Life – what are we living for?

“I have seen the way the earth takes a seed

And with care, gives us a flower, a tree

Or something on which you can feed

That is love, love is life, love, I love you”

Lyrics to song by Hot Chocolate

Have you ever wondered what it’s all about - life that is? Have you ever wondered why we’re here and if we have a purpose? Are we on this planet simply to procreate, have kids and keep the human race going? Is this the sum total of our being? Are we just part of the evolutionary train or is there some other purpose which we haven’t fully grasped? We are given consciousness, creativity and the ability to perceive and analyse, not only what is around us but also our own thoughts. We truly are miracles of creation but we also are given another great ability which separates us from the beasts of the field and that is compassion, and even though we may have the ability to hate and kill, it is our compassion which really puts on another level because it means we not only have feelings for others but we can share their suffering too. It is this ability to share in the suffering of others that really bonds us together as a species, even though it sometimes appears that we are determined to tear each other apart. Of course some might say that their only purpose is to work hard, have children and lead a good life, and what’s the point of looking too deeply into such things? Well the answer must be that man spends a great deal of time and effort trying to understand how the universe was formed and our evolution, so it seems only right we also understand why should such wonderful complex beings came into being. It might just be natural selection but to what end? Is there a purpose for our existence or are we here, simply because we are?
Each one of us takes a personal journey through life, collecting experiences and knowledge as we go along. We pass on some of this knowledge and experience to our children and to others, and then at some point we leave this life. We gather knowledge and information then pass it on and this is part of the evolutionary process; it is also part of our personal growth. We not only grow physically but we also grow through experiences and the knowledge we gather. This growth is not so apparent but nevertheless it must occur. We tend to measure intellectual growth by our academic achievements but have no way of measuring our experiential growth or perhaps what could be called our emotional growth. It is curious that some people can reach the highest levels of academia and yet have the emotional intellect of an adolescent. It would also appear that often we seem to get stuck in rut emotionally whereby we stagnate and progress little further. We get to a point where we think we are old enough and mature enough to know it all and so we put a cap on our learning. One of the great challenges in life however, is to keep growing and never believe we know it all. We also have to overcome our difficulties and come through them as better people but the problem so often is that these difficulties we create for ourselves and as we are the creator of them, we can’t find the way to get past them. How often do we see others in difficulties and believe we have the answers to solve their problem and yet the person will be reluctant to follow any advice given because they must work it out for themselves? But so often they don’t!
Dreams of a better life
Many people have dreams of creating a better life for themselves or at least a life with less hassle and struggle but as we know, changing one’s life is easier said than done. The problem is that although we may want a better life, this will require us to make some radical changes and this can seem all too much, even though it will bring us to a better life and so we don’t – this is a great paradox – we want something badly but don’t get it because we can’t believe we can.  It is a natural part of our humanness to want a better life; we observe others and see how they live, and we want to be like them. We will then endeavour to copy them if we can and get what they have. We see others with their flash cars and fancy homes, and feel that we should have them too but we see little of the lives the owners lead and what they did to get their possessions. Dreaming of having better things and a better life is not a bad thing of course but it can distract us from some more important issues. We only have to look at modern society to see how people are hurrying around doing their best to create a better life for themselves and their families, while major social issues are largely ignored. The bigger issues appear too big to deal with, so we leave them to the politicians to sort out and just get on with daily nitty-gritty, hoping that we will keep our job, get a pay rise or just win the lottery, and all will be well.
Struggling to get by
Life can be so wonderful, sometimes exhilarating and yet in contrast it can be so monotonous, tedious and at times feel like hell. Of course we cling onto life no matter how great our struggles, always hoping for a better brighter tomorrow. Some people live miserable existences and yet are still able to carry on from day to day; this is a remarkable testimony to life – there is always something to live for, even if it is only one’s next meal or drink. Sometimes however, we have to remind ourselves that there is a reason for living and force black thoughts from the mind, ideas that life is not worth carrying on. Sometimes it is only the thoughts of loved ones, perhaps children, which is sufficient motivation to get us through. However, doctor’s surgeries are full of people who are finding it difficult to carry on – seeking advice, medication and counselling to bring them out of their despair. Life can often feel like a matter of survival, getting through the week to the next payday or dealing with emotional trauma, hoping things will work out in the end. At times it can feel like we are trapped, unable to move in any direction, forced to endure whatever situation we find ourselves in, just hoping it won’t get any worse.
Life so often feels like a mystery play. The stage is set, the audience eager, the actors inviting and dialogue absorbing, and yet the ending is unknown, even to the actors. Sometimes it feels like we are just part of the audience, happily watching the twists and turns, joys and tragedies of those on stage but then the tables turn and we are thrust up in front of the lights for our own personal drama to be played out for others to observe, gossip about and judge.
We share the same feelings, the same joys and tragedies in this life and yet we live such different, separate lives, often as if others don’t exist; their lives are meaningless to us, especially in the urban conglomerations where there are too many ‘others’ to know or care about. Life is indeed peculiar –  each one of us desires to be needed, wanted and accepted; we all want to be cared for and to care and yet it is so often easy to feel alone with our troubles, detached from the world. How is it we can make life so difficult for ourselves? There is no doubt that life is beautiful, wonderful, even magical and yet we can manage to make it such hard work and a full of woe existence so easily. Have we not evolved sufficiently to bypass our petty differences and prejudices to become more balanced human beings and how many future generations must struggle in this way before man realizes that we’re all in this together and not against each other or indeed separate from one another?
Why are we here?
This question has puzzled man throughout time with scientists, anthropologists and sociologists all struggling to come up with viable answers. Yes, we know according toDarwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection how man has evolved over time but why are we here in the first place, that is to say what’s our purpose? In fact do we have a purpose at all or is that we are here because we’re here and that there is no purpose to our humanity at all? Is mankind just the result of some kind of fluke or good fortune that life managed to take a hold on this planet of ours?  Creationists however, believe that God created the world, the universe and everything and that it was God’s intention that we came about, with no natural selection involved but still, why did God create us – did he need company?
