Week 2, Lesson 2: The Meaning of Life
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Erika.
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June 30, 2013 at 7:11 pm #11051
Stephanie Steiner
MemberAfter reviewing this week’s material, consider the following questions:
- Why, in studying nonviolence, is the meaning of life important?
- What evidence is there for life having a purpose? (Video 1)
- What is your own particular approach to fulfilling the meaning in your life? (Video 2)
- What is the relationship between life’s purpose and education? (Video 3)
- What is the connection between the meaning of life and the New Story?
Please choose a few of these questions and share your thoughts in the forum.
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July 6, 2013 at 1:15 pm #11124Erika
MemberHi, Paul here.
I think that partly the evidence for life having a purpose is to look at the people around us. From what I can see in the present day and in history, the people with purpose and meaning in their lives are the great achievers and spiritual leaders. They also seem to be the most joyous people. Conversely people without meaning, are more depressive, less effective and more destructive to themselves and others. We also see clues in perpetrator induced trauma and mirror neurons which link us empathetically with those around us.
I was taken with the fact that people would often find that war gives them meaning. We hear a lot of stories like this in England from WW2. I remember older relatives of mine talking of a shared sense of meaning and purpose. I hope that the coming environmental crisis may be able to bond people in the same way, so that the media and corporate distractions lose their power over people. But without a core of people who understand nonviolence, they may just be reduced to apathy and despair.
It also explains to me why there is such a fascination with war films and films that put people in extraordinary situations (aliens or mythic fantasy). We are desperate to see people who are given a sense of meaning because we instinctively see it lacking in our own lives.
I love the idea that the world’s dharma is Nonviolence. You can’t get simpler or clearer than that.
I am working on what my personal dharma is. I want to become more aware of the clues that the universe is offering. Suffering and joy. I want to remember that even my thoughts are part of the feedback mechanism. I have issues in my work too. I’m an actor so am often in a position of deciding whether a potential project is telling a destructive story or a helpful one with relation to the New Story. I have to balance this with paying the mortgage! Its tricky but I think the more I am aware of my personal dharma, the more suitable projects seem to present themselves.
So what is my definition of the meaning of life?
To Serve
To Learn
To Love
To fulfil my highest potential as a human being.
Is that too complicated?July 7, 2013 at 9:55 am #11125MemberWhy, in studying nonviolence, is the meaning of life important?
I think that having at least some understanding of the purpose of life, one’s own and others, can be of vital importance. In non-violence, the practitioner is asked to take upon suffering themselves when necessary rather than inflict it on others. However without a meaning in one’s life it seems that this voluntary suffering would be extremely difficult. After watching the first two videos for this week, I became interested and excited to reread Viktor Frankl’s “Mans Search for Meaning”. I read most of if a number of years ago and was really moved by it so I really welcomed this opportunity to reread this work again and I am very happy I did. One of the numerous things I got out of it was the value that can be gained by suffering, particularly if there is a meaning seen behind it. Without that meaning the suffering can be unbearable and what can be gained by this opportunity can be overlooked or not taken advantage of. Thus to practice non-violence it would then seem that an understanding of where our actions and possible suffering fit in would seem vital. The meaning not only helps guide us but also provides that additional strength to bear and capitalize on difficult events we may face.
What evidence is there for life having a purpose?
One of the pieces of evidence that stuck out for a meaning to life was what Professor Nagler mentioned regarding how poorly people do when they do not have one. I remember from the video the experiment that was done with sick patients in which some had to take care of different forms of life; plants, birds, and puppies, and others were told to basically just worry about themselves and getting better. The ones that had that responsibility got better quicker than the ones that didn’t. I thought this was extremely compelling, not only of the evidence of a meaning of life but also the power and importance of selfless service and working for the welfare of others. It was interesting that the selfless action also resulted in a positive result of increased health. The person with the more self-centered action however not only didn’t benefit the life around him (the plant, bird, puppy) but even had a more detrimental effect on himself though this more self-focused action. Reflecting on this a little, I have certainly seen some comparable outcomes in my own experiences as well.
