Meaning of life (random order)

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The seminar effect

  The effect of the mutual activation of tuning bowls and the overlapping of similar-coloured spheres in a group of people as mentioned above can easily be observed in seminars: Many companies and organizations allow their staff - and in particular management staff – to participate in further training courses. It is always amazing that in such seminars moral and ethical aspects are also tackled with great vigour and plans for solving such aspects are drawn up. People resolve to do many things, but later in their daily life back at the workplace, they actually do not translate any of this or at least extremely little of it into action. External forces are very often cited with great regret as reasons for this, which had the effect that the discussed themes could not be implemented by the person concerned. This person naturally hopes that all the other participants in the seminar will not find themselves stuck with such unpleasant constraints.

The plausibility of the basic rights of existence

   It is not possible for us as human beings to prove the validity of this law either by logic or certainly not by mathematics. It is simply true! Vice-versa however it is also not possible to prove that the basic rights of existence are not valid (which naturally also cannot be interpreted as proof of the validity). Especially in natural sciences and technology we have become accustomed to the fact that we cannot mathematically derive or prove the basic laws. It is true that we can test these basic laws by means of experiments – however this is certainly no real proof of their validity.

To examine the validity of the basic rules of existence we can also carry out certain experiments. We will go through such experiments in our thinking quite soon. Another test option for us as human beings is that each one of us tries for himself to feel whether the basic laws of being are valid. Since we too are part of the cosmos, this truth must be known to each of us. Through your intuition try to feel whether the abovementioned basic rights of existence are valid or not.

Perceptive ability

Now let’s return to the description of human development towards the living of the basic rights of existence so as to achieve internal harmony. As the next step we would like to consider what actually changes in a person when he fulfills the preconditions for the development, in other words he would like to respect – without preconditions and from his own free will - the basic rights of existence and then take the steps necessary for this.

We have seen that we can compare human development with the achievement of virtuosity in a particular activity (for example making music, sport, handcrafts etc.). The basic rights of existence (the equal right of all beings to be on the earth, to develop and to carry out their tasks) must be so strongly internalized that in every situation we automatically act according to these rights without having to think about it. If we wish to pass through this development stage, our subconscious - amongst other things with subjective perception (glasses model) - will help us to eliminate the causes of violating the basic rights of existence. We learn step by step and hence build our own pyramid of human development. Within the scope of our personal development our perceptive ability with respect to everything around us and the important interrelationships in life also increases. In particular our abilities to intuitively perceive and evaluate important information for the respecting of the basic rights of existence also increase.

Pursuing your own objectives

  Our goals lead us to the situation where we do certain things in our life and leave other things aside. We can therefore influence other people in a simple way, if we influence their objective or at least the choice of their partial goals. Our deep longing for peace, happiness, calmness and harmony – as described in the highest needs of all beings – is also at the same time our weakness.

In the advertising field this longing, which is deeply embedded in every one of us, is exploited in more and more refined ways: By linking a service or product with a blissfully happy person or a harmonious situation, it is suggested to the viewer that thanks to the use of this product you will become successful, beautiful, desirable, rich or whatever – and this will (also) make you happy. We have already dealt with this briefly in the section on the needs of humankind.

About missionary work

He who works on his own personal development, is as a rule convinced that this is the right way for him and that he is doing the right thing. Otherwise he would presumably do something else...

In many cases therefore sooner or later arises the desire to convince other people of his path. This person also wants to help others to find the «right» path. This often ends in great disappointment if the closest people such as his life partner, his children, parents, good friends etc. react negatively. Especially if they don’t wish to know anything of the «only correct» way, the best path or goal.

The hierarchy in personal objectives

  At the start of this treatise we considered the needs of humankind and during this we referred particularly to the hierar­chy in human needs using the example of the Maslow theory: At the lowest level were the existential needs of a person and at the highest level the achievement of a state of lasting happiness, self-realization, salvation of the soul, harmony within oneself or whatever we like to call this state. On the basis of these needs the human being sets his own personal goals according to this theory. If for example his existence is assured, he attempts to realize the needs of the next highest level of hierarchy by setting his goals accordingly. The hierarchy of needs, which we have referred to already many times, therefore corresponds with a similar hierarchy of objectives: Our own goals can also be hierarchically arranged.

In other words: According to the needs which we wish to satisfy, we should select our goals from the corresponding hierarchical level. What sounds so simple and logical is however frequently a cause of disappointment in our personal development: Needs and objectives don’t correspond but often even contradict each other in a flagrant way.

Words are simpler than deeds

  As logical and plausible as development with respect to the basic rights of existence may appear to be, its translation into the practicality of everyday life is not that easy. It is in fact a very serious and demanding undertaking, which demands considerable energy and cannot simply be achieved «on the side».

It is not that difficult to see as an observer what we or others should actually do in order to live the basic rights of existence in a given situation. However it is exactly what we really should do which is generally the main difficulty. The difficulty doesn’t lie in the theory or in the strategy but in carrying it out in practice.

Known and unknown unknowns

"There are no knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns - that is to say, there are things we now know we don't know but there are also unknown unknowns.

There are things we do not know we don't know. So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that's basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year we discocover a few more of those unknown unknowns."

Concentration of strengths

  We can fundamentally freely divide the energy or strength, which is available for our personal development, between various goals as we wish. For example one person can use 20% for the capability of increasing his material wealth, 50% for the capability of attaining power over others and the remaining 30% for the capability of increasing his personal standing in society. As long as these goals do not contradict one another then he will be able to develop his capabilities according to the amount of energy devoted to each of them.

The glasses model of subjective perception is automa­tically used for every random objective by our subconscious for the development of the corresponding capabilities. It is therefore tremendously important that we set clear priorities for our objectives.

