Meaning of life

Some time or other, we all face this question from deep within…. …

May be in verbal or non verbal form……

“What is all this about?... this life, my life, the life around?.....” etc…

When I try to answer such questions on the Yahoo Answers forum, I try to re-look at it afresh, each time, and then try to answer. If the answer repeats/replicates/refreshes each time, or if it improves, innovates, invigorates each time, the experience, for me at least, is afresh.

( A cousin of mine, more importantly a co-traveler on the spiritual path, happened to remind me the famous observation by the eminent scientist Dr. Albert Einstein, that during any experiment, the observer, by mere reason of observing, happens to affect the experiment to some extent. That is to say, the subject and the object are bound to be entangled, in some subtle way at least. That gives good reasons for me to believe that my efforts or commitment to look at the answer afresh would justify the attempts and the efforts! The impressive teachers who came along my path, have inspired me by their successes in doing thus!).

All this elaboration so far, has nothing to do with the actual meaning of life. And yet, I had thought of writing it because of the very nature of the concept of the answer that I had thought of offering. This answer is from my own experience, observation, and contemplation so far.

I felt amply rewarded that the asker was impressed.

Psn(30^th May, 2011)

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110527071857AAIYBQo

What is the meaning of life?Answer carefully..?

I mean 99% of the people do the same thing from birth to death...they find a job,then marry and have children,work and make money,then retire and then finally die..what is the meaning of life if everyone from one generation to another do the same thing ..isn't there any variety??Do you think everyone knows about this?Isn't there any life other than this??
See i'm also following the above rule..but i'm just curious why god created humans in earth??to follow the same path from generation to generation??do you think humans failed to understand the meaning of life??

My answer:

Even that "answering carefully" might not really help. For answering, we use only our power of reasoning, the logic, the mind. Our ideas, our concepts, the reasoning, is just everything that we got from outside, by looking, hearing, listening, etc. And what we look, listen etc is just what "people do the same thing from birth to death".....
Instead, if we look at why this question occurs.... it takes us a bit deeper inside. There is no where else to seek the "why" and "where from" of this question. What makes us search for the "true" purpose of life? Who within us, is so keen to know the purpose of life. The mind, if we care to see logically, is simply not capable of understanding the purpose of life. A robot cannot understand the purpose of creating it.. Maybe it may repeat a program, when we 'feed' the purpose as a data. That is exactly what human mind also does when trying to answer this question "carefully". The "carefulness" makes the search very intense, sincere and the result would also match complexity beyond average level of intelligence!
Instead, we have evidence that it is the "unlettered" ones who constitute the bulk of enlightened people! The reason is simple. They are not even capable of 'complicating' it in a sophisticated manner like the 'literate giants'! Quite ironical. But there can be exceptions. If we choose to be consciously exceptional, then we have to be prepared to take exceptional efforts too. Silencing the mind consciously is the way. When the mind is silent, the first thing that can happen is we come into 'touch' with existence! The whole existence is happening now, here, this moment, and we are always in the past, since our mind CAN ONLY BE in the past.
Many have "experienced" the purpose or meaning of life, when they came into contact with the core of their being (the self which is not the body, mind, etc, but that which holds the body and mind).
Just as we "see" everything around clearly when we switch on the lights, the purpose/meaning of "life" becomes instantly clear when we become consciously aware of our own self. Till then, we have to keep depending on ideas, ideas, ideas, and keep renewing them endlessly(For, they begin to seem stale very soon!).

Feeling Ugly

I was quite surprised to see an old answer of mine getting a ‘thumps up’ now!

There was a very good question from an asker who felt both , ugly and ‘good’ about oneself, at different times.

The question was about the ‘feeling’ itself, irrespective of ‘tangible reality’.