What is your own particular approach to fulfilling the meaning in your life?
In my own life one of the drives that helps give me meaning is the drive of self-perfection. Every day I am focused on improving spiritually in some way. The fact that we can always grow spiritually regardless of the situation has helped provide a meaning that I didn’t have before. Activities that I used to find dull and devoid of meaning look different than before which has increased the way I experience and react to them.
What is the relationship between life’s purpose and education?
Speaking of times where this wasn’t always the case, I can see some connection between life’s purpose and education. I remember in college, when partying and much more selfish goals were my objective, the pointlessness and despair I felt when thinking about my path. I was in school getting my business degree in marketing/management and can still remember the dismal feeling of thinking my life may be dedicated to advertising a toothpaste. This seemed to be really uninspiring to me and now I can connect better this feeling and some of my negative actions at the time. I mention this because I think having an education system that is not in tune with life’s purpose is one that will likely lead to a vacuum that will often be filled negatively (as mentioned by Frankl). So I think that having an education system in synch with life’s purpose is essential.
July 7, 2013 at 3:29 pm #11127MemberI find it very interesting that during this week, when I have not had as much opportunity to do my “homework” as I did last week, that I have been immersed in this week’s lesson (the meaning of life) by the events that are taking place in my own life. Nothing like learning the lesson or being confronted with the question by your own life events!
I’ve had ample opportunity this week to consider the lessons of The New Story…our connectedness with all of life…and how that gives meaning to my own life. My step-father has been laying bed ridden in a hospital in Missouri. And my only brother has flown there from his home in Vermont to be with him and take care of his affairs, since my dad will probably not recover from his illness. I have been very conscious of the geographical separation I am experiencing from my family this week and have found myself wondering what possible meaning the activities that fill my days could have when I am not there supporting both my dad and my brother. I could certainly get lost in the everyday detail of my life, unaware of the connection of heart and mind that runs deep within me and those two men over a thousand miles from here. But, you know, I do accept what Rumi wrote about in his poem, that the meaning of life includes a rising to greater Consciousness within each of us (my interpretation). I understand that rise to greater Consciousness in myself as being my own deepening awareness that I am not a separate entity, unaffected by what happens to others whether they are related to me or not. In this case, however, it is very clear that I am deeply affected by what is going on in that hospital room as well as in our family home where my brother is going through my parents things alone…sorting, re-homing and tossing personal items. I’ve done that myself…alone…and know what a lonely and emotional task that can be.
So, I think to directly answer at least one question from this week’s lesson, my personal approach to the meaning of life is to strive for a more complete and continuous awareness of the unitive nature of life, all Life. What happens to you, happens to me. When you are complete or suffering, I am complete or suffering. I am not only aware of this this week, but I am truly feeling it in my heart, in my gut and in my spirit.
July 7, 2013 at 8:27 pm #11130MemberThank you all so much for these immense sharings.
Jean, my heart goes out to you and your family in this difficult time. Indeed, it certainly illustrates our interconnection – our interbeing, as Thich Nhat Hanh would say – when our loved ones are suffering. I love that you were able to do your own “home-work” very literally, by applying the week’s themes to what is going on in your life.
Gandhi’s autobiography, after all, was called My Experiments With Truth, and I definitely encourage each of you to see this course as an opportunity for your own “experiments with truth” (though I can see from your responses that you are all already doing this :). Our lives are really the laboratories for nonviolence. It is important to understand nonviolence at an intellectual level, but it is when we apply it that transformation happens.
All of your answer’s to the question of life’s purpose reminds me of another Gandhi quote, “My life is my message.” Paul, John and Jean, you all wrote very clear answers to the meaning of life (which, though different, are interrelated and all connected to nonviolence). Once we are clear on life’s larger purpose and our own purpose within it, we can keep asking ourselves if our actions and intentions are aligned with this purpose.
I find this can be particularly helpful when taking on new projects or when someone asks us to do something. Checking in to see if a new project or commitment aligns with our purpose helps us to direct our energy in positive and constructive ways.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!