Personal development - personal growth

Personal development and growth

The term «personal development» normally comprises a very wide field: Physical and psychical development from childhood to a grown up person, knowledge-oriented education, training of abilities, collecting experience as well as developing personality and character of a human being.

Personal growth for a higher consciousness

On timeforchange.org, we primarily focus on the personal growth for a higher consciousness, i.e. the development of personality as well as the consciousness of a person . This is sometimes referred to as inducing consciousness or developing awareness. Since we could not find a precise English expression for this, we call this process simply «personal development». Of course, we could have called it (personal) spiritual growth or spiritual development instead.

ABC of Awareness


Personal development as the meaning of life


What drives us as human beings? Why do we exist? What do we strive for?

What drives us as human beings? Why do we exist? What do we strive for?

On the pages which follow we would like to offer subjects for thought and information on these and other questions. We set out the bases for all existence on the earth and discuss the consequences for life in private and business areas.

Amongst other things we describe how we can achieve constant harmony and inner peace. The right choice and deliberate pursuing of our own, self-selected goals take on a key role in this so that we can achieve our own goals and not let ourselves be manipulated by others.

Personal growth is the meaning of life


  • What drives us as human beings?
  • Why do we exist? What is the purpose of life?
  • What do we strive for?

«Time for change» is about your life, your objectives and your decisions. We are convinced that basic human needs are the same everywhere and finally we all strive for the same thing:

Advertising responds to our needs

In no other branch of industry are the needs of human beings so intensively investigated than in advertising. If it is known what the potential consumer group which purchases a given product or service really strives for, where these people set their highest priorities, it is possible to respond exactly to these needs in the advertising and hence earn lots of money!

The striving for harmony and happiness, for a life spent in love and peace is therefore frequently exploited in advertising: First we see a suffering person who has an affliction, an illness or a problem, then a product (pill, ointment, food, drink, car, washing powder, software, computer, telephone, holiday place etc.) and finally we see the same person who – thanks to the use of the product shown - is happy. Often too the happy person is shown together with the product. Just try sometime to deliberately observe how frequently the advertising messages are set up in this way regardless of the product on offer.

The model of the tuning bowls

  Have you already had the experience where you find someone very likeable without knowing anything about them and without even having spoken to them? As you get to know this person later you often find that you have many things in common. In particular you will normally find that he has similar objectives in his life. Or, since we often prefer to speak about experiences, you have both had similar experiences in your lives. Pure chance - or perhaps more likely not? Similar life experiences mainly point – according to everything we have previously discussed – to the fact that we are working on similar development steps. Since we do not develop by ourselves this finally however indicates similar objectives for our lives.

Our own objectives are difficult to hide since in fact we constantly «radiate» our objectives all the time. In reverse we frequently feel the objectives of other people without even knowing anything about that person and without having spoken to them.

Download "ABC of Awareness"

Here you can download the complete book "ABC of awareness" in the Adobe pdf-format. All you need to read it is the (free) Adobe Acrobat reader. If the Adobe reader starts up after selecting the file, press on the "SAVE" button to locally save the file. Click here to open the document for reading.

You can then read or print the book offline. This is probably more convenient than reading all chapters online.

BTW: The German version can be found here.

The priorities of objectives

  If we assume that we wish to pursue several incompatible objectives, how do we decide in a given situation which of the objectives should guide us? We have already discussed the interaction between objectives and abilities earlier. Thereby we saw that abilities which already existed can influence the choice of guideline when making a decision.

As we will soon see, we often also make the choice of which objective we will use as a guideline in making a decision in interaction with our surroundings. Other people, insti­tutions, animals, plants, nature etc. can all have an influence on the selection of our goal in making a decision.

Personality development

We generally define personality as the individual characteristics of a person that determine his or her perception, motivation and behaviour. Sometimes this is also called the character of a person.

However, on this website, we talk about personal development or personal growth , which for us means exactly the same as developing personality traits.

 

We have everything under control

  The advances in science and technology have brought about an incredibly strong belief in the rationality of all events amongst many people. What cannot be explained scientifically is frequently not accepted, not spoken about or explained away by other means. In reverse this mentality has led in the case of certain people to everything being viewed as «esoteric» and controlled by the stars. Both attitudes are completely absurd. In our lives there are events which can be explained rationally as well as those which cannot be explained.

Those who deny those occurrences or characteristics in their lives which cannot be rationally explained, automatically shut themselves off from all considerations about the meaning of life, about the reason for and the objectives of our existence and that of other beings.

The glasses model - perceptive reality

The nice thing about subjectivity is the possibility of influencing the situation ourselves. If my perception is subjective then I – and I alone – have all the options of influencing or being influenced in a given situation. I alone decide whether I feel that something is good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, cold or hot, beautiful or ugly!

We do not see our environment and the events around us as «objective» or neutral (perceptive reality). Instead it is rather like looking through a pair of glasses, which determines our interpretation of a picture. I hold these glasses myself in front of my eyes. According to the way these glasses change what is really a neutral picture of an event, the picture makes us feel for example fear, joy, anger or it makes us sad. We feel the picture to be good or bad, negative or positive, meaningful or senseless, dark or light, correct or false.

The model of the awareness sphere

We can use the model of a bright lamp to represent our level of awareness or level of higher consciousness: Our body represents the lamp which is lit ever more brightly as our awareness increases (higher consciousness). The brightness of our awareness lights up our surroundings so that we can see and hence perceive additional aspects of ourselves and our surroundings.

The model of the awareness sphere is extremely appropriate for discussing some of the characteristics of our personal development or spiritual growth: