Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
For all you "Seekers"
Earthninja
WandererWest Australia Veteran
Hey folks!
I'd like to hear from you guys what it is your seeking in life? Deep down. 
What is it you truly want, buddhist wise?
Me, I want to know why am I here. More than anything in this world.
1
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
You're here, because you're here, because you're here.
In a worst-case scenario, you only get one shot.
Every day is one day less.
Make the best of it.
I don't know why I am here.
All I know, is that I am.
Sometimes, life is a really crappy deal.
Sometimes, instead of a good hand, you get one joker, and the card with the Bridge Scores...
Man could I complain!
What a raw deal I got given!
Then, you stop, and look at the global issues besetting every Government on the planet, and actually, life is suddenly less of a crappy deal.
Life is good.
Ok, that's my bit....
No disrespect intended @Earthninja, but what would you know if you knew it? How might things be different?
Disclaimer: I'm a Zennie
I'm trying to stop seeking.
I guess I'm seeking for those moments that we're not looking. Just being.
I actually had a dream last night about this. There was a gorgeous pink and blue lotus blooming in a crystal clear water body. No mud whatsoever for the roots to feed from. It was rooted solely in the fluidity of the water.
It was one of the best dreams I've had in a while.
This is the first thread I saw this morning and so it made me relate it to the dream.
I guess what I am after is our freedom from dukkha.
This sums it up pretty well, though my desire is a bit more specific. I'm looking for equanimity, or, as I understand it, the ability to handle all of life's difficulties without being overcome by negative thoughts and emotions. I also worry quite a bit, and it would be wonderful to be free of that albatross as well. For example, just about every time I return home from work or an errand, I worry that the house might have burned down. What if I could accept it if the house had burned down? Then there's no more point in worrying...
I feel like I'm trying to solve a mystery but I'm not entirely sure what the mystery is.
Me? I just want people to stop hurting each other. I'm not trying to sound all noble or enlightened or anything. I went through my "What's my purpose in life?" stage and so on. I also know everyone holding hands and singing in harmony won't happen in any future I'll live to see. It would be nice if people stopped blaming and hitting and killing each other, though.
I'll let you know if I get any ideas how to do it.
I have a feeling that purpose or meaning is made rather than found.
I used to wonder the same thing but I don't think there is a "why".
An answer to "why?" implies a plan but I now think any plan would imply a previous "why?"
Causation being what it is, asking "why?" will lead to infinite regression... Won't it?
It could turn out that there is nowhere else to be except here.
My "why" has turned into "why not?"
What about not seeking, only finding? How can you seek for something if you don't already know what it is?
Perhaps we should be moving ahead with no expectations, except that with right effort, things put in motion will yield results with some predictability.
I want to attain Arahantship in this life.
The cessation of all suffering.
The same as all the posts above.
How I end up on forums where peeps are seeking, I'll never know. But I suppose I could say that I look for opportunities to play, have fun, cuz it seems to be the cure for pain and suffering, even if not like forever. The whole Buddhist gig, if we can swing it, seems to be The Cure or at least a very reasonable Way. It would be awesome if everybody had a solid support system and the fact that so many don't makes me sad.
So much to say regarding this question and so little coffee...
First, I've finally concluded that 'why I am here' is not really important. After all, I'm a human being, not a human doing. That said, I found an answer to that question. I do not know if the answer is true or important but I do, deep down, believe it. I know that I am capable of changing my beliefs but this particular one, even if it is wrong, has had a positive impact on my life and so, if it is all illusion and it isn't the right answer - I'm okay with keeping that belief for now.
Anyway, what I came up with and believe to the depth of my being, is that I am here to learn more about and practice love. Even if I'm wrong...I have found, limited as I am by my ignorance, that belief to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings. And so, according to the Kalama Sutta, that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.
Changing tracks:
As a child, I used to watch a particular television show religiously. I know it was just a television program but it did shape me significantly. Hmm, funny how I pause here and take a deep breathe to stall...because you know, what you all think of me has suddenly become very important...
Kung Fu the series starring David Carradine. Master Po, the blind monk and Caine's favorite teacher got angry only once in three seasons. It was so out of character for him so I decided that it must be important. Here was the exchange between Master Po and Caine:
'You have learned discipline and acquired many new abilities. however never forget that a priest's life is a simple one and must remain free of ambition.'
'Have you no ambition, Master Po?'
'Only one. Five years hence, it is my wish to make a pilgrimage to the Forbidden City. It is a place where even priests receive no special status. There in the Temple of Heaven, will be a festival The full moon of May. It will be the thirteenth day of the fifth month in the Year of the Dog.'
'That is not such a great ambition.'
'But it is ambition, nonetheless. Who among us is without flaw?'
You could hear the frustration and anger in his voice when he uttered that final line. Perhaps the ambition to discover our purpose in life is simply a flaw...perhaps not. I think, for me, that it was not a flaw until it was.
