The Purpose of Life (Blog)

[mncz]

We all come here to learn and experience physical life in all its variety. The experience is the purpose in itself. Of course the scale of experiences varies wildly, but in the end that is the purpose: to experience, learn and evolve as spiritual beings through physical experiences.

[Steve Pavlina]

Originally Posted by Angela

Sure. You can experience all kinds of success in your life while misaligned with any of these principles. Look at Leona Helmsely! She didn't seem to be interested at all in alignment with either truth or love, and she was filthy stinkin' rich when she died. She left it all to her dog. Do you think she was in love with her life? I'm thinking probably not.

So the question is that given that she left all that earthly "success" behind, did it really benefit her after she died? Can her life really be considered a success against the backdrop of eternity? What did she learn that she might have taken with her?

[Rose of Cairo]

I'd like to know how to align myself with Truth, Love and Power, concretely. Is it only a matter of decision making, or is there more behind it? (like generating on an energetical level or whatever). When I make decisions in daily life I try to check whether this is aligned with my values or not. But being aligned with Truth, Love and Power still is a foggy concept for my mind, especially Power. Maybe that's because I don't know exactly what Steve means with these words? I'm very much looking forward to reading the book!

[Jack Christopher]

Full Post Here.

Originally Posted by Neutral

How would you retain your consciousness?

I'm not asking you to prove that you can, but what lead you to this belief, and how do you think this could work?

I believe that all quantities, have qualities associated with them. Qualities are, in principle, inaccessible through quantitative means. For example, brains have minds, but you can't tell that by looking at them.

This must be true of all matter.

How would consciousness come from inanimate matter? It makes no sense that consciousness wasn't inherent. All matter must be "conscious" in some kind of way. The tricky thing is defining the word.

This interesting post got lost in the mix.

Steve, how do you think "consciousness" is retained? And what do you mean by consciousness?

[Steve Pavlina]

Originally Posted by Rose of Cairo

I'd like to know how to align myself with Truth, Love and Power, concretely. Is it only a matter of decision making, or is there more behind it? (like generating on an energetical level or whatever). When I make decisions in daily life I try to check whether this is aligned with my values or not. But being aligned with Truth, Love and Power still is a foggy concept for my mind, especially Power. Maybe that's because I don't know exactly what Steve means with these words? I'm very much looking forward to reading the book!

It's actually a very practical process but unfortunately way too involved to explain in a forum post. That's one of the reasons I wrote a book about this topic instead of just trying to blog it. The whole second half of the book is about how to apply the principles to different parts of your life: habits, career, money, relationships, health, and spiritual development.

Applying this is actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Explaining how to apply it is much more complicated.

[Steve Pavlina]

Originally Posted by Jack Christopher

Full Post Here.

This interesting post got lost in the mix.

Steve, how do you think "consciousness" is retain? And what do you mean by consciousness?

This article covers that in detail:
Life After Death by Steve Pavlina

[Rose of Cairo]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

The whole second half of the book is about how to apply the principles to different parts of your life: habits, career, money, relationships, health, and spiritual development.

Wonnnderrrrrfullll Thank you, I get things better when there is something concrete to do about them. I'm very curious about the book.

[coLLege kid07]

Originally Posted by Angela

I'm not saying you *should* be in love with your life, or to align yourself with love, truth or power; I'm just saying that if you don't, one way or another you will find yourself stopped and ineffective. What you want and what you are committed to will be two entirely and conflicting forces, and you'll end up wondering what the hell happened -- why are you so unfulfilled and unsatisfied?

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I believe I agree with Angela. Yea I can still make a contribution and help some of the people I'm associated with..but at the end of the day I'm still unhappy. I'm committed to alot of things that I now see as the reason for my unhappiness...so if I just let these things go and didn't do anything about them, I think I would just drive myself crazy.

[Brendon Colby]

I doubt anyone who speaks with such certainty about anything, especially life. None of these ideas seem to resonate with me at all. I am deeply reminded of the dogma put forth by the motivational speaker character in the movie Donnie Darko. I believe his main philosophy was something like "life is a spectrum of either fear or love, you're aligned with one or the other" or something like that.

