What is the purpose of human life?
It is to discover and create joy. No matter where we live, who we are, we must all undertake the personal journey to find what gives us joy, cultivate it, and share it freely with the people in our lives. We are all born into an artificial, man made environments now. We no longer live in harmony with the natural world. Living in society, we find must find meaning by creating joy and sharing it with one another.
Which is difficult. Because our social and economic world could care less about vision quests and joy. It wants products and work, immediately, without hesitation. We must break through, ignore these demands if we are ever to win at life. We must take time for ourselves, turn inward and ask important questions.
Who am I, what am I doing?
We are raised to be consumers. Advertising is telling us we need distraction to be happy. Those distractions can be anything, fancy cars, fancy clothes, a nice house. Whatever it is, a lifetime of commercials adds up to one thing: happiness is something out there. Happiness is something that happens only when we can afford the finest distractions. And it is wrong.
Happiness only comes after a long arduous journey to discover what bring us joy. And then we must suspend rationality and begin sharing that joy with other people, at all costs.
Jesus alluded to this in his Sermon on the Mount. He said:
Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?’ or “What shall we drink?’ or “What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Jesus is saying here, please don’t worry about making money, or about going hungry. You will be taken care of. Instead, please worry first about what kind of life your living, and begin living a rad life. Don’t worry about things, things will take care of themselves.
People are kept unhappy because they are afraid to test the world out for themselves. They’d much rather follow everyone else’s rules, about success about happiness, than listen to what inner wisdom tells us is right.
This is completely different from everything society says. As a matter of fact, there is no inner seeking within any part of the standard idea of a person’s life. It is always being told by someone else, from schooling to jobs to church, we are always following someone else’s orders and ideas, completely unaware of our own orders for what a life should be.
We can never be fulfilled by distraction. We are creators. We must find and create joy, and we must do so freely. The world is full of people who live in fear, who live a kind of half life. They sacrifice their inner desires for everyone else’s vague needs. This is literally hell on earth.
But in giving of ourselves every day, we are fulfilled. No matter if we are poor, no matter if we are hungry, we are happy to live with ourselves because we have risen above the mindset of scarcity. We become free men and woman, and we roam the earth making it a better place, more human.
