Is there a definitive answer here?

Is there a definitive answer to the age old question “what is the meaning of life?” The only real answer to this connundrum is that life will always take on the meaning you give to it.

We live in a responsive yet unpredetermined universe. Our choices and actions determine the consequences. To blame God or anyone or anything else in life for what happens is to take no responsibility for ourselves. When we do this we make excuses and to justify our positions we make judgments based on moral and other contextual definitions.

Definitions are tools of the mind. They are how the mind classifies everything it experiences. Definitions are only words. Words per se are a limited and clumsy way of trying to convey some sense of what is being subjectively experienced by the experiencer. The very experience itself is a form of classification and limitation.

The most basic definition used is whether something is either “good” or “bad”. Now both of these definitions are reliant upon our attitudes. In reality there is no good or bad.  It is just what it is! Anything more than that is just contextual. Continue reading

Paradoxically speaking

A paradox is a statement which contains some truth that contradicts itself.

Life itself is a paradox – no sooner than we are born we begin to die! In each moment we draw breath and inhale life sustaining oxygen and then in the next moment we exhale life reducing carbon dioxide.

Some examples of paradoxes:

  • to truly live we must first die to ourselves
  • boredom is the first step to living an exciting life
  • happiness can only be found when you don’t look for it
  • desire will only lead to dissatisfication
  • when we attempt to rationalise our existence the less meaning we find Continue reading

Self-less or Self-ish?

Who or what is a ‘self’?

Our language is full of references to him/her self, me/myself, our/ourselves, them/theirselves and so on…..

At first glance we could be mistaken for thinking that a ‘self’ is a tangible entity. Yet if we force ‘ourselves’ (another paradox) to try and locate the ‘self’ we discover just how elusive it really is!

A ‘self’ on a general level seems to be a useful name to give to a conglomeration of unique parts that together make up our separate individual identities.It is also known as the ‘Egoic Self’.

When we consider who our unique ‘self’ is we are faced with a daunting task. Continue reading

When life comes knocking

When life comes to us the way that nature wanted us to be we are often not at home! Our destiny knows our name and where we live but we are always somewhere else.

We have become distracted!

We have lost touch with our authentic selves. We choose to ignore our unique gifts and instead follow paths chosen for us by others. We are scared to shine our light. We live false lives and wonder why we are not happy.

Unless you find your thing, mojo (to quote Austin Powers) or inner flame you will never be content and happy. There will always be something missing. Continue reading

In Pursuit of Happyness

This was the title of an inspiring movie starring Will Smith which recounted the true life story of a young man (Chris Gardener) and his son’s struggle to find success and happiness. The story ended on high note with the man achieving his goal of becoming a successful and well paid stock broker.

This story is an affirmation of the notions enshrined in the American Constitution which include the “freedom to pursue happiness”.

“If you are in pursuit of happiness one thing is certain: you are not going to get it. Happiness is always a by-product. It is not the product of direct pursuit” – Osho.

I think this means that happiness is not something that can be pursued. It is something that just happens-on-in when we are being our selves.

I am certain though this was not the end of the Chris Gardener story and that any happy-ness he experienced would have been short lived not because I’m a doom and gloom merchant but just because that is how life is.

We float between the dualities of happiness, unhappiness, pleasure and pain because we are always looking to feel complete through identification with our ‘unreal’ selves. We are already that which we search for. We move away from our essence when we align ourselves with fabricated identities and in so doing create unhappiness for our unreal ‘selves’. Continue reading

The Dis-ease of Seriousness

Lets start by considering the following definitions:

“Serious” – earnest, deep thought, grave, sober, solemn.

“Light-hearted” – cheerful, carefree, happy, untroubled, free from anxiety or seriousness, hopeful, easygoing.

It is interesting to note that being serious requires you to be deep in thought. I have in previous articles touched on the consequences of too much focus on and ownership of the myriads of thoughts that pass through our minds on a daily basis.

There is a tendency to believe that we are what we think. Whereas the contrary is true – we are the observer or witness to these thoughts and as such have the choice over what we focus our attention on. Continue reading

The Price of Expectation

We seem to spend alot of our lives in expectation – expecting the worst, expecting the best, expecting the future we have always dreamed of , expecting success and expecting all manner of things.

What is of more concern is that when we do actually achieve these things we realise that they haven’t brought with them the happiness, sense of satisfaction, the meaning and the purpose we expected that they would.

When we live our lives in a state of constant expectancy we miss the adventure and mystery of the unknown. We are scared to act spontaneously in case we get it wrong. The reality is that there is no right or wrong only choices, actions and consequences. Continue reading

Mind Waves – An Inevitable Part of The Ocean of Our Being

I was reminded this morning as I rode the train to work and observed how beautifully calm Wellington Harbour was how similar our minds can be when we are calm and centred.

The converse can also be true. Some mornings as I make the  same trip the Harbour is choppy and the water disturbed. Similarly some days my mind can be anxious and disturbed.

The key understanding here is not whether we can control the weather in our minds but more importantly whether we can still remain calm and centred in our essential “Being” regardless of the weather  outside. Continue reading

Jail “Bra’s” woman Lawyer!

Attorney Brittney Horstman was not packing heat.

She was wearing an underwire bra.

And when the metal detector went off on a visit to the Miami Federal Detention Center, security guards wouldn’t let Horstman in to see her client.

The attorney reminded guards of a detention center “memo” allowing female attorneys wearing an underwire bra to enter. But the guards would not relent.

Horstman stepped into a bathroom and removed her bra. In blouse and jacket, she returned, and cleared the walk-through detector.

Again, guards refused to let her pass — now, because she was braless, which is against prison dress code guidelines.

“So, simply because I was a woman who wore a specific bra, my client was denied access to his attorney today,” Horstman e-mailed a group of fellow lawyers on June 4. “This is completely unacceptable.”

“You are a true defense attorney taking your bra off to try to see your client in jail!” Horstman’s colleague, attorney Carmen Vizcaino, said in an e-mail. “Betcha none of the guys have done that for their clients.”

A true story believe or not!