What is the answer to life?

Question

The biggest question in the world and very few think they know it. What do you think it is?

Answer 1

The answer to life is found in Jesus, John 10:10, I've come that they might have life and have it to the full. My paraphrase. Life is meant to be enjoyed, but so many people mope around as if they have the burden of the world on their shoulders. It doesn't have to be that way. There are many people on this site who ridicule Christianity, but if it works don't knock, try it.`

Answer 2

The search itself is the trap. You are already what you are seeking. You think there is something to attain or to get. You have never been anything other than that, and never could be. We hear that, but how many of us really take a good look at it and stick with it, hang onto it? What do we do? 'That is not good enough!' We will race away and look at somebody else. We will go to somebody else, hear somebody else, read another book or do this or do that, thinking we will get the answer somewhere else. But the only place the answer is, is with you. It is not with anybody else. You already are that. You can't be anything else other than that.

With the concept, with the words, we can only point at it. We can only point you to where to look. But it is something that cannot be grasped with a word, because the word is never the thing. Have a look. If that sense of presence wasn't there, if you weren't that, could there be consciousness or could there be mind or awareness or whatever you would like to divide it into? They say it is unborn. Unborn means not originated. There is no origin to it. It wasn't created. It had no beginning. So, you can't really say it is or is not. It is self-arising and ceaselessly arising. It is futile to try to clutch onto it or latch onto it with a concept or a word or an idea or a thought. But, basically, you can't get out of it.

You are total awareness, always and ever. Take the reflections in the mirror. It is total mirror. Have the reflections touched it or contaminated it in any way, though they might appear to? The mirror might appear to be full of reflections, but they haven't touched the mirror in any way. It is the same with that awareness. It is the same with the cloud over the sun. The sun is always there in its totality, no matter how thick the cloud is. You can never really say the sun is not there. After a while you know it is there, despite the thickness of the cloud, even though you are not seeing it. It is trying to grasp it with the mind, with a concept, that keeps you in the trap. Realize you don't have to. Bring it back to its simplicity always. It is non dual; it is one-without-a-second. Stay with it until that understanding is the norm.

Awareness is all there is. You can't say it comes from anywhere, because it is all that there is. We talk about non-duality. It is never born; it never dies. It is just unceasing. It is constantly and ever and all that there is. Yet, it is no thing that can be grasped in any way, shape or form. It has no beginning and no end, no time, no space. All those things appear in it. They are all things. And things can't grasp what to the thing is no thing. It can't grasp it. It is just like asking 'where does space come from?' when you ask 'where does awareness come from?' Can you find a centre to space? Can you find a circumference to space? Can you postulate anything outside of space? What would it be in? It must be in space! It is the same with awareness. It is everywhere. It is every 'when'. It is all times and all places.

That which you are, your true self, you love it, and whatever you do, you do for your own happiness. To find it, to know it, to cherish it is your basic urge. Be true to your own self, love your self absolutely. Do not pretend that you love others as yourself. Unless you have realized them as one with yourself, you cannot love them. Don't pretend to be what you are not, don't refuse to be what you are. Your love of others is the result of self-knowledge, not its cause. Without self-realization, no virtue is genuine. When you know beyond all doubting that the same life flows through all that is and you are that life, you will love all naturally and spontaneously. When you realize the depth and fullness of your love of yourself, you know that every living being and the entire universe are included in your affection. But when you look at anything as separate from you, you cannot love it for you are afraid of it. Alienation causes fear, and fear deepens alienation. It is a vicious circle. Only self-realization can break it.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

You can be presented any number of answers but what I think you really want to know is the "meaning" of life. What good would the answer to life be if you didn't know it's meaning?

Answer 5

"To live well, and take a good woman." Robert Plant, lead singer of Led Zeppelin. (Bobby didn't say WHERE he would take this "good woman." Given Led Zeppelin's legendary status as "mild barbarians," I would fear for this woman's safety...)

Love, Jack

PS to the "follow your heart, and do what's right" statement. That would be impossible for me. What's in my heart, and what's RIGHT are most often mutually exclusive... I should have been a member of Led Zeppelin, I suppose.

Answer 6

If life were a math problem then the answer would be how it ends. Therefore the answer to life is death. But then again, a math problem can have more then one answer...

Answer 7

life

Answer 8

Zero. It's neither positive or negative, and therefore it's the perfect balance of life.

Answer 9

the answer to life is to be happy,when ever you look back on what ever you did in the past, because i believe you only live once

Answer 10

Baby steps. Get up everyday, do what you can, be kind, be moral and keep on keepin' on. One tiny step at a time. Otherwise, it is overwhelming!