I found an illustrative quote to help me make my point. For those who haven't seen this movie, the student (Donnie) is asked by his teacher (Farmer - who has bought into this dogma completely) whether finding a wallet, keeping the cash and returning it would be aligned with "love" or "fear":

Donnie: Life isn't that simple. I mean who cares if Ling Ling returns the wallet and keeps the money? It has nothing to do with either fear or love.
Kitty Farmer: Fear and love are the deepest of human emotions.
Donnie: Okay. But you're not listening to me. There are other things that need to be taken into account here. Like the whole spectrum of human emotion. You can't just lump everything into these two categories and then just deny everything else!

I know the book will expand upon these ideas (truth, love, power) and I eagerly await it with an open mind, but I feel a lot like Donnie Darko right now.

[dalante]

This makes me think of the "How to cook brown rice?" post: it's going to drive a lot of traffic from Google! very smart.

[mncz]

Originally Posted by dalante

This makes me think of the "How to cook brown rice?" post: it's going to drive a lot of traffic from Google! very smart.

For some reason I think that all the people who have come here through google (that includes me ) and found something they could use in their lives, are very happy that they were able to find this site even without looking (that includes me ). So headlines that give a lot of traffic are great - because those who click on them get so much more than they bargained for!

[impaul99]

If we are to say that things like material possessions, your body, positions, and titles don't matter in the afterlife, how can we assume that things like "truth", "love" and "power" survive into the afterlife?

How do we know that being wise in this life translates into being wise in the afterlife? or something like courage?

For example, lets say that something like courage could be quantified on a scale of 1 to 1,000. Let's say that a fully "enlightened" person is at 1,000. Let's say that you start you life with a courage level of 200, and you make it one of your purpose(s) in life to raise your level of courage to level 300 prior to death because you assume that "Courage" is something you take into the afterlife. (or wisdom, or truth or whatever)

So now you're on your death bed, you're at level 300 of courage, you pass away. You go into the afterlife.

A second person doesn't follow that purpose. He starts at level 200 of courage as well. The second person just wants to be stinkin rich and to party all his life and get drunk and gamble and be a coward and then he finally dies in a car crash. He goes into the afterlife as well.

You both meet up and you say to him "Thank God I didn't waste my whole life on earthly possessions, I fulfilled a much more meaningful purpose and I actually got my courage level up to 300 so now I have much more courage than you... see my button on my shirt here? It says 'Courage 300'." The other person looks at his button and it says "Courage 200" on it. He looks around and sees none of his earthly possessions with him.... so he turns around and says "Dang! Hey God, can I get Courage 300 too?" and God turns to him and says "Sure man, no problem... heck, I'll give you 400 if you want..."

How do we know that doesn't happen either?

How do we know that ANY pursuit of "achieving something" is all just ego because we really take nothing into the afterlife?

We can try to label things as "worthy because we take them into the afterlife" and "unworthy because we lose them after we die" but how do we even know that we take anything into the afterlife?

What if the only purpose is what you can do to change Earth while you're here...once you go to the Afterlife everyone becomes exactly the same....level 1000 at everything...so the only thing that's "purposeful" is whatever we accomplished on earth before we left which the next generation of humans can benefit from.

And just to throw in one more wrench into it...how do we know that all of this and our idea of the afterlife is not just a lousy dream that disappears in the blink of an eye?

[tekomino]

Paul,

There is no afterlife, sorry. Argument for this is very simple and powerful.

Everything has its opposite. Opposites are there to define each other. There is no light without dark, there is no black color without white, there is no life without death. Afterlife assumes that you carry on after you die, you just shift shapes. But existence of life itself is defined by death, so you just can't continue living, existing forever. It has to end or it would not exist. Because there is existence there is non-existence.

On keeping your consciousness... Consciousness does not get improved over your life. There is nothing to improve. Consciousness just is. You can only align yourself with consciousness, be aware of it.

And IF, I stress if, underlining fabric of universe is consciousness, then it is single undefined entity (Tao?) that flows through everything. It does not need improvement, and you do not get to keep anything whatsoever after you die.

[theknightwhosaysni-NI]

Originally Posted by tekomino

Everything has its opposite. [...]there is no life without death.

Some people say the opposite of death is birth, not life itself.

[tekomino]

Originally Posted by theknightwhosaysni-NI

Some people say the opposite of death is birth, not life itself.

