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The Wisdom of the Great Teachers

In December, the Pure Land Buddhist Centre in Toowoomba (Queensland Australia) hosted a major conference seeking friendship amongst religions. Here are the slides from a talk that I delivered. I hope you like them. The text of the talk follows the slides.

 

 

 

On Seeking The Meaning of Life - Part 5: What Meaning Do You Want To Give Your Life?

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Life is multi-dimensional and multi-layered – even as you discover meaning in one aspect; you are entering new territory and forging new paths in another and so you’re still at the surface. Life’s journey continues along this spiral path polishing the soul with each round of the merry-go-round.  

Ultimately, life’s meaning is what you choose to give it, wherever and whatever your background.
 
We begin life with a set of paradigms some inherited and implicit in our genes, others taught, learned, gathered, realised, unrealised, conscious and sub-conscious from our families, friends, neighbours, enemies and our environment. Our beliefs about ourselves, how we want to be, how we want our families and loved ones to see us, all play a role in how we develop and define the things we accept, reject, amend, adopt and choose.
 
We choose the things we believe we can never be as well as the things we don't want to be, even the things we sometimes succeed in avoiding or honestly accept as our own weaknesses. In this life we choose the things we want to uphold, our response to the roles we are called on to play and we choose which moulds to break. In our journey for the meaning of life – all of this will be challenged.
 
What meaning will you give your life as you meet these challenges?    
 

On Seeking The Meaning of Life -Part 1: Why Bother?

A magpie ponders

I’m on a search for the meaning of life. What can you tell me about it?” my friend I’ve known since childhood asked me in her email.

The question got me really excited.

This is a big topic on which much has been written and much more will be written.

I sent her some rough notes mostly in bullet points to share my thoughts and we’ve continued our exploration via emails.

In recent weeks I’ve been asked this question again by a few people prompting me to write a more explanatory article.

For readability I’ve spread it over a number of posts:  

Part 1 – Why Bother?
Part 2 – Qualities to Develop
Part 3 – Nature of the Answer
Part 4 – From A Sufi Classic
Part 5 What Meaning Do You Want To Give Your Life ?
Part 6 – The Meaning Comes from Within     

 On Seeking The Meaning of Life - Part 1: Why Bother?

Each person is a unique consciousness. Life is a journey and the meaning of life comes from how each person chooses to traverse the contours of this journey. The answer is not linear and has many dimensions. One can look at it from many angles and arrange the pieces in many ways, discovering new facets each time.   

To begin with there's more than one aspect to the very phrase 'seeking the meaning of life'.
 
What is one really trying to understand more about?
 
One person could be looking for the reason for the existence of the universe with its various life forms, in particular the human life form. Another wants to learn about the relationship between one's own conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious self and how these relate to other consciousness in the universe. Still others want to know the reason for their trials and tribulations, their learnings, their unfulfilled desires compared with those of the seemingly successful and prosperous.
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