'Great' minds think alike
A few days ago, I was talking to one of my friends and she mentioned how if she were to die the next day, she would have no regrets; she felt like she'd experienced everything life had to offer already. What was remarkable though was that she expressed exactly the same feelings I've been feeling now for a few days.
We'd had a lot of discussions about religion in the past and it had been a constant source of turmoil for me - which path is right and which isn't? We had two mutual friends, one Hindu and one Muslim, both devout, both who deeply respected each other but believed that their religion was right. Deep down, they had to believe that the other was wrong. How can you reconcile the cycle of rebirth with the notion of heaven and hell? She once asked me why I was so concerned. Did it really matter as long as you did good? She didn't believe there was anything after death; this body is an empty shell and once we die, the energy that makes us function leaves our body and joins the Universe once again without any memory of what it had been in a previous lifetime.
I've been thinking a lot about that lately. A recent trip to the zoo seemed to scream out that evolution is real despite the claims that we were created from clay, custom-made by God Him/Herself. So why are humans more special than animals or plants? Why do we have souls and they don't? Why are we the focal point of the Universe? Why do we form such a big part of God's great scheme of things? I mean... heaven can not be heaven for me because I am human for my undying curiosity and if I have all my heart desires, I will get bored and if I don't get bored, then I'm not human anymore and if I'm not human anymore, then I won't really be who I am now and I'm not who I am, then why should I care now about what happens to me then? And karma and dharma, well, that makes more sense but I have no recollection of what or who I was in my past life so how am I supposed to evolve into a more enlightened being...
So what is there to my life? Doesn't seem like there's much of a higher meaning. Perhaps this is it! Perhaps everyone here on earth is here for one simple reason: their ancestors had the desire to live and to leave their seed on earth. Those who didn't perished. And if there is no higher meaning to my life, why bother? Why make ties with money and a career and a mortgage and children... why? I'm not suicidal but if I were to die tomorrow, what would change?
Perhaps I should become a sanyasi and move to Nepal somewhere deep in the heart of the Himalayas where I can live with the monks and renounce all things worldly... but then I'd have to be devoted to the One and I don't know if I have that devotion in me, at least right now. I don't know if I'm ready to make up my mind about what is right and what's not. Logic has this strange way of deserting you when it comes time to apply it in a real-world situation.
We ended the phonecall with the knowledge that we would most likely follow in the footsteps of our ancestors. There's no use fighting it. But if we were to perish before ensuring that our lineage will continue, we would be okay with that.
We'd had a lot of discussions about religion in the past and it had been a constant source of turmoil for me - which path is right and which isn't? We had two mutual friends, one Hindu and one Muslim, both devout, both who deeply respected each other but believed that their religion was right. Deep down, they had to believe that the other was wrong. How can you reconcile the cycle of rebirth with the notion of heaven and hell? She once asked me why I was so concerned. Did it really matter as long as you did good? She didn't believe there was anything after death; this body is an empty shell and once we die, the energy that makes us function leaves our body and joins the Universe once again without any memory of what it had been in a previous lifetime.
I've been thinking a lot about that lately. A recent trip to the zoo seemed to scream out that evolution is real despite the claims that we were created from clay, custom-made by God Him/Herself. So why are humans more special than animals or plants? Why do we have souls and they don't? Why are we the focal point of the Universe? Why do we form such a big part of God's great scheme of things? I mean... heaven can not be heaven for me because I am human for my undying curiosity and if I have all my heart desires, I will get bored and if I don't get bored, then I'm not human anymore and if I'm not human anymore, then I won't really be who I am now and I'm not who I am, then why should I care now about what happens to me then? And karma and dharma, well, that makes more sense but I have no recollection of what or who I was in my past life so how am I supposed to evolve into a more enlightened being...
So what is there to my life? Doesn't seem like there's much of a higher meaning. Perhaps this is it! Perhaps everyone here on earth is here for one simple reason: their ancestors had the desire to live and to leave their seed on earth. Those who didn't perished. And if there is no higher meaning to my life, why bother? Why make ties with money and a career and a mortgage and children... why? I'm not suicidal but if I were to die tomorrow, what would change?
Perhaps I should become a sanyasi and move to Nepal somewhere deep in the heart of the Himalayas where I can live with the monks and renounce all things worldly... but then I'd have to be devoted to the One and I don't know if I have that devotion in me, at least right now. I don't know if I'm ready to make up my mind about what is right and what's not. Logic has this strange way of deserting you when it comes time to apply it in a real-world situation.
We ended the phonecall with the knowledge that we would most likely follow in the footsteps of our ancestors. There's no use fighting it. But if we were to perish before ensuring that our lineage will continue, we would be okay with that.
posted by Moi at 1:12 a.m.
1 Comments:
I guess these are questions we'll continue to ask until we figure out a way to talk to the dead... that line about heaven is particularly interesting I think...if our idea of heaven is a place just like earth...where the questions of life and death and evolution are around...and there are still unfulfilled dreams and things to work for ... would you end up in a place just like earth? And if it were so would you even know that you had died and gone to heaven?
As for the meaning of life...I think it means soemthing different for each person... and we each live our lives(or try to) according to what we think its all about.
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