Darwin’s theory states that we came about by the replication of cells and random acts of modification which either proved successful or not, and over millions of years this led to the most successful of modifications – us. In his book The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins presents a different idea, that cells were modified by way of making mistakes as they replicated one another, some successful and some not. He says that cells formed as duplicate copies billions of times but then in the duplication process, mistakes came about, thus making new cells different. These mistakes led to variations in cell groupings as they multiplied, with the dominant groups going on to multiply and replicate before further mistakes were made in the copying process, so leading to ever complex cell structures. But whichever theory you accept, whether by random and dominant mutation or by cells making mistakes as they reproduced, it was incredibly fortunate we ever came into being in the first place; being that the Earth proved to be an environment suitable for life to take shape. Of course from a creationist perspective, there were no odds against our survival and no amazing good fortune, because it was all planned.
So lonely out in space

Here we are on this little planet spinning around the sun – actually falling through space – at a perfect distance for life as we know it to have the perfect chance of surviving. Any closer or further away from the sun and there could be no life on Earth because it would either be too hot or too cold for evolution to get going. Also we have a large moon just at the right distance from our planet to play a crucial part to life on Earth, for without it, again there would be no life; at least not as we know it. The moon has so many supporting facets for life here but the most significant being its gravitational pull on our planet and the stabilising factor of the Earth on the axis of rotation. Without the moon, the rotation of earth would wobble too much like an unstable spinning-top, creating greater unstable climatic conditions for life to flourish. Also the moon affects tidal flow and has a large bearing on marine life close to shore, and assuming we did evolve from the oceans; the tidal flow would have had a big impact on creatures transferring from the sea to the land. The moon supports life on earth just as much as the sun and both work in perfect harmony with our planet to create life as we know it. Everything in the universe has a direct relationship to that which is adjacent to it and this is no different for planets and stars. Our Earth has a close relationship with its sun, moon and probably all the planets in the solar system and so it is that life has come to be here on Earth because our planet was the perfect habitat for life to burst forth. There are billions of stars to be seen in the night sky and each will probably have its own planets orbiting around them but who can say how many planets enjoy this special relationship we have with our sun? Is it all good fortune, or is there intention involved?
So are we unique in the universe or could there be other planets bearing life somewhere out there? In 1961 a man by the name of Dr Frank Drake wrote a formula to try and estimate the number of technologically advanced civilizations that might exist in our galaxy. The formula was based on many considerations and makes many assumptions but nevertheless it is widely accepted at being a viable attempt to calculate the prospect of life on other planets in our galaxy and the number he came up with was 10,000 – a nice round figure – which seems a lot but considering it is estimated there are 100 billion (100,000,000,000) stars in the galaxy, the number is not very high. So maybe there are 10,000 other planets capable of supporting life not too dissimilar from ours but if we consider the age of the universe is calculated to be around 14 billion years, the chances of life like ours existing at the same time is quite remote. So it is possible we are the only form of life at this moment in time who sets an alarm clock to get up in the morning, drinks coffee and eats toast for breakfast, drives to work in a petrol driven car, uses a mobile phone to watch movies and settles down in the evening to watch TV. Maybe similar human type species have come and gone or are still in primitive ape like form? Or even their worlds are just forming? Maybe indeed, we are alone?
How did we get here?
Putting to one side the creationist view of God making everything, what we are told is that the earth was formed around 4.5 billion years ago in a fiery ball as a by-product of the Big Bang – the beginning of the universe – and after many millions of years of being a mini sun, the earth would have started to cool and as a consequence would have given off certain gases including H2O (water) and CO2 (carbon dioxide), methane, ammonia and nitrogen, which would have swirled around above the surface. To add to this, the Earth was being constantly bombarded by meteorites adding new ingredients into the melting pot. These gases would have formed into great clouds swirling around the planet forming the conditions whereby it would have started to rain and rain and rain, and over millennia the seas would have formed and life started to develop. The sea was an ideal environment for cellular life to come into being and at first there were only single cell organisms (prokaryotes) but later they bonded together with others into micro communities. Later still these formed into more complex structures (eukaryotes), which in turn later became multi-cellular organisms and by now cellular groupings were no longer identical, so instigating the divergence and development of life. Over millions of years these minute cell groupings grew, developed and became more complex, and so from these micro-organisms all life began to take shape. This of course is the evolutionist theory, not the creationist one.
It is calculated that the earth formed some 4.5 billion of years ago but as far as man is concerned, we are a complete newcomer. It is said that if the Earth’s existence were to be represented as twenty-four hours then man’s appearance on it would amount to a mere eighteen seconds. We really are the new kids on the block and yet we’ve made one hell of an impact. It has been said that if all insect life were to die out, within fifty years all life would disappear on Earth but if mankind were to die out, in fifty years all life would flourish – this is quite an impact for puny man who individually has no change of survival.
So here we have the view of life as being chance and survival of the fittest. Chance – that the Earth came into being because the perfect conditions came about for life to form, a ten million to one chance as Dr Frank Drake postulated – and survival of the fittest and strongest, as presented by  Charles Darwin and his theory of natural selection.  Here we see life as mechanistic, that life developed simply because it could and not because it was intended to and that if any one small part of the evolutionary process had failed significantly, then all would have failed. For example if one chemical had not been present or had been overwhelmed by others in the evolutionary brew that bubbled and fermented as the Earth formed, or if prokaryotes had been unable to form into eukaryotes, then life as we know it would not have existed at all. This should give us a lot of food for thought, that if a simple minute cell, the like of which we have billions in our body, had failed to reproduce, we would not be here at all.
Selfish sinner?
This mechanistic view as to how life on Earth became into being is at complete variance to the biblical account in which there clearly was intent, that there was a Creator who did the creating. The biblical view of man is that God created everything – but who created God, is not explained. We are also told that we originate from Adam and Eve, who were ejected from the Garden Of Eden because they tasted the forbidden fruit from the tree of life, and that we are all descendents of this pair. It is also said that God gave us free will to choose between right and wrong but alas not the will to be disassociated from Adam and Eve, who became sinners separated from God and likewise us too. It seems our nature is shaped by this story, at least in the Christian world, and although God is there to help and guide us, we are left to get on with it, whether rightly or wrongly – man is left to his own devices.
