Meaning of life (random order)

Below is a short summary for all articles about the meaning of life. Click on a title in the list to read the full article. To re-sort the list click on a tab above. If you can't find what you are looking for, try Search in the main menu above.

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.

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Children develop their parents

Often we reduce the role of children to reproduce the society, to keep the number of people at the desired level. Children need to learn our language, understand our behaviour, culture and rules, etc.

Who could transfer this knowledge better than professionals, people educated to teach exactly this? - If you look at it from this point of view, it would be most economical to give your children away for education after birth as soon as possible.

There is of course another point of view: What is the most important role of children?

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The interaction between objectives and abilities

  In our day-to-day lives we find that someone who is already good at playing football in most cases also likes to play football very much and would like to constantly improve his football skills. If a good programmer has the choice between jointly working on a forward-looking software project and working in a vegetable shop the chances are usually significantly greater that the programmer will stay true to his line of business and would like to develop further within it. The same is true for practically all abilities: If we can already do something well the motivation is greater to use this ability and to improve it.

It is therefore worthwhile investigating the relationship between our abilities and the corresponding objective. We have already established earlier that we don’t develop our abilities without reason, but rather we develop them specifically to be able to achieve a certain goal. From the above examples it is however clear that a stimulation also occurs in the reverse direction: Already-existing abilities lead us to continue to pursue the corresponding goal – and under certain circumstances even more strongly than before. We will therefore now introduce a model to demonstrate our objectives:

The benefits of modesty

Does it do any good for Africans suffering from drought if I reduce my personal water consumption? Why should I reduce the CO2 emissions and save energy? Does it reduce starvation anywhere in the world if I eat less?

Living in moderation is «out» because it seems to be full of deprivations and limitations. Read here why it is on the contrary rather full of opportunities for the personal development. It is an indispensable precondition to get in perpetual harmony, joy and (self-)confidence.

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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.

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Following the rules of play of the system

 

The foregoing discussion calls in the question as to who then establishes this law if it «may» or must not be established by human beings. Who disciplines the «wrongdoers»? This question is all the more interesting because we all presumably violate this law several times a day. Let us leave open this question of a judge and consider what happens when a being violates this law:

In observing the needs of people we have seen that first we try to safeguard our physical existence and only at the highest level do we seek total happiness, self-fulfilment, internal harmony and peace - or whatever one may consider the highest objective of all. We can probably assume that there is an analogous needs hierarchy amongst animals and plants, in other words that they too aim for a state of total fulfilment.

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Web seminar «Spiritual growth for a higher consciousness»

Web seminar on personal growth (personal spiritual growth).

Goal:To get a basic understanding of personal growth. Emphasis on higher consciousness.
Basis:Book : «ABC of awareness: Personal development as the meaning of life»
Context:
Spirituality: overview and personal spiritual growth
Starting:
About end August 2007, the seminar will only take place if there is enough demand for it.
Duration:About 3 months
Prerequisite:
None
Time required: On average about two to three hours per week
Cost:
No cost, free


Remarks:

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Definition for global warming - what is global warming?

Definition of global warming: Global warming is the observed and projected increases in the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans. The Earth's average temperature rose about 0.6° Celsius (1.1° Fahrenheit) in the 20th century, see temperature graphs below.

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Automatic mechanisms

  In the previous section we compared human development with the building of a pyramid where each stone must be set in place one after the other. The question is therefore now posed as to how the observance of the basic rights of existence can be practised in order to reach the desired state of total harmony and happiness as quickly as possible and in particular how to remain in this state. How do we build on our pyramid of personal development in the most efficient way possible? Can we attend courses on it or is special training offered?

The good news is: Yes; there are lots opportunities for such training, they do not cost money and are on offer always and at any time – these opportunities arise in nothing other than our daily life! In that we live, we automatically participate in such training. We will come back to this again below.

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Review of personal growth as the meaning of life

As multifaceted as we human beings may be, once our existential needs are covered, we all finally strive for the same thing: We want to be perpetually happy and satisfied and we want to be able to live our lives without worries and cares. This search for harmony and inner peace, for self-realization, or however we like to describe this state, as our top objective in life, is practically the same in all the different methods of representing human needs. Not least the advertising industry also frequently attempts to make use of this striving for happiness and harmony.

From our experience we know that wherever we are or whatever we do certain rules prevail. On the roads these are the traffic regulations, in football the rules of play, in nature there are the natural laws. For those that respect these rules the corresponding activities or deeds are easier to accomplish than for those who violate these rules and therefore have to be reprimanded in one way or another.

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Summary of the main concept

As many and diverse as we human beings may be once our existential needs are satisfied we all strive for the same thing: We want to feel happy and satisfied the whole time and to be able to live our lives without fear and worries. This search for harmony and inner peace, for self-fulfilment, for calmness, or however we may wish to describe this condition, is indisputably the top goal in the case of virtually all models of human needs.

From our experience we know that wherever we are or whatever we do there are always certain rules. On the roads it is the traffic regulations, in football it is the rules of play, in nature it is the natural laws. Those who respect these rules find it easier to carry out the respective task or activity than someone who violates these rules and therefore has to be reprimanded in some way.

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1 + 1 = 3: Abilities in a group

We will now look at how the abilities of several persons within a group can mutually support each other. For this purpose we will imagine that these people are jointly working on a task.

Let‘s consider first a group of several people with spheres of the same colour, i.e. all members of the group are pursuing amongst other things the same objective X. Let’s first remind ourselves again of the definition of the model: Inside the sphere are the fully-trained abilities to achieve the goal X. The size of the sphere is a measurement of the already developed ability to achieve this goal X.

