What is the point of living?

- "The Point" -

The point of living is very, very small.

It is a very tiny point indeed.

If one were to blink one might miss it!

One must gain the clarity to observe it.

Once it is observed and witnessed, it will begin to grow and soon become very large.

If observed externally it will appear very small.

If observed internally it will appear very large.

Within this lifetime one must gain the clarity to find this very, very tiny point, that is within. If found, it will expand rapidly!

One must search endlessly for the very elusive, "Point of Living".

It is indeed there, within the inner most heart of every human being.

Never stop searching!!

Salaams,

We have the routine of education (and possibly marriage and kids) so we can have the tools to live our life. How can you backpack through Europe without the means? How would you know what you'd want to see and experience without learning about Europe's rich history? How can you sail the South Pacific without sailing experience? After you feel you have been fully educated enough, you can create your own path. A trip to Europe is not free; it will take a job to fund it--and how will you get a job? I emphasize an education, you can do almost anything after this.

The standard route is what most people end up on because it gives them the most happiness, and aspirations change as you mature. There is no straight one-size-fits-all answer for everyone, you decide what you want to do with your life. So I encourage you to find a goal in your life, but it's up to you to figure out how to support it. If you really want to travel, you make the time for it--the only thing that would hold yourself back is yourself.

So, what is your question? Maybe you should MAKE time to backpack across Europe. MAKE time to sail around the South Pacific. Nobody says you have to follow what everyone else does.

Maybe you're going to win the lottery and spend your life traveling with no time for a spouse or children. It's all up to you!

Your point in life is to make an impact on the people around you. That is why you were put on this earth! You were put here to change the life of someone. When you make that change, your life will be complete, and you will be sent back to where we all came from.

"To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded. " --Bessie Stanley.

I guess I take on a more existential view on life- I don't think there is a point to living. After all, in the very end the earth is going to go extinct, leaving all humanity's achievements in vain. But I do believe in living for the moment, and a moment in terms of the universe may be a generation here on earth. I believe that everyone should strive to be happy, whatever that definition may be.

That quote up there defines the point of living for me. Saving the environment and wildlife makes me happy, so I'm directing my 'paved path' in that direction by majoring in ecology and striving for a career in that field. Marriage and kids, eh not too concerned about that, I could probably go without. My boyfriend also makes me happy, so I'm going to divide some of my time to help him pursuit things that make him happy. Yes, I would like to one day travel the world, and maybe it's true there isn't enough time. But as long as I fill my life doing things related to my pursuit of happiness, I'll have little to regret.

I think every one has a different reason to live it may be something planned out by God or just random acts to fill the void. Yes it seems life is planned out for us (School, college, work, marriage, kids, old age, death) but these or just the tittles it is upon us as individuals to fill the pages yes it is true for some the first few are never written it seems the last on your list are definite and unavoidable but if you need a change then write it in where you fit not where any one else tells you sometimes you have to go with flow the best thing I can say is Carpe Diem.

You don't really have to do anything in this life if you don't want to. The purpose of life used to be to procreate, but there are more than enough people in this world that if a few of us decide not to have kids then we're not at risk of becoming an endangered species.

The purpose of a job is to have money to survive and do things. Work to live, not live to work...

Oh gosh there's plenty of time to do all of the above, you just have to organise yourself! You can more than one thing at once...

Do the backpacking across Europe whilst you're still young and don't mind crashing in dodgy hostels and the like in order to save a few extra dollars that'll get spent at some foreign pub anyway. Do it just before or just after college, or as a study abroad program whilst in college - you'll get the opportunity to study overseas and meet some other amazing students whilst you're there too!

Then you go work for a couple of years, doing short trips here and there on your holidays, saving up and taking chances to meet your future husband. Then you can go do the sailing thing - either as soon as you have enough money, or as a honeymoon with your husband.

Then you go back to work and try to save up money to have the house, kids, and more holidays.

There is plenty of room for being spontaneous in life. Nothing is set in stone.

your life is not planed out for you. it never will be, these things you said in you paragraph or whatever you want to call it, these things are merly just what everyone thinks life should be about. sure, those things are good, but not what everyone wants. you can go backpacking whenever you want. after college before college, as soon as you get what you want go backpacking. take a month off of whatever you were planing on doing with you life and have some fun. everything you planed will be waiting for you when your done. you just might have a different aspect on life if you were lucky enough to do these things. i mean sure it may never happen but it could, it is physically impossible to know what the point of life is. but who cares? as long as you have fun while your doing it, it doesnt matter.

According to my beliefs, there is a saying that mentions "God does not alter a course of life (or fate) unless the person strives to alter it him/herself". This quote (in my opinion) suggests that we are all given free will to actually choose and set the courses of our own lives if the paths we happen to be walking on is not the one we wish for ourselves. It also means that we should always live to improve whatever state or elements of life we were initially given to work with.

Yes, people are always asking about the meaning of life. For me though, the questions I always ask myself are "What can I DO to make MY life more meaningful?" and also "What can I do to make me feel good about myself and the life I'm living?"

And it all would come back to the aspects of my life that I value most; my fully-functional mental faculties and the beliefs and convictions it carries, my family, love - an abundance of it, a career I enjoy, the multitude of interests that I have so much passion for ...and so much more. I don't even mind sleeping only 5 hours a day so I would have more time to spend for all that I cherish.

Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well

- Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield

I find so much truth in those words. Know yourself, know what you value, and strive to make it all worthwhile. And that, to me, is living life to the fullest.

Please forgive me if I have offended in any way. I didn't mean to sound like an insufferable know-it-all. I sincerely wish you all the best, and I do hope you will soon find the answers that you are looking for.

U don't have to do anything u don't want to do. As soon as u see that the better life gets.

Don't let anything hold u back. quit school when u think u have learned enough. don't get a job if u don't want to work - there are thousands of ways to get money! or get a job that u can enjoy.

Close all doors leading to religion, as religion will get u nowhere.

Turn off your TV!

The meaning of life is living a file with meaning. It is what u make of it.

The point of living is to prove all the media fat cats right. I bet anything that if you just say F it and take your back packing trip in 3 months to a year if it takes that long when you get back college will still be there waiting for you. Good luck and have a great trip.

If you look at life as a ritual, or a stuffed space of routines between two points, with nothing but a to-do-list,.. then, your sense of bore is justified.

But life in NOT just a blunt standard plot. It has profound beauty and mystery in it that is worth discovering. Each purpose comes with exciting secrets waiting to be explored. It’s like looking at the rainbow. You see the colors. But to wonder and ponder where it ends or what to find at its end enthuses you to look further and deeper.

Life is not just about submitting to the bio-chemical substance and scholastic phase of it.

You don’t just go to school to learn things. You contribute your thoughts to it.

You don’t just get a job to earn. You contribute your talent and skill to make a company process more effectively.

You don’t just get married to bear children. You share you life with those you love and spend time and effort to produce a happy wholesome family.

In the end, you don’t just leave this world with a brief goodbye. You bequeath inheritance that is more than tangible things… And that is the very essence of ‘you’.