Richard Dawkins’ view of man however, is that the nature of our being is in our genes and that we have to be selfish in order to survive, just as the stronger cell formations would overcome the weaker cell formations, or that alpha male lions will fight off other male lions to get the ‘lion’s share’ of the pride and food. It would probably be his view that if there were an Adam and Eve, it was in their genetic makeup to take the apple and have something good for themselves, not some wilful disobedience. His belief is that man has no choice but to be selfish because it’s already established within us. And together with Darwin’s mechanistic view of our evolution, it gives us no absolute purpose for our being and no purposeful design, we just are biological machines which came about by pure chance and are at the mercy of our genes and others – which are all hell bent on survival at all costs. Or are we man gone astray, fallen in the Garden of Eden, forever trying to please and satisfy the God who made us?
The former is a relatively modern view and the latter is an ancient view of man. Are these views we have of ourselves correct or do we just accept these theories because they sound reasonable or that we can’t be bothered to seek new understanding? If we accept the modern predominate view of evolution, a big question we should be asking is, why did free thinking man have to evolve at all, considering that dinosaurs and other creatures roamed the planet for millions of years without ever giving one thought as to why they were there? Man is a bit of an anomaly because he has the ability to be aware of himself and analyse his situation in the world he lives, something no other creatures can do. Is man blessed or cursed with this ability? On one hand we are blessed to gaze in wonder and awe at the life which surrounds us and show love and kindness to one another but on the other we are cursed with the ability to hate, neglect, fight and kill each other for virtually no reason, whilst others starve and die often because of the greed of rulers. In the last century alone, man twice waged war upon himself on a global scale with calamitous outcome; with one group endeavouring to exterminate another. And as if this were not enough, man created and used an explosive device so devastating, it could destroy whole cities and tens of thousands of people in one blast. With such inhumanity, perhaps this race could only have evolved by chance and not design? We are certainly a race of people with many flaws and contradictions. We are a race which has frequently enslaved others; created gladiatorial games where men kill each other for the sport of others; gone to war simply out of greed and has attempted to exterminate entire races for no other reason than they have a different view on life. And we like to think that ‘humanity’ has a special resonance to it! However, having pointed out many of negative traits, man still has the special skill to examine his thoughts and try to understand his purpose in the scheme of things and he has the ability to love and to forgive. Surely our purpose then must be to know ourselves better and understand why?
On a course to nowhere
So now at the outset of the twenty-first century, where are we headed? Do we have greater confidence as to the future than previous generations or is our confidence purely based on how wealthy we are? Man has been able to create technological and scientific wonders with computers which can outperform human brains and yet we are no nearer to creating a fairer world and more stable world for ourselves. We have not been able to create world harmony, fairness and true justice. We have societies with such inequalities between its citizens, and nations which dominate others in terms of economic power and wealth, and we have no solutions as to how to modify this. In fact the future looks quite bleak, simply because man’s inherent nature has not changed. There are those who wish to dominate and posses far more than is their rightful share, and there are plenty who would happily destroy and kill to that end. On one hand we have developed the most amazing ability to save the lives of those with life threatening conditions using complex medical procedures and yet through war, neglect and inequality, many more have their lives cut short all around the world. So should we be proud of our achievements or should we realise that our achievements come a great cost?
If we are to take Darwin’s and Dawkins’ view, then this is the natural course of things and we have to accept the fact that the strongest will always come out on top. And what if we project their theories into the future, what is the destiny of man? More wars, more fighting, more inequality? Throughout history we have seen how the rich and powerful have dominated lesser mortals who were there to serve them and fight their wars. Today, the rich and powerful still need the masses from which they can extract their wealth and they still need armies to protect them but they’ve also a new line of defence and that is technology. A nightmare scenario could be that those at the top become so rich and self confident, they no longer need the masses to support them because they have technology to protect them and the food they require can be produced by a relative few. Who knows then what might happen to this unequal world? This is a view of a Godless world but why should God make any difference to man’s humanity or inhumanity, surely we should be able to sort things out for ourselves and not need God? And after all, as we have seen, religion has so often not helped man’s cause but rather hindered it. But where do we get our moral values from to prevent us from getting into nightmare scenarios? Historically we have drawn moral guidance from religion, “Thou shalt not kill” or “steal” and “love thy neighbour” etc but what about how we treat each other now? Richard Dawkins says “Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish.” He is right of course, we should teach generosity and altruism but are we capable of achieving this? In olden times people feared displeasing God; nowadays we have nothing to fear, except ourselves.
Not just an accident
On the 31^st of January 1971 Edgar ‘Ed’ Dean Mitchell was strapped tightly into the seat of Apollo 14. Little did he know the impact the next nine days would hold for him but he was a man sensing something more than just a trip to the moon. Upon his return he was to say amongst his many accounts, “The presence of a divinity became almost palpable and I knew that life in the universe was not just an accident based on random processes.” Later he was to set up the Institute of Neotic Sciences and was to write ‘Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science’ and ‘The Way of the Explorer: An Apollo Astronaut’s Journey through the Material and the Mystical Worlds.’ On the website of Noetic Sciences, it states its goals as, ‘The Institute’s primary program areas are consciousness and healing, extended human capacities, and emerging worldviews.’ His journey into space and exploration of the moon had a profound effect on him and upon his return he continued that exploration on earth.
