The Reason
Everyone at one point or another in their life will wonder about the reason for their earthly existence. Undoubtedly, religions can offer different perspectives in answering this question. However in this seemingly senseless world we are living in, faith in religious beliefs is getting increasingly fragile with every passing day. One way to reinforce one’s religious faith is to understand life as a journey in which one will discover for oneself the reason for one’s existence, whereas religion will be our map and guide us along, showing us pitfalls and dangers which we may encounter as we go along and teaching us how to deal with them. However as much as religion is an essential aspect of our journey through life, we ought to be mindful of the importance of our own volition and effort because as the Buddha puts it,
“You yourself must strive. The Buddhas only point the way.”
Like every journey, life may bring with it lots of risks and setbacks which one has no choice but to accept as part of life. There is no point being discouraged as indolence and procrastination will only hinder one’s religious progress. Stopping or slowing down for too long a period of time will only leave a feeling of regret and a whole lot of catching up to do when one finally wakes up from one’s slumber. As the Buddha has warned, “meditate … do not delay, lest you later regret it”. It is important therefore that we endeavour to unfailingly and resolutely strive to diligently practice the Four Proper Exertions until we transcend the Wheel of Samsara. As the Buddha puts it,
“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.”
However, this is not to say that life is a continuous journey with no pit-stops in between. The key is to know the right time to speed up, to slow down and possibly even to stop. In one’s enthusiasm to reach certain checkpoints on one’s journey of life, it is easy to get carried away and lose all sense of control in the illusory world of maya (Sanskrit: “magic” or “illusion”). Whenever this happens, one must keep the bigger picture in mind and remember the golden rule that no matter how hard or long the journey may be, the paramount aim is to reach the ultimate destination that is Supreme Enlightenment. In the context of life, this would require one to maintain constant mindfulness of the Four Noble Truths and staying true to the Noble Eightfold Path no matter how challenging the prevalent circumstances may be. As Aristotle puts it, “it is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
On this journey of life, whether it rains or shines, it is pointless to be angry, sad or overly joyful. The weather is something that is beyond our control. Being judgemental over it will only lead to despair and frustration. In order to be non-judgemental, the way to go is to be equanimous and rational instead of reactive or emotional. Similar to the weather, events and occurrences in real life which are beyond our control are not worth fretting over. As the Buddha puts it, “the more you try to control something, the more it controls you.” Everything that happens to us are the karmic fruits of our past actions. Liberation comes to those who accept this fact by letting go of things which are beyond their control so as to conserve energy and use it to turn things around instead.
Along the journey of life, one will come across a variety of sceneries. Love it or hate it, one needs to keep in mind that the scenery is constantly changing. By analogy with life itself, the various sceneries represent our different moods. Being the imperfect human beings that we are, our faculties of perceptions (sanna) are essentially flawed. As a result, we tend to succumb to our feelings (vedana). When one is happy, the joy makes one feel as if anything is possible, but when one is unhappy, the sadness can make it feel like the end of the world. Joy or doom, know that it is impermanent. As the Buddha puts it, “the world is continuous flux and is impermanent” and therefore not worth clinging to.
In a nutshell, regardless of how much help one might be blessed with along the way, the journey of life is our own journey and ours alone. As the Buddha puts it, “we ourselves must walk the path”. At the end of the journey, nothing else matters except whether we have found the reason for our existence. Some answers are worth it no matter the price we may have to pay. Hence as hard as it may be, we should never give up on our quest for eternal liberation by allowing ourselves to be immersed in the illusory security of maya. Let’s start practising the Dharma today before it is too late. As the Buddha puts it,
“Ardently do today what must be done. Who knows? Tomorrow, death comes.”
Giving up on our quest for eternal liberation would be akin to a student refusing to study because studying is too hard, only to fail in exams and having to do it all over again. Who knows, maybe life is merely a test of our faith. And for those who fail to find the reason for their existence, they may find themselves having to do it all over again.
Thong Ming Sen
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There is always a reason for every single thing that happens in our life and there is a reason for every worry and concern. Everything that happens for a reason believing that everything happens for a reason can help ease the burden and pain we endure.There is no blissful peace until one passes beyond the agony of life and death. Suffering is temporary, enlightenment is forever which one should not take for granted. Spent our time wisely and meaningfully. Many of us always think that we have time. There is no path to happiness, happiness is the path as we meditate, learn and practice Dharma to live purely. Bared in mind life is short, live the present moment wisely and earnestly.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this.
