ParappaTheRapper
Ex-Bluelighter
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Why is the purpose of life being to gain knowledge so common as a concept???
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Foreigner
Bluelighter
I used to be that way up until about 5 years ago. I think one great thing about the information age is that those who are endlessly seeking knowledge while also having spiritual potential will eventually become tapped out. There has come a point for me where information for information's sake is superfluous and does nothing to really resolve the kind of inner work that needs resolving. I see a lot of modern people dishing out facts without experience or wisdom to back it up, yet they state what they know with such authority. It's somewhat problematic.
It's not good to be so caught up in the intellect. The shortcomings of a dominantly intellectual consciousness involve the failure to clearly distinguish the difference between symbols and what they represent. Reason does not in of itself provide a guide to truth. It produces massive amounts of information and documentation, but lacks the capability to resolve discrepancies in data and conclusions. Reason itself, paradoxically, is the major block to reaching higher levels of consciousness. My concern for the current age of knowledge is that first hand experience is being overlooked and people are forgetting to go inside themselves because their reason is telling them that they've already got it figured out -- or worse, that mind is the be all and end all.
It's not good to be so caught up in the intellect. The shortcomings of a dominantly intellectual consciousness involve the failure to clearly distinguish the difference between symbols and what they represent. Reason does not in of itself provide a guide to truth. It produces massive amounts of information and documentation, but lacks the capability to resolve discrepancies in data and conclusions. Reason itself, paradoxically, is the major block to reaching higher levels of consciousness. My concern for the current age of knowledge is that first hand experience is being overlooked and people are forgetting to go inside themselves because their reason is telling them that they've already got it figured out -- or worse, that mind is the be all and end all.
Flickering
Bluelighter
I think there's some confusion about the idea meaning that we're here to accrue abstract, academic knowledge. This is of course very silly. Foreigner points out some of the major flaws in that line of thinking. It's the cliche of the university professor sitting in an ivory tower thinking he has it all sorted out.
The purpose of (this) life is not knowledge, but experience. Experience is enriching to the soul in much the way a physical organism grows from infancy to adulthood. There is no ultimate goal to experience. It is a means and an end unto itself. On the level of the spiritual, it is like air. You cannot see IT, but yet you cannot escape it either. It's everywhere, it's all you know. And it is a most fundamental form of sustenance.
I'd postulate - and I am only guessing - that the reason this physical lifetime is such a concentrated ride, the reason our bodies evolved into the world through natural selection to be part of this furious race of reproduction, predation and suffering, is because it makes learning absolutely essential. To keep up with it, you are COMPELLED to gather as much experience as possible. You can observe this in young children, who's most powerful, overriding instinct is to learn about everything. After all, they know nothing, but they are gradually learning the dangers of the world. This is why they ask so many questions, and this is why they play. Perhaps, then, the purpose behind our existence here is to be FORCED to explore as much as possible, so that when we step into whatever comes next, we understand the absolute beauty of the gift we've been given. If we'd been born in the spirit world, we would never know any different, so we would take it for granted. But a lifetime in the physical plane, where you can be hurt in so many ways and you're helpless to stop it, is something you'll never forget. When you look at it in this sense, the ultimate futility of life is not something to despair over, but is in fact a thing to celebrate. Look forward to your own death, but learn as much as you can while you're here. And if you feel you're missing the opportunity, don't worry, because you can't stop learning any more than you can stop breathing.
Perhaps - and I'm really going out on a limb here - this is the reason we 'reincarnate'. To truly understand and appreciate the beauty of total liberation, you need to experience its absence, and it needs to be totally, absolutely real. The physical world, then, is just a shadow, a contrast over the real one. It's the domain of death and politics, wherein energy feeds off energy, life feeds off life. And this dynamic just so happens to be the perfect grounds for the ultimate form of self-discovery.
The purpose of (this) life is not knowledge, but experience. Experience is enriching to the soul in much the way a physical organism grows from infancy to adulthood. There is no ultimate goal to experience. It is a means and an end unto itself. On the level of the spiritual, it is like air. You cannot see IT, but yet you cannot escape it either. It's everywhere, it's all you know. And it is a most fundamental form of sustenance.
I'd postulate - and I am only guessing - that the reason this physical lifetime is such a concentrated ride, the reason our bodies evolved into the world through natural selection to be part of this furious race of reproduction, predation and suffering, is because it makes learning absolutely essential. To keep up with it, you are COMPELLED to gather as much experience as possible. You can observe this in young children, who's most powerful, overriding instinct is to learn about everything. After all, they know nothing, but they are gradually learning the dangers of the world. This is why they ask so many questions, and this is why they play. Perhaps, then, the purpose behind our existence here is to be FORCED to explore as much as possible, so that when we step into whatever comes next, we understand the absolute beauty of the gift we've been given. If we'd been born in the spirit world, we would never know any different, so we would take it for granted. But a lifetime in the physical plane, where you can be hurt in so many ways and you're helpless to stop it, is something you'll never forget. When you look at it in this sense, the ultimate futility of life is not something to despair over, but is in fact a thing to celebrate. Look forward to your own death, but learn as much as you can while you're here. And if you feel you're missing the opportunity, don't worry, because you can't stop learning any more than you can stop breathing.
Perhaps - and I'm really going out on a limb here - this is the reason we 'reincarnate'. To truly understand and appreciate the beauty of total liberation, you need to experience its absence, and it needs to be totally, absolutely real. The physical world, then, is just a shadow, a contrast over the real one. It's the domain of death and politics, wherein energy feeds off energy, life feeds off life. And this dynamic just so happens to be the perfect grounds for the ultimate form of self-discovery.
swilow
Bluelight Crew
That's a great reply flickering.
Though it seems more likely that there is no objective purpose behind existence thus freeing us to do entirely whatever we choose.
Though it seems more likely that there is no objective purpose behind existence thus freeing us to do entirely whatever we choose.
Flickering
Bluelighter
I suppose it's more a question of function than of purpose. Why does your heart beat? From the angle of the workings of the body: so it can pump blood through your veins. From a purely material point of view: because it receives electrical signals through nerves that cause it to pump. Similarly, if we ask what the function of human life is in a spiritual sense, it's to give us a very particular experience. But any meaning you take out of that is of course your own.
swilow
Bluelight Crew
Purpose of life is to live. Only that. Everything else is up to you...
I think it's because humans really have no idea what is going on here, and we're so good at our game playing and projections that we identify with that far more easily than actually trying to solve the riddle of existence. Knowledge/Information is like an addiction in that it doesn't ever really fulfill or lead you any place, with the exception that some knowledge can be applied practically to reveal the nature of who you are (esoteric knowledge, philosophical knowledge etc).
Knowledge in 21st century Western cultures keeps people satiated from the fear of their own mortality, death, and what is really going on here. It's easier to swallow the idea you're a hairless monkey man than it is to actually go within and see what you can find.. easier to just believe what someone else said, someone in authority or a respected institution, than it is to go prove for yourself.