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The meaning of life is to forget who you are and remember who you are not. For surely when you close your eyes on this earth for the last time, you must realize that life itself will not perish with you. If it did, life would truly have no meaning.
So what are you not? You'll find that a much more difficult question to answer than filling in the blanks of who you are.
You are not a name, for names come and go in the endless roll call of life.
You are not a body. You see bodies perish daily and would never know who these people really were from the decaying shells they leave behind.
You are not your children, and they will vigorously deny you such an outrageous claim in their natural quest to become themselves.
You are not your property or any of the things you leave behind, no more than seedlings can define the garden that generates them.
It's when we cling to these mere shadows that we fear death -- and life -- the most. And it's only when we forsake our vanity in doing for others, when we comfort the afflicted with no thought of ourselves, when we truly forget ourselves in the selfless devotion to others that we discover meaning.
And in all your giving, don’t begrudge, calculate or reason. God loves a cheerful giver, and nothing so taints and demeans a gift as the prospect of reward.
When we peacefully relinquish the last breath we take without a thought to that which we leave behind -- which will always be there in some manner or form no matter what we say or do -- we really become who we were meant to be. It's then we discover the meaning of life |