This does happen to most teenagers. And the girls usually get caught up in the situation, the outside situation, and thereby, grossly miss the greatest “benediction” that mother nature had showered upon here by mere reason of her being a female! The ‘body-awareness’ is thrust upon her, especially during the teenage. If only there is someone around who would gently guide this teenage girl into delving further deeper into herself, beyond the body, at that well-timed ‘period’, the spiritual awareness can dawn much more effortlessly!

This was the question:

Quote:

Why do I feel ugly somedays and attractive on others?When will I stop feeling like this?

i'm 19 so i guess its normal but when will it end? there will be a period of time when i feel attractive and confident then the next i feel ugly as hell and really self conscious about my appearance starting with my big lips and being skinny. i hate feeling that way i just want to feel comfortable.

Unquote:

I did not lose the chance to ‘address’ the mind of the asker. I was amply rewarded with the asker’s kind comments.

I had let it rest at that, there.

But somehow, when that thumbs-up came up, I felt tempted to share it with yet others here.

(The first use of “thumPs” is a bit intentional. I was amused to see a ‘seal’ –a rubber stamp—at a document-registrar’s office declaring it to be “thump impression” of so-and-so. That made me realize , “what a THUMPING” majority we are, the electorate of our country, and the elected ones too, till recently! I did mention it to the ‘concerned’ person there to get the error rectified, offering even, to replace the rubber seal at my expense, since they know ‘only how to receive’ but are yet to learn to spend! The response was however ‘on expected lines’….. )

psn(29^th May, 2011)

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmwSixTq2i8AJXG0KWpftqaQHQx.;_ylv=3?qid=20071222170005AA9G56J

My answer:

Oh! The mind and the body are indeed related.
Please see, when we get some very bad news, the mind instantly triggers a chemical change right upto our stomach, and despite intense hunger, we simply cannot eat even a morsel of food, and if somebody forces it down our throat, we might vomit.
We have to now consciously 'cultivate' the thought process such that it keeps the body chemistry 'positive' at all times, and creates that 'feel good factor', and makes us feel attractive.
It is our own body chemistry that matters more than the features, looks etc, that makes us attractive. That is why many film actors do not seem to attract a large fan-following despite being gifted with good-looking features, where as some 'ordinary-looking' actors have that tremendous mass-appeal!

Mental Peace

I do not know how this can happen! As long there is a mind, there can be no peace. Mind finds its existence itself in its very activity. But people refer to a confusion, and when they want it to ‘settle’ down, they want the ‘confusion’ itself to settle down. Maybe, that is how the word got coined. No problem. As long as we are able to understand it the way the other person does, it is communication indeed. (And there is another word “mental”. Some people are referred to as “He/she is …….. ‘a mental’….”).

The question comes up very often. I did not face this question from my within, when I confronted it for the first time. But it was posed to me as my problem. Or rather, through this question, I had become THE problem! “Will you allow me SOME mental peace at least FOR A WHILE” was what they asked of me, when I was a kid! And, I, in all innocence, set about wondering how I could do it. Already I had posed several embarrassing questions that could not have evaporated all at once from the mind of the other person, and how was I going to ‘undo’ my misdeed all of a sudden and that too ‘for a while’!

(May be, that is how, I even got ‘initiated’, as a kid, into the process of ‘experiencing’ that subtle level of ‘empathy’ into the ‘mental’ pain of others!). Quite funnily enough, there was yet more baffling declaration from womenfolk who were my elders around me, during the kid days. They used to say “You are taking away my life!”. Now, I was pushed into taking into account the two things together…. “Giving” some mental peace, and “not taking” away the other’s life! At that innocent age, the solution was too simple. Just avoid getting into their way. Still better, ‘oblige’ them doing things ONLY their way. Well, it was only for a while. I was back into my own agenda, taking more care this time, to avoid being ‘conspicuous’. That is how I could formulate the idea of ‘mystic’ way of doing things! (The initiation into it took place much later only, of course!).

These kind of instances happen to almost all people during their kid days. Nothing very special(about it). Only the memories are very special, simply because it was an intense experience, bereft of any ‘attachments’ then! It is fortunate, if also, the concepts stay back within us. My experience is that it does help to evolve into deeper spiritual concepts.

