Sunday, November 7, 2010

The purpose of life

The Muslims purpose may be to serve Allah, the Christian to serve God (they are the same!).
The parent's purpose may be to see that her children grow into fine adults.
The addicts purpose may be to find his next fix, or to get himself clean.
Politically, conservatives have a purpose, liberals have a different purpose.
A woman's purpose may be to be independent, or to be partnered with someone.
A man may or may not want self sufficiency.

My point is, we all want something different. We all have different perspectives, regardless how large or small those differences may be, they are differences. How then, can we ever hope to see a universal Purpose of Life?

In my life, I had the good fortune to meet and train with the father of American Tae Kwon Do, Grand Master Jhoon Rhee. Master Rhee and I are from different cultural backgrounds, different ethnic groups, and different religious beliefs. However, he taught me the universal purpose of life. The purpose, as he explained it, transcends all of our differences. We ALL have the same purpose.
The Purpose of life is to be Happy.

Simple really. We are supposed to be happy. Whatever we may do, whatever we may say, how ever we may believe, is all done in the pursuit of our happiness.

Can we actually achieve happiness? Who knows? What is important, is that we strive for that happiness.

Of course, we must be careful that the pursuit of our happiness does not infringe on someone else's happiness. Or at least try :-)


Or, I suppose one could follow Emerson:
"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."
But, then again, he is merely stating what made him happy ...









......














And, Yes. I am pursuing my own happiness ;-)

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL! The bacon Bra!!! Nice!!!

My pursuit of happiness is to find a video on Youtube I haven't seen...

No really it makes me happy to see my kids happy....

Fireblossom said...

Is he related to Master Cylinder?

Rita said...

The purpose of life is to be happy! Right now happiness is cuddling up to my BF...Oh LA la!

Charlene said...

In general happiness is a function of lowered expectations. Myself, I like high expectations and have learned to live with disappointment.

mac said...

Charlene, that seems sad.

I would think more of happiness as trying to reach our high expectations, not settling .

Candice said...

I wonder if that bra comes in a 36D?

Anonymous said...

Thought provoking post. Thanks for this.
The bacon looks a little overdone.

Have a nice day, Boonie

ExtraO said...

What the hell is that?! Haha... but yes, I agree, wholeheartedly. :-)

Harvey said...

There is a philosophy that is referred to as Egoistic Hedonism. It says that humans always will seek to make those choices (where choice is possible) calculated to provide them with the most "good" outcomes or to avoid the most "bad" outcomes. Since a positive "balance" between good and bad in our lives generally makes us "happy", this would seem to be an expression much like yours in this post. If, however, people always behave this way (assuming their analysis of the data available is accurate and there is enough time within which they can make such 'choices') this is not really a "philosophy" so much as a descrition of Human behavior. N.B. I happen to believe that it is a generally accurate description of human behavior. If true, it totally obviates any suggestion of "moral" law.

KittyCat said...

Maybe that is my problem. I should not pursue being happy but in being usefull.
What does that mean? Useful in what way?

You have given me a whole new set of things to think about.
Thank man!

Now can you show me a nice bra in veggies?

Pliny-the-in-Between said...

Your post had the opposite effect on me Mac - I am working even harder now that I have a far better understanding of the term 'bringing home the bacon'...

Carma Sez said...

Holy Crap - an update!!!!! I've read some of the Dalai Lama's books and he thinks along the same lines too. I do like that theory.

Anonymous said...

I agree mac, but I think Emerson's Christian/virtue ethics can help in the times when our altruistic selfish (vs. our selfish selfish) nature needs to be built up.

Harv's point is interesting though, and frankly I would love it if it were true.

Tit for Tat said...

Jesus, wouldnt that be a cruel trick to play on a Jewish wedding night. :)

Here honey, come play with my.....Oops

rita said...

I think the key word is "transcending". Both in the context of your Tae Kwon Do teacher & Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was a Transcendentalist, BTW.
A couple of years ago I took a very uplifting course on the Transcendentalist movement and the impact Emerson and the other people in the movement had on democracy and personal freedom.
So, in this context...
If I had to define the purpose of life as happiness then happiness is the freedom to transcend.

mac said...

I always thought transcendentalism was a bunch of poo. Sorry, Rita.

GearHedEd said...

Boobs and bacon...

Does anything else matter?

pboyfloyd said...

Everyone ought to know by now that the purpose of life is to put your money in an envelope and send it to me.

I'm just not getting the message out.

Fragrant Liar said...

So . . . yer makin' bacon? ;-) That's as good a happiness pursuit as any.

rita said...

I always thought transcendentalism was a bunch of poo.

& I thought you were enlightened.

Mashuga Mom said...

I love this post... the purpose of life....how do we find it. Is it to be happy? I don't know. I do know that about 5 years ago I almost died and didn't so I guess I haven't served my ultimate purpose yet. I guess.