“For the
meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour.
What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the
specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.”
-Viktor E.
Frankl
When one
thinks about the meaning of life there are so many questions that come to mind
and with every question that pops up a myriad of answers are sure to follow. So where is a good starting point when
looking to tackle this monumental question?
Where is a good ending point? And
furthermore, where do I even get the authority to tackle such a question? If you bear with me I’m sure you will find at
least some of the answers you seek.
First, a
starting point: Why were we created in
the first place?
I think it all boils down to experience, ours and our
creators, and their co-dependence. If
you were to stop for a second and think about the implications of life and the
laws that govern those implications I think you’ll begin to see that experience
is what unites us all and it’s our shared experience that makes up what some
are calling the “collective conscious.”
This collective conscious is what many believe is the heartbeat of the
creator, and since we’re the ones causing this heart to beat then we are all
connected not only with one another but also with that which created us. So it makes sense that in order for a creator
to fully experience who the creator is then we have to live out all of our
experiences consciously or unconsciously, collectively. If I was not who I was, going through what I’m
going through, then someone, somewhere, would not be able to experience who
that person is relative to myself. We
all need other people to define who it is we are, and it’s through our
experiences that we gain insight into just who that person is. Think about it, were it not for another
person in your life would you be able to define who it is you are? It’s because of everyone that we can put a
name to ourselves; because we all can claim ourselves as independents it’s obvious
to me that through shared experience we are able to fully define the lot of us. If we were not all to live on this planet in order
to experience independent parts of a unified life, then what definition would
we be able to give to life, to ourselves, or to a creator? When I look at someone else I see aspects of
humanity that define something other than who it is I am, I also see very
similar characteristics that could unite us as one body if we needed them to. So to answer the question posed at the start
of this paragraph in very plain terms, we were created to experience whatever
it is we choose to experience. Our first
purpose in life is to live so that we can experience all that living has to
offer. Because of this revelation it
leads me to another pertinent question…
Can we
choose to experience anything we want?
The short answer is YES!
Please do, please choose to experience any aspect of life that you so
desire, it’s what makes life interesting.
Nothing is off limits, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences
for our actions. Don’t forget that there
are some rules that we must all play by in the game of life, and one of them is
that every action has an equal or opposite reaction. I believe that nothing is off limits to us,
made obvious by our ability to choose to do whatever we want, however, some
choices will not produce a positive or desired result. Since we can choose to do anything in life
then it makes sense to me that everything we desire to experience is here for
us to choose to do. I do not believe in
a universal “right and a wrong” in the accepted sense of the words; instead I
believe in right and wrong being only definable and contingent upon our
singular existence. What’s right for me
may not be right for you, and likewise, what’s wrong for you may not be wrong
for me; that’s the beauty of life and where many people lose their way. Just because something is wrong for you and
not for another does not mean you have the right to make another person acquiesce
to your definition of the truth. If more
people would live life according to their own barometers for right and wrong,
without holding judgment upon the heads of others for not choosing the same
definition, this world would be a much more beautiful place to live. Even in the chaos of defining what’s right and
wrong we have the ever-evolving experience of life to take into account. Whatever may seem right or wrong to you today
will not hold the same value a decade from now, so how can you justify judging
another person based on the choices they make right now? Live to be an example of what you believe
right and wrong to be, but try not to live to be a tyrant for your beliefs. From this idea we can draw upon my last point
to be made…
Are we
judged for our actions?
By a creator, a.k.a. God, no; by other people, you bet we
are. Many of you are probably strongly
disagreeing with me right now because you believe the role of God is to create
then judge his creation right? “But
Mason, my religion has told me for years that judging was the role of God and
that we’re all sinners that need to be forgiven for our actions in order to get
to this place called Heaven.” Have you
ever taken a minute to think that maybe your religion is wrong, I’m not talking
about the lessons they preach but the overall declaration of needing to be
forgiven for some reason? Why would God,
this omnipotent being, ever need to punish us for anything, in what world does
that even make sense? And for what
reason would we be punished, especially for making a simple choice? Does God need anything? Isn’t God without need, or want, or
desire? I believe so, for the simple
belief that God wants anything means that he lacks something… that doesn't mesh
right? The same people that will
disagree with my statement are the same people that believe God created us and
knows all about every choice we will ever make.
But if God knew every choice we were ever to make before our birth,
including the “negative” ones, and still created us only to judge us because of
them, that’s not really God, that’s a childish dictator, and also a being made
up by superstition and misunderstanding of the word LOVE. Every choice available to us was made by God,
meaning that every choice is part of the ultimate reality of God, so how could
any choice be any less “God” then another?
Think about it… let all of your bias towards a religion leave your mind
for a minute and really think about it. I could write thousands of words on this idea
alone, but for the sake of this thought I want to just end by saying that we
are not judged by God, based on our choices, but we will be judged by man based
on what we choose to do. Man is fickle,
God is not, so don’t worry about the judgment of others when you have faith in
your intentions. Life will end where
life began, with a re-connection to the source.
To wrap this
up I feel it important to state one last time what I started this thought with,
the reason why we’re all here, the meaning of life: To experience as much of life as
possible.