There is however, no need to become an astronaut to enter into the mystery; we can all do it if we are curious enough. There are so many phenomena we don’t understand, so many things unexplainable; far too many to pass up as just imagination or religious ideology. Maybe you have had experiences of your own which you cannot explain? Perhaps you have experienced something yourself but when you told someone about it you saw that acknowledging smile which questions ‘Oh really?’ You know they’d like to believe you but it’s not in their experience and so they can’t. So you just put it away and let the whole event pass you by. But have you considered that for one short moment in your life, a portal in your consciousness was opened to another level of awareness which has no explanation, except you believed it to be real? We’ve all heard about ghost stories and paranormal experiences, and they are fascinating but the truth is that unless they happen to me or you, we are always a little sceptical. It is only however when we turn our attention to such things, do we begin to see that there is too much to dismiss as just imagination or mirage. Of course it is quite natural to want evidence for such things, otherwise we can be asked to believe in anything. However, asking for evidence is also akin to asking for the answers before setting out to solve a puzzle. The mere fact that there are so many things unexplained should be enough to set alight our desire for understanding and set us on our own journey of discovery. We live this mysterious life within this boundless universe of possibilities and if we don’t seek to understand our place within it, we will deny ourselves so much. Knowledge and understanding are like food to the mind but we can stuff ourselves on junk knowledge to our heart’s content if we so choose. But what about the knowledge which heals? Doctors spend years training to heal people of all kinds of ailments and disease but so much sickness and despair is experienced because doctors don’t have the answers.
Dermot O’Connor was a workaholic, working all hours, travelling all around the world until one day his body started to speak to him and say it had had enough. Over days and weeks his health deteriorated before finally he went to the doctor. He was to be diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He couldn’t believe it, he was young, fit and top of his game, or so he thought. This came as a mighty blow to him but Dermot was a fighter, and after some while he started his fight back. He began reading all he could in order to discover what was going on inside his body and inside his mind. He wasn’t prepared to accept that he was to face a life of physical, mental and emotional decline and so using all the knowledge he could muster, he set out on his road to recovery. He has since not only conquered something which in medical terms was incurable but has gone on to help many other people overcome chronic and life threatening illnesses. Dermot has written his story in a book, The Healing Code.
Modern science and technology have radically changed our lives for the better but we should not rely on these alone to come up with all the answers, nor should we believe that modern medicine offers the best chance of healing. Scientists can delve into the other worlds of subatomic particles and understand how our brains work but they will readily admit they don’t understand everything, in fact the more they find out the more questions are revealed. Science and medicine can and does help us in many ways but we need to be aware that there are other levels of healing which defy science. Scientific and clinical research also costs a great deal of money and so often the finance comes from organisations who have a vested interest in the outcome of their research, such as drug manufacturers and corporate institutions. Therefore scientists are bound to work for them and not be wholly independent. Individuals however have no such allegiances and are free to explore at will and without restraint.
Man’s unlimited potential
At this point it is so important to understand who we are and grasp the potentiality of our own being. We are free moving sensory beings, able not only able to be aware of the world we inhabit but to enquire of it also. We can observe, consider, calculate, analyse, evaluate and reason, and we can be emotionally and intuitively involved with life too. We have the unique ability to design and create highly complex structures and machines and we can also create the most exquisite art on many different levels. These feats mean that we are perhaps the most successful of species but for what use is all that we create? Is it all just for our selfish benefit, our own amusement or for some other purpose? Yes, we try to create a better safer world to live in but for all our efforts we seem to create as many problems as we solve. And after all, our world managed very well for billions of years without our intervention. Perhaps our greatest quest then is not to building bigger higher structures, smaller faster computers or less invasive drugs and surgery but to know ourselves and to find the true meaning to life, and our true potential for healing? You and I are physical solid beings made of flesh and blood, bones and joints, nerves and sensory systems, but at another level we are a universe of trillions of tiny intelligent cells, all going about their daily business ensuring that the greater whole survives – our physical self. Yet at another level we a vibrating field of energy, an even greater universe of subatomic energy which contains hardly any matter at all; therefore it seems we are simply just condensed fields of energy and not physical at all. And then there is another part to us and that is the mind, this non-physical place where we create and gather thoughts which bring us to life and give us an awareness of who we are and where we are. Our mind enables us to collate information and gives us a view of ourselves in our environment. We are blessed with the ability to create, far beyond any other creature on this planet, which makes us co-creators with whoever or whatever created us. However we should remember we are not the creators of this incredible mind and body, just caretakers of it.
So it is we exist on many levels: there is our physical level; there is the level of thought and feeling; there is the cellular level and the subatomic particle level; and some would say we exist on a spiritual level too. So how much do we really know and how much can we control? Dermot O’Connor was able to heal himself of what doctors would say was an incurable disease but he is the exception rather than the rule. So what is the true potential for us all? Do we fully know what we can be or what we can do? It seems apparent to me there is a great deal more to know but if we put all our energies into creating machines and technology, we just might be missing out on something even greater?
Creativity
Man’s potential is always his creativity, whether that is used for good or for bad but where does this creativity come from? How is it, some people have an endless source of creativity, whether that is through design, art, writing or acting? And this is not a gift just given to some fortunate people but one that is given to every human being because we are all part of the creative process of life; we are all part of creation. And the curious thing is that modern education undermines this creativity by forcing students to soak up loads of knowledge, choking off creativity at source. Yet, it is a truly amazing thing to discover that once one taps into this power, it can be boundless. And what we need to realise is that creativity is not a blessing given to a lucky few but to us all. However, we should realise that our creativity is not just given to create more beautiful buildings or sexy cars, or more fine art and smart clothes but to create a better world to live in for all human life. Surely this should be the human quest?
Separation or oneness
Creativity has given man a great advantage over the other animals on this planet and his awareness has given him a wonderful view of life but all this knowledge and creativity has done little to satisfy his greatest need, not to be alone, especially in modernized societies where he has gained so much freedom and independence. As a consequence we see ourselves as separate from one another, with little direct connection except for family, colleagues and friends. Independence is the byword for success, it gives a sense of achievement, especially when we feel financially independent. For example, driving one’s own car to work feels so much more satisfying than sharing a crowded bus or train, even if there are traffic jams to be dealt with. It is a curious paradox of man that he strives so much for greater independence and yet creates for himself also the greater chance of isolation and aloneness. Modern cities are filled with lonely people, crammed in together, unknowing of their neighbours. In fact the curious thing is that it is easier to be alone in a big city than in a small town where people feel more trustful and aware of each other’s business.
