Yes, so many times, people with problems come here to just vent. Then they go back to the same old ways. The meaning of life is important because it is what makes us happy and interested. As Anita said, it is the reason to get up in the morning. And not just to go to work or because it is daylight. But, because it brings us more time to be with or do things which makes us happy. That draw our minds and emotions to bear/ direction.

I have often wished to be able to edit my posts and make corrections. And, I wished for the ability to click a like for some post that means more to me. It shows appreciation for people who answer posts and brings light to the darkness in our lives. You know who you are.

Anita, thanks. That post makes my day better.

Playing devils advocate I’m going to disagree and argue that the search for meaning and purpose is a skill we are really bad at and so the source of much suffering. The key word in that statement was search. My argument being that we don’t need to seek out meaning or purpose to be happy or have hope. We can though open the door, and leave it open, to the experiences.

Seeking implies something we don’t yet have thus the search starts and often remains stuck in the feeling of loss and less then. Begging the question when does a seeker become a finder and get to be content? (Not easily in this consumerist digital world of 1 or 0)

I suspect like joy and happiness meaning and purposes are experiences that happen and not something one ‘finds’. In such a state of awareness every breath is full of meaning and purpose.

I think it comes down to perspective and a cessation of measurement.

From one perspective the sun rises and sets once a day. By the rising and setting we measure out time and the various dualities  of life like meaning and purpose.

Yet from another perspective, the sun is always rising and setting in every moment. (right this moment the sun is being experienced as rising and setting.) Setting in this perspective notice how time, measurement, language and duality begin to fade, and with that fading notions of meaning and purpose.

Then from yet another perspective the sun neither rises or sets, it is. Sitting in such awareness all returns to the eternal and everything is connected. The present moment no longer a measurement of time but the eternal absolute. Eternity not a measurement of time but the source from which time arises and returns.

The experience of movement creates time and space, the play ground of the experience of life and duality. The experience of stillness is eternity, and non-duality (non-measurement).
Each breath each moment contains both the temporal and the eternal experience.

All movement arises from and returns to stillness, all time arises from and returns to eternity, all life arises from and returns to Love. Nothing is Lost nothing Gain, It is, you are… the purpose and meaning you have been looking for.  The task of living  is to be awake to the experience of both

The central point of the world is the point where stillness and movement are together. Realizing the relationship of the temporal moment to the eternal—not moment, but forever—is the sense of life. Realizing how this moment in your life is actually a moment of eternity, and experiencing the eternal aspect of what you’re doing in the temporal experience—this is the ‘knowing’ experience.- Campbell

We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality.

We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas. – Alan Watts

Stillness is what creates love, Movement is what creates life, To be still, Yet still moving – That is everything!
Do Hyun Choe

The Sphinx spoke only once, and the Sphinx said, “A grain of sand is a desert, and a desert is a grain of sand; and now let us all be silent again.” I heard the Sphinx, but I did not understand. – Sand and Foam by Kahlil Gibran

Hi Everyone

As a species, our purpose is to reproduce and protect the existence of our species. As humans existing in civilisation, our purpose is to help each other and there are a ton of different ways to do so. As individuals, we all have special things that give our lives meaning that we enjoy and care about – core values. Exploring our core values can bring more joy into our lives.

I think that people often search for purpose and meaning when they are unhappy. I know that I did. What I learned from my search is that we all have reasons for everything we do in a day. Even the things that make us unhappy fulfil a purpose.

I found that learning to accept that and be on board with my choices rather than fantasizing about doing something else infinitely more helpful. That being said, I probably wouldn’t have reached that conclusion without searching for meaning. Nowadays, if I’m uncomfortable with something that I’m doing or not doing it helps to remind myself WHY I’m doing or not doing it.

Ultimately, whatever it is we are currently doing, is what we want to do at the time.

Wishing ya’ll all the best! ❤️🙏

Dear Peter:

I am glad that you materialized following a 7-month lurking! I didn’t read your first post attentively yesterday, late afternoon, but I did this morning: slowly, in a meditative way, and it calmed me, I had a sense of a Return to Truth. Yes, I forgot movement vs stillness,             time vs eternity,               duality vs non-duality.

Peter: “The task of living  is to be awake to the experience of both“.

To be awake and aware of the bigger picture of reality, that which is bigger than the past, the future, world events, the news, bigger than me, bigger than any person, immeasurably bigger.

Thank you Peter, I hope to read more from you!

anita

Dear Peter:

There is only one way  for me to absorb the content of your posts, and that’s in a meditative/ stillness state of mind, which I expect to take place by tomorrow. Thank you for posting again!

anita

Dear Peter:

(Taking a few slow breaths, feeling the pain in my shoulder from tightness, from twitching it, a tic; hearing the tinnitus static noise- so far, no benefits to relaxing- hearing a far away plane in the sky.. pain increasing in my right shoulder, plane or some kind of aircraft getting closer, less pain in shoulder.. exhale.. again, slower.. feeling hungry for the first time this morning, exhale, now to your yesterday post):

“Instead of a frantic seeking of meaning and purpose as a life line to hope“- frantic is the antichrist of calm, not a helpful state of mind. See, right here: my mind goes straight to duality, frantic vs calm. Which is okay (another duality, okay vs not okay), but duality has a very important place (balanced with nonduality) in human life.

“As I open to experience of the eternal within the temporal my breath slows and I experience a calm where the desire to label, measure and judge fades“- it’s a good idea, following a bout of duality-movement- time, as in mine right above, to pause and return to nonduality- stillness-eternity. (Taking slow breaths, hearing the aircraft again, didn’t notice it while under the influence of duality-movement-time).

“It’s not so much ‘movement VS stillness’ as it is ‘movement AND stillness’.  To experience the ‘stillness’ in ones often frantic ‘movements’. I’ve taken up yoga and its wonderful to experience the moment when in a difficult flow you find yourself still“- so, both at the same time, as in the brain moving at the same speed as the body, not faster… not frantically. Not ahead of oneself. I like this (duality: like vs dislike… and stillness: I like it but not too much).

“The go to metaphor for nonduality is that of the coin. Only its not a great metaphor as we can’t help ourselves from picking the coin up, flipping it in the air and calling heads Or tails which immediacy pulls us out of the eternal nonduality (garden) and back into the temporal playground of duality, measurement, judgment… language… ego consciousness“-  oh, so it’s about not being in a rush to pick up the coin; let the coin be still, be still watching the coin. See something other than 2-sides.

“In nonduality its not OR but AND, the coin has no sides! No matter how small a piece you cut off from the coin the piece will contain both, right down to the smallest particles. Here we see the problem of language as language exists in the temporal experience and not in the eternal“- the coin is much more than 2 sides. Duality is over simplifying the complexity, complexity we have no words for.

“We have no words for that which is both up and down, in and out, good and bad, happy and sad, left and right, fast and slow“- we over simplify because we humans are .. not intelligent enough to understand the complexity. I suppose we get to be more intelligent than before when we realize that we are.. not as intelligent as we thought we were.

This explains a whole lot.

“Note how so many of the problems in our connected/disconnected digital social media experience arise because between the 1 and the 0 it’s always 1 Or 0 when our experience is analog, that of the AND. In the digital world it’s Like OR dislike, agree OR not agree, with me Or against me… in the linear digital algorithm it’s the OR that rises to the top of our feeds,  which is not great for connection or the experience of stillness in motion“- brilliant, says I (while being humble about my intelligence as I evaluate the quote above as brilliant).

“It took me decades to discover that teachings are not meant to be believed but experienced. (I am very much of the ‘head’ type)“- yes, experienced.. I see. The “head type” does get ahead of itself, rushing, frantic, crashing into insanity.

“To as you indicate to ‘sit’ in the stories  in that stillness state of being.“- replying here has been a meditative experience for me, one made possible by you, thank you!

anita