And before I close, it wouldn’t be fair to not share with you my own purpose, which I believe, in short, is to cultivate peace. Here is the daily intention I set, which tries to encapsulate this purpose (nonviolence, of course, being the means, the foundation):
May I cultivate peace, love, joy, and compassion in all aspects of my life.
May my efforts come from love.
May my efforts be of service.
May my efforts be to the benefit of all beings.With love,
StephanieJuly 8, 2013 at 1:35 am #11132MemberThis week’s questions feel very personal, very intimate to me. I am surprised to sense some nervous energy in my body as I try to write about this (reminding myself that the sensations of nervous and excitement often feel the same in the body and are interpreted differently in the brain based on emotions and context). So maybe it’s more accurate to say that I’m shyly nervously excited.
As with several of the responses above, this week has felt very much like a living out of the homework question. My fiance and I are in fairly different places about whether or not to have kids, with a November wedding date, and I’ve been feeling a lot of pressure here – one of the reasons I have many doubts about the idea of having kids is that, although I think about it an almost ridiculous amount of the time, I haven’t the slightest idea what our purpose is here, what we’re doing here, why we’re here, why I’m here, why some souls are birthed into human bodies and why some leave so early – and this not knowing has been a major source of suffering in my life – and if I can’t figure it out for myself, why in the world would I bring another human being into the world who I couldn’t explain it to?
Rach thinks I’m being depressed and pessimistic – I disagree – I think it’s too important a question to leave un-addressed/un-resolved, and it’s one that our society runs from looking at constantly. We’ll take any form of business, any form of distraction, to busy our minds so we don’t have to look down that scary tunnel of “why” and either grapple with it; lose ourselves in despair at not finding an answer; find solace in the seeming solidity of an answer that frankly could be shaken to it’s core at pretty much any moment of true vulnerability; ecstasy in getting lost in the process of an eternal search; or somehow find some sort of peace in accepting the unknowability (yes, I work with the Serenity Prayer a lot). And I think that the collective avoidance of the uncertainty that we promote as a society is in and of itself a form of violence (I went clothing shopping with Rach at a mall today and you couldn’t walk 15 feet without a video screen to distract you).
To return back to how understanding meaning is connected to non-violence, I think that Chapter 1s observations about the violent behavior (either against themselves or against others) of those who have no faith in there being a meaning, a purpose, a why is essential and critical. If there is no why, then why continue? It’s a question I will admit to struggling a lot with personally through most of my life. Obviously I’ve decided that there are enough reasons to keep going without having figured out a reason yet, but often it’s not all that easy, and more a question of willpower to keep searching for a reason rather than faith that there is reason.
And then I read Rumi, or pray, or see the reality of the almost impossibility of a hummingbird hovering over a flower feeding and I feel connected to the Oneness, the sacredness, the meaningfulness if you will, of the Universe – and I find peace in that moment. So maybe it’s a question of extending and connecting those moments of peace, from and between each of us, the people and communities we are part of, and throughout the world that changes things. Hm… I like that idea.Blessings and peace, Sadie
July 8, 2013 at 11:07 am #11137MemberHi Everyone! I know I already posted my response to this week’s lesson on the meaning of life, but I just viewed for the first time a DVD called “Journey of the Universe: An Epic Story of Cosmic, Earth, and Human Transformation”. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it. And I would love to see a discussion of it emerge in this forum or perhaps an offshoot. How about it?
July 8, 2013 at 1:18 pm #11141MemberA brief p.s. to my post from last night –
1) Just ran across this quote online and thought it pretty perfectly encapsulated well, all of it “Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.” — Og Mandino
2) I’m looking at down the line hopefully doing graduate work at Pacifica and so have just gotten a bunch of their materials. In the description of their Psychotherapy as Spiritual Practice seminar, there is the following, “Problems such as despair, emptiness, hopelessness, and lack of connection to others are commonly expressed in psychotherapy, where the spiritual dimension of these difficulties can be discussed…. Even if one takes a position that life is tragic and has no particular meaning beyond whatever we choose to give it, this too is a philosophical perspective that can legitimately be addressed in psychotherapy. While one may think of emotional difficulties as the result of a self disorder, they are also important spiritual crisis, indicating the inextricable connection between one’s psychological make-up and one’s spirituality…. The discovery of meaning in suffering is of enormous help.” I think it’s true both on and individual and societal/cultural level and thought I’d add it into the discussion – because any discussion of non-violence is inherently layered and multi-disciplinary.