Everything is changeable, everything appears and disappears. There is no blissful peace until one passes beyond the agony of life and death. Everything in life is just for a while and everything is impermanent. By contemplating the impermanence of everything in the world, we are forced to recognize that every time we do something could be the last time we do it. Everything is changing all the time that is the basic message we have to accept. Reading these precious teachings in this article had me think that what makes every single day so precious. We should not waste a single moment we have , live till the fullness meaningfully with no regrets.
Thank you for sharing this article to remind us of our impermanent life. Choosing to learn, practice Buddhism is the best choice I have made.
In Dharma, we learned that everything is impermanent, good thing will never last forever, that’s why we should not be attached to it as when it was gone, we will suffer tremendously, and a good news is, bad things never lasts.
Life is a journey filled with opportunities, hardships, heartaches and its test for our courage. There is always a reason of our existence in this life.Thank you very much for this good article.
I find this very wise and inspiring. In Dharma, we learned that everything is impermanent, good thing will never last forever, thats why we should not be attached to it as when it was gone, we will suffer tremendously, and a good news is, bad things never lasts too, because no matter how bad our condition is, it will be gone soon and good things will fall to us again. This is how Buddhism keeping life moving on positively and at the same time guide us with the solution of our suffering. Thank you for sharing this article to keep reminding us of our impermanent life and must practice Buddhism now and no delay.??☘️
Life is short no matter how people procrastinate what has go wrong with their life. To serching for inner peace and happinesr. People accept religion able to bring peace and happiness for their life.
Having said that whatever acting we create will bring the result. If we not control our action body speech and mind, then even you are most religiour personat, do not bring peace for your own mind.
Why are we here on this glorious place called Earth? This is a question that can be answered millions of times with different answers. However, being here the most relevant thing for me is to know that I have not wasted my time here on earth but have used all that I have to have made a better place when I leave it in death.
Then comes the question of what is to leave and have contributed to creating a better place on earth. Simply I would say to have contributed to have made many people’s lives better many it be spiritually or materialistically. To have contributed to maintaining the resources I have enjoyed and not deplete them out of wastage.
Is that all, not really and as a Buddhist to spend this life to create a better rebirth.
When I was first learning Buddhism, there is a Buddhist hymn namely Self Reliance by the Wayfarers. I love this song very much is just because one path of lyrics mentioned “ no one save us but ourselves, no one can and no one may, we ourselves must walk the path, Buddha mainly show the way”. Yes, I like it because we are responsible for our own action and no one take control of our life. It was so many things happening in life and some of them were really bad and suffering. With Buddha taught I keep remind myself is my karma and accept this and move on with solution taught by the Buddha. This is how Buddhism keeping life moving on positively and at the same time guide us with the solution of our suffering. Thank you for sharing this article to keep remind us of our impermanent life and must practice Buddhism now and no delay.
Different people have different ideas or thoughts about their existence, religious or not they may be. Those who do not subscribe to religions or who are not spiritual may have their own theory while scientists prefer facts and proof. Whatever it is, everyone knows that this life is short and will end, sooner than we expected it. But before it ended, what have we done that had been of benefit to others, is important, I opine.
Buddha himself had walked the path & foind the reason to stay on Earth.
In life on Earth, we have tons of desires that keep us moving in life. However, how far can we go with this desires? Do they bring us real happiness or they actually make our lives even more sour & bitter.
As long as we are doing things with a motivation that just to gain benefits for ourselves, we will never find real happiness.
Many of us will always make excuses to procrastinate. We always assure ourselves that we still have time to practice tomorrow, next week, later but deep inside we know we are just lazy to be spiritual. But the best part of practicing spirituality, is that it can be done anytime, anywhere. Practicing doesn’t mean sitting down and meditate all the time. We can practice while we drive, while we are free, while we walking, etc. Transformation of the mind is all up to us through practice and patience. A little bit here and there, goes a long way.
