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What is the answer to life?

psychoblast, I see what you're saying, but I'm comparing raw pain and pleasure. You don't need pain for pleasure.

Just like you said, "there are receptors that can ONLY feel pain." You never said that there are receptors that can feel both, only "pleasant or unpleasant" pressures. Just because it's unpleasant doesn't mean it's painful; it's just less desirable.

I think you missed what I was saying or vise versa. But, from what I gather from your post, you're talking about pleasant vs unpleasant, which is different than pain vs pleasure. I'm talking about the latter, in which pain is not necessary to have pleasure.
 
i don't believe that their is a specific answer to life and all that it holds, but every time i question things my sister reminds me of this quote
"For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one."
 
sexyanon said:
You don't need pain for pleasure.
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You need pain to appreciate pleasure. That's what I was getting at...

sexyanon said:
you're talking about pleasant vs unpleasant, which is different than pain vs pleasure.
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Quit talking about pain! That isn't the topic!
 
galahan said:
You need pain to appreciate pleasure. That's what I was getting at...
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What if emotions are just another property of properly configured matter/energy. What if you configured matter/energy in such a way that it was coded for pleasure and appreciation only. That would be pleasure and pain, but nothing observing it. It seems like consciousness is a key property of matter/energy though, so who really knows.
 
the purpose of life is to seek happiness, in the words of the dalai lama. live your life by that philosophy and you'll end up a lot happier; warmth, kindness and compassion towards others, the ability to feel empathy and true understanding, developing an inner discipline to form a calm and contented mind, bringing about a complete transformation of your outlook - 'that is the way.'
 
"You need pain to appreciate pleasure. That's what I was getting at..."
"Quit talking about pain! That isn't the topic!"

Ummm...?

I'm saying you DON'T need pain to appreciate pleasure; they're completely seperate. You think you need pain to appreciate pleasure.

Still off topic? 8(

yougene - pain and negative thoughts are programmed in for survival. Unfortunately, humans hold on to these negative thoughts instead of the lessons they teach, and thus we get hurt and become sad.

Humans steer away from the negative thoughts. They are there to show a path of what not to interact with. You kinda need pain and negative thoughts in a non-perfect world such as our own.
 
well, in the buddhist philosophy one of the four noble truths is that suffering is the basis of life - the purpose of life is to reach an enlightened, liberated state through various techniques (doing virtuous acts, acquiring merit/karma etc.) and thus become ultimately happy, to free yourself from suffering.

So yes, suffering is present in day to day life - it is everywhere, and to be ignorant of this suffering is one of the three paths to further suffering, ignorance, craving and hatred. It's much healthier to accept the inevitability of suffering, pain, death, loss and so on and come to terms with them - that they are the basis for our existence.

That's not to say be pessimistic; once you can accept that, the next step is to realize our true purpose is to seek happiness by cultivating things or emotions that lead to happiness and getting rid of those that lead to suffering, so that eventually while they will still remain we are entirely free of them, and they only exist as ripples in a pond, not affecting us in our mind or spirit.

I'm sure others could put that much better but that's the best I could do...peace
 
dimitri9 said:
The "point of an individuals life" is from an evolutionary point of view simply to test ones combination of genes for survival fitness... and if this new combination is good, you will survive and pass on good genes to the next generation....

thats the point of life for bacteria, insects and all animals....

the other "problems" encountered by human beings are essentially self created... no "meaning" in them from a general point of view.. only within that little society we created....

unless of course, you believe in GOD....
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Completely agree, it is the same for everything anywhere, only the best survive, humans have just got too smart for ourselves that even weak humans can survive with the use of medicine, operations etc.



-=ReD-hAzE=- said:
Knowing the answers won't change the problems, so quit looking.
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I think it will change the problems. If I knew the answers to the questions I have I would lead a very different life.... Maybe you don't have interesting or deep questions that you need answers for??
 
sourlemone said:
well, in the buddhist philosophy one of the four noble truths is that suffering is the basis of life - the purpose of life is to reach an enlightened, liberated state through various techniques (doing virtuous acts, acquiring merit/karma etc.) and thus become ultimately happy, to free yourself from suffering.

So yes, suffering is present in day to day life - it is everywhere, and to be ignorant of this suffering is one of the three paths to further suffering, ignorance, craving and hatred. It's much healthier to accept the inevitability of suffering, pain, death, loss and so on and come to terms with them - that they are the basis for our existence.

That's not to say be pessimistic; once you can accept that, the next step is to realize our true purpose is to seek happiness by cultivating things or emotions that lead to happiness and getting rid of those that lead to suffering, so that eventually while they will still remain we are entirely free of them, and they only exist as ripples in a pond, not affecting us in our mind or spirit.

I'm sure others could put that much better but that's the best I could do...peace
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Well put. Sounds like a quote from a book I read on Bhuddism called "The Fundamentals of Bhuddism" I agree with most of the Bhuddist belief system.
That statement sums up my belief on suffering.
 
In response to your original post galahan:

Christianity is not a religion. Religion is man trying to reach God through his rituals, sacrifices, traditions, or good works. Christianity is God reaching down to man.

I think the answer(s) to life is simple: love your enemies, do not judge others, put God first, trust God with today & today only (we aren't guaranteed a tomorrow, if it comes, it's a gift), and treat others the way we wish to be treated.

Unfortunately, we trivialize God's and our existence to the point we miss out on the true blessings life has to offer.
 
Interesting link. I haven't meditated in a long time. I will consider starting meditation again.

Meditation isn't everything though. Right action and speak are very important. Morals, selflessness, and following the "golden rule" are also important to becoming enlightened.
 
YetAnotherKat said:
i don't believe that their is a specific answer to life and all that it holds, but every time i question things my sister reminds me of this quote
"For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one."
Click to expand...

Wow, you've just pointed out possibly the most obvious thing in my life at the moment. For a long time, I've been waiting for life to start.... just gotta get started at university, just gotta make some friends, just gotta get a job, just gotta do this, just gotta do that.... then my real life will start. There always seemed something fundamentally flawed about this, and what you've pointed out has pinpointed it exactly. My life is well and truly underway. This post probably doesn't make sense to a lot of you, ahh well.

As for the answer to life... I'm not sure that a question/answer format is appropriate. Questions and answers are things that humans have created, given meaning to. I would imagine that the meaning of life would be higher in scope than something mankind himself has created. It seems that saying life has an answer is like saying life could be summed up in a poem or a song - another creation of man. For this reason I tend to think that the meaning of life is a feeling, like a vibration or a state of mind. Haven't really given much thought to this so please excuse my incoherent attempt at this :\ ...

Doooofus
 
I should rename the thread to "rant on life" because that is what it is. I wasn't looking for answers I was looking for comments.

Peace
 
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