July 8, 2013 at 7:46 pm #11159MemberThe Meaning of Life
The topic of this week’s reflection has felt extremely intimate for me as well. I have been waiting for a moment of inspiration – that I might rise to the challenge of encapsulating something of the intensity with which I am experiencing this topic at the moment. Events in my personal life have brought about sudden changes to one of my primary relationships. This has given me a profound opportunity to see things with fresh eyes, and to consider very carefully what I am animated by.
Here are some of the many threads that came together for me. They all sit on the fringes of this big topic for me. 🙂
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As I write this, I am sitting on a small handmade wooden meditation stool. This stool was gifted to me by my mother. She is a painter and has painted it with images of Australian waratahs. The waratah is an amazing kind of flower (http://www.anbg.gov.au/images/photo_cd/630930713442/093_2.jpg)
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There is a traditional dreamtime story about the waratah. It tells the story of a small bird and its new family. The baby birds were hungry and food was scarce and hard to find. The parent birds looked long and hard in the area around their nest for food to feed the little ones – but none was to be found. One of the parents decided that they would have to adventure further than usual to find food to support their family. The small birds knew that this journey would be dangerous. They reminded the gathering parent not to go above the main canopy of the forest. Above the canopy there was a risk that you would become a meal for the Eagle.
The parent flew through the forest, desperately looking for food, but none could be found. Eventually, as a last resort and with the wellbeing of their family in mind, the gathering parent flew up and above the canopy hoping to get a better view and to get perspective over the forest. The little parent broke through the canopy and out into the light of the full sun. At that same moment they felt the ripping talons of the Eagle sink into their back.
A single drop of blood fell down through the canopy, through the undergrowth. It landed in the centre of a white waratah – turning it to a vivid blood red colour.
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As with all traditional stories, the interpretation of this one is not singular or obvious. As I write today, I am connecting very strongly with the sense of care and love that motivated the gathering parent to journey to find food. The reason my mother painted waratahs on my meditation stool is because this flower could represent love. Love motivated the gathering bird to reach dangerously above the canopy – without fear for its own life. In searching for food – the parent bird became food. Love also allowed the drop of blood to land on the waratah and to produce beauty. Love was there in the ever continuous moment of transformation.
And so I sit with love.
If I try to talk about meaning in this story I notice that it will change each time my attention moves between the different relationships that exist in the story.
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So far we have been talking about the meaning of life. This week I have been exploring how my reflections change when I shift to considering the meaning IN life.
Rather than WHAT is the meaning OF life, I am wondering about WHERE is the meaning IN life. This seemed to help me relax into the question. Observing that I have a strong sense of being alive, I considered where meaning comes from in life. The only answer that I have so far is, perhaps, that meaning is produced between things. Meaning results from relationships. Relationships themselves are not THE meaning, but they are the productive force of meaning.
This does not mean that things are separate to each other. It is like my left hand and my right hand. Their existence in relation to each other brings about certain meanings even though they are part of the same body.
Perhaps this could be applied to our understanding of nonviolence.
By shifting the focus to the meaning in life, as a product of relationships, we have a tangible and reasonable way in which we can approach change. We can focus on the qualities and effects of our relationships and we can develop the kinds of relationships that meet everyones needs.
I am not sure that I am explaining this very well. This is really speculative and difficult for me to articulate. I do not know how this fits into other theories, or even if it is something I totally agree with myself.
For me, today, talking about the meaning OF life seems to imply that the meaning is located outside of myself in this mysterious thing call life. Talking about the meaning IN life reminds me that meaning emerges through me and in my actions as I move through the world. The world comes into being through relationships.