Although it is not easy to understand and look into our life, but what Dharma teaching in Buddhism really helps us to understand more about our life. If we really look into it, and many philosopher said, Buddhism is not a religion, it is a philosophy of life. Thus, not many Dharma teachings are easy to understand, and not many are easily acceptable by many people. It is due to many people can’t really accept the reality of their life. the only way to understand more about our life through Dharma teaching is to practice Dharma. For example, some people always claim they are Buddhist on the tip of their tongue, but the thing they do, is totally opposite what Dharma teaches. Just like a person who easily get angry, he angry at their colleagues because they can’t cope with what he’s doing. He angry at their supplier, because they can’t supply things to him on time. He angry at the waiters because they can’t serve them food in time. He even angry at his wife, because his wife doesn’t understand what he is doing and why always come home so late. None of these reflects that he/she is a good Buddhist. And, why angry? Why don’t they just sit down, meditate, contemplate, “Why do i need to be angry? What do I get if I angry? What will my anger destroy?”Thus, other than saying “I am a BUDDHIST” and learning and learning and learning Dharma but don’t put in practice, and attend Puja unlimited time, that doesn’t make him a Buddhist. Just like Rinpoche always said it doesn’t matter how many Pujas we have attended, doesn’t matter how many Dharma classes we have attended, if a mind doesn’t transform, all the thing we’ve done are wasted. The best gift from a student to their Guru is mind transformation. How? Practice Dharma. Not just say it.
I think no one will really think deeply the reason why we exist in this world or life. Only when one have learn the Dharma long enough will know that the reason we exist in this world is because of our own karma. Whether we existed as a human or insect or animal is depending on our karma from our previous lives. Since we are born in a human body, best if we make use of it to do more things which will benefit others and also our future lives.
“You yourself must strive. The Buddhas only point the way.”
I thought this is powerful and must be made known to all devotees as to not pray Buddha to change things for you which I noticed all do to a certain extent, like for example: to get rich. People pray for money but never pray for themselves to work hard and do the right thing in order for them to get rich. It’s basically saying I don’t have to work hard and God/Buddha will help me make my dreams come true and if that doesn’t happen then the God or Buddha is not powerful and I should go to worship someone else which is wrong.
Many says, life is full of ups and downs. Our lives depends how we see and how we dwell with it. We humans are the most amazing creature on earth. Whenever bad or good things happened, we will be over reacting and being emotional uncontrollable.
I do agreed with what been written in the article. Meditate helps and being consistence with our practice. As what Rinpoche had always advice us to do more meditations, the reason is to calm our monkey mind.
Thank you so much for this article. This article really relates to me as I always wonder why am i existing in this world as a human? For what purposes? Well no one explain me as this article do. It is true that religion guides us along, showing us all the obstacles which we may face as we go along and teach us how to deal with them.
We should know the right time to speed up, to slow down and possibly even to stop in our life. Thank you so much again.
When one is happy, the joy makes one feel as if anything is possible, but when one is unhappy, the sadness can make it feel like the end of the world. Joy or doom, know that it is impermanent.
this is very true, every time when we are in good and positive mode, everything seems can be done and in fact, our performance to our work or anything we do, is clearly better and greater, but when we are down, many things seems to be so difficult or impossible to be done, and everything we do, will failed badly.
In Dharma, we learned that everything is impermanent, good thing will never last forever, thats why we should not be attached to it as when it was gone, we will suffer tremendously, and a good news is, bad things never lasts too, because no matter how bad our condition is, it will gone soon and good things will fall to us again.
Good or bad, bad or good, whatever we go through in our lifetime, it is a ripening of our negative karma and it is also a lesson for us to experience it and learn to create a better tomorrow.
Religion can certainly serve as the map to answer the question of why we exist. As religion is the truthful guide towards liberation and happiness, it therefore applies to all situations we faced in our day to day life, including the ups and downs, frustrations and excitement. When we practice the essence of our religion diligently, we will certainly benefit from it. Thank you for this great sharing.
Inspiring post…….Be bold enough to live our life nor matter what hardships comes along, begin it . Never give up in what ever we pursue . Life is a journey filled with opportunities, hardships, heartaches and its test for our courage. There is always a reason of our existence in this life. The only impossible journey is the one we never begin. In life nothing remains same and life is short, start now if not when in learning and practicing dharma. Beautiful quotes…. “You yourself must strive. The Buddhas only point the way.”
Thank you Thong Ming Sen for sharing.
I find this very wise and encouraging
Thank you
???? Thanks for sharing.
Good thought.
Life is impermanance.
Everything and everday changes.