The path is not always clear, and the destination rarely known.
And while purpose evades us, evasion concerns us yet all the while we seek but hope.
But what reason have we to find our place or fall with grace if death is what awaits?
And what purpose will our achievements serve when we are gone if their sole end was to lead us to ours?
Do not think that existence of self is defined upon the precondition of necessity, for we are all singularly unnecessary.
We will die and fade as our self-serving accomplishments and possessions outlast us far beyond the care of those who succeed us.
And while the pleasures of living are certainly grand, the inevitability of dying will never be escaped… despite our greatest efforts.
Why then search for purpose, what can be found that has even a semblance of permanence?
A great man once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Perhaps this is true, but either way,
The examined and unexamined life both end with death – that is the single greatest truth of life.
The source of life’s significance lies in its end. For if we all lived forever, nothing would truly matter anymore.
Gone would be the need for hope, love, generosity, compassion, mercy…
Immortality would destroy the very things that make us live, the very things that make us human.
And in being human we must accept the conditions of our life and death or suffer the consequences.
We were not born to live a life of isolation or self-importance. We were not born to find immortality.
And though we are all singularly unnecessary, together we form the fabric that transcends all meaning and purpose.
Together we experience hope, love, generosity, compassion, mercy…
Together we experience the necessity of being alive.
The Necessity of Life
The photo I am using for this post is one I took several months ago. I could never think of a good purpose for it until now, but I think it does a fair job conveying the meaning in what I’ve written. The focus of this post is the writing which was inspired by Matt and Roni whose comments to a post I made earlier got me thinking. This is the result of that thought.
The Necessity of Life
The path is not always clear, and the destination rarely known.
And while purpose evades us, evasion concerns us yet all the while we seek but hope.
But what reason have we to find our place or fall with grace if death is what awaits?
And what purpose will our achievements serve when we are gone if their sole end was to lead us to ours?
Do not think that existence of self is defined upon the precondition of necessity, for we are all singularly unnecessary.
We will die and fade as our self-serving accomplishments and possessions outlast us far beyond the care of those who succeed us.
And while the pleasures of living are certainly grand, the inevitability of dying will never be escaped… despite our greatest efforts.
Why then search for purpose, what can be found that has even a semblance of permanence?
A great man once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Perhaps this is true, but either way,
The examined and unexamined life both end with death – that is the single greatest truth of life.
The source of life’s significance lies in its end. For if we all lived forever, nothing would truly matter anymore.
Gone would be the need for hope, love, generosity, compassion, mercy…
Immortality would destroy the very things that make us live, the very things that make us human.
And in being human we must accept the conditions of our life and death or suffer the consequences.
We were not born to live a life of isolation or self-importance. We were not born to find immortality.
And though we are all singularly unnecessary, together we form the fabric that transcends all meaning and purpose.
Together we experience hope, love, generosity, compassion, mercy…
Together we experience the necessity of being alive.
The path is not always clear, and the destination rarely known.
And while purpose evades us, evasion concerns us yet all the while we seek but hope.
But what reason have we to find our place or fall with grace if death is what awaits?
And what purpose will our achievements serve when we are gone if their sole end was to lead us to ours?
Do not think that existence of self is defined upon the precondition of necessity, for we are all singularly unnecessary.
We will die and fade as our self-serving accomplishments and possessions outlast us far beyond the care of those who succeed us.
And while the pleasures of living are certainly grand, the inevitability of dying will never be escaped… despite our greatest efforts.
Why then search for purpose, what can be found that has even a semblance of permanence?
A great man once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Perhaps this is true, but either way,
The examined and unexamined life both end with death – that is the single greatest truth of life.
The source of life’s significance lies in its end. For if we all lived forever, nothing would truly matter anymore.
Gone would be the need for hope, love, generosity, compassion, mercy…
Immortality would destroy the very things that make us live, the very things that make us human.
And in being human we must accept the conditions of our life and death or suffer the consequences.
We were not born to live a life of isolation or self-importance. We were not born to find immortality.
And though we are all singularly unnecessary, together we form the fabric that transcends all meaning and purpose.
Together we experience hope, love, generosity, compassion, mercy…
Together we experience the necessity of being alive.
I appreciate how you addressed death as the single greatest truth in life. I don’t think there has ever been a counter example. To my knowledge every human born on this earth has died within a maximum of 120 years or so. I honestly believe that this is the only thing I can be totally sure of as a human with 5 limited and sometimes illusion producing senses.
I frequently ask myself if this deep thought is worth anything more than slowly driving myself insane day to day. My most recent conclusion is similar to the points that you brought up in your final thoughts. You can see the instant beauty in life by simply understanding that it is precious. You can lose it any moment. It is so easy to forget that in the stress and rush of life itself.
Now we have to figure out how to make the most of it. Can we discover anything beyond that most basic truth?
The greatest Truth therefore reminds you that we are, more often than not, spiritual beings having a human experience. We are not here to get spiritual – we are spiritual. We are here to integrate that spiritual essence into our human experience.
Consider closing your eyes for a moment and dare to imagine this is your dream, a specific moment in time, your very own instant. It is a miraculous moment when a daydream, passion and effort to acheive it, bond together, woven with lustrous threads of invisible strength.
Imagine the feeling, if you and the universe were completely in tune, balanced, softly breathing in unison with every fiber of your being, every inhale and exhale to the same beat. Your heart is racing, pounding in echoes of reverberating silence. It is right then, you will feel alive.
As to the purposes, no matter the venue we chose to leave our mark, the importance is in the trance of passion and the working in hope of the elusive unattainable edge of glory within ourselves. Focused in the zone of determination and holding softly the reins of calm composure, if beyond all imagining, that instant comes at the most pinnacle moment in time…
That just may be the edge of the ever elusive quest of perfection undaunted by demanding, yet joyfully displayed in hushed patience…
I find your words beautiful even though I have a different philosophy of life… Earth Life is just a passage through eternal life, where our souls will go on forever. By earthly death, only our body of flesh and bones fades away.
If I am a loving, generous, compassionate, and a merciful human being, if I am doing my best to be a great person on earth, it is not because of death, but because I am investing in my eternal life. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life”.
I don’t want this short life of mine, be the reason of my soul’s misery after my heart stops beating.
If I am making my utmost effort of leading an exemplary earth life today, it is to leave a mark on earth..to leave a legacy for my children and my beloved people, but I am doing it mostly because I believe in after life. If there were no eternal life, may be I would be thinking solely about me and myself, forgetting all about my mortal bosom bodies. And basically, immortality comes through faith.
Such a beautiful post, and such thought-provoking comments here. I’m with Rita on this . . . I simply don’t believe in “death”.
Ladybug…
your photos and quotations are indeed from an “optimystical” point of view 🙂