I am reminded here of a quote from Khalil Gibran:
“Beauty is eternity, gazing in the mirror
But you are eternity, and you are the mirror!”
It is as if we are one of the hands of life. We are the eyes with which life not only perceives itself, but through we life also comes into being. A kind of infinite self producing spiral-circle. Like when you point two mirrors at each other!
In one of the videos, Michael spoke about the origins of the word ‘education’. This word also emphasises the notion that wisdom and knowledge come from within and that the process of educating brings out that which is already there.
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Cottleson Pie
by A. A. MilneCottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie,
A fly can’t bird, but a bird can fly.
Ask me a riddle and I reply
Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie.
Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie,
Why does a chicken? I don’t know why.
Ask me a riddle and I reply
Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie.
Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie,
A fish can’t whistle and neither can I.
Ask me a riddle and I reply
Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie.
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Can you imagine how awkward it would be if the chicken forgot (or never discovered) that it was a chicken?
Warning: I am about to use nouns as verbs! *gasp* *cringe* *bah!*
Question: If a chicken chickens, and a bird birds, then what does a human? Do humans human?
Lately I have had a strong sense of how I human. I am hesitant to say that I have a ‘why’ for the things that I do. I do not necessarily have words for them – maybe I never will.
All I know is that as dramatic change visited my life again this week, I felt secure even amidst the emotional chaos. Even in the moments of peak intensity I could sense this deep feeling of purpose in a kind of matter-of-fact way. It was quite an amazing experience to simultaneously experience grief for the sudden ending of a relationship, while also experiencing joy and calm equanimity.
It struck me that this moment of crisis might be giving me a model of how meaning and purpose might work when we are confronted with great violence. My sense of purpose felt like an anchor in those moments and saved me from washing away.
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Two final threads from this week (sorry for the long post!):
(This week a favorite astrologer reminded me of this quote!)
Summing up his experiment in living at Walden Pond, naturalist Henry David Thoreau said this: “I learned that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws will be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.”
There is also an old Quaker saying: ‘Proceed as Way opens!’
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Moving with a sense of purpose and meaning, we have the chance to move in the direction of the tides. To be carried by the river, rather than fighting it. I trust that the current runs in the direction of peace and that life will always find a way.
July 9, 2013 at 1:58 pm #11162MemberWhy, in studying nonviolence, is the meaning of life important?
My perspective on the meaning of life informs my attitude towards nonviolence. If I believe that life has no meaning, then a study of nonviolence is a waste of time. If I believe that the meaning of life is to seek pleasure, then a study of nonviolence is naive. If I believe that the meaning of life is to connect with others, to discover my spiritual nature, and to leave the world a better place, then a study of nonviolence is a valuable tool for developing my own sense of purpose.
What evidence is there for life having a purpose?
As humans, we do not function well when our lives lack purpose. We tend to feel depressed, anxious and irritable when we feel adrift without a goal in mind. I think this is a fairly universal phenomenon; we all experience a periods of existential angst when we question our lives and our places in this world. Often it is these periods of disquiet that drive people to seek something deeper and puts them in touch with the wisdom traditions, where they find enlightenment and meaning.
I am having trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that the majority people in our culture truly believe that life has no meaning whatsoever. If that were the case, I feel like we would be in much worse shape than we already are! I can imagine that things like money or pursuit of pleasure may be what gets a lot of people out of bed in the morning, and while these things are not meaningful to me they may still provide many individuals with goals and motivation. Our hope as a culture, in my opinion, rests upon the realization that these things are fleeting and superficial sources of meaning and that life can be much richer and fuller when we can look beyond having the nicest car on the block or the newest iPhone.
What is your own particular approach to fulfilling the meaning in your life?
