Has this ever happened to you?
In my life, there is a lot to times where I would sit by the window of the class room and stare into the leafs of the tree. Watching it slowly sway from one side to another as it gets pushed gently by the breeze. As I start staring, my mind starts to wonder. "The wind is beautiful and soft. Pushing gently on the leafs. I wonder if the leafs can actually feel that or not. I wonder why we (as humans) can feel it but not them. What is the point of being able to feel all this anyways? All these sensations in life is pulling away from our realisation of the suffering we get in our lives. What is even the purpose of our lives? Just like this wind. It will stop. Just like this tree, it will die. Just like our lives, it will end. So then what is the meaning of life? what is the meaning of the tree’s life? what is the meaning of the wind’s life? what is the meaning of my life?"
other examples can also be the times when I look at something really simple that is happening to everyone in life such as our common addictions. Smoking, Drugs, Sex. I look at our basic needs. Water, food, Oxygen. And I think to myself why we are bound to our physical existence and not floating freely in the air. Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t need to depend on temptations in order to feel content? Or if we didn’t even have a body to satisfy? Why do we need to have this body? Why do we need to have this life? what is the meaning of such a life? what is the meaning of anyone’s life?
I saw a video once of a father who helped his mentally disabled child fulfil his dream of wanting to play soccer. If you would like to watch the sort 2 minute video, click the buttons below:
The first reaction I had is always the same as what everyone would have. This is horrible. I felt sorry for the boy. More so, I felt sorry for the father which had so much love for this boy. The boy always wanted to be a sportsman so the father rapped him onto his legs and walked him around the grass. Once the boy started to drop saliva out of his mouth, his dad would take a napkin and wipe his mouth. Isn’t this such a heart breaking video to watch? What my mind went to is always the same. "What is the meaning of the boy’s life? what is the meaning of the father’s life? Why do both of these people have to go through so much suffering just to survive a couple of years before they pass away? What is the meaning of life?"
So last time, I spoke about the experiment that I went through to get different people’s understanding of what is the meaning of life.
To read that post click Here:
What is the Meaning of Life?
This post I want to show you my reflections on what is the meaning of life. Be prepared that this post will be a deep read because this post will contain some of my deepest thoughts I have kept to myself over the past decade. Not much people get to tap into my thoughts unless I am willing to provide a little slice of it to you. But then again, who isn’t like that, right? So I just want to let you know that this post might be very subjective to my personal understanding
Toby as a subject
We spoke about Toby the ant before. If you want to read up about his posts:
Toby the Ant
Toby plays a strong role in many of my explanations. The reason why Toby places such a role in my explanations is because the life of an ant is something that we can observe. One that we can see from a higher perspective. Scientists has actually studied the life of ants and saw that there is a massive empire of ants below the ground and they, also, server a king or queen. Strange isn’t it? This sounds like humans being under control of their government and president.
So let us put ourselves in the shoes of Toby. If Toby was in the ages of great struggle. All the paths have been surrounded by rocks. Toby finally risks himself to try the new path and breaks through to a tunnel that allowed the ants to continue their survival. What was the meaning of Toby’s life? to create a new life for the swamp of ants? Maybe. Some of the people in our lives we can see which represent such. Mother Theresa saving tons of people. Steve Jobs leading the creation of a new revolution of technology and I can go on.
So now, what happens if Toby was just an ordinary ant collecting his food for the queen day in and day out? Repeated the same job over and over again? What is the meaning of Toby’s life then? Just to collect food, survive and wait to die one day? This is where the question starts to settle in. People try to become the Toby that breaks into a new world rather than Toby that is absolutely normal.
So now, even more to ask when Toby is born with only 2 legs. Then he cannot even collect food. He can only wait to die one day and burden the surrounding people that he loves dearly. Never knowing how to repay their efforts.
Yes, obviously, it will be debatable in terms of what these three different types of Toby could have rather meant through their lives. I am mainly going to focus on the second type of Toby because that shows a great portion of our population.