That does not even make sense. Think about it! I mean sense in the light of the argument that I presented. You are just battling semantics not the argument itself...

[Tigerlilly]

Originally Posted by songwriter

"Cabeza, corazón y cojones" Brains, heart and balls.

Sums up what you need to make the most of life rather nicely in my book as well. But that doesn't make it the purpose of life to have them, does it?

That'd be like saying to get the most out of something, you need soandso, so the purpose of that something is to gain soandso.

And then I tend to see it like this: Once I'm dead I have once again my full access to the knowledge that now lies hidden beyond the shroud of illusion that comes with physical life and the rules of the game. So I don't need to go hunting for truth down here, cause I'll know truth automatically once the shroud has been lifted.

I'll be once more that totally whole, knowing, perfect soul or energy entity I was before I choose to become wrapped up in a body on the physical plane. So how can the purpose of life be a hunt for truth, love and strength? That'd be like looking for what you have already on another plane right now.

If there's a purpose to life in the old-fashioned sense then to me it must be something that can only be achieved or done on the physical plane. So if you'd ask me right now what my purpose in being born was, I'd say it was to come to grips with being in a body and on a physical plane and all the challenges that come along with that, and to express what my soul loves and longs for on this plane, and thus adding to it in a creative way.

[dalante]

Originally Posted by mncz

For some reason I think that all the people who have come here through google (that includes me ) and found something they could use in their lives, are very happy that they were able to find this site even without looking (that includes me ). So headlines that give a lot of traffic are great - because those who click on them get so much more than they bargained for!

I agree. If you're proud about what you do, then you should market it as well as possible.

[coLLege kid07]

Originally Posted by tekomino

Paul,

There is no afterlife, sorry. Argument for this is very simple and powerful.

Everything has its opposite. Opposites are there to define each other. There is no light without dark, there is no black color without white, there is no life without death. Afterlife assumes that you carry on after you die, you just shift shapes. But existence of life itself is defined by death, so you just can't continue living, existing forever. It has to end or it would not exist. Because there is existence there is non-existence.

On keeping your consciousness... Consciousness does not get improved over your life. There is nothing to improve. Consciousness just is. You can only align yourself with consciousness, be aware of it.

And IF, I stress if, underlining fabric of universe is consciousness, then it is single undefined entity (Tao?) that flows through everything. It does not need improvement, and you do not get to keep anything whatsoever after you die.

You don't improve consciousness..you raise it. From personal experience I believe this is very much possible.

[tekomino]

Originally Posted by coLLege kid07

You don't improve consciousness..you raise it. From personal experience I believe this is very much possible.

You cannot "raise" consciousness. You cannot develop it. It is already whole with nothing to subtract or add.

You can only raise your alignment with consciousness, your awareness of it.

[Harjafic]

Steve, you wrote in an article that you almost chose to pursue AI, so I wonder if you think we will ever be able to make a conscious machine, a genereal artificial intelligence that will be aware of itself and be as intelligent as humans? Or do you think that a conscious machine and consciousness as you desribe it are mutually exclusive?

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

This article covers that in detail:
Life After Death by Steve Pavlina

Next book, "Personal Development for Smart People: Option 1 or Option 2, Which Is It Going to Be?"




So effective..

[Mr.Mustache]

Doesn't everyone see the same flaw in Steve's purpose of life? You don't need creative powers and you don't need to understand profound truths to experience unconditional love. Why don't we just cultivate unconditional love and let it guide us where it will? If you all really believe in unconditional love then you must believe that the ego is illusory and if the ego is illusory then doer-ship (free-will) is illusory. Only the ego thinks it needs to try and know or do things, this is not unconditional love.

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by tekomino

Paul,

There is no afterlife, sorry. Argument for this is very simple and powerful.

LOL. I love how you just make statements like that, like you could actually prove to me that the afterlife doesn't exist. People have been struggling with this issue for tens of thousands of years, but you somehow figured it out for sure?

How do you explain Erin Pavlina's "communications" with the other side for starters? Are you saying she's a fraud/liar out to screw us all over with her lies? Are her and Steve delusional? Are they criminal masterminds defrauding us all for "Adsense Clicks"? Just curious what your thinking is on that. And if you believe in such things, why are you participating on their site/forums and not reporting them to the police?