I think that my spiritual practice has taken me to a place where I am content to find meaning in each moment. In my youth I was very ambitious, and my feeling of worth rose and fell with each achievement and failure. I thought my life’s meaning was dependent on making great contributions to my chosen field; the only problem was that I was completely miserable. I had to step out of the rat race and start a search for myself from scratch. Over time, I have come to feel great satisfaction is simply listening to my inner voice, doing what makes me happy rather than doing what I think will increase my success, building meaningful connections with the people around me, and looking for opportunities to contribute to the happiness and well-being of the people around me.July 9, 2013 at 2:31 pm #11163MemberIn reading through other responses, I am brought back to my first reaction to Stephanie’s email subject line: Welcome to Week 2 – The Meaning of Life!
Oh, is that all we’re going to work on this week?
In many ways, I think that the more I settle into the idea of connection and service as the meaning of Life and of my life, the more questions I have and the more unsettled I feel. What does it mean to serve? What does it look like to live out this mission? Where is the balance between serving our purpose and living in a world where that purpose is not always valued? How do I deal with others who see their purpose differently and maybe even at odds with mine?
For me, it all comes down to fear. In being able to just surrender to the moment, I feel things more deeply. I am more affected by the pain of others, by sadness and anger and brutality, and this is very uncomfortable. I am afraid of being swallowed by it. But at the same time, there has been a peace and contentment that I have found in accepting (to some very minuscule degree) that I have no control over many of life’s circumstances, and there is freedom in using the energy I used to use to avoid pain – unsuccessfully – to feel and connect and offer help when possible.
I am especially struck by Sadie’s feelings about parenthood, because I went through something similar before my children were born. I am feeling my mirror neurons firing away on your behalf! If you’re not terrified, you’re not taking it seriously enough! Life is so hard and scary, and becoming a parent has made it more so by many orders of magnitude! Yet , at the risk of sounding overly sentimental and cliched, my children have been my greatest teachers and motivators.
This, of course, is not to advocate for procreation 😉 but simply to say that for me, this is a particularly cogent example of a time when I was able to embrace my doubt and take a leap and I’m glad that I did.
July 10, 2013 at 12:28 pm #11173MemberI am a little behind and trying to catch up here! Beginning to digest this weeks material through writing feels like a relief. There is a lot of material here and I feel a little overwhelmed. I am going to only respond to a small fraction of it.:
It is true in my personal experience that meaning and purpose in my life both generates energy and creates happiness. It occurs to me that I create purpose, and then I feel an internal sense of importance, that it is imperative that I do my best at this task I believe is significant to the well being of the whole. I forget this purpose for a while and then I feel restless, like I need something to belong to, and then I find it again and my energy rises to meet it.
A sense of purpose is a tool for harnessing energy and moving it in a direction. But then, when not big or deep enough, it can also become an attachment that needs to be let go of in order enter directly into experience. We need purpose, but must hold purpose lightly to keep growing. I want to rest back into a larger purpose, larger than I can conceive of, or understand. So I guess, with my limits in perception, I would have to say that I believe my deepest purpose is to surrender to the mystery, to surrender to the purpose of creation. This tells me that the New Story must be big enough to take me beyond myself, it needs to point one in the direction of letting go. How does one do that? I feel my heart stir to this thought, and my solar plexus quicken, which tells me that this is a worthwhile direction.
Lately, I have been getting it how funny this is. That I create a purpose, and then live in it! And then I must let go of my story about it in order to go deeper into experience.
A purpose can be an idea, but it must call something forth in the body, to have meaning. Meaning seems to be that resonance that one feels in the body- a stir in the heart, a cellular tone- something internal comes into harmony. This is very real.
As Michael Nagler points out, it is highly unlikely that the universe is random. The fact that we have these bodies that, when we listen, tell us what is true and what is not quite on the mark. And that we come into resonance with one another when we trust that, proves to me that I am not some random collection of parts but an exquisitely designed truth and harmony seeking organism.July 11, 2013 at 8:54 am #11178MemberFrom an early age I’ve always had this knowing inside of me that I have a mission/a purpose to do while I am here in this life. Growing up and even recently, this has overwhelmed me as I have not been able to see clearly what this purpose is and what I am supposed to be doing in this lifetime. As I have started doing work within women’s empowerment and social entrepreneurship, I know that I am starting to get there. I also think that I discovered my core purpose a few years ago and that is to love abundantly and unconditionally. I feel like when I am able to tap into it (which is a lot) that I have an unending flow of love that comes into my heart from above—to the extent where I extend blessings of love whenever I remember, therefore, if you were in my head while I am driving or walking down the street, you’d hear lots of “I love yous” to passing ‘strangers’.
