaning of life is the pursuit of happiness”.
This is along the lines of the thoughts in the video above.
In a nutshell this point of view can be summarized as:
- Time on earth is limited
- Focus your attention and time on what is important
- Allegedly, its spending time with your loved ones
#2: Our day to day life is the meaning
Frankly, I am more a subscriber that searching for meaning in such an explicit way is pointless.
“Focus not on the pursuit of happiness, but on the happiness of pursuit.”
Every day, even in our seemingly mundane interactions we learn. We interact with different energies of our beautiful world. We interact with people. We display our own energies – and this is key.
An interaction with a waiter is no less meaningful than an interaction with a poet.
Both are living souls, with profound depth that they often themselves don’t recognize.
By fighting our egos, by showing compassion, by showing kindness to any other living creature we grow.
By not being overwhelmed by depression, by greed, by egotistical manias, by analyzing ourself and finding internal harmony and by bringing truth and order to the world around is in off itself the meaning.
Parenthood
As a soon to be father, I am very scared and excited at the same time.
Bringing a new soul into our physical universe, we are taking on a certain responsibility which has already given my life a lot of meaning, despite no child actually being born yet.
I feel like mentally, a shift has already happened that has pushed me to change a lot of the ways in which I see the world and will continue to do so as my parenthood progresses.
It has pushed me further along the learning curve.
It has certainly increased my motivation for becoming a better person, if for no other reason that to be a good example to my future son (not 100% sure).
Conclusion
I think that I am, like most of the world is split between 2 extremes.
On the one hand, the world is obsessed with materialistic and superficial (seemingly) interactions which on the one hand are meaningless, and other hand are the meaning. A meaning which is simply not seen or analyzed.
And on the other hand, we are chasing through a myriad of ways a path to enlightenment which is sometimes right under our nose.
Rather than being eternally spiritual on paper, showing humanity to someone filling up your car at a petrol station or tipping the delivery boy can be more of a learning experience than 10 books on enlightenment.
Rather than taking psychedelics and chasing the meditative white rabbit, perhaps simply arranging the thoughts in your own mind is the best way forward.
All the best,
Timur
22.05.2018
What do you think?