The Meaning of Life / Ecclesiastes.

[Dan.Linehan]

I read some Ecclesiastes tonight and it brought some things together for me. Here's a link for anyone interested in a quick read; don't worry too much, this book is quite different than the rest of the Bible.

Bible (King James)/Ecclesiastes - Wikisource

I am blown away by the writing in this book. It all seems so.. true. And honest. Genuine even. Not exactly what I'm used to from religious doctrine.

The book basically calls the whole of Human existence completely useless. It attempts to examine how to live when no action we take can have any lasting positive impact. As it says, we're all just dust:

What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?

One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.

The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.

The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.

All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.

Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.

For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.

For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.

Some people might be a little horrified by this perspective. Or not, who knows. I find it therapeutic to deal with head on. Nothing else is honest. Not really.

When I first found Steve's site over two years ago it was by doing a random (?) Google search for "The Meaning of Life."

I thought this analysis of his was nothing short of brilliant: concise, logical, deductive. And I strongly agreed with Steve's final conclusion:

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I decided that the best possible life would have to lie within the realm of cooperating with evolution rather than working against it. So for me this implies two things: 1) Working to evolve myself as an individual to the highest degree possible, and 2) Working to help life itself evolve to the highest degree possible. It turns out these goals are highly compatible, since there’s a positive feedback loop between evolving yourself and evolving your environment.

Evolve. It all made sense. I set out to implement that idea in my own life. I'm intrigued by your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.


But over the last two years and some roadblocks, I've came to realize that the implementation of this relies very strongly on two very subjective definitions:

• How one defines "Evolution"
• How one defines "Environment"

Sometimes I read things that just make me want to cry with frustration:

Originally Posted by The Food Revolution

• Increase in overall pesticide use since 1945: 3,300%
• Increase in overall crop losses due to insects since 1945: 20%
  
  
• Increase in the amount of pesticides applied per acre to corn since 1945: 100,000%
• Increase in corn crop losses since 1945: 400%

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

About half of the mature tropical rainforests, between 750 to 800 million hectares of the original 1.5 to 1.6 billion hectares that once graced the planet have already been felled. The devastation is already acute in South East Asia, the second of the world's great biodiversity hot spots. Most of what remains is in the Amazon basin, where the Amazon rainforest covered more than 600 million hectares, an area nearly two thirds the size of the United States. The forests are being destroyed at an ever-quickening pace. Unless significant measures are taken on a world-wide basis to preserve them, by 2030 there will only be 10% remaining with another 10% in a degraded condition. 80% will have been lost and with them the natural diversity they contain will pass away forever.

Is this evolution?

Originally Posted by The Food Revolution

• Number of people who will starve to death this year: 20,000,000
• Number of people who could be adequately fed if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%: 100,000,000

Are these 20,000,000 people part of our environment?

According to the People's Republic of China's own evaluation, two-thirds of the 338 cities for which air-quality data are available are considered polluted-- two-thirds of them moderately or severely so. Respiratory and heart diseases related to air pollution are the leading cause of death in China. Acid rain falls on 30% of the country. China's environmental laws are among the strictest in the world, but enforcing these laws has been difficult in China. The World Health Organization has found that about 750,000 people die prematurely each year from respiratory problems in China

What about these people in China? The kids growing up sorting e-waste? We buy products from them, right?

So our they part of our environment?


And have we really evolved?

Have our ideas of evolution proven to be ethical? Are they effective? Are they net-positive?

Do our basic societal functions contribute to suffering? Or are they win-win for everyone involved?

Is it possible to be truly free? Is purchasing power higher than it used to be for the average American? Is it higher worldwide?

What happened to living off the land? Is it a basic right for everyone? Is it legal?

Are we more connected to each other? Or less? What legacy are we leaving behind? How are we taking care of the poorest citizens of our world community? Is our "evolution" helping them?

If the meaning of life is "to help life evolve," what's the best way to do that in a positive way in this day and age?

Or are we already helping life evolve no matter what, and any destruction and pollution that we create acts as a catalyst for natural selection at its finest?

What do you guys think?

[Old Soul]

I've always thought of ecclesiastes as a big huge mish mash of all the contradictions and ponderings of man....

good post... never delved into it as you have

[robertanthony]

Re - Environment

Dan there was one thing that I noticed about this site and that no one showed any interest in a site i mentioned called the hunger site which buys food for the hungry - the hunger site generates income in the same way as this one. It looks like some people looked at the hunger site and thought I dont care I want to get rich by manifesting my intentions and applying the laws of attraction to me me me so that I can make more money while they die.

People are given options to improve their environment yet ignore that option. At the National Wellness Institute there are a number of people working on this and you can hear them on podcast. From what I have heard that the national wellness institute is that society id becoming unwell/ sick uncivilized. That the panet and human relations are becoming damaged in the quest to have more and more stuff to prove that they are decent human beings worthy of respect.

It's only when Al Gore brings out a video that people take any notice. New Taxes are being brought into place to control the wreckless.