So according to what Toby can see, in his daily life, it is all about collecting food. Just like how humans have to work hard to earn their money to pay off bills to have food on the table. Toby decided that life isn’t just about collecting food and surviving until he dies. Why would he want to live such a life? what is the point in living only to die one day? Does his life even have a meaning to the rest of the world? Your life? my life? maybe to an ant-eater’s life. Toby is food in that case. So if Toby got eaten by an Ant Eater, would Toby’s life be considered serving the survival of another creature? Can you imagine a life where we live (going to school, getting a job, etc), just to "serve" someone else’s survival?
So Toby thought that the best thing to do is to be happy about life. All ants want to just be happy. When we fed, we are happy. When we see our children, we are happy. So Toby started Taking drugs because it made him happy. Addiction got to him and he realised that this wasn’t the true meaning of life. this was just there for him to temporarily escape the reality that he needs to face. Chancing after happiness is like chancing after that feeling you got the first time you fell in love, the first time you got tipsy with alcohol, the first time you started chasing the dragon, the first time you bought a car, the first time you got promoted. Life is more than this.
Toby started to think, what if I can change other ant’s lives? Maybe I can make their lives better. He started to go out of his way to help other ants after hours and started to clean up the mess that other ants did so that other ants had less to worry about. He started going into saving ants as a fireman and a medic. He started taking care of other ants that need help such as the ones who were born defective. But he realised that he can save these ants once, or twice, but he cannot stop these ants from dying and suffering indefinitely. Life had to be more than just changing other Ant’s life.
So Toby encountered Ghosts and decided that life was more than just to be happy. To read this post, click here:
A Glimpse of the New World
He realised that this world has something out there that is greater than who we are. He decided that his life should be dedicated to spreading the truth about such an existence. This started to make him feel like there is more meaning to this miserable life of collecting food and waiting to die. So he spent a lot of time spreading the word of such existence. In the meantime, thinking to himself "What is the purpose of such existence?"
So because of God’s grace and let us say that Toby really had the heart to find out what is the meaning of life, he got to come into a higher perspective and see the whole life of all of the ants as a whole work together to serve a common goal. Survival. Economy. Destiny. He started to understand how each Ant had a position to fil within the big economy of the ants. Each ant acted like a cell within a body to keep it alive and living. Our small life is put into affect within a bigger life. The life of the whole swamp of Ants. And went back down into being an ant. But why? How is this anymore different than what I already know is wrong? Toby’s life purpose is to continue on the life of ants. Just like how biologist would say it. But what then is the purpose of letting me see all this from a higher perspective? Is the meaning of my life to serve the existence of the greater life? So what will happen if I malfunction within my position? Will the greater life get destroyed like a carcinogen cell creating cancer within a person? Or was this meant to happen?
What if … there was another life that the existence of this swamp of Ants were serving to survive? The Food chain. The Ecology. But why? Why do we need this? Is there something bigger than the Ecology? Probably is, the life of the planet, then the solar system, the galaxy, then the Universe. There must be something else other than survival that makes a meaning to all this cyclical process.
Human Life
This is when we will need to move away from Toby. He will not be able to help us any further. We as Humans have the ability to think. We have something called "wisdom" If we don’t think and we don’t have wisdom to judge what is right and what is wrong then how are we any different to all other wild animals? Because of our wisdom and knowledge, we were able to create building, technology, etc. There is clearly something different about us. It would be surprising to see buildings and technology built by a monkey or a dolphin. Fortunately, none of those animals have developed such. But why are we the chosen ones? Can animals really not think? Animals can think. Dogs can listen and understand their owner’s instructions. Ants can understand that their lives are in danger. Ants can understand that they are struggling in water. So why has none of those animals developed into something that can also establish technology and build cities?
