The meaning of life.

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Originally posted by rodwsmith:

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Originally posted by erik scothron:
If you could find something in the bible to support your belief I would not be surprised because your belief does not hold up to close scrutiny

To pissed to be bothered

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If wine were a true cause of happiness then the more wine you drank the more happy you would become.

It's working so far though...

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...
quickly turns to it's opposite.

I take your tautological "koi carp", er, carp, and raise you one ropey apostrophe. Your turn

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...even reading Fritz's Posts

Surely even Fritz has never made such a claim?

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Regards,

Erik (just having a laugh innit*)

Wholly reciprocated. Cheers.

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Erik the pedant drinking a nice cabernet sauvignon from Chile.

Then you shall die of hideous poisoning. Apparently (see other thread).

Rod

LOL - Nice one - good comeback. More duelling later.

I though about this today. I think the meaning of life, for me, is to love people...

It is the only thing I find helps, apart from music. Fredrik

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Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
I though about this today. I think the meaning of life, for me, is to love people...

It is the only thing I find helps, apart from music. Fredrik

Fredrik,

Nicely said. I think that if we genuinely love people (I mean love as in care about them and care for them) without attachment it is a wonderful defense against all kinds of suffering. I have nothing but the fondest memory of my ex-wife who caused me almost unbearable heartbreak. I learnt I did not have to be with her to love her and although I have not seen her in 12 years I wish her well and have no negative feelings towards her at all. Or indeed for anyone else for that matter. For a long time I could not forgive her but eventually I realised that not forgiving her only hurt me. Even so at first I struggled because I thought she did not deserve to be forgiven but finally I realised this - forgiveness is not just a gift you give to someone else - it is a gift you give yourself!

There are many other ways of moving on from hearbreak. The Christian way I guess lies is forgiveness and if genuinely applied will result in a diminishing of bitterness, hurt and resentment. There are perhaps 21 Buddhist ways I can think of but the end result is largely the same. How wonderful to be free from such crippling baggage. This life really is too short and when our times comes to die how nice to have made our peace with the world, but better we make that peace sooner rather than later as who knows when we will die? It maybe be tomorrow. There are no guarantees it will be otherwise. If you just love people you cannot possibly go wrong in the world.

All the best,

Erik

Dear Erik,

I think you already knew what I meant, and you expressed it beautifully, - without attatchment, but certainly with loyalty.

I have to work on forgiveness at least with my late father, who did not see eye to eye with me for thirty odd years, and then disobligingly died. I tried to make peace six weeks before, but he was so obnoxious, that I reminded him of the time he called me a little bastard. Not calculated to smooth an already volatile situation, but there it was. But I unfortunately really let fly. I told him that I wished he had been right. I need to forgive him for being so absolutely horrible to me from about the age of nine to about thirty eight. And somehow get over how I could have been so cruel back at so much the wrong time. It is the only truely hateful thing I ever really said to anyone. Both my parents told me I was a regreatble accident in the course of a rather unhappy childhood, and so I became very attatched to the headmaster and mistress of my prep-school. They became parents by my own adoption in a manner, and probably taught me how to love without demanding anything. They were great people. Without them I would have crumbled into self-pity by now.

The other really good people in my life, both dead were my Norwegian grandparents, who were not at all what you have expected from people of that generation. Maybe a bit stiff and formal, but that gradually went till we were as equals, in my young adulthood.

So where does one go to find soul-mates like these? I don't think one does... One becomes the senior figure and satisfying it is in a manner, but draining sometimes when one sees one's own errors repeated in spite of the warning advice. I wish some one had been there on many occasions to be what I try to be for the people I love. BUT the love it is returned, and that is something inexplicably strengthening to me. I have never lost a friend, as such.

All the best from Fredrik

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without attatchment, but certainly with loyalty.

Life sucks - I just had a tyre puncture. How would you deal with THAT, Buddhist Erik??

Steve

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Originally posted by Yo-yo Master:
Life sucks - I just had a tyre puncture. How would you deal with THAT, Buddhist Erik??

Steve

Get the wife to change it for me?

Celebrate, for the tyre has achieved emptiness?
David

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Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
I though about this today. I think the meaning of life, for me, is to love people...

It is the only thing I find helps, apart from music. Fredrik

Have you tired copious alcohol and/or mind-altering drugs?

EW

Yes and no, respectively. The first did not work, even in the very short run. Ever thought how awful you can feel before you go to sleep, if you have a skin full in the wrong mood?

Second idea, never appealed. I have seen the result of it.

Mind you pheno-barbitone seems quite an appealing idea in one very large dose! Only kidding! I grew up in the countryside, where 'put it down' means something completely different, so I know what it is used for].

All the best from Fredrik

It breaks my heart to see children with leukemia, so I make sure that when I give to charities, they are among them.
Imagine if you had a child that had leukemia, or anything else for that matter. You would pray and pray for them to get better and you would without hesitation swap places with them if you could, take the illness from them so they can have a life. Imagine that your praying worked and your child recovered; how could that be? It could be that reality was changed somehow and the clocks turned back so your child didn't have leukemia in the first place. Well, that's me. My children don't have leukemia - or anything else, and I am so eternally grateful for that and I'm so excited that we have a life together from here onwwards, whereas other people may not have that. You don't have to look over the edge to realise what you have, if you just think about it.
I do truly think I am the luckiest person I know, and I never forget that.