Options for buy food for the hungry are at the www.hungersite.com

[theknightwhosaysni-NI]

The Ecclesiastes text you quoted is very true. But incomplete in term of realization.

We came here with nothing, and we will leave this place with nothing.
Therefore everything people strive for in life, like cars, possessions, skills, pleasures, a good social status and a partner that is conform to our standards...all the fruit of the work, the labour the text is referring to, all that is unimportant, this is vanity, and we will leave the world without any of those things.
This is very important to make this realization, because, as Eckhart Tolle would say, we are very close to enlightenement once we have realised that.
What is important is what we are within. We ARE cousnciousness, we are perfect already, right now. So there is no need to strive for all those material things, those skills we want to have, those accomplishments. There is even no need to seek enlightenment. We just have to realize what we ARE, NOW.

The polution on earth is just a reflection of the pollution that our minds represent for our consciousness. Your mind is taking control of you. Don't judge others with your mind, as they are actually part of the real you.

[Akashic_Librarian]

Whilst it does seem to have a grain of truth. It seems very airy fairy and dodging the meaning.

Style over substance.

[John Murdoch]

YouTube - ~Abraham-Hicks~ The Meaning of Life

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by robertanthony

People are given options to improve their environment yet ignore that option. At the National Wellness Institute there are a number of people working on this and you can hear them on podcast.

Its a shame that these organizations don't receive more publicity. In my opinion, the responsibility falls on our media who constantly ignore crucial environmental stories.

Originally Posted by theknightwhosaysni-NI

The Ecclesiastes text you quoted is very true. But incomplete in term of realization.

We came here with nothing, and we will leave this place with nothing.
Therefore everything people strive for in life, like cars, possessions, skills, pleasures, a good social status and a partner that is conform to our standards...all the fruit of the work, the labour the text is referring to, all that is unimportant, this is vanity, and we will leave the world without any of those things.
This is very important to make this realization, because, as Eckhart Tolle would say, we are very close to enlightenement once we have realised that.
What is important is what we are within. We ARE consciousness, we are perfect already, right now. So there is no need to strive for all those material things, those skills we want to have, those accomplishments. There is even no need to seek enlightenment. We just have to realize what we ARE, NOW.

The pollution on earth is just a reflection of the pollution that our minds represent for our consciousness. Your mind is taking control of you. Don't judge others with your mind, as they are actually part of the real you.

I agree with the first part, that we came here with nothing, and leave with nothing. I don't agree with the idea that we are all perfect NOW though.

I hear that tossed around a lot. We're all PERFECT NOW. Everything is as its MEANT TO BE.

Tens of millions die annually from starvation and preventable disease.

Imagine how much suffering that is. How you would feel if you starved to death, multiplied by 20 million. My god..

One billion live in abject poverty, to the point of malnourishment. Hundreds of millions are in held in modern day slavery, paying fictitious debts with forced labor.

How is all of that perfect?

Originally Posted by Akashic_Librarian

Whilst it does seem to have a grain of truth. It seems very airy fairy and dodging the meaning.

The book says that whatever labor we do here, whatever we accomplish, ceases to hold any meaning after death, and calls life useless.

I fail to see how that is "airy fairy" or "dodging." Seems just the opposite to me.

Originally Posted by John Murdoch

YouTube - ~Abraham-Hicks~ The Meaning of Life

I love Abraham and tend to find a lot of truth in their work. Thanks for the link. Here's a partial transcript:

Originally Posted by Abraham

What is the purpose of life? It is joy.
What is the reason for life? It is joy.
What is the basis of life? It is freedom.
What is the result of life? It is expansion.

What is the reason that you came forth into this physical experience? You wanted more. You wanted more exposure to more opportunity to have more feelings.

So, the meaning of life, it sounds strange to say it, but the meaning of life is life. It is to feel life pouring through you.
To feel the exhilaration of a new idea coming to fruition.

So, the meaning of life and the reason for life is for the thrill of life.

So the meaning of life is just to live? Hmmm.

I guess that's fair. But what's the best way to live then? Go skydiving every day for the thrill of it?

[ixmatus]

Go skydiving every day for the thrill of it?

**** yeah! or do some of this: solo free climbing

Or maybe climb to the top of a mountain in the middle of a blizzard with a snowboard on your back? (my personal idea of fun)

Outerspace and extraterrestrial colonies would do some good, give the Earth a break and allow it to recuperate (no snowboarding on the Moon though, maybe on Mars!), living like that would also force the inhabitants to recycle everything. Water, metals, plastics, &c. which would develop an established industry of recycling before expelling - so new materials would be used efficiently and with a purpose.

I am sure a Mars suite rock climbing club would be quite popular... Space diving would be pretty trippy (instead of the danger of hitting the ground, it would be floating away, or maybe both if you include atmospheric reentry).

Meanwhile we could setup established tourism industries on Earth that would help pay for reclamation and waste removal - controlled tourism, not destructive tourism.

Funny thing is, we have the technology and the ability to start doing all of this - we just need the commitment. To get all world wide consumers interested in moving to a Moon base, a Mars base, or even a Space Station like they get interested in the newest iPod would drive it pretty strong.