The Point

A few weeks ago, I was having lunch with two of my friends when one of them asked me if it was possible to know when someone was going to die. I told him that yes, it was possible, because each of us has a specified duration in this physical plane, so we all have a sort of "timer" ticking down to our time of death. Our life cycle is fixed but in exceptional cases, life may be extended for a few more years. I further told him that because of the set duration, it was possible for really skilled astrologers to calculate one's day and time of death. I'm sure most people would rather not know, but I'm just saying that it's possible.

At that point, our other friend interjected a comment on another topic, so conversation drifted away from the original question that my friend had asked. However, I could sense my friend's unasked question, mainly: "What's the point of it all?" This has been a question asked countless times for many millennia.

According to Drunvalo Melchizedek, the esoteric practices of the ancient Egyptians consisted of three Mystery Schools: the Left, Right and Middle Eye of Horus. The Left Eye of Horus is the feminine pathway that deals with emotions, feelings, birth and death, and other feminine components of consciousness. The Right Eye of Horus is the male pathway that was passed on purely as oral tradition and dealt with the mechanics of expanding of one's consciousness. The ancient Egyptian initiates spent 12 years in the Left Eye mystery school before graduating into the Right Eye mystery school, which was only taught once.

The Middle or Third Eye of Horus Mystery School is the source of both the Left and Right Mystery Schools, because the Middle Eye is life itself. To the ancient Egyptians, life is the most important school of all. Everything in life is a lesson, preparing us for higher levels of existence and consciousness.

The question still remains as to why one has to go through life in the first place. Couldn't one just learn about the different facts, theories and other knowledge in the higher realms? For example, why climb Mount Everest when there are many documentaries describing the journey and the sights?

To try to answer that, we need to go on a slight tangent. Interestingly, I recently came upon the novel Siddharta, written by Hermann Hesse (July 2, 1877 – August 9, 1962), a German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter.

Siddharta derives from two Sanskrit words: siddha (achieved) + artha (meaning or wealth). Taken together, it refers to someone who has found the meaning of existence. Siddharta is also the name of the protagonist, an Indian man on a spiritual journey set during the time period of the Buddha. According to the novel, experience is the best way to understand reality, which eventually leads to enlightenment. This actually makes sense, because knowledge by itself is merely information, but knowledge that is experienced (applied) becomes wisdom.

So there you have one viewpoint that seeks to encapsulate the meaning of life. Of course, not everyone proceeds at the same pace, so not everyone "graduates" from life with the same level of spiritual achievement. More often than not, most people forget that they are spirits in the first place, and hence become too attached to worldly (hence temporary) objects such as status, wealth and power.

When one gets too attached to something, it becomes an addiction, with all the unfortunate conditions the term implies. I remember watching one National Geographic Channel episode that dealt with the online gaming addiction of South Korean youths. South Korea probably has the best Internet infrastructure in the whole world, which is why a lot of MMORPGs are coming out of South Korea and why they're really into gaming as a whole.

There was one teenager who was really addicted to First Person Shooter games. He couldn't sleep at night unless the lights were on and his dad slept beside him because he always felt some commandos would come crashing into their unit to kill him. He also got up several times an hour to double check the locks. The above example is quite extreme, but shows to what levels excessive attachment can lead to.

It is important to engage in life (work, family, friends, leisure, etc.) but it is equally important to have a sense of perspective about everything. According to one yogi, the only things we carry beyond death is karma and knowledge of our Higher Selves.

Live and learn, but always with a sense of detachment. I guess that's as close to describing the point of life that we can get. The rest of the way we need to experience by ourselves.