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Originally posted by NaimDropper:
Celebrate, for the tyre has achieved emptiness?
David

Hardly.

However if re-cycled it could be a re-born as 10 pairs of rubber gloves.

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Originally posted by Rasher:

I do truly think I am the luckiest person I know, and I never forget that.

Hi Rasher,

Yes, if we count our blessings it is very difficult to be anything other than happy. Most of us have it way better than many others even if we don't think so. Realisng this is a step in the right direction I think.

Regards,

Erik

This thread's a waste of a life.

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Originally posted by Tarquin Maynard-Portly:
Children are the greatest gift.

To whom? You or them?

All too often one hears about people who "want to have children", like they're some kind of fashion accessory as a minimum, or a supreme avenue of pleasure as maximum; the fact that it involves condemning an as yet unborn person to life hardly seems to enter into it.

I don't think people really think about the consequences of their actions when they set about breeding. How any thinking person can look at the world and the reality of human life and decide that procreation is an honourable course of action beats me; personally, I know I'd never be able to forgive myself.

EW

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Originally posted by rackkit:
This thread's a waste of a life.

and your post a waste of space

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Originally posted by Earwicker:

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Originally posted by Tarquin Maynard-Portly:
Children are the greatest gift.

To whom? You or them?

All too often one hears about people who "want to have children", like they're some kind of fashion accessory as a minimum, or a supreme avenue of pleasure as maximum; the fact that it involves condemning an as yet unborn person to life hardly seems to enter into it.

I don't think people really think about the consequences of their actions when they set about breeding. How any thinking person can look at the world and the reality of human life and decide that procreation is an honourable course of action beats me; personally, I know I'd never be able to forgive myself.

EW

EW,

I must admit I see both yours and TMP's view in equal measure and can never quite make up my mind about either. One thing I find strange is the firmly held (and totally unexamined view imo) that NOT having children is selfish. Do these people think that 'our' children are sitting locked up in a prison just waiting to be released through birth? If people loved children so much why are they so rarely interested in adopting them? I think peoples motives for doing anything are often (if not always)mixed and that one's decision to do anything is in part selfish and part the opposite and all kinds of flavours in between. I think the motive 'I just wanted to have kids to give them what I never had' is dubious to say the least.

Regards,

Erik

We wouldn't have much of a future really would we, with no children around.

Just (another) thought!

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Originally posted by Earwicker:
I don't think people really think about the consequences of their actions when they set about breeding. How any thinking person can look at the world and the reality of human life and decide that procreation is an honourable course of action beats me; personally, I know I'd never be able to forgive myself.

It is true that we have to consider the type of world that we bring our children into and I have thought the same way in the past, but the world has always been a dangerous place. Look at the suffering during WW1 and then again so soon with WW2. Then there was slavery, smog, no modern medicine etc etc. Perhaps amongst our children will be the one person to rescue the world from self-destruction, but more likely they might be the person to bring freindship and love to just a few. That's enough though; that's all you need. I think to change the emphasis from "Life out there" to "Life in here" makes things managable and more relevant to our lives. No one person carries the responsibilities of the whole world, but collectively if we manage our own little area, the whole thing may one day add up to to enough to influence the "Life out there" scenario, and if it doesn't, then the "Life in here" is good enough anyway. Life can be a real blast, but it does come with a 100% mortality rate, whatever you do with it.

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Originally posted by erik scothron:

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Originally posted by rackkit:
This thread's a waste of a life.

and your post a waste of space

Dry yer eyes.

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Originally posted by Tarquin Maynard-Portly:
Children are the greatest gift.


M

Can I give you my teenagers?

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Originally posted by erik scothron:
One thing I find strange is the firmly held (and totally unexamined view imo) that NOT having children is selfish. Do these people think that 'our' children are sitting locked up in a prison just waiting to be released through birth?

Well quite. That's the point I'm making to T.M-P: I've yet to hear ANYONE say they want to have kids for the sake of the kids; reproduction is something people do to make themselves happy, and hang the consequences.

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Originally posted by Rasher:
[..]we have to consider the type of world that we bring our children into [... ]

Yes, I'd say that was a plan.

EW

The desire to have children is wholly selfish both from a genetic imperative and, probably a rationalisation of that, from a cultural imperative that having children is the right thing to do.

And what would be so terrible if the human race were to become extinct - it is almost certain to do so eventually anyway.

Nigel - I was trying to keep science out of it for a change, but I entirely agree.

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And what would be so terrible if the human race were to become extinct - it is almost certain to do so eventually anyway.

Nigel,

Actually Nigel, On a point of pedentry (you know me)if the entire human race were to become extinct there would be nobody left for it to feel 'terrible' too and in that sense it would not be a tragedy at all and I am sure Gaia would be mightly relieved. In any event our consciousness would not be extinct.

Yours (mischievously)

Erik