What is the Meaning of Life? 15 Real Answers from Real People
The life of man is an indication of what is beyond him and what determines the course of his thoughts, feelings and actions. Man’s life is meant for reaching the peak of perfection. Life is a great pilgrimage. Do not stray away. Awake, Arise and Purify! Live to learn and learn to live.
Will you not be lights in this darkness that is partially occupying over the world? Will you not make use of the supreme power Lord has blessed you with a shining light. Awaken the lamp within and let it radiate through your every thoughts, word and action. Thus, making this life a purposeful and a glorious ascent into the fullness of light where one becomes an enlightened being, an illumined being, shining with the light of spiritual consciousness.
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Some selected teachings from philosophers and saints are given below:
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Wisdom and Knowledge: Life purpose is to master and know everything, thus expanding your perception. Don’t forget to learn from your own and others’ mistakes. Always seek truth to lead your life to a meaningful future and goal.
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Philosophical Path: The meaning of life is to express compassion, to give and respect love. You should also work for justice to live in peace and in harmony with your natural environment. Always do good deeds to serve other soul. The circumstances of life are not set in stone. We are not all meant to live life through to old age. We have grown to perceive life as a full cycle with a certain number of years in between. If all of those years aren’t lived out it’s a tragedy.
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Spiritual Life: You have to find perfect love to achieve enlightenment and inner peace. Always glorify God to discover who you are. Life on the spiritual path will always resolve all problems that you faces, or to ignore them and attempt to fully continue life without them, or to detach yourself from all problems faced by you.
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Guru Mantra: A new-age guru preaches us that following God’s will is the true meaning for life. If you clearly understand where you want to be, you can make sure your actions each day bring you closer. Always examine your identity. Self-awareness is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence leading you to success in life. If you know yourself well, you can choose a path that is filled with happiness and contentment. Our purpose is not to magnify the gloom going on in the world. It’s to put life into perspective. We grow accustomed to the life in front of our eyes and forget the unseen worlds going on in the billions of people who exist with us in these very moments of time. We are bound to the people of this generation by the thread of time. We are all a team existing in this time period, meant for some greater life purpose that shall continue after we died.
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Erich Fromm View: Man makes his life meaningful by living productively, and by using his powers of love and reason to their fullest capacity. He said that there is only one possible, productive solution for the relationship of individualized man with the world. That is his active solidarity with all men and his spontaneous activity, love and work, which unite him again with the world, not by primary ties but as a free and independent. Powerful tendencies arise to escape from this kind of freedom into submission or some kind of relationship to man and the world which promises relief from uncertainty, even if it deprives the individual of his freedom.
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Abraham Maslow Philosophy: Life meaning is experienced by the self-actualized, growth-motivated person who delights in using his creative powers for their own sake, and who can affirm himself and simultaneously transcend himself through peak experiences. He also proposed that people who have reached self-actualization will sometimes experience a state he referred to as "transcendence”, in which they become aware of not only their own fullest potential, but the fullest potential of human beings at large.
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Rollo May Idea: Life meaning is experienced by a person centered in himself, who is able to live by his highest values, who knows his own intentionality, feels the power of his will to choose, and is able to love. Joy, rather than happiness, is the goal of life, for joy is the emotion which accompanies our fulfilling our natures as human beings. It is based on the experience of one’s identity as a being of worth and dignity. He also said that life comes from physical survival; but the good life comes from what we care about.
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Krishnamurti View: The world is experienced as most meaningful when through the knowledge of self gained through self-observation, man frees himself of the self and attains the state of passive awareness and self-forgetfulness which is love.
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Paul Tillich Philosophy: A man can choose to make his life meaningful by surrendering in faith and love to Jesus. By opening to Jesus and experiencing His acceptance and forgiveness, one experiences the joy and freedom of "new being" and the courage to be oneself.
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Abraham Heschel Teaching: A man experiences his life as a meaningful when he lives in God’s presence - not simply by encountering God in the world, but primarily by serving God in everyday life, infusing every moment with the spirit of God, and by dedicating himself to ends outside himself.
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Viktor Frankl Philosophy: Life meaning is experiencing by responding to the demands of the situation at hand, discovering and committing oneself to one’s own unique task in life, and by allowing oneself to experience or trust in an ultimate meaning - which one may or may not call God.
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Vivekananda Teaching: The goal of mankind is knowledge. This knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside, it is all inside. What we say a man “knows”, should be what he “discovers” or “unveils”. What man learns is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge. You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.
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Sivananda Commandments: Righteousness is the rule of life. Lead a virtuous life. Strictly adhere to Dharma. Human life is not human without virtues. Study the lives of saints and draw inspiration from them. Cultivate a melting heart, the giving hand, the kindly speech, the life of service, equal vision, and impartial attitude. Lead a regulated life. Take hold of each day as if it were the last day, and utilize every second in prayer, meditation and service. Let your life become a continuous sacrifice to God. Live in the present. Forget the past. Give up hopes of the future.
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Ravi Shankar Teaching: His aim is to foster a secularized, humanized, non-exclusive spirituality that will help people recognize the good in every human being and accept each other for who they are, allowing people to be nourished by human values. He also emphasized that religion is the banana skin and spirituality is the banana. The misery in the world is because we throw away the banana and are holding on to the skin.” Sri Ravi believes that all religions and traditions have a common value system, and these shared values have to reach every corner of the world in order to make it a better place for all.
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Osho Philosophy: In his teachings there is no place for any repentance. Whatever has happened is gone, now there is no need to waste time on it. Catch hold again of the thread of awareness. Slowly, slowly you will be able to be alert the whole day — an undercurrent of awareness in every act, in every movement, in everything that you are doing, or not doing. Something underneath will be continuously flowing. He preached that the greatest values in life are awareness, love, meditation and laughter. Osho also said that enlightenment is everyone’s natural state, but that one is distracted from realizing it — particularly by the human activity of thought, as well as by emotional ties to societal expectations, and consequent fears and inhibitions.
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