For some reason, I was tempted to take up an ‘ordinary looking question’ about ‘mental peace’. There was a nice ‘catch’ when the asker posed a condition about forgetting love, affection and relations.

Psn(29^th May, 2011)

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110527211339AAUcXth

How to attain mental peace?

How one can attain mental peace ? A state of mind when one did not feel sad and remain always pleased. Is it necessary to forget about all love affection and relations to achieve this state?

My answer:

A child is already at mental peace.
An animal is already at mental peace.
Both these worry only when basic wants become urgent.
We seldom lose that mental peace for basic wants. The bulk of quarrel all over the world is not for basic necessities.
But, the child and the animal do not have that deep level of self awareness. That is the difference. So their peace also is not retained at will.
Love, affection and relations do not cause disturbance to mental peace if we do not put conditions. Please see, "unconditional" love, affection or relationship does not "expect" anything in return. When there is no expectation (or very little of it), the inner peace is free from outside situation. Outside situation is never at the control of any individual. We know this. But we do not "maintain" the awareness when there is a mismatch between what we 'like' and what the outside situation happens to be at a given point of time. That alone disturbs the mental peace. Nothing else. Everyone knows, becoming angry reduces intelligence during that period. But when already angry, this 'knowing' is not really maintained.

Freeze-Response

“Freeze” is the word used by the police and the villains “alike” when they try to take full control over a person (as we see in movies too!).

But what if, a person needlessly responds with a ‘freeze’ at all occasions? A kid learns hard the lessons, and when the question paper is given out in the exam hall, the first unwitting response is a ‘freeze’ that chills the fingers holding the question paper, the known answers seem to just evaporate into thin air! The better response would have been to fight or ‘flight-from-question, using choice of any-five out of ten’ etc. Such better-responding students manage to ‘cook’ up some answer, using a few “key” words from here and there, and manage to squeeze out a few ‘grace’ marks at least, and boost up the aggregate marks to a ‘respectable’ score overall! That ‘freezing’ kid ends up scoring a bit lesser than the marks actually deserved for the intense study, hard work, and the knowledge acquired all through! (Good reputed organizations have excellent HR tools, which identify such “average-scorers-due to-freeze response”, and hire them at a lesser cost, and then ‘squeeze’ out the better productivity in a “cost-effective” way, and pocket the residual profits!). This fight-flight candidate learns the art of ‘managing well’ with ‘available-gimmicks’ and ends up as a good ‘marketing’ executive, pockets a tidy sum, climbing up the business ladder. These are generalized examples, to illustrate the pattern of fall outs. In real life, other aspects also affect the attitude, situations vary and so also the results.

Why a few of us ‘freeze’ was the question. It is not often that we find such a deep question. Even those who are experts at fight-flight responses, do freeze when “confronted inadvertently” with spiritual-related situations/issues in their lives! That is when they “really” realize that they were “really” never free from a deep-lying “freeze” response system within! Someday, everybody might have to concede, that those who manage to avoid a freeze-response to spiritual aspect of life are fortunate, and if from an early life, then it is “very very” fortunate!

(There was even a saying, “If you find suddenly that you are surrounded by “too many” friends, start telling them your problems, worries etc, and in no time, they would all vanish. Those who still stay back are true friends!” This is one advantage of using the ‘freeze’ tactics on others!)

psn(6^th May, 2011)

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110505182725AAvzQXM

Why do I freeze when I'm scared instead of using my fight or flight response?

Well basically the question explains it, I've noticed when I get scared I just freeze...I don't flee or fight...why?

My answer:

At cellular levels, the early responses as a child become impulses, instincts and then habits. It starts right from within the womb. (For example, there was a story of an instance where a doctor treating a pregnant woman had to induce a slight burn injury at the abdomen of the woman, to make the child withdraw its limb and stay crouched tight in the womb, instead of stretching out the limb and causing discomfort to the mother. As a kid, when we "experience" a burn injury, we 'withdraw' our affected part from the source of pain, also like during an electric shock).