@silver ....Amen to that
May I be grateful...
"What is it you truly want, buddhist wise?"
Happiness ,,,, and if you're happy I'm happy...
I am not seeking anything at all. I just want to be the best person I can be in order to help myself, as many other sentient beings and the World as a whole as possible.....
My wife may say otherwise though hehe
Chocolate
Love
http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/articles/the-buddhas-teachings-on-love/
None taken! Because then I wouldn't be seeking. I wouldn't have some deep feeling of separation with life. More accepting of everything fundamentally. It's the same thing as who am I.
Thanks guys! Great to hear we are all in the same boat right.
What if our seeking is what is keeping us trapped?
But you can't seek to stop seeking either. It's the same thing.
Alan Watts uses the word desire. He says we suffer because we desire.
But you can't desire to stop desire, how would we do that? It's still desire haha.
Oh the bind we are in haha.
@Earthninja What's difficult is our basic human nature. We desire, yes. I like to use the word "want" instead. We want things. If we're thirsty we want something to drink. Nothing wrong with that. But we want the wrong things. We want the fun that comes with getting drunk. We want the rush of power from getting angry and letting someone have a butt kicking. We want opposite thing even. It's our nature. We want both excitement and stability in our lives at the same time, so we get married, settle in to raising a family, and then mess around on our wives with that exciting woman at work. But when we end up in divorce court we suffer because we've lost the stability and that exciting woman isn't needed because you life suddenly got too exciting.
And we want happiness in our lives, while making ourselves miserable looking for how to acquire it. Even with Buddhism as a roadmap.
"If you cannot find serenity, contentment and gladness where you are - right NOW - then where else do you expect to find it?"
@Earthninja I would recommend you stop looking.
Seriously.
GIve up seeking or asking the question.
Asking us what WE seek, won't ever satisfactorily answer YOUR curiosity.
There is no pat reply, because you ARE the reply.
Exactly!
but how to see this? Do YOU have gladness and contentment now ? Are you 100% content with your life?
Great quote but the reality is not that easy.
Of course it doesn't satisfy, I'm curious how others feel and what it is people are looking for? I just felt to share.
The whole point of a forum is to share? The answer is not here. But for each person to look within themselves.
No, that's the whole point. That's what the quote is about.
Don't look within yourself. There is no point looking.
You ARE where serenity, contentment and gladness already are.
Accept each day as a gift and make the very best of it you can.
Be diligent in your practice, and consider actions wisely.
Even Actions intended with kindness can sometimes be unskilful....
You CREATE your life's meaning.
Every day is an opportunity to embrace where you are, because you can't be anywhere else.
You're here, because this is where you HAVE to be.
So do the best you can, with why you are.
I used to seek an answer to these questions: "Who am I?", "Why am I here?", "What's my purpose?", "Why am I in this body, place and time?"
After some time, I realized nobody can answer these questions, and probably I'll only find out their answer after this life ends. Maybe not even then. Also, I seem to like the mystery of not knowing. If I knew these final questions, what difference would it make? Wouldn't the answer make life boring?
Right now, I am seeking to understand myself better, "stop hitting myself so hard", and in the process be a better person that can help others.
Only you can find your purpose, your mission. In full disclosure, I am a Nichiren Buddhist. Having said that, I agree with frederica in that you can count your neighbor's wealth all you want but you will never gain any yourself by doing so. You can ask the question as often as you like. However, it is an inward directed question, not an outward driven one.
We all have desires, minor ones and major ones and all levels in between. A major desire, for instance , is the end of needless suffering, our own and others' while a minor or frivolous desire would be say to have sourdough instead of french style bread. When we are able to use our desires to create a more positive circumstance and not become a servant of or slave to our desires, we create value in our own lives and, by extension, the world around us.
As we grow, our desires become less selfish, less frivolous and more selfless.
The trick is to learn to love yourself in such a manor as to be able to love others equally so. Then you will not find your why; it will find you.
Ah, Grasshopper, would you be so kind as to pour me some more tea?
I really feel this message, thank you for the thoughtful reply
I honestly think we are on two different pages. I do see what you are saying though.
What you said here is why I think we are coming from different angles.
It's not "your" life, life creates it's own meanings.
Again there is nobody to embrace or reject where we are. This is why we suffer. I agree we can't be anywhere else.
Metta
In which case, this question then,
is utterly pointless.
If it is not 'you' who truly wants, and not 'you' who wants to know why 'you' are here, then what point are you trying to establish, exactly?
Why our consciousness 'is'....?
Hahahahah. Thank you. bows
No further questions.
You just answered it for me.
If further pertinent comments from either the OP or other members, want adding, please let me know. Thread can be re-opened....
Otherwise it seems @Earthninja is ok with this....?