The Meaning Of Life

I'm always very surprised to find

that when I meet people are on a plane or train or standing on the bus stop, or in a lunch counter, or just in some other type of situation where I meet someone in my home or I meet someone in their home or an office, and another human being.

And we're talking about different things.

And some way I navigate myself to ask that person the question, what do you think about life? And the person says, Well, what do you what do you mean by that?

I said, like, what do you think about it?

What do you think the meaning is?

What do you think the purpose is?

And you'll be surprised that intellectual people, educated people, religious people, opinionated people,

arrogant people, rich people,

white people, black people, Americans, British, Australians, Spanish, Germans, French,

heads of state,

diplomats, athletes, celebrities, people who you would think should have some kind of grit or have come to some kind of determination about this very simple question.

I asked them, Well, what do you think is the purpose of life

and suddenly, this, there's a silence.

There's a hesitation, the person is not forthright.

And I always remind myself, and I always remind the person that this is not a religious question.

It's not a philosophical question. It's not a dialectical question. It's not a tricky question. It's a very simple, straightforward question.

And if you haven't answered it, if you haven't reconciled it within yourself, if your set of values, you haven't reconciled that question for yourself to be able to answer it straightforward, like you would if I asked you your name,

then there's a problem. And you just think about that probably work it out.

Because every human being needs to answer that question,

at least for themselves.

And they need to answer it objectively, not just subjectively, as it applies to me my opinion.

What do you think is the purpose of life all human beings? Because when human beings start to think about that question, it's an all inclusive question. And you can't just ask that question for yourself, because there are others involved in life.

When you start to think about others,

other places, other people, other situations, other ideas, these are thinking about the world as it is not the world as you think it is. You start to change a little bit yourself, you start to move outside of yourself, you start to take in a whole lot of other considerations. And I always say to people, if you haven't thought about this,

you need to go home,

cut off the TV,

turn off the music.

Let the kids go and play. Let your wife go and shop or let your husband go someplace and sit in your house or your room and silence for five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes.

And think about

what is the purpose of life? Because when you start thinking about that question,

you take the first steps just like a child takes their first steps in life, you start taking the first steps to balancing and reconciling probably the most important question for the human being.

Now, this is not a question that cannot be easily defined. It can be

if you turn to any one of the many dictionaries that would be available in an institution like this or public library, or available in your home or your office. The terminologies have been defined.

So it's not rocket scientists.

It's not rocket science yet. The word purpose

generally means aim.

objective,

underlying reality,

goal,

determination, reason and intent.

Very powerful.

The word life

one of the most powerful words that explain life, that's unfathomable. You can't even really when you say the word you can't even think of really what it means

existence.

Now, how do we think about existence?

Is it vertical? Is it horizontal?

What's the depth to it? What's the diversity of it? How far is it?

How many kinds of creatures does it involve? What kinds of substances were how, when, who's behind it? How did it come about such a profound word existence.

The funnel phenomena of the world,

the term of a human beings existence before what we call death.

Death,

a word that none of us like to say, unless it applies to someone or something else.

We can we can manage to say, someone has died.

But we don't like to think even for a moment

about someone say that about us.

Because that inevitable event, death. That is

what you and I,

on a downhill incline facing every single day.

As babies die,

young people die, oh, people die pretty women die, handsome men, rich people. Everyone faces death and will die.

No matter what your philosophy is, what's your

preoccupation is what your orientation is, who you think you are, where you think you're headed? What's your background? What's your family? What's your class titled in structure, it doesn't matter. We're all headed towards death.

Life is a gift that's been given to you and me.

And we have to work out the variables between here and there.

So when we speak about the purpose of life,

for individuals, it's really a simple issue.

But we need to take a look. Now, for individuals and for governments, the purpose of life is a little bit different. It takes upon a different set of dynamics.

And I want to discuss with you from a social political point of view, because my background in sociology, so it means I study behavior. I study the behavior of governments, civilizations, societies, I studied the behavior of individuals. That study of behavior helps me to understand when something is here, and you study the evolution of it, where it has come from, you get an understanding of where it is headed. And you start to see things to be almost the same.

And when we talk about life,

the life of a person, whether their life expectancy of their life, anticipation, their life involvement. for human beings, it's basically the same.

Now you might need a little more fancy food

than somebody that's living in Rwanda.

You might live in a little more fancy house to someone that's different in Somalia, or Afghanistan.

You may have a little bit more choice of clothing when you open up your closet than someone that might be living in the Amazon.

But when you're sick,

sickness is the same. And your response to sickness is the same as those people that we just talked about.

And when you have trauma in your life, tragedy in your life, you respond to it the same

as those people as a matter of fact, when people have been undergoing trauma on a daily basis, they deal with it better than what you and I will deal with it when it comes

to us.

So for individuals and governments, the purpose of life have a different manifestation. But I want to show you sort of like the generics of how they both function. But one of our

philosophers, historians that some of you may have heard his name, his name is Evan Khaldoon. He's called the father of history. He's the first one that interpreted History According to human behavior.

He said that

the cycle of life for individuals,

the cycle of life for governments, and civilizations are the same as the cycle of life for human beings.

There's a gestation period.

And then they're born.

And after they're born, they begin to recognize what you speak, they start to adopt it and realize their own personality. We're talking about individuals, we're talking about governments, societies,

this stage of immaturity, and then there's a stage of adolescence, and then there's a stage of maturity, then there's a stage in which most of their strengths, their faculties start coming into focus. And they reach an apex in their life.

According to most philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, they say that this age is around 4045.

For governments and societies, it's just about double that.

Then they start to realize,

and understanding the values and the dynamics of life a little bit more than they did when they were 3020. Because now they have reached the top of the hill. And they start with the data.

And as they start to decline into 50s, and 60s, lifestyles become more precious to them.

And governments,

like Australia, like the United States of America, like the UK, and like some who are finished now,

they start to realize also that they are not

as powerful as they claimed to have been.

They start to see that they are unable to hold on to everything that they have taken.

They start to see that the world does not revolve around them.

They start to realize that they cannot exist. Without the collaboration and the cooperation of other individuals of other governments of other people, they start to realize this.

And inevitably, individuals, like governments soon become dependent upon others, they return back to a state where they were dependent before. And after being rich, independent, arrogant, powerful, selfish, self centered, whatever.

They start to becoming

wise,

giving,

benevolent, understanding,

compromising,

mature, and looking at the anticipation of the inevitable, which is sickness, and death.

And one day, some of us in this room will remember that this is

a great country like Australia, big country like America, where I'm from big country like Great Britain, France, Germany, all these big countries, there's going to be a time maybe not in our lifetime, when someone will speak about them with a historical rhetorical mention, because there'll be

there'll be some other names here. Like there are some other names he had now. And we speak about others who were here who thought they were powerful, and will be here forever rhetorical, and history.

So we want to talk about the purpose of life, as it applies to individuals and governments because that allows us to understand the topic.

I asked you to bear with me.

Because this is one of my

one of my favorite discussions.

Not because I feel I treated well or understand it well.

But because it allows me as a human being to better understand how to negotiate my own life. How to appreciate my own life.

do appreciate those who are around me those who may be dependent upon me or those whom I'm dependent upon those who I interact with on a daily basis.