Over a period of time, if there is a significant absence of 'instances-to-learn-from' to also stay back and fight or to run away, our response system gets habituated to withdrawal. And, freezing is the process. A tortoise withdraws its limbs inwards when it senses danger (it can neither run or fight... its hard shell is the only defense).

Providing examples and varieties of response-systems constitutes a very significant aspect of training a child. (A typical example would be, a person "thinking" of HOW TO STOP THIS TURBULENT MIGHTY RIVER, and then conceiving the idea of building a dam, instead of just helplessly watching like others, the floods swallowing lives, and material for years, ages, centuries! ). The very Education System has to take care of this aspect. Freezing is not necessarily an act of fear, or cowardice. But that is what logic would try to tell us 'instantly' (For example, a soldier, who infiltrates into enemy area to reach the center-most point would 'freeze' momentarily, to escape notice by a guard passing by, to avoid catching attention half way, and to avoid abort of "mission" half way! The clue is, these responses are wonderful, when we do it consciously, in full awareness, and good alertness EACH time!

A good question. The purpose of the question has a very deep and wide reach. Thanks!

Linguistic Impact

We often recognise the mother tongue of a person from the accent in which some other language is spoken.

Way beyond that, we also see the impact of the language, especially the colloquial in vogue, which affects the attitude to some significant extent. Typically, when two people who speak the same native tongue meet at an ‘off-site’ location the compatibility levels are far better when they speak the local language, instead of their common mother tongue. There is mix of contrast in this aspect. They do rejoice having seen somebody who speaks their mother tongue, but such joy is short lived, and should be spanned if it is to last, not on a cohabitation-basis. That is exactly the point. Exceptions are always there.

It was perhaps under this backdrop that a wonderful question caught my attention.

There was a deeper twist to the question. It was about the “cognitive process” ….. being ‘affected’ by the language, the mother tongue in particular. We cannot rule out entirely the relevance of the question, especially when we find the ‘Urdu’ language, which by itself induces certain grace amidst the speakers, especially the ones skilled at the language. This language is able to effortlessly express certain subtle emotions leaving the bulk of many prominent global languages languishing behind, in its competition. Even a simple work like ‘Thanks’ finds direct translation only in Urdu, to its perfection. It is not about trying to compare and elevate one language by devaluing another. Each language has many unique characteristics, which makes it incomparable. For instance, Telugu is considered the sweetest. The best and bulk of musical compositions (Carnatic classical) are found in Telugu language only. Similarly, Tamil has only light consonants, which makes it the only language that can be loudly spoken by a lady even during the advanced stage of pregnancy!

So, it was the “process” of cognition that needed attention. Obviously perception and its levels was what the question tried to address.

PSN(5^TH May, 2011)

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110428165413AAqtxzp

Are our cognitive processes affected by our mother language?

My reply:

Cognitive processes get 'conditioned' over a period of time, due to deterioration in the perception levels.
Perception deteriorates due to preoccupied mind. Babies are at the peak of cognitive processes upto the age of 2 at least. The question occurs because the language is picked up around the age of 2 and onwards, and then on the cognition percentage drops gently but steadily. It is not the language by itself, but the conditioning of mind into which the language drives a person. Cognition is the function of the intellect, which by itself, and importantly, when left to itself, is at peak levels. For example, the cognition of gravity happened when the mind was relaxed, silent but alert, when the eyes saw the apple fall. The lid of the tea kettle blew up due to steam pressure, and we got the locomotives. The water overflowed displacing the odd-sized, odd-dimensioned body immersed in the bath tub, and there was "Eureka" (the famous ratio between mass and volume!). All these are demonstrable examples of excellent 'cognition processes, not affected by language, because when the mind is silent, alert and relaxed, language has no scope to interfere (not even the verbal thought processes)