What is the meaning of life ?

Question

I'm asking in the Religion & Spirituality category but I'm waiting all kind of answers.

Answer 1

The philosophical question "What is the meaning of life?" means different things to different people. The vagueness of the query is inherent in the word "meaning", which opens the question to many interpretations, such as: "What is the origin of life?", "What is the nature of life (and of the universe in which we live)?", "What is the significance of life?", "What is valuable in life?", and "What is the purpose of, or in, (one's) life?". These questions have resulted in a wide range of competing answers and arguments, from scientific theories, to philosophical, theological, and spiritual explanations.

These questions are separate from the scientific issue of the boundary between things with life and inanimate objects.
Popular beliefs
"What is the meaning of life?" is a question many people ask themselves at some point during their lives, most in the context "What is the purpose of life?" Here are some of the many potential answers to this perplexing question. The responses are shown to overlap in many ways but may be grouped into the following categories:

Survival and temporal success
...to live every day like it is your last and to do your best at everything that comes before you
...to be always satisfied
...to live, go to school, work, and die
...to participate in natural human evolution, or to contribute to the gene pool of the human race
...to advance technological evolution, or to actively develop the future of intelligent life
...to compete or co-operate with others
...to destroy others who harm you, or to practice nonviolence and nonresistance
...to gain and exercise power
...to leave a legacy, such as a work of art or a book
...to eat
...to prepare for death
...to spend life in the pursuit of happiness, maybe not to obtain it, but to pursue it relentlessly.
...to produce offspring through sexual reproduction (alike to participating in evolution)
...to protect and preserve one's kin, clan, or tribe (akin to participating in evolution)
...to seek freedom, either physically, mentally or financially
...to observe the ultimate fate of humanity to the furthest possible extent
...to seek happiness and flourish, experience pleasure or celebrate
...to survive, including the pursuit of immortality through scientific means
...to attempt to have many sexual conquests (as in Arthur Schopenhauer's will to procreate)
...to find and take over all free space in this "game" called life
...to seek and find beauty
...to kill or be killed
...No point. Since having a point is a condition of living human consciousness. Animals do not need a point to live or exist. It is more of an affliction of consciousness that there are such things as points, a negative side to evolutionary development for lack of better words.

Wisdom and knowledge
...to master and know everything
...to be without questions, or to keep asking questions
...to expand one's perception of the world
...to explore, to expand beyond our frontiers
...to learn from one's own and others' mistakes
...to seek truth, knowledge, understanding, or wisdom
...to understand and be mindful of creation or the cosmos
...to lead the world towards a desired situation
...to satisfy the natural curiosity felt by humans about life

Ethical
...to express compassion
...to follow the "Golden Rule"
...to give and receive love
...to work for justice and freedom
...to live in peace with yourself and each other, and in harmony with our natural environment
...to protect humanity, or more generally the environment
...to serve others, or do good deeds

Religious and spiritual
...to find perfect love and a complete expression of one's humanness in a relationship with God
...to achieve a supernatural connection within the natural context
...to achieve enlightenment and inner peace
...to become like God, or divine
...to glorify God
...to experience personal justice (i.e. to be rewarded for goodness)
...to experience existence from an infinite number of perspectives in order to expand the consciousness of all there is (i.e. to seek objectivity)
...to be a filter of creation between heaven and hell
...to produce useful structure in the universe over and above consumption (see net creativity)
...to reach Heaven in the afterlife
...to seek and acquire virtue, to live a virtuous life
...to turn fear into joy at a constant rate achieving on literal and metaphorical levels: immortality, enlightenment, and atonement
...to understand and follow the "Word of God"
...to discover who you are
...to resolve all problems that one faces, or to ignore them and attempt to fully continue life without them, or to detach oneself from all problems faced

Philosophical
...to give life meaning
...to participate in the chain of events which has led from the creation of the universe until its possible end (either freely chosen or determined, this is a subject widely debated amongst philosophers)
...to know the meaning of life
...to achieve self-actualisation
...all possible meanings have some validity
...life in itself has no meaning, for its purpose is an opportunity to create that meaning, therefore:
...to die
...to simply live until one dies (there is no universal or celestial purpose)
...nature taking its course (the wheel of time keeps on turning)
...whatever you see you see, as in "projection makes perception"
...there is no purpose or meaning whatsoever
...life may actually not exist, or may be illusory )
...to contemplate "the meaning of the end of life"

Other
...to contribute to collective meaning ("we" or "us") without having individual meaning ("I" or "me")
...to find a purpose, a "reason" for living that hopefully raises the quality of one's experience of life, or even life in general
...to participate in the inevitable increase in entropy of the universe
...to make conformists' lives miserable
...to make life as difficult as possible for others (i.e. to compete)
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Answer 2