I think before we answer that question, we need to take the concept of the Ant and place it upon our selves or a greater life form than just us. Is there another dimension? Spirits? Ghosts? God? If we can squish an ant with a rock, then is there a way for a higher power to cause a perfect timing for my breaks to fail when I am speeding?
The chances are high. So what is the meaning of our life to them? Is there anything that is even higher than them?
A lot of things start to be established through this understanding of the higher perspective. A lot of questions as well. What is the meaning of the life of the higher powers? Where is this higher power world? Where is this spiritual world? Is it in the same place as we are now? Like how we are actually in the same world Toby is in but Toby doesn’t know of my existence simply because he cannot see me? What do these "ghosts" want? What is the meaning of their lives?
This is where reincarnation starts to play a role in our understanding of what is the meaning of life. It can be easier explained in terms of Newton’s Law: "Energy cannot be destroyed or created. It can only be transferred from one form to another." So what happens when we die? Do we just pass on into heaven like that? If that is true, then why were we put down here in the first place? To finish a mission? To learn a lesson? Did we finish the mission in this life? Did we learn the lesson in this life? Or do we have another chance to learn the lesson? Another chance to finish the mission? Do we really only stay in this world in the form of human? Or can we become Toby? Or Chloe the fish? Or a spirit? Or a soul? Or a Ghost? If reincarnation is true, then what is this forever lasting "thing" that keeps cycling called? Let us just call it our soul. So now we need to start distinguishing the meaning of the life of our soul and the meaning of the life of our body. We can, for now, state that the meaning of life for our body is to act as a vehicle to perform whatever it is that our soul needs to complete. Whether it be a mission, learn a lesson, pay a debt, receive a fortune, etc.
So now, let us see what is the meaning of life in terms of our soul. If we really want to know what is the meaning of our soul, then we don’t need to waste the time in looking at the individual soul like how we did with Toby. We know that isn’t the final answer. Let us look at the collective eco system of souls in this world of ours. Coming and going. Birth and Death. Lessons and missions. For what? Why? Why do we, as a small piece of soul, play such a big role in the global eco system of souls?
The only way we can answer that last question is if we have a look at the understanding of why we have an eco system of souls. Ants as a whole work together to get to one purpose. Survival of ants. Can the eco system of souls be the same? For the survival of souls? Or is there something even deeper we can look into?
What if, we can transcend this human body for eternity? Wouldn’t we know even more? Understand things from an even greater perspective? Probably. So how do we get there? Through the help of many philosophers such as Confucius, Lao Zi, Buddha, Jesus Christ, we have tons of information on how we can get there. But since we are not there yet, maybe we can dig something out by comprehending their actions. They all spread the word of a higher power. They all said that they are the only living truth and only through them will one get to heaven. They all teach peace and love. They all teach benevolence and taught us to spread the word of God. Can we see a pattern? We need to transcend this physical world together. Our mission as individuals is to spread the understanding that we, all, need to transcend the physical body together. We can only do this by cutting off all the Cause and Effects that we still owe upon someone else, something else. When all our other missions on earth is completed. When our soul is clean. Toby can never server my meaning of life because he is too busy finishing his own meaning. He is too busy completing his meaning of life.
It is time for a great awakening of this world. I do think that we can create our own meanings. This is still however, dependant on our physical existence of our body. So we cannot forget the cause and affects that we can still create during our lives. Don’t get caught up in those, rather pursue a meaning that surpasses our small individual world.
And it is because people have this understanding, that is why there are people who believe that there are miracles and believe to serve God. These are all stated in my previous blog post. But the question now lies in: "What is the correct way to serve God?" "What is the best way to create meaning in our lives?" "Is there a way that is better than my current way of serving God?" "Am I serving God spiritually or physically? … or both?"
I think my understanding of this topic still too shallow. I don’t think I will ever stop searching for the meaning of life nor will I stop creating my own meaning of life. So Stay tuned for more In the future, I will post about how I go about creating the meaning of life and the adventures I stumble upon ^_^
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