How do you know for sure there is no afterlife? Is that logically even ever provable?

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Mr.Mustache

Doesn't everyone see the same flaw in Steve's purpose of life? You don't need creative powers and you don't need to understand profound truths to experience unconditional love. Why don't we just cultivate unconditional love and let it guide us where it will? If you all really believe in unconditional love then you must believe that the ego is illusory and if the ego is illusory then doer-ship (free-will) is illusory. Only the ego thinks it needs to try and know or do things, this is not unconditional love.

Yes, I'm confused also.

Maybe we're looking at it the wrong way.

Maybe what Steve is trying to define is *a* purpose to life, but not *the* purpose of existance.

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by Steve's Blog Post

Power
3. Develop and express your creativity.

That's a very unusual definition of power - I'd have guessed power meant the ability to take action toward a goal you desire.

I guess now the question is what do you mean by creativity.

What is develop and express your creativity?

Do you mean coming up with new and innovative ways to accomplish their life's work?

[Love]

I like your using the term "empowerment," Akemi. I was kind of getting hung-up on power, because to me, it suggests dominating someone else, but empowerment, I like. It only deals with yourself.

[Love]

Originally Posted by impaul99

You both meet up and you say to him "Thank God I didn't waste my whole life on earthly possessions, I fulfilled a much more meaningful purpose and I actually got my courage level up to 300 so now I have much more courage than you... see my button on my shirt here? It says 'Courage 300'."

What if the only purpose is what you can do to change Earth while you're here...once you go to the Afterlife everyone becomes exactly the same....level 1000 at everything...

hehe

[Keith]

Originally Posted by seeker5

That's a very unusual definition of power - I'd have guessed power meant the ability to take action toward a goal you desire

Seconded. I was envisioning power as something more like personal responsibility.

[AMQ]

I'd like to share with you the Islamic perspective view (the most reasonable for me) of life:

- Life is a journey, starting from a certain point and ending at a certain
destination. It is a transitory stage, an introduction to the Eternal life in the Hereafter.

- In this journey man is a traveler and should do all the good he can (using his body, mind, soul or consciousness) and make himself fully prepared to move any time to Eternity.

- He should consider his life on this earth as a chance provided for him to make the best of it while he can, because when his time to leave comes he can never delay it for one second.

- He totally has the choice to do the good or the bad, and will be responsible for his choice in the life and the Hereafter life.

- Because life is so important as a means to an ultimate end, Islam has
laid down a complete system of regulations and principles to help man understand the life (not leave him live with confusion), and to show him how to live it, what to take and what to leave, what to do and what to shun, and so on.

- The one who understand and apply these regulations as they meant to be, will find the ultimate purpose of life, himself, universe, and everything comes to mind. He will enjoy the life and will build better life for others, he will live in peace with himself and others, and finally, will see the rewards of his actions in the Hereafter.

"Whoever works righteousness, man or woman and has Faith, verily, to him will We give a life that is good and pure, and We will bestow on such their reward according to the best of their actions" [The holy Qur'an].

- - -

It's very difficult for someone to live without knowing the purpose of life! he will keep asking questions, and even when he just ignore them, they will keep annoying him, from time to time a question will come up to the mind: why should I do ...? or why I shouldn't do ... ? he may find some answers just to shut up his inner voice that keep asking and wondering, he just want to fill his eagerness to know the truth because it's related to his existence, even when he managed to find such answers that satisfies his eagerness, he is still not sure whether the answer is true or not, because it's built on doubt, not a certain basis.

The first think people have to find is the TRUTH, after that they'll find LOVE and POWER accordingly. In other words, if someone managed to find the mere LOVE and POWER but not TRUTH, he is still considered to be lost. It's like a Lamborghini filled with fuel but the driver don't know where to go!

But when you find the TRUTH, you'll utilize all the (built-in) tools you have in order to find LOVE and POWER, i.e. you know where to go, even if you have only a bike - not Lamborghini!

People should find the TRUTH first, in order to find the true LOVE and POWER.

Steve, what do you think? I hope you correct me if i'm not!

[The Wise Turtle]

I'm curious, Steve, in what ways do other forms of life, such as amoebas, ants, and asparagus plants, do these things? What does "love" look like in a cabbage, for example?

Peace, Love, and Bicycles,
Turil