This week’s topic as most of you said is intimate in one aspect but in another so universal and powerful. I have noticed in my life that when I have been removed from my purpose and the meaning of life, that I have fallen into very self-destructive and dark periods. These periods during my adolescents are the darkness to which I found light, the left to which I found my right, the down to which I found my up. During this down period, life (my life specifically) had no meaning and no fulfillment to me, thus it was not something I valued nor treasured; ironically at the same time, I valued and love others so deeply. This experience had given me such insight into the role of the meaning and purpose of life in nonviolence.
The meaning of life is critical in providing purpose to one’s life. When lacking a true purpose, people fulfill their purpose with pseudo-meanings, typically consisting of means of violence and destruction. The evidence for life having purpose is simply this fact that without meaning we are essentially lost beings, looking for pseudo-highs to fulfill the parts of our soul that are lacking. The purpose for life having meaning as I have learned from my personal experience was also exemplified in the patient/plant experiment where patients with a purpose of caring for an animate object healed faster than other patients who did not.
The way I go about finding meaning and purpose is to be led by my knowing. I know a lot of time people say ‘follow you heart’ but I think it really is ‘follow your knowing’ as your heart is one aspect of your knowing. I feel like there is a system set up inside of me and all of us that tells us if something is right or wrong; when I think of doing something and I feel anxious, upset, uneasy, or that it is plain not right, I follow this intuition as I know it is supposed to guide me. When I feel that way but I know underneath it all that it is something I need to do, that is shown to me as well. I also am sometimes guided in my sleep-related episodes towards what I am supposed to do. Additionally, its funny that Michael talked about that question that one of his students asked about if we follow happiness, can it be a clue to what we are supposed to do. This question rang very true as I have always wondered that, as I do this in part but can see how this could be misleading for those who are not connected very strongly with their intuition and knowing. All and all, the meaning of life is the foundation for any work within nonviolence; without it, we are incomplete, ungrounded, and easily mislead. I think about everyone caught up in the insidious cycle of violence, drugs, sex, and unhealthy relationships and know that the solution rests in finding the real meaning in life and healing from the time away from this knowing.
Something that really stuck out to me in the reading this week was how every issue I am passionate about is encompassed somehow within nonviolence. More specifically, I have spent a lot of time studying the intersection of capitalism and human rights violations, specifically studying Shell and Nike (anyone who wants to read this paper, send me a response and I will email it to you). This structural violence is so engrained in every aspect of our lives, especially if we are plugged into the mainstream society. And its hard to disengage this aspect as it is so obtrustive and over-reaching. This quote was so incredibly powerful: “Children growing up in a world that’s partly built on structural violence may take a long time to become aware of its presence, and until they do they may unwittingly benefit at the expense of others; no one would call them violence for doing so. Only when they go on cheerfully benefitting after becoming aware of this can they be called some degree violent—which may be one reason people resist being educated about violence.” The last section of the last sentence “which may be one reason people resist being educated about violence” is so incredibly powerful and rings a bell, as I have seen what my speaking of truth does to people living in illusions; they push back and will do anything to remain in their bubble of illusion: “The only people mad at you for speaking the truth are those living a lie. Keep speaking it –Anonymous.”July 14, 2013 at 11:09 am #11182MemberI got sick this week so fell even more behind… before I jump in, thank you Jean for sharing your personal struggles, and I am sending you warm thoughts for your family.
Like everyone, I found this week’s lesson very interesting and intimate. I’ve always wondered how to best express my spirituality through professional and academic discourses, so I watched Dr. Nagler’s videos with interest. Many of the concepts he shared were familiar to me through my Buddhist training, and I found many common grounds, especially with my personal belief that the life’s purpose is to become absolutely happy, to reveal one’s highest potential, and help others to do the same.
