Purpose of Life?
September 21, 2006 – 2:13 pmI should becomea full-time blogger methinks - so much to write!I have this list of things I want to write that keeps getting pushed to the next day and on and on..I am a procrastinator after all..
Anyways:
There’s a Pickled Politics thread today highlighting how Buddhism is apparently the USA’s fourth largest religion.
Browsing the net I found this on the Namgyal Monastery’s Institute for Buddhist Studies site and felt like reposting it:
The purpose of our life is to live happily and peacefully. We do not go to a store to purchase the idea that we want happiness and do not want suffering. The motivation that makes us willing to seek happiness and avoid suffering is innate. There are many simple things in our lives that indicate that the very purpose of our life is happiness. We are motivated to work for a living in order to ensure that we have happiness in our life. We may rest for two days after five days of a workweek. We take vacations and sometimes move from one place to another in the hope that our lives will be better. Some people are careful with diet and exercise as ways to achieve happiness. Even the little movements we make in order to get more comfortable stem from our innate desire for happiness. The success of our life is measured by our ability to live happily and die joyfully, not by mere accumulation of wealth, fame and possessions.”
11 Responses to “Purpose of Life?”
I just popped in to say hello, and was truly uplifted by the piece you’d quoted.
Thank you
chairwoman auntie
By chairwoman on Sep 22, 2006
The purpose of our life is to live happily and peacefully….I fully agree. Rest is based on faith. J. Krishna Moorthy taught to LIVE IN THE ETERNAL PRESENT which is a meeting point of YESTERDAY & TOMARROW. Sufi poet Omar Khayyam sang;
“Unborn Tomarrow;
Dead Yesterday;
Why Fret About Them;
If Today Be Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet “
By Ed Viswanathan on Sep 24, 2006
But you already are a full time blogger.
By Raja on Sep 26, 2006
Hi Sonia! Initially, I thought that you had written your comments to me via only email; it is only later that I had realized you had left comments on my earlier postings on my blog. Well, I want to thank you for reading and visiting my blogs. You were quite nice to leave your comments!
As far as your current post goes, I would say, “Two cheers for putting up such an inspirational message.” Keep smiling.
By Ek Umeed on Sep 27, 2006
Thanks for the comments Chairwoman and Ek Umeed! I have to say i’ve had a few people suggesting that seeking happiness is a very selfish thing to do - which I think isn’t necessarily the case. But it seems to be a commonly held view and i think responsible for a lot of people leading fulfilling lives as they’re afraid others will call them selfish etc. Too often that leads to resentment on their part.. and that is I think really insidious and never gets anyone anywhere. and also resentment i think affects people around you quite a bit.
Ah well. there’s no one ‘answer’ I guess. Cheers for the plug Leighton - I must get back to reading and writing more. IC - a full time blogger
You are quite funny sometimes.
Ed - thanks for reminding me about Krishnamurthy..good point. Interesting site you got there.
By sonia on Sep 29, 2006
The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues.
The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our Minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy Nature.
Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment.
Subject : In a fast society slow emotions become extinct.
Subject : A thinking mind cannot feel.
Subject : Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys the planet.
Subject : Environment can never be saved as long as cities exist.
Emotion is what we experience during gaps in our thinking.
If there are no gaps there is no emotion.
Today people are thinking all the time and are mistaking thought (words/ language) for emotion.
When society switches-over from physical work (agriculture) to mental work (scientific/ industrial/ financial/ fast visuals/ fast words ) the speed of thinking keeps on accelerating and the gaps between thinking go on decreasing.
There comes a time when there are almost no gaps.
People become incapable of experiencing/ tolerating gaps.
Emotion ends.
Man becomes machine.
A society that speeds up mentally experiences every mental slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A ( travelling )society that speeds up physically experiences every physical slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A society that entertains itself daily experiences every non-entertaining moment as Depression / Anxiety.
FAST VISUALS /WORDS MAKE SLOW EMOTIONS EXTINCT.
SCIENTIFIC /INDUSTRIAL /FINANCIAL THINKING DESTROYS EMOTIONAL CIRCUITS.
A FAST (LARGE) SOCIETY CANNOT FEEL PAIN / REMORSE / EMPATHY.
A FAST (LARGE) SOCIETY WILL ALWAYS BE CRUEL TO ANIMALS/ TREES/ AIR/ WATER/ LAND AND TO ITSELF.
To read the complete article please follow either of these links :
PlanetSave
EarthNewsWire
sushil_yadav
By sushil_yadav on Sep 30, 2006
I was very pleased to read it. I am very much interested in Buddhism and tryng to read as many books as possible. There is so much hate in this world that one wants to escape some where, but as you cannot escape from the world, the next best thing is to turn inwards as Buddisms teaches us and meditate.
By sunny on Oct 6, 2006
Babe, send me an email if you can shabbs@asianamag.com
By Shihab Salim on Oct 9, 2006
Dear Sonia
just to say thanks for your nice words on my blog. What can I say we all have these issued to deal with, and yet we stay quite content about life.
D
By Daniel on Nov 10, 2006
some people will call me insane but i find happiness in disorder , quite similar to the famous ” delight in disorder” . but it is true.
By sad on Dec 18, 2006