The Meaning of Life

Many people are wondering why they are here. What is the purpose of their life? To fully understand this question we must also understand karma and reincarnation better. If you do not believe in karma and reincarnation stop reading this as it will be a waste of your time. To the millions of people who are somewhat familiar with the Law of Karma, that knowledge can be a basis of further understanding life’s mysteries and even get a glimpse of the meaning of life.

Life as a whole is a lesson. What the lesson on hand is not apparent because most of us are unaware of past lives and deeds. Our lives are only important in the way we interact and affect the lives of others. A good honorable life is filled with self-sacrifice and giving. Lacking these attributes gives a glimpse of certain shortcomings of the beholder. Most of us have lived thousands of lives, we have been black, white, Asian, men, woman.

We have been murderers and spectators of murder. Our evolutionary progress in the spiritual reams takes us through time and space, incarnating from body to body with some short interludes on the subtle plane. The ultimate purpose is to stop the cycle of the robotic repetition of the same mistakes and fall of the wheel of karma. This is the Buddhist terminology of Enlightenment.

Karma is life’s “cosmic bank account”. We accumulate good and bad karma with every deed and thought. Our karmic balance predetermines the condition we incarnate into. Be it our economic status, parents, race or environment, what we are born into is all set even before we were conceived, and… is choreographed to perfection.

Dharma is the all encompassing path of achievement that suits us for this incarnation. This is what we are to do in this life. However, get this, we are free to turn away and choose other purposes and vocations.

The storehouse of heaven is filled with unfulfilled prophecies because we always have the freedom to choose! The catch is fulfilling your Dharma will make you happy. Joseph Campbell knew this and advised all to “follow your bliss”. If you, for some reason are not following your bliss, you will eventually have to as you are prolonging the inevitable. In the next life you will face the same set of conditions as in the one where you went astray. In a sense, you can push the pause button on your own progress, however the next time; life’s lesson will be harder than the first.

Following our Dharma will lead us to life lessons and situations that we are to work out; hence we are fulfilling our purpose. Whether we pass the tests given to us is a whole different story.

This cyclical nature of succession of lives is very much in line with the cyclical nature of time, seasons and lower forms of biological life.  We see flowers bloom, whither away and bloom again. There is no reason to think that our path is any different.

As one wise old lady (HPB) once wrote;

“The LAW for the birth, growth and decay of everything in cosmos, from the sun to the glow-worm in the grass is ONE. It is an everlasting work of perfection with every new appearance, but the Substance-Matter and Forces are all one and the same.

Death and Dying

My friends have a small boy, aged 6. When his grandfather died his parents chose not to tell him what had happened. Somehow the old man’s death was shunned. It was not something they talked about and remained a mystery surrounded with scary images of the unknown.  Sadly, this is how we approach the idea of death in the West. The little boy kept asking about “Tata” and he never got any real answers. He must have missed the old guy, I know I did. I think an explanation would have been proper, especially to celebrate the grandfathers passing.

I made sure I explained to my daughter about death when it was appropriate.  Kids should learn and know this as early as possible. There is no death in the sense we perceive it in the West and it should not be shunned or tabooed as a subject. In the East when a child is born they cry and feel sorry for him or her. We in the West treat this subject in back-asswards fashion as usual.

My daughter’s cat vanished and she is in denial about it, she is an 8-year old. Upon searching I found the cat dead and I buried her. Later, I even cried about the cat but I never revealed the truth to my daughter either. The reason why is not important. She is happier that she believes that she ran off with a Tom cat. But what is death? In my worldview the spirit never dies! Just pretending that the cat ran off was more comforting for my daughter than the nothingness of Death. Many people mistakenly think of death as nothingness, non-existence. Some people even dread death as religion taught them about punishment and eternal torment in Hell.  But is death really like that? My point is, that what I told my daughter obviously had not sunk in. She still perceives death as non-existence. Well, she is a child, what can I expect? Missing people and animals that passed on is a natural feeling, but fearing ones own death is not natural and it is not wholesome.

The reality is that people in the western world walk around with an insurmountable weight on their shoulders, namely that of death. As soon as we are born into this world we are dying.  Kids should know that death and birth are a transition like sleeping and waking. In fact the cycle of life repeats itself in a macro-sense as well in the micro-sense. But those who remain in ignorance are doomed to be kept there. Our materialistic and nihilistic consumer society needs this fear and ignorance. As long as we are in anxiety we are buying stuff, if not with cash, then with credit.

We live in an insane, selfish, greedy world today where all needs must be instantly satisfied and all personal responsibilities put off.

Imagine how the world would change if people would realize the merit of karma and reincarnation and would not fear and dread death as much.  Where do you think this stress and anxiety would be coming from then? People feel depressed out of control and helplessness. It is from ignorance in understanding death and dying. We are overmedicated and anxious, when we should be aware and knowing that we actually are in control. Our daily acts and deeds will determine our next life as our current life is derived from our past lives and deeds. There is nobody out to get us but everything in the Universe is in constant action-reaction and the akashic records are kept in perfect tune. Everything works perfectly in harmony and we should never be afraid to die. Fear is nothing but the ill use of our imagination.