What is the meaning of life?

How many times have we heard that question or even posed it ourselves? It is possibly the single most significant question that man has ever asked. These are my thoughts on that very question, distilled from 20 years of searching - through all the books, lectures, teachers, and personal intuitions I have had.

The basic things we need to do in this life are laid out for us far in advance of our arrival on this physical plane. I call them "The Fundamental Five" as these are the most basic beliefs, shared by ALL the world's religions. They are simply:

That's it; that's really all that matters. If you don't think this is so, just think back to a time when you did something nice for someone, "just because", didn't it feel wonderful!? Or how well you came through a terrible experience, and were able to take the lesson from it without bitterness. Or the time you were able to learn to love an enemy. Or the time you dearly wished for vengeance but stopped yourself from doing anything and forgave with the simple faith that karma works- i.e.- "What goes around comes around".

Before we came into this physical state, our spiritual selves were counseled by our spirit guides. We sat down and helped make the "blueprint" for this life's lessons/tests but some leeway was left as to the exact method. So, in essence, we set up our own goals for lessons/tests in the areas where we needed growth. As the famous saying goes, "The Lord never gives us more than we can handle." The rest of this saying should be: "because we helped decide WHAT we could handle!"

If you aren't sure what those life lessons/tests are, just look at the repeating patterns in your life. It could be a tendency towards choosing relationships that are destructive to you. An excessive lack of patience on your part with those whom you love or care for. A tendency to be hypercritical/judgmental. To be prejudiced against those who are different from you on any level. The fact that you harbor resentments and anger for those who have wronged you, or toward life in general. Whatever the pattern is; examine it, ananlyze it, figure out what the lesson is and choose to change