This independence which people so strive for actually creates a separation from others and the need for others too. Nowadays people can shut themselves away in their house or apartment, switch on the computer, TV and radio and somehow feel connected to the world outside and yet if you were to take away these electronic devices, they’d soon start running from their homes seeking human connection.
But supposing for one moment we are not separate but joined together in a shared purpose, just as the cells in our body are joined together in a shared purpose just to keep us alive? And supposing it is by the very fact that we see ourselves as separate, do we create all the suffering we ever experience? If you and I were one, I could never harm you because I would harm myself.  In the film Fahrenheit 9/11 created by Michael Moore, Moore interviews an American soldier who had fought in Iraq and he was to say this, “if I kill another, I kill a part of myself.” He is right – we don’t live in a vacuum because everything we do has an implication and always upon ourselves.
This connectivity or oneness is central to our survival and in fact is the key to life, and it is feelings of separation which is the cause of all our woes. The greatest fear we live with is being alone, truly alone and it is not death we fear so much but the fear of leaving alone those we love. How do we punish children for being naughty? We send them to their room to be alone and how do we punish adult wrongdoers? We send them to jail, to be separated from their family and friends, alone in jail. Of course prisoners have fellow prisoners for company but it is the separation from a normal life which is there punishment and the many isolated hours to reflect on their life and what they did to get into this situation. Aloneness I suggest to say is the source of much of our suffering, especially emotional suffering. People who suffer depression feel they cannot resolve their difficulties and because no one can get inside their head to help them resolve their thoughts, they feel alone in their struggle and it is this aloneness which is most destructive. For those however who believe in a God, guardian or some other spiritual being, they don’t feel so alone. In the Christian Bible there are the words “Cast all your cares on Him, for He Cares for you.” These can be very comforting words to the believer.
When we curse, denounce, criticize and accuse others, we are simply projecting feelings we carry within but by doing this we don’t unload all our bad feelings, just as a projector does not lose the source of the image when it projects onto a screen; it will always remain and so will our negative views and actions.
Looking out, looking back
Why should we be owners of this amazing life without knowing the source of this life of ours? Are we just passengers in our earthly bodies until they run out of energy, fatigue then die? What is our purpose in this realm of ours? Are we just living nanoseconds in the passage time, a tiny spec of creation, helpless participants in evolution or is there something we cannot see which explains who we are? Shouldn’t we know a little more about our purpose? Astronomers and scientist have for centuries looked outwards at the surrounding universe to try and understand how everything came into being; whilst anthropologists, archaeologists and other scientists have looked back in time to try and uncover where we came from but what about looking within to know? With wonderful equipment such as the Hubble telescope, we have been able to peer into deep space and with carbon dating equipment to measure the age of rocks and fossils, we are so much more informed about how life has evolved but still know so little as to why we are here at all and what is our ultimate purpose.
Looking within
There is of course another source of knowledge. Two thousand five hundred years ago there was a man named Siddhārta Gautama; he belonged to a wealthy family in India but one day he decided to give up his comfortable position and dedicate his life to seeking the meaning of life and the causes of suffering. He was to become the first Buddha, which means Awakened One or Enlightened One. Around this time in China there was a man called Li Er who was to become as Laozi (Lao tse) - Old Master, who was to establish the way of Tao, known as Taosim - the principle of truth and reality through a life of simplicity. Then around two thousand years ago there was the son of humble carpenter, born in Judea (now Palestine), who spent forty days and nights in meditation and contemplation in the desert, in order to commune with God. His name was Jesus and was to become known as the Son of God and man upon whose words the Christian church was founded. Then there was a man by the name of Abu al-Qasim Muhammad who was born in 570 CE (AD) in Saudi Arabia, who also gave up his life for one of meditation and contemplation, and was to become the founding father of Islam. All these men took a very different approach to life than we do today; they believed that man should look to himself and resolve his own issues first and foremost before trying to solve the problems of the world. This idea was summed up in these words spoken by Jesus, “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Today we are more concerned with rules and laws of government; however it could be said that if man governs himself first, he doesn’t need to be governed. This may seem an alien concept but then the deep truths found in Buddhism, Taosim, Christianity and Islam are alien concepts to many too. In fact many people see religion as something an anathema which has been discredited but it wasn’t Siddhārta Gautama, Laozi, Mohammed or Jesus who started religions or sects, it was their followers. These men simply discovered new and radical ways of looking at life and how life should be lived; it was the many followed them over the centuries who were responsible for establishing the religions and beliefs we know today, and also for often corrupting the original thought.
What we need to realise is that these men and many other great thinkers and visionaries have given us great thought and wisdom about how we should live our lives and ultimately create a better world for ourselves but it would appear we haven’t improved upon what they gave us, instead man has chosen to either corrupt their words or reject them completely. Many have chosen to follow their own paths of self interest and self aggrandisement, which has led to so much conflict and strife. It would appear that the great weight of self interest overrules any wisdom. In the modern industrialised world we have largely chosen to neglect their wisdom or have failed to discover our own and so what meaning can we now put upon our existence? Is it that we have become so technologically advanced, that this somehow negates past wisdom? Have all our technological and scientific advances created better people and a better coexistent life on this small planet? From the evidence so far it would seem that technology has only served to make life more complex, not truly easier. Yes, we can travel great distances in comfort around the world but has this made us more at one with others? More ready to share what we have? And yes, we can communicate so easily using the Internet and cell phones but has this improved how well we communicate with each other and get on together?
Which way now?