Here are my thoughts to some of the questions:
Why, in studying nonviolence, is the meaning of life important?
One’s view on life’s purpose inevitably impact his or her objectives and behavior, even when one believes that life has absolutely no purpose – which would then lead to suffering, apathy, self-destruction and violence. For individuals to feel motivated to engage in nonviolence, I would think that they have to have some basic commonalities in their understanding of life and its purpose, along the lines of dignity, respect, and peaceful coexistence. Whether one believes that nonviolence is way of life or a powerful tool through which a social change is achieved, for one to engage in nonviolence it must be an expression of one’s worldview and how it can be achieved. Nonviolence is often considered as an effective method for peaceful transformation of a regime or society, because of its consistency as means to achieve an end; underlying theory here is that peace cannot be achieved through non-peaceful methods. So for one to choose nonviolence, he or she must be at least motivated to achieve peace. In contrast, for those who believe that life’s purpose is self-gain and prosperity, it is likely that violence, war and deception would be chosen as a way to accomplish their objectives.
What evidence is there for life having a purpose? (Video 1)
Like John mentioned, I think the example in the video of how taking care of life in some form impacted patient recovery was very interesting to me, and offered ‘evidence” as to life having a purpose. It reminded me that one of the forms of tortures that were used during Holocaust was to coerce the captives to perform meaningless work, such as digging a hole just to fill it up later. These examples imply that at the very least having a “sense of purpose” in life is important for individuals’ well-being and survival. Another element of the video that stood out for me was the comment about our eco-system and how it is so perfect for sustaining life – to the degree that it is inconceivable all that we have on the earth were created by accident, without any meaning. I also feel that the sense of “fulfillment” you feel when you serve others, or even when you feel you are expanding your capacity while facing immense difficulties in life, definitely serves as evidence that there is a meaning in life.
September 25, 2013 at 12:31 pm #11624MemberHello! My name is Julie (I just introduced myself in the introduction part), I am quite new in the program and probably most of you have already gotten far in the lessons so I don’t know if anyone will read my thoughts on the meaning of life, but anyway, here they are:
Why in studying nonviolence is the meaning of life important?
If I understood it correctly, nonviolence is all about respecting and valuing ourselves and our human dignity, the other and his or her dignity just as much as life in general. It’s all about life and how to protect and sustain it, thus, if we don’t see a purpose in life, it makes nonviolence, as an approach to protecting and sustaining it, purposeless.
What is your own particular approach to fulfilling the meaning in your life?
I find this a difficult question as it assumes that I know which is the meaning in my life – which I don’t! That of course doesn’t mean that I don’t try to make the best of it. Lately, I try more and more to connect with myself and listen to what feels right. Learning and being open for change, living up to my values without imposing them to others are for me other (not always very easy) ways of finding my way and maybe eventually the meaning of my life.
Happiness is often considered as the meaning of life (and it is true that when I feel really happy I just love life and believe that life is a purpose in itself!) and I would completely agree with the idea that belonging and connecting with others are crucial in order to reach this happiness. Finding my place and contributing to something bigger than myself is definitely rewarding and fulfilling to me.I would also like to point out that I find it difficult to accept that there is a meaning to everything that happens in life, like for example all those innocent people dying in violent conflicts or the destruction of our environment caused by humans who have no respect for nature. Giving such incidents a meaning would somehow suggest that they are legitimate, which I cannot accept, which leads me to the third question:
What is the relationship between life’s purpose and education?
I think it is all about education! Not everyone gives the same meaning to life though and even if I, for example, believe that nonviolence could be a great way of leading humanity to a higher self, others believe in other means of reaching their ideal. This is the dilemma I find myself confronted with sometimes. We all grow up with different world views. This is the diversity we live in, it’s beautiful and I want to respect everyone’s perspective. On the other hand I have my own view and in my role as a peace educator I have the mandate to pass on that view and although I really try not to manipulate people and teach them right and wrong, it always remains a balancing act.
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