Buddha says all suffering is on account of desire . therefore no desire , no suffering it would mean ! what about goals then ? should we have none, since goals are big on desire. Does ‘ aspiring’ and ‘desiring’ have any perceptible difference ? Is one better than the other or of a higher order .
what does it ultimately take to live ‘meaningfully’ ? Life has to have a purpose don’t you think ? The purpose also has to hold a meaning dear to that individual .The individual then decides to pursue this desire or goal which will fill him with joy rather than disillusion him .
The journey of life is complex and full of twists and turns to take any meaningful pursuit seem meaningless ! Then why do we do what we still do ? What is there to be so grateful about ? Why do we need to have faith ? Faith in what, it would seem ?
Ultimately life is about breathing ! Life energy through ‘prana’ . Stop breathing! we die! Or does our body die ? What we do while we live is of some consequence, it would seem . When we live on this earth , which is definitely beautiful , we want to live a life which is of use to others . By others it would mean other people all the flora and fauna around us and the environment and this planet ‘earth’ . Greater consciousness will help us see myriad creatures and vegetation around us . At lower conscious levels, it is only us that we see . when you are useful to the broader world around you ,”society” for some of us , we feel important , we feel happy of our talents and contributions . We feel happy that others are happy with us . societies have evolved with hunter , gatherers who first by themselves and then with clans and associates started providing for each other. They looked after each other. Modern societies have introduced lots of systems , which is supposed to keep all this moving in exactly the same manner as before but in much more complex a way . The system of governance , system of currency as an exchange for goods and services and the system of policing to keep everything under control is few of the many systems at work . The team of hunter gatherers have evolved into a team of nations and more minutely into teams of race ,castes ,clans, origin and religion. The strive to make it in the eyes of others or to be perceived as ‘useful’ in the eyes of others or to be even the best is all pervading, amidst the confusion of living.
Then comes the factor of self ! The self is happy when “I” make it happy ! It is first happy with indulgence and the modern world provides all kinds of sensory stimulants and then after a while it is seeking some higher order stimulant . At some point the self becomes happy with service to others and this realisation is definitely a higher order one .
In the end is it pointless . Everything is in transition and it will remain in transition .
yogirb 