The big question for us to address is how do we progress as the human race? Each one of us desires happiness, good health and security, and so these should be our priorities but how do we best achieve them, and an even bigger challenge, how do we achieve these desires collectively? We need to realise we have a collective responsibility in this. If we choose only to create a good life for ourselves alone, we create imbalance and deny others. Simply put, if a box of candy is handed to a classroom of students enough for one each; if the first ones to be given the box take more than one, those at the end will get nothing. It is important to realise that if we create societies where there are big imbalances and inequalities, those at the bottom eventually bring the rest down. We only need to take a look around to see where this is happening. Look how rich people have to have security guards, high walls and electronic surveillance to protect them – is that what we call freedom? What we need to do is create our own personal vision as to how we want society to be and then we should strive to achieve this. We need to ask ourselves, are we here for our own amusement and satisfaction or is there something more, something much more than just getting by? We have this wonderful ability to discern, imagine, analyse and create, and so why can we not see deeper within and find out our true purpose and as a consequence find the happiness and fulfilment we crave. Simone de Beauvoir, the philosopher and social theorist put it this way, “Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself and in surpassing itself. If all it does is maintain itself, then living is only not dying.” What she is saying is that if we cannot create a better life for ourselves and for others, then we are little more than animals grazing in a field, unaware of the world around us, existing until we die.
Anthropologists say that man arrived on the scene some 250,000 - 200,000 years ago out of the Great Rift Valley in Africa. Something occurred in the evolutionary process which steered one group  of hominids away from another group of hominids (apes which remain pretty much as they are today), to become the humans we are today. Was this just part of “an accident based on random processes” as Ed Mitchell put it, or was there a reason we fail to see because we don’t know where to look or even how to look? Perhaps we need to start imagining our true potential more and through this truly surpass ourselves? We need to consider that how we see ourselves may well be an incorrect view of how things should be. For example, a person born in a prison and grows up there, will only ever know prison life; it will seem normal and although he or she might dream of a better outside world; inside the prison is their reality. It could just be that we are like that person?
Imagine what could be?
Knowledge is vital for our continued evolution but there is one thing greater than knowledge and that is imagination. It was Albert Einstein, one of the greatest minds of the modern era, who said “Imagination is greater than knowledge.” And why should he say this? Because the enquiring mind requires imagination to perceive ideas outside of its realm of knowledge. If we only rely on knowledge, we would only have what is known to deal with but the future relies in discovering the unknown or the hidden. It is therefore the imaginative mind which gives us insight into the unknown and the hidden. It is in the realms of imagination where the truth starts to reveal itself, not just riding beams of light as Einstein imagined when he came up with his theory of relativity but in imagining a better world for us to live in. If we consider the analogy of the person growing up inside a prison; if he or she were to use his or her imagination regularly to see the better world outside, eventually the pull would become too great and they would be drawn ever more to the outside world and that would become their desire above all things. Of course some of the fellow inmates would say don’t dream and just accept the reality behind the prison walls but the one who uses their imagination to see a world outside, can equally use their imagination to help them get out and be set free. We can’t all have a great mind like Einstein and we can’t all travel into space like Mitchell but we can all imagine and as a consequence believe that we can help to make this a better world to live in.
In 1954 Einstein spoke these profound words “A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.” This “new manner of thinking” is that we should step aside from what we know, as if we know nothing at all and reconnect to the mystery of life. We should start again to see the world through the eyes of childlike curiosity and find afresh the true wonder of being.
Not just a matter of surviving
We should realise it is not just a question as to the survival our species which matters but as to how we survive. Animals can survive in a cage, families can survive in poor rundown neighbourhoods and the elderly can survive alone and uncared for but true survival is the betterment of life and not just for humans but for all creatures. What’s more, we all have a responsibility in this. Einstein said it this way, “Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Compassion is so vital for us to continue our survival in a humane way. We should not just allow ourselves to be passengers in life, hoping that everything will work out fine in the end and ignoring the needs of others. We cannot be content that the mighty corporations rule the world reaping ever greater profits, whilst billions of people live in penury. For these corporations, their goal is only ever profit, not about creating a better world for everyone to live, despite what their TV commercials say.  We cannot allow such great inequalities without considering the implications, not just for the poorest in society but for world peace and harmony. Poverty creates discontentment which in turn creates anger and that anger can so easily turn to radicalism, and ultimately the suicide bomber. And perhaps of most importance, we cannot and should not believe that suffering and poverty are just a consequential part of our existence. We believe ourselves to be an advanced and civilised society but if we peer beneath the surface we find all sorts of unpleasant characteristics we should be ashamed of. Humankind should always look to better itself and this can only be done if more people take responsibility for it. We cannot simply leave such matters to governments, scientists and captains of industry.
Love changes people
This is not a call to arms, not a call for protests and marches but a call for compassion and love. Love changes people, it changes their heart and their mind and it can’t be defeated. However love that has power is not some airy-fairy notion of trying to do some good but a deep connection with the infinite and the true nature of our being. This is not just a cognitive process but a physiological healing transformation brought about through contemplation and meditation. It doesn’t require us to become monks or devotees to any belief system; all it requires is a realisation that we are essentially weak beings if we don’t connect with the true power of our existence. It has been described as bliss but this is not magic, it’s more real than anything we know of in our daily lives. It is as if one comes home to a place we’ve longed for all our lives, a heaven here on earth. The most amazing thing about all this is the pure simplicity of connecting with one’s heart. Meditation helps with this process. However, we have become so programmed into being problem solvers and into mechanistic thinking that it can be difficult to get in touch with one’s true desires but if we stick with it, it will come. There is a verse in the Bible, which simply states, “Let go and let God.” Well, you don’t have to be religious to connect to the Infinite, the Universe, God or whatever you want to call it; you simply have to desire the need to connect and then let go. The answers will come.
