The simplest answer to the origin of biological life refers to the natural process by which living organisms emerged from non-living matter. It involves the transformation of simple organic compounds into self-replicating entities, resulting from the chemical evolution of the universe.
Life begins when the baby’s head emerges after around ten seconds after delivery, when the baby's lungs, which are initially filled with fluid, expand and inflate as they take in air. The brain, body and the universe put together in action is life.
Now, just visualize how the green leaf transforms sunlight into life through the process of photosynthesis converting light energy into chemical energy, from carbon dioxide and water generating oxygen which is the elixir of life conferring breath upon all living beings, the leaf is that developer of life on earth.
At the deepest subatomic level of existence, the spaceless, limitless infinite cosmic energy reigns supreme. All that exists living and non-living, matter and consciousness, energy is the driving force and the source of all this energy is in solar radiation. The leaf is the link in the complex transfer of energy from the Sun to us, which we refer to as life.
However, to give meaning and purpose to life, we require the mind which reigns supreme. Breath commences life but the mind through individual experiences, the most crucial throughout its operations practically controls your life, unless the spiritual aspect awakens to check and guide this uncontrollable machine functioning out of its thoughts, feelings and actions.
Life is a wonderful natural process that occurs in highly organized dynamic structures we call living beings. Philosophically, life is in living. It is not a thing, it is a process. There is no way to attain to life except by living it, except by being alive, flowing, streaming with it. It is a celebration of existence, emphasizing that it is primarily about experiencing oneself and all that is around, the energy and joy without needing a specific purpose.
The idea that human life has no inherent purpose suggests that life is not driven by a preordained goal or meaning that everyone must follow. Instead, it implies that meaning is subjective and can be differently interpreted by individuals based on their personal beliefs, experiences, and values. This perspective encourages people to embrace their freedom to create their own purpose and live authentically providing existential freedom.
Philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus explored this idea, promoting the notion that despite life's inherent absurdity, one can find meaning through personal choice and actions. Focus shifts to enjoying experiences and moments instead of striving for distant goals. Further, without a set purpose, individuals can engage in self-exploration and find what truly matters to them. In essence, the belief that life has no purpose encourages a focus on creating personal meaning and living fully in the present.
Spirituality involves a search for meaning and purpose in life with a sense of connection to something greater than one’s body and mind. It makes you enter the world through awareness and consciousness, being the rulers of your thoughts, feelings and actions. Spirituality suggests a dimension to life beyond what we experience on the sensory and physical levels. It includes transcendence by viewing life as a manifestation of a divine essence, with each living being containing a connection to a higher cosmic power – That Art Thou.
A certain interconnectedness, as well as seeking personal growth usually in a context separate from organized religious institutions, relying more upon making sense of one's own "inner dimension" or the spirit within. Emphasizing more upon subjective experiences via the invidualized soul with the deepest values and meanings by which people live.
I am an existentialist where life is neither meaningful nor meaningless. The question is irrelevant. Life is just an opportunity, an opening how to balance the dualities of life of happiness and sadness to attain a certain degree in peace of mind. It all depends on what you make of it - what meaning, what colour, what song, what poetry, what dance you give to it.
Life is a creative challenge. According to existentialism, each person creates the essence (meaning) of their life; life is not determined by a supernatural god or an earthly authority, one is free. As such, one's ethical prime directives are action, freedom, and decision to live, create your own meaning and purpose, experiencing and enriching as we age. Keeping in mind when one out of the two duality exists, the other like a shadow is bound to follow – pleasure/pain, positive/negative, divine/devil tec., etc.
Life is often viewed as arising from nothingness and eventually returning to it, reflecting a philosophical perspective on existence. This viewpoint suggests that all forms of life have their origins in a state of nothingness and will ultimately fade back into that state, indicating that nothingness is the foundation of existence.
In existentialism, "nothingness" means that there is no ultimate existence but mere waves of indivisible energy forming temporal subset energies to appear and disappear back into its fold. Further, certain parts of reality, like values, don't exist on their own but are created by our minds. This idea suggests that we create our reality through own values and meaning from the choices we make. We have that freedom or the ability to make decisions and shape our future, emphasizing that we can choose our own path, even when faced with challenges.
There are certain exceptions on unchangeable facts, like who our parents are or what we've done in the past. These are fixed aspects of our transitory existence. Furthermore, we are often confused or lie to ourselves blaming on destiny, bad luck or other factors by ignoring or denying these truths. It might mean or indicate pretending we don't have the freedom to choose or ignoring the unchangeable facts about ourselves.
Essentially, in existentialism it’s about refusing to accept the fixed realities of our lives. Like from the manner how genes express in our bodies can be altered by sheer determination or absolute faith has that inner confidence behind to act by believing our dreams will eventually take form one day.
Therefore, in existentialism, life is viewed fundamentally about individual freedom and personal responsibility. It emphasizes that the meaning of life is not predetermined by luck or destiny but created by individuals through their choices and actions. Existence precedes essence, meaning that individuals must define their own purpose and significance in an indifferent world. Additionally, it involves the quest for authenticity and the importance of what one gives to the world rather than what one takes.
Moreover, life is unique to each one of us creating our individuality, which is different from that personality that we exhibit and express outwardly. Meaning life is an experience, subjective as well as objective. The subjective experiences are spiritual for which we need to balance that with the objective in material living. Our perceptive thoughts, feelings and actions need to merge the tangible with the transcendental or the personal with the impersonal all depending on our inner or subjective outlook.
How do we manage that? Here we have the third component of life coming into action, the Soul. The mind is divided into three sections from which thoughts emerge and orchestrate the drama of life. The subconscious section is that major player making the thoughts go over 98 percent of its capacity for its personal desires and attachments in material life, randomly and recklessly creating bouts of happiness and sadness.
Then we the limited higher conscious section, which if attentive is centred and focussed from which our thoughts learn in concentration and contemplation. And, finally we have that superconscious section, where mind telepathically receives fresh and pristine nondual intuitive cosmic energy spontaneously prior to any cognitive thoughts in eureka – ‘bingo, I’ve got it’. Spiritualism refers to this exceptional psychic energy as spiritual awareness, that creates consciousness in the mind. Because only after you are aware can you become conscious, so awareness is the subjective part of the mind and consciousness is its objective the latter part.
Life then further provides us with choice to select out of any duality, be it the divine or the devil. The level of choice is highest in living beings, plants and animals do not have this prerogative, but exercising choice is also the source of most conflicts. The mind primarily chooses for its selfish purposes for its ‘me and mine’ in its likes and dislikes creating and clinging to its attachments leading to obsession and fetishes. This is the part where consciousness comes into play to determine how conscious you are about your own life from any mind’s intensity of thinking indicated by the suffix -ness.
In sum, existence is all about being awake and alive; it’s living an enriched, satisfying and well-rounded life when only after achieving this righteous balance in material wealth that can satisfy all wants one should then liberate their minds through freeing themselves from any attachments for peace not happiness through quieting down thoughts coming from incessant desires therefore these same four goals or aims mentioned in Vedas known as Purusharthas – “Dharma (righteousness), Artha (prosperity), Kama (pleasure) and Moksha (liberation).
Namaste.
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