The Purpose of Life

Thanks or sharing. I like the points what you say here with "experience comes at the wrong end of life" and yet, a rehearsal would be great! I think I may be one of those who don't want to follow the set norm.. :-)

Thank you for sharing. You seem to think in a similar way to me on this. I see the purpose of my life is to realise that there is no purpose. Life is just to live and experience whatever there is to experience, joyful or sad. To learn a lesson that our analytical mind cannoot possible understand. :)

Yes, I agree about suffering. When the Buddha sat in meditation he discovered that the root of suffering was desire. I see this as once one goal is reached, there is always another and what comes with that is the fear of failure or some sort of "what if?"... I have practiced zazen for the past 20+ years(Zen meditation)each day which teaches mindfulness. Zazen means, just sitting. This is then extended to whatever tasks are to be carried out in daily life. Just standing, just walking, just sweeping, just writing etc., just being mindful of whatever I am doing. And when I see my mind wandering on to the next moment or the past, I bring it back into complete focus. In Zen, this is known as doing things mindfully, and it brings about a state of calmness that cannot be explained. The suffering (discomfort) can come when I recognise that I am not focused in the moment of now. I wouldn't say it is a religious practice, but it can be applied to whatever faith a person has, be it Christianity, Buddhism or other religion. I can see truth in all the great teachers.