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If I cannot assess the consequences of a decision

We have previously represented awareness with the model of a white sphere around our body. The greater the awareness of a person the greater the diameter of this awareness sphere. With this model we are responsible for all the consequences of our decisions, which take place within our awareness sphere. The light of our awareness is very bright here so that within this sphere we can see or perceive the consequences of our decisions.

 

It is therefore possible to come up with the idea that very far-reaching decisions should be made by people with low awareness, since such people would therefore apparently not be responsible for the consequences. This would not however make sense for several reasons:

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The virtuoso in the element

 

There is yet another explanation as to why the basic rights of existence really have to be lived and that it is insufficient to simply not violate this law:

If we always have to watch out that we don’t violate the basic rights of existence in order to reach the permanent state of total harmony, we live in continual fear that we will violate the law in spite of trying not to. This would be a negative form of motivation: I learn swimming so that I don’t drown; I take part in a dancing course so that I don’t step on my dancing partner’s toes; I practise a musical instrument, so that I don’t produce wrong notes etc.

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Nuclear power for you - nuclear waste for the others?

The need for electricity has constantly risen world-wide over the last years. This is not only true for the so-called developing countries but also and in particular for all well-developed countries. In order to fulfil the demand, obviously additional power plants have to be built.

Which technology is best for generating electricity? This question certainly has to be answered on a case by case base. But it is very concerning that nuclear power plants more and more seem to be chosen as "the" technology of the future.

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Substitute dealings

If we consider the effort which drives certain people to feel the abovementioned feeling of happiness, if only briefly, it becomes clear that many of us – probably for a long time - have been searching for ways of achieving perpetual inner harmony, that is the top level of our needs. Here is just a small selection of the ways which are undertaken:
  • Overcoming the fear of death: People subject themselves to great danger in order to feel for a brief moment the indescribable feeling of happiness after surviving the situation. Thereby it is not usually very important whether this risk of death was objectively or only subjectively present. Examples of such activities are free climbing up a rock face (without safety gear), ski descents over vertical rock faces, diving into unknown water from a great height, white-water canoeing, boat trips over waterfalls, bungy-­jumping, trips on certain types of ride in pleasure parks, as well as the playing of certain computer games.
  • Achieving high performance levels: To be the first, the best, the fastest or the most beautiful, in whatever we have done or are still doing, also leads – at least for a short time – to a feeling of happiness of the sort «I am the greatest or the best». In these activities the public often plays an important role. It is at best necessary to be able to see the respective person so as to be able to identify with him. In this way part of this brief feeling of happiness is also transferred to the spectators. Examples: Top sporting events of all kinds, Miss World or similar competitions, Guinness Book of Records etc.

As can be seen from the above examples, very many of us are – as a rule unconsciously – looking for ways of achieving personal harmony, the top step in the priority list of human needs. Something draws us, we want to «find ourselves», «experience something» often without really knowing ourselves what we mean by this.

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Decisions

  Our lives consist of an abundance of decisions: The first thing we do is to choose our goals. As we discussed in the section on objectives in doing this we can also decide to take over the objectives of other people or help other people to achieve their own objectives. If we pursue several incompatible objectives they compete with each other when every decision is made. We therefore choose one of these incompatible objectives as a guideline for our decision. This means that we select an objective and then make the decision on the basis of this objective. When the next decision is made it is naturally possible to use another objective as the guideline. In any case it is always our own decision as to which objectives we strive towards.

 

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Abilities and objectives influence one another

 

Right at the start of this chapter we established that abilities and objectives clearly mutually influence each other. If expressed according to our two models, we considered the relationship between the light sphere, which represents our abilities and the tuning bowl, which represents the corresponding objective. Apparently the tuning bowl and the light sphere cannot be considered independently of one another. There is mutual influence between them1.

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Substitute dealings

If we consider the effort which drives certain people to feel the abovementioned feeling of happiness, if only briefly, it becomes clear that many of us – probably for a long time - have been searching for ways of achieving perpetual inner harmony, that is the top level of our needs. Here is just a small selection of the ways which are undertaken:
  • Overcoming the fear of death: People subject themselves to great danger in order to feel for a brief moment the indescribable feeling of happiness after surviving the situation. Thereby it is not usually very important whether this risk of death was objectively or only subjectively present. Examples of such activities are free climbing up a rock face (without safety gear), ski descents over vertical rock faces, diving into unknown water from a great height, white-water canoeing, boat trips over waterfalls, bungy-­jumping, trips on certain types of ride in pleasure parks, as well as the playing of certain computer games.
  • Achieving high performance levels: To be the first, the best, the fastest or the most beautiful, in whatever we have done or are still doing, also leads – at least for a short time – to a feeling of happiness of the sort «I am the greatest or the best». In these activities the public often plays an important role. It is at best necessary to be able to see the respective person so as to be able to identify with him. In this way part of this brief feeling of happiness is also transferred to the spectators. Examples: Top sporting events of all kinds, Miss World or similar competitions, Guinness Book of Records etc.

As can be seen from the above examples, very many of us are – as a rule unconsciously – looking for ways of achieving personal harmony, the top step in the priority list of human needs. Something draws us, we want to «find ourselves», «experience something» often without really knowing ourselves what we mean by this.

Read more

Children develop their parents

Often we reduce the role of children to reproduce the society, to keep the number of people at the desired level. Children need to learn our language, understand our behaviour, culture and rules, etc.

Who could transfer this knowledge better than professionals, people educated to teach exactly this? - If you look at it from this point of view, it would be most economical to give your children away for education after birth as soon as possible.

There is of course another point of view: What is the most important role of children?

Read more

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