2 - Aim of Life
What is the main object of one's life? What are the driving forces?
The main object of life can only be one object.
There is one object of life for the reason that there is only one life.
The person who is not definite about his object has not yet begun his journey on the path of life.
Once an object has been determined, no matter how small, one has begun his journey on the path of life.
When you don't know your life's purpose you accomplish little.
No sooner has a person found his way than he will prove to be fortunate, because all things he wants to accomplish come by themselves.
What is called fortunate or successful is really having the right object.
Spiritual attainment is the object of every soul.
The definition of spiritual attainment can be found in the study of human humanture. For the nature of man is one and the same.
There are 5 things man years for in life: power, knowledge, happiness, and peace.
Power
In order to obtain power, a man does everything to gain physical strength, influence, or rank. He always runs up against disappointment because he will find that wherever there is a power of ten degrees, there will always be another power of twenty degrees to run up against him.
There are two kinds of knowledge:
- Knowledge of one gathers by learning the names and forms of life --> outer learning
- Knowledge resulting from inner learning
Knowledge
This desire promotes a tendency to study.
A man might study and study all through his life, but even if he read all the books in all the great libraries there would still remain the question "why"?
That "why" will not be answered by the books he studies, by explaining the facts which belong to outer life.
In the first place, naturally eis so profound that man's limited life is not long enough to probe its depths.
No one reaches true satisfaction by the outer study of life
The desire to live can only be satisfied when the soul realises its eternal life.
From the spiritual point of view mortality is the lack of the soul's understanding of its own life.
The soul gets from the physical body a kind of illusion and identifies itself with this mortal being; wise people have practised meditations that the soul a chance to realise its independence from the body.
Once the soul has begun to feel itself, its own life independently of its outer garb, it begins to have confidence in life and is no longer afraid of what is called "death"; he calls death a change.
A person with reason will only desire what is possible to accomplish.
The body is only a cover over one's real self.
One's mind is a cover over one's real self.
As soon as we find this out, one will become independent of the body as a means to live. One will become independent of the mind to live.
If there is no body, then what is life?
Man has limited himself by experiencing life through the body.
When man is not conscious of his body, then he is not conscious of his mind. When his are closed then he is pondered upon what his mind her gained.
Ones mind is a cover over one's real self.
The soul is living; it is life itself
What we call death is our impression of a change. Life is subject to change; and death is only a change of life.
Inner learning is learnt by studying the self
All knowledge strives after and all that exists to study, is all in oneself. Therefore, one finds a kind of universe in oneself, and by the suited of the self one comes to that spiritual knowledge for which the soul hungers.
In order to study the self, one must try to meditate and dive into the sea of knowledge which cannot the taught by study.
There are two aspects of knowledge
- Knowledge is intellect
- Knowledge is wisdom
Happiness
Man tries to to satisfy happiness not knowing that the pleasures of this world cannot make up for that happiness which his soul really seeks.
True happiness is not gained, it is disscovered.
Man's way itself is happiness
The one who has found peace within himself may be in a cave or among the crowd, yet in every place he will experience peace.
The real life of the heart is to live independently in its own happiness
True peace can come only by being so firm against all influences around us that nothing can disturb us.
Peace
In order to find peace one leaves one's environment which troubles one. One wants to get away from people, one wants to sit quietly and rest.
He who is not ready for that peace would not find it even if he went to the caves of the Himalayas, away from the whole world.