Life is more than just living; it’s about sensing and responding. We cannot be like animals who spend their days grazing in the meadow happily munching the rich grass, we have to take an active part in life and use the intelligence, inquisitiveness and natural compassionate deep within us. But as long as we see ourselves as powerless, we will always fail to act. We need to realise that we all have far greater power than we know; it is just a matter of seeking it out; a question of desire. Whatever we desire manifests itself in reality and if we’re confused about things, which many people are, then confusion will manifest itself in life; this is how the nature of things work. Each one of us has the power to desire and from this will come the manifestation of that desire but the real trouble comes when we desire something but really believe we can get it. In other words what we focus on comes into being and if we focus on nothing much, then nothing much comes into view and if we focus of worry, more of the same will come. Of course we can direct that desire to our own personal needs or we can direct it toward humanity as a whole. We can aim to be rich and successful or we can aim to love and to heal but it’s difficult to do both because both require total commitment. Neither of these different approaches to life is easy and they both require dedication, so it is important to think carefully which will bring the highest rewards. There are so many books around today telling us how to focus on being successful but not too many on creating a better world for us all to live in, so that must make the latter the most difficult. But why should we allow difficulties to get in our way if we believe in something strongly enough? The question is; what do you believe in? If you can sum this up in a couple of sentences, you’re doing well.
Beware apathy
As we know, one of great hindrances to action is apathy and this is the politician’s best friend because as long as the people are apathetic, the politicians know they can get away with just about anything. Apathy comes over one quietly, it creeps in stealthily, subjugating the early enthusiasm of youth; it settles on the father and the mother after the heady flourish of love has resided into steady routine; it moulds itself into your comfortable armchair and transforms itself into the remote controller for your TV. Apathy can grip us all, it says there is nothing we can do, that someone else is doing it already; it convinces us we don’t have the power to change things and anyway, it’s not our business. Apathy relies on others to make the big decisions or major discoveries but it is generally the apathetic one who does the grumbling and complaining when what is occurring doesn’t suit. Life however gets comfortable enough, we have enough money to buy some of the little pleasures in life, a car to escape to the countryside and we have the security of our homes to escape to from the troubles of the world. So why should we care? Why should we step outside of our comfort zone and step into unknown worlds of questioning and doubt? Apathy however is a dangerous thing because if we accept there is little or nothing we can do to make changes in our world, we will allow life to change around us and the world will end up a place we feel no longer comfortable in, even in the sanctuary of one’s home. What’s more if the world changes so much, we might even feel one day that it’s no longer our home. There is a term we often hear banded about – the disenfranchised, meaning those who don’t play or feel an integral part of society; they are those, often young, who are at the bottom of the ladder with low education, poor social skills and poor self esteem, no ambition and basically no hope for the future. They look around themselves at those who are doing very nicely, with their flash cars and fancy homes, feeling frustration, resentment and bitterness, storing up trouble for the future. An elderly couple get brutally murdered in their home, some possessions stolen and we ask “Why?” We ask our politicians for more police to patrol the streets and we buy extra locks for our doors and windows. This is the law of self preservation but it is also the way in which societies become divided and people become isolated. However if we are to advance, shouldn’t we find ways of overcoming these separations and find ways for outsiders to become insiders. Does this sound utopian? Of course, but Utopia does not exist nor indeed heaven on earth if no one believes it can; just as most people now believe a Creator played no part in our creation. Strange how we can get our young children to believe in Santa Claus and good fairies and yet fail to believe themselves that such goodness can occur in reality.
One lopsided world
Einstein put it this way, “This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.” Or to put it another way, this is a kind of selfishness which beleaguers our humanity. Our greatest problem is that we always view things only from our own perspective, an isolated view but this has a habit of rebounding on us. We expect politicians to only act for us, as if we are the only ones who really count but the more the politicians act for one group in society, the less they act for others and so an imbalanced society develops. What’s more the richer one nation gets, the poorer others get in comparison, making a lopsided world. We cannot however afford to have a lopsided world because it creates imbalance, resentment, hatred and acts of revenge which we call terrorism, and as a consequence these inequalities poison our development as a species.  We already have a lopsided world because the top few percent in many countries hold the majority of the wealth, meanwhile the poorest are only getting poorer. Yet people also know that great wealth doesn’t buy even greater happiness but still they only desire more and more. Of course such inequalities have existed for millennia but it doesn’t make it any more right, in fact what it does demonstrate is man’s tendency toward selfishness and greed. However, our greatest problem isn’t selfishness or greed, it’s our belief that we are all separate from one another and that we are all responsible for our own survival and wellbeing – the selfish gene theory. When men and women start to see each other in oneness with each other, then everything starts to change.
Throughout history, religious leaders told us to believe in God, about wrongdoing (sin), about love and about a life hereafter and now government leaders tell us to believe in the free market economy, market forces and democracy; scientists also tell us to believe in the evolution of our species, the Big Bang and in how our genes and DNA work. And believe we do, at least in part but how many of us really question what is important and what is true? The fact is we are so surrounded by knowledge coming to us from all directions that it is quite difficult to know what is the truth; especially if one listens to what politicians say. And so what should we listen to? Well the inner voice is a start, the one that tells us we’d be much happier if this or that happened in our lives. The one that tells us that life could be much better if only we had a better job, a better relationship or more opportunities to excel. This is the same quiet voice which urges us to do our best and stand by our principles and values. We need to recognise that we are all drawn toward creating better lives for ourselves, surpassing our current state of being. We are like flowers yearning to grow in dense undergrowth, always reaching higher to find the sunlight and glory. Of course many people use their work as a way of satisfying this need but for many others, work is too rigid and restricting for any real self development and expression.
Yearning to excel
This need to better ourselves is a universal human desire and is central to our evolution; not only for individuals but as a race of people combined, however too often rigid systems and beliefs deny us this growth and so we settle for stagnation. Many people for example don’t believe they can aspire to great things. They believe that it is their role just to try and do their best but never excel in anything in particular. However, this is a misconception and misunderstanding of one’s true being and purpose, for each one of us has the same desire and potential to shine and stand out but few ever get the opportunity. It is our natural desire to feel special and when we excel at something we feel extra special. Deep in everyone’s heart is the yearning to shine but for most this desire is well and truly locked away. However, it is not wrong to stand out and shine, if we do it with all humility. Our true nature is that of a flower reaching upwards to open its petals to the majestic rays of the sun, so too we have that same desire, except we yearn to bring ourselves up to a higher level of achievement and satisfaction. There is though another step over and above this and this is of greater understanding and awareness about life, or to put it another way, a higher level of consciousness – to become an ‘Awakened One.’ This might seem a high and lofty notion but we need to recognise that what prevents most people from excelling is not their lack of ability or their lack of desire but the society and environment in which they live. We only need to look at nature again to see this; a flower planted in poor conditions will never thrive but one planted in perfect conditions always will. Just consider how much a child can excel if sent to the best school compared to one sent to the worst? The great advantage we have over flowers is that we can help to change the environment in which we reside but a flower can’t. Each man, woman and child on this earth yearns to excel and this is the true beauty of life – that we can.
