The purpose of living 1

Last few months there were several sad cases happened. A friend of my friend got into a fatal accident on the road. My cousin got into accidents and was hurt very badly. In this very moment, most probably we would come to a stage where we would have some reflection on the purpose of life in this world. This is a very fundamental question to human beings. To me, it is a must to think of the purpose of living throughout our lives, because this answer determines a lot of things.

In the former times, traditionalists lived in a way to practise their traditions and cultures which were inherited by their ancestors. They practise their traditions strictly as if those are the truths of living. Traditionalists believe that tradition is the root of life. If we are to recall the condition of their lives, they were having a very tough life, for most of them were in poverty and slowly trying to rise up their children in that tough period. What mostly they worry about was to accumulate the wealth or food for the sake of their families. For those traditionalists, they live for their family and their family becomes the purpose of their life.

However, people realized many traditions or so-called superstitious beliefs do not bring practical advantages to the society. Then, the modern era arrived. Science and technology was introduced into the society and they brought a lot of development and convenience. From that time onwards, the productivity and efficiency was well concerned. Human welfare was being concerned better than ever. For that period of time, people search for practicality and reality principle. They did not imitate the traditionalists concerning about the past “the culture and tradition”; rather they care about the future, the development of science and technology for the sake of the human life quality.

Furthermore, slowly people realized that science and technology brought a lot of harms to the earth and human life is being threatened consequentially due to the abuse of technology and ethical problems of users. Pollution became the main concern to the nations and slowly we embraced environmentalism on that stage. Of course, slowly we got into the era of post-modern. Nowadays, people from post-modern generation would not pay much concern on tradition or development. Most of them would tend to enjoy their lives as long as they manage to do so. The motto of them should be “Life is short, enjoy your life!” They care nothing, but the feeling they have at that particular moment and location. This is what we call “Now & Here”. This kind of feeling and thought is honored and highly concerned among them. Nothing does really matter, neither the future nor the past. The purpose of living to them is to enjoy to the fullness in their limited lives in order to live without regrets.

It is very interesting to see how the concept regarding the purpose of living changed from time to time.

However, there are of course many special purposes of living for somebody which are not mentioned here. A knowledgeable guy who believes in Science and Technology told me that: “The purpose of life is that you live and take whatever that comes to you throughout your life, that’s all.” Certainly, different people would have different opinions on this topic. However, if we really want to discuss about it properly, first of all, we shall ask a question, why do we exist? Due to what reason do we manage to exist in this world? Please be aware that the way we answer this question determines the way we look at the value of life and the purpose of living. (To be continued)