THE MEANING OF OUR LIVES
Meaning of life
Love gives meaning to our lives – as do friendship or art or
faith in God. These are factors of happiness, of inner peace, of
feelings of harmony, allowing meaning to our existence.
But there is the other side. There is the cruelty of life, the
pain, the evil, not to talk of death. They are the hidden
tigers, ambushed and ready to attack the imprudent, to use an
image present in the Holy Buddhist Scriptures.
And it is between these two pendulums - the positive, the one
that gives happiness and meaning, and the negative - that our
lives are lived. And when we meditate about all that, we arrive
at a diverse and disagreeing set of thoughts about the meaning
and purpose of life.
This site is about these thoughts…
Poetic reflexions about the brevity of our lives
Meaning of life
Insignificant mortals, who are as leaves are, and now flourish
and grow warm with life, and feed on what the ground gives, but
then again fade away and are dead.
Homer, Century IX b.C., Greek poet, Iliad
Speculations on our place on the Universe
Meaning of life
When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in
the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill,
and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces
of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I am frightened,
and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is
no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then.
Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this
place and time been alloted to me?
B. Pascal, 1623-1662, French philosopher, physic and
mathematician, Thoughts
Speculations on the purpose and meaning of life
Meaning of life
What is the purpose of life? I believe that the purpose of life
is to be happy.
Dalai Lama, Tibetan political and spiritual leader, Voices from
the Heart
Thoughts about love and friendship in our lives
Meaning of life
At our mother breast, we tasted not only milk but also love –
just enough love to know that it was the only thing that could
ever satisfy us and that we will miss it forever.
Compte-Sponville, French philosopher, A short treatise on the
great virtues
Philosophy of life thoughts
Meaning of life
Therefore don't be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be
anxious for itself. Each day's own evil is sufficient.
Bible, Matthew, 6:34
Sarcastic and well humoured thoughts
Meaning of life I
see the better, and approve. But I follow the worst.
Ovidius, 43-17 a.C, roman writer, Metamorphoses
Thoughts
connected to science
Meaning of life
We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to
preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. This is a truth
which still fills me with astonishment.
Richard Dawkins, English biologist, The Selfish Gene
Thoughts about the importance of wisdom
Meaning of life The wise man has
the sun and the moon by his side. He grasps the universe under
the arm. He blends everything into a harmonious whole, cast
aside whatever is confused
or obscured, and regards the humble and the honourable.
Tchuang-Tseu, Chinese philosopher, III b. C., Book of Tchuang-Tseu
Thoughts about the cruelty of life, pain and death
Meaning of life
Nature separates beings, after having surrounded them by love.
It divides them, and demands that they still love each other.
G. Leopardi, 1798-1837, Italian writer, Poésis, Le Coucher de la
Lune
Thoughts about what we are in the Cosmos
Meaning of life
We, sons of the water, earth and sun, are no more than small
straw, foetus of the cosmic diaspora, scraps of solar existence,
insignificant sprouts of the earth’s existence.
E. Morin, French philosopher and sociologist, Method V
To see more: Man and the Universe Science and meaning of
life
Thoughts about who we are
Meaning of life
However sage anyone is, he is, after all, but a man.
Montaigne, 1533-1592, French writer, Essais
Positive and negative thoughts about the meaning of life
There may be trouble ahead,
But while there’s moonlight and music and love and romance,
Let’s face the music and dance.
Irving Berlin, 1888-1989, American songwriter, Follow the
Fleet
Thoughts about the illusion present on our lives
Meaning of life
Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?
Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1802-1890, English poet, The Higher
Pantheism.
Thoughts about old age and youth
Meaning of life
There will be a day when you, that now are escaping from love,
will see yourself old and deserted, condemned to drag through
the nights alone, in your frozen bedstead. Because of you will
not anymore grow nocturnal disputes, wishing to force your door,
nor will you have scattered roses, by morning, at your
threshold.
Ovidius, 43-17 a.C, roman writer, Metamorphoses
Quotes Hate is not conquered by hate: hate is
conquered by love. This is an eternal law
Pali Tripitaka
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as
fools»
Martin Luther King.
«Love is the only
force capable of transforming an enemy into friend»
Martin Luther King.
Frustrated love turns itself into hate, easily
Edgar Morin.
Love is an adventure that puts itself at risk to illusion and to
falsehood, and to finish tragically. Edgar Morin.
Comments
Defrauded love Love is the supreme good. «There
is only one happiness in life: to love and be loved», sustained
George Sand. «Only the soul that loves is happy», said Goethe.
And Maturama: «We, human beings, are animals depending on love».
Even hate can be defeated by love: «Hate is
not conquered by hate: hate is conquered by love. This is an
eternal law», says the Pali Tripitaka. «We must learn to live
together as brothers or perish together as fools»; «Love
is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend»,
also considered Martin Luther King.
And yet, capriciously, love can also be a
source of hate. Defrauded love is jealous and dangerous.
«Frustrated love turns itself into hate, easily», states Morin.
Defrauded love is the cause of thousands of violent, passionate
crimes. «Love is an adventure that puts itself at risk to
illusion and to falsehood, and to finish tragically», also
states Morin.
On another level, some forms of religious and
political love are also a source of crime and hate. In the
Middle Ages, love of God fed multiple religious persecutions,
and much carnage. Millions of men and women died in wars of
fratricide, or perished at the stake in the Inquisition and
persecutions. And the present wave of terrorism, as many
twentieth century political movements – with all the love it
involves of political and religious projects and ideas – is also
a demonstration that against all the odds, some sorts of love
can be a source of evil and hate.
