“According to your faith [beliefs] let it be done
to you”
(Matthew
9:29)
What is the point of life? This is the
question that humans have to deal with at some point in their lives,
particularly, when they find themselves experiencing a deep personal crisis.
Some philosophers and traditional
scientists, based on the development of materialistic knowledge and technology,
have advanced the notion that life is pointless, that there is no meaning of
life at all, that life developed based on chance and necessity, and it will
continue that way. This was precisely the position of King Solomon, Arthur
Schopenhauer, and Fredric Nietzsche, among other thinkers. As can be seen, this is a fatalistic
viewpoint.
The beauty of life resides precisely in probability and apparent randomness because it gives humans the opportunity to exert their creative power
to make their lives meaningful. Currently, metaphysics and quantum physics have
verified the old paradigm that humans have the power to create their own
reality and social circumstances. We are already here on planet Earth; we
cannot withdraw from it claiming that there is no meaning in life.
It has been said: “Knowledge is
Power, and ignorance is bliss.” Unfortunately, most ordinary people live in a
state of sublime ignorance, preoccupied with satisfying the demands of their
physical and sensorial needs, such as eating, working, sleeping, and recreation activities that gratify the physical senses. What
about spiritual needs? The Master of Nazareth already indicated that man does
not live by bread alone ….” The word “bread” in this expression stands for not only for
physical food but for intellectual and spiritual food as well.
Then, the appropriate question is: Is
it better to live in blissful ignorance or to make our lives meaningful by gaining
wisdom through personal experiences?
Modern science has already proved that
we live in an immaterial universe.
Quantum mechanics emphasizes that atoms are made of spinning immaterial
energy vortices, which are pure light that appears and disappears. This has led
scientists and philosophers to confirm the metaphysical principle that the
whole universe is the expression of a universal consciousness. Humans are a small
fragment of this consciousness and have the power to determine their social
circumstances.[1]
Quantum mechanics declares that
reality is fluid in nature. When something is not observed by consciousness, it
exists in a formless state of probabilities. When consciousness becomes aware
of it, the multiple probabilities of outcome are narrowed into a single one and
the outcome takes that particular form. Consciousness, through awareness and
intention, selects the latent probabilities for action and gives them a
specific manifestation.
In this process, awareness is extremely
important because it gives the ability to handle the course of events before
they take place. The more awareness one has, the more one is able to
consciously direct upcoming future events. Most people are disoriented in their
daily lives because of a lack of knowledge about how the process of conscious
co-creation works. Knowledge and definitive purpose protect against randomness and
chance. Then, it is extremely important to become aware of our goal in life to
be able to have control over the evolvement of events in our personal experiences.
Free will can be employed only based
on awareness; free will is the capacity to deliberately select a “choice,” and
this can be done only if consciousness is aware of the options in a specific
moment. Thus, if there is no awareness, there is no free will to independently
select a specific action. Incidentally, NASA physicist and consciousness
researcher, Tom Campbell, held the notion that consciousness derives from the
capacity of choice and free will. He defines consciousness as “awareness that makes choices.”[2]
Some religions and philosophies have tackled
the dilemma of the meaning of life from different angles. For instance, in Buddhism, the first noble truth blatantly
declares that life is suffering. The Jews believe that human misery
is due to the fact that Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s commandment. Christians
acknowledge that suffering is the way to redemption and the ticket to salvation
- a better life (heaven); other religions advocate resignation and humility,
and so on.
The truth of the matter is, that the question
as to whether there is meaning in life is futile (or pointless) because there
is no such thing as “meaning of life” per se. The role of humans is to make
their lives meaningful. The confusion arises because people live under the
assumption that a Supreme Being or somebody else will provide them with meaning for their lives, which is a fallacy. The most appropriate question is:
Do the suffering and pain that humans endure in life have any meaning? The
other unspoken fallacy is that life should be free of any struggle and distress.
We should consider that suffering and pain are basic elements of spiritual
growth and self-development. Many spiritual teachers have said: “suffering is
the path to wisdom,” and this statement is absolutely true.
The
Master of Nazareth stated: “The Kingdom of heaven is within you.” Man creates
his own reality; however, to access this creative power, man needs to become aware
of it. Otherwise, he will create his reality unconsciously based on the opinion
of the mass media and social/cultural circumstances. My book Awaken the Power Within: In Defense of
Self-Help fully demonstrates that “All the power that ever was or will be”
is at your hands. This truth was always known by spiritual masters and mystics
of all religions. For instance, the early father of the Catholic Church, “Clement
of Alexandria, stated that he who knows
himself knows God.”[3]
This is a self-explanatory statement.
In the spirit of truth-seeking, I
am proposing a plausible and coherent theory that could provide an answer to
the old and honored predicament of finding the purpose of human existence. The
goal for humankind, at the collective level, is to work for the progress and
welfare of the human race and the evolution of collective consciousness.
I believe that this physical reality offers
us the opportunity to develop our creative power and inner potentialities;
otherwise, humans become pawns at the mercy of blind forces beyond their
control. The fundamental idea developed in in my book, Awakening the Power Within is that life is an accumulation of
experiences to gain wisdom; in turn, this will be geared toward the expansion
of consciousness. That is the purpose of
human existence.
Albert Amao Soria, Ph.D.
Visit: www.amazon.com/author/amao
www.albertamao.com
[1] Albert Amao, Awaken the Power
Within (New York: Tarcher/Penguin, 2016).
[2]
Tom Campbell, YouTube: “Intuition, Conscious Computers, and Individuality”.
[3]
C. G. Jung, Aion, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978),
p. 22. Emphasis added.
04.10.20