Fat cats at the troth
Life is about growth and challenge, about surpassing what we ordinarily think we can achieve but where to begin? Well, the answer is we have all begun the journey and we are all on the path to discovering who we truly are, except that some are more aware than others. The stage that many people get stuck at is realising their true potential, they see others around them who appear to shine brighter, bolder, stronger and feel diminished because of this. The crucial thing to know however is that the greatest power is the power of love and it is love which resides in the heart of us all. Why is love the greatest power? Because it is love which heals and it is love which brings out the best in us all. Consider how much a child flourishes when loved. Love at its highest level is bliss, pure delight and who doesn’t want that? Love in its truest sense banishes our fears and drives away our sorrows, and we can all imagine what life must be like to feel this. But how can we put love into action and earn a good living, I hear you ask? Well the answer is to love what you do and that doesn’t mean being obsessional about it to cost of all else, it means loving what you do and letting that loving generosity overflow from your work to influence others. There is far too much cheating, defrauding and downright bad practice around in business today and all for what? Just to make more money, more profit, so that people can stroke their own egos when self imposed targets are met. Yes, it’s great to have lots of money and lots of possessions but is this really what life is all about? Does it make us better people and help to create a better world? It is time that we realised that we can act in different ways, rather than just in ways of pure self interest and that means in all areas of life including business. Do we want fairer and more just societies or are imbalance and inequality totally acceptable, indeed necessary? Are we really happy with Darwin’s theory that survival of the fittest is man’s destiny, that the strongest, the most aggressive and the bullies will always dominate, and are we condemned to Richard Dawkins’ view of the inherent selfish gene in man? If we follow their train of thought then mankind cannot change itself for the better and we’re doomed to its own fate. While the fat cats get fatter, feeding at the troth, there will be less room for others and then as countries become more aggressive over shrinking resources, the outcome is plainly obvious.
The Golden Rule
Already we see a battle of ideology between the wealthy ‘Christian’ countries and the poorer ‘Muslim’ countries and the consequences are serious conflict, with terrorist acts now rife. Do we really believe that our governments can stamp this out, that they are capable of creating a safe world when their ideology is to create greater wealth for their citizens and damn the rest? These so-called Christian countries however do not follow the teachings of the originator of that faith, that we “should love our neighbour as ourselves,” treat people equally to ourselves. And it wasn’t just Jesus who said words like this. Confucius from ancient China said "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself." And Laozi, founder of Taoism said "Regard your neighbour's gain as your own gain, and your neighbour's loss as your own loss." This is known as The Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity and can be found as a key tenet in many religions and belief systems. This is the ‘oneness’ I mentioned previously. We are more the same than we are different and we need to think about this. Yes, we look and act differently, and we will of course have different thoughts but these thoughts only give us an impression of being separate, it is an illusion. There is now a rising level of understanding in the scientific world that we share a unified field of consciousness and this is because everything is energy and everything is oneness. John Hagelin Ph D, professor of physics, explains it thus when talking about Consciousness & Superstring Unified Field Theory, “The deeper you go in the structure of natural law, the less material, the less inert, the less dead it becomes and the more alive, the more conscious it becomes… the foundation of the universe is pure being, pure intelligence….an ocean of potentiality.” He also says this “All life is fundamentally one, at the basis of life’s diversity, there is unity, at our basis, you and I are one.” This is quite remarkable and has deep significance for us all. Now science is showing us that everything is one thing which means what we do to that which is around us, we do to ourselves. If I cause harm to another, I cause harm to myself too; which is why the Golden Rule states we should treat others as we ourselves would like to be treated, not just because it’s good for them but equally good for us. What’s more if we damage the environment, which we are doing, we damage ourselves and will make ourselves ill, which can explain why there are so many cancers and illnesses around. We pollute the atmosphere from which we breath and so it is no wonder we get sick.
An ocean of consciousness
This new thinking as demonstrated by John Hagelin has profound consequences for us because it means that if the universe is “pure intelligence,” then we can communicate with it, just as if we were saying our prayers to God. We are not bounded by our physical selves but are connected to all. Christians have for so long told us that prayer works and now science is coming to the same understanding. What this means is that the energy we create, whether positive or negative becomes part of the whole. Therefore if we create negative energy through negative thinking, it gets absorbed into the world around us but more than this, it comes back to us. Which is why people who think negatively don’t get the good things they want from life. Correspondingly, those who think positively, their positive energy gets absorbed into the world and then comes back to them. We all know that positive thoughts get us the things we want in life but now we can understand why, because we are part of an “ocean of consciousness” and “pure intelligence.” If we can see ourselves as not separate physical beings but all part of the unified field of consciousness, then we can start to see life in a whole new different way. Science is now revealing new areas of reality and as a consequence is expanding our awareness and ability to know ourselves and our place in this world. This knowledge empowers us greatly. We don’t just have to be passive observers but can be active participants in our own evolution.
Whether you chose to believe in this or whether you prefer to believe in the long held beliefs that we live in a solid form, which only has limited interaction with others, such as conversation and touch, it is up to you but you need to be cognisant to the fact that where the mind goes, the body follows and there is no escaping this. What you think shapes who you are and also shapes the life you lead. This is the wonderful fact about life that we can create of it what we will but we need to be aware that more often than not, it is the will of others which prevails, but only because we allow it.
And finally… search for your own answers and your own truth. Siddhārta Gautama – the first Buddha said this – “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”