Yes, there is a meaning of life, and you can give it to your own personal life; if you are creative, your art can be the "meaning" of your life, if you are sick, taking care of your own self, can be the "meaning" you are looking for, if your are an artist, performing can be the "meaning" of your life, if you are a nature lover, traveling enjoying nature can be the "meaning", saving animals can be the "meaning", etc., here the question is not really what kind of meaning you can give to your life, but how can you use it and for what purpose. Doing all those things could bring you some satisfaction up to a level, but then what? So, the real meaning of life is to offer your whole existence to something worthy, some people offer their life to their own spouse, and then they get divorced, so, what I am getting to is, that no matter what you are, no matter what you do, no matter where you live, you have to find a bonafide guide, than can actually show you the real meaning of life. You can´t find it by yourself in the spiritual level, only in the material level, and even then there will be dissappointments. Therefore, looking for a master, a guru, a teacher is necessary, you can get all the opinions, from friends, family and so on, but none of them would be capable to give you the ultimate answer. Faith is needed, therefore, find your own path asking questions from a bonafide source. If we are talking spiritually, then we can deny the existence of the bonafide spiritual books, like the Bhagavad-Gita, the Coran, the Bible, etc., spirituality is within oneself, but it is not complete, we are parts and parcels of a whole, so the knowledge is not complete, you have to rely on a serious and mature knowledge, something that had been practiced, and applied through the centuries. Theories changed every so often, so, the guide to find the meaning of life, has to be something that has been proved, something absolute, the real truth. The real meaning of life to me is to offer everything you do to your Lord, without renouncing to your own tendencies, but dovetailing. If the morals of your life are based on a God´s conscience, then nothing can go wrong, we would not be killing babies in the womb, or there wouldn´t be any wars, and neither we be killing any living entities (like hunting), for the pleasure of the senses. Dharma a way of living, with the most deep understanding and respect for life.

Answer 3

Tough question.
Whoever has the final answer would be an enligthened person and he/she would tell you about his/her personal experience, but is there such a person? Maybe there is no meaning at all and it's all God or the Absolut or the Source's will, and HE is living this life trhoug us and we haven't realized it, then the only thing to do should be to become aware of who we really are.
Good luck in your search.

Answer 4

42

Answer 5

The meaning of life is that God loves us enough to give us a chance to be on this beautiful earth to praise him.

Read the book "The Purpose Driven Life"

It was a life changing book for me

Answer 6

whats the meaning of life?

that's a ****** stupid question. there is no meaning. i know its fun to argue and debate over what the meaning of life is.. but at the end of it there is no meaning..

soo.. i guess i agree with the whole "life is what you make it" thinggy. its all in the mind.. life has only a meaning if we give it meaning. so you can make up what ever meaning you want..

go nuts!!!1

Answer 7

To live your life to its fullest. to create yourself into the highest level of exhistance while at the same time being separate from nothing. To fill your heart with unconditional love and acceptance of one anothers differences. While at the same time having the abilty to grow yourself into that person you desire to become and bless those around you by your exhistance.

Answer 8

Life's Meaning is different for people. Only you can answer this question for you. Good Luck.

Answer 9

It seems a lot of people ask this question, as if it encompasses everything that is. It is important to also ask other questions: In addition to asking, "What is the meaning of Life, we should also ask,"What is the meaning of Love, what is the meaning of Joy, what is the meaning of Wisdom, what is the meaning of Power (i.e. strength), what is the meaning of Air, Water, Fire, Earth; what is the meaning of Eternity.

We ask,"What is the meaning of life", it seems, because without life, we wouldn't have anything else. But what good would life be, if we didn't have the strength (Power) to live it? What good would life be, if it did not last forever (eternal life)? What good would life be if we never experienced joy in that life? etc...........

Aren't we really asking something much greater,"What is meaning of this world and universe we live in? What is the meaning of existence and everything in it?" Hence, we arrive at the trappings and philosophy of existentialism.

I have found that, with this question, personification is helpful. Think of life as a person, an entity unto itself. We benefit from her, we enjoy life, but most of us know in our heart of hearts that we are not life itself. So why is it that if something goes wrong in our lives, we sometimes blame life? Why not blame death. Instead of saying,"LIfe s*cks and then you die." as the notorious saying goes, why not say, "Death s*cks and then you die." ?

Perhaps, in this world, it is better that Life remains a mystery. But if you should discover the "meaning of life", you should also remember a few things. Among these things is a saying,"If you cannot help them, please, do not hurt them." You should also consider the fact that, if you find the "meaning of life", it will not be the end of your questions, but only the beginning of another journey, another question."

THE ANSWER:
Now these are some real points to ponder!!!
Good Luck in finding the answer, perhaps there is more than one. Perhaps the answer to your question is to accept life and to realize that you are actually beginning to understand what life really is by merely asking this question, by realizing that there is more to life than we acknowledge and can ever really know. Isn't Life simply the opposite of death? Life is everyone's answer to death. We all say no to death and yes to Life. Anything we say from this point on, from this simple meaning, only adds to the meaning of Life and does not refute this simple meaning. LIfe as we know it is not "Eternal Life", Life ends and the end result is death. Supposedly, some say our life begins sometime after death. An end is only a beginning, right?

Let us continue on this path of discovering the meaning of life by saying,"Perhaps we can never truly know the meaning of life, but we can know many things about the process of life, and, contained in these many things IS the meaning of life." This is the power of deduction. We must be able to know the meaning of life, because we are alive, we have life. Since we have life, we should be able to find out what the meaning of life truly is, right?

To "know thyself" is also a very good answer. Not just to say," I know a lot of things about myself," but to also be able to say,"I know how others see me, I know who I am in the eyes of others," is a powerful tool in being able to know oneself. You may then say, " I know myself in relation to LIfe." Perhaps this sounds cryptic, if you do not already understand. Hopefully someday, you shall understand.

Again, good luck, I hope you find an answer to this question.

(LOL at the answer "42", from the movie, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. )

Answer 10

The meaning of life is to give it a meaning and the purpose is to enjoy it while you are alive...because this is all there is.

Answer 11

The purpose of life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.