Saturday, 20 January 2007

Meaning of Life

What is the meaning of life? That is one answer that only we ourselves can truly answer. No one better than us know the reason why we live the life we are living now, doing the things that we do now.

What is your reason for living? The possibilities are infinite and i hope your motive to live is based on love, peace, joy and happiness. If we do so, not only will we better our own lives, it benefits people around us as well. 8) Otherwise, to live a selfish life or one that is filled with anger and hatred, will only serve to lead us into a life full of hurt and disappointment.

From Venerable Mahinda,

"The true meaning of life lies beyond wordly happiness, beyond material wealth and status. As long as we do not have the wisdom to realise impermanence, unsatifactoriness and emptiness of worldly things and pursuits, we will always be seeking for meaning.


To realise the true purpose and meaning of life, we need patience, perserverance as well as faith and confidence in moral and spiritual values. We need to fufill our immediate purpose before we can move on to something higher."

True to Bhante's words - until we realise how empty worldly happiness and material gains are, we will never truly be contented and constantly searching for an answer. Once we start to realise the impermanence nature of all conditioned things, we will also start to realise the need to cherish this present moment.

As the Buddha once put it very nicely, "The past is gone and the future yet to come. The only thing we truly have is the present moment." When we understand this, we will learn to live a life of understanding as the future is uncertain and we may not have the luxury to enjoy other than this very moment.

Understanding the love we received from our loved ones such as our families, friends, teachers and to learn to appreciate and return it in kind. Understanding the suffering of others, to learn to release our compassionate heart and to let go of our hatred and anger if any in us. Such is the purpose of life - living a life of kindness, free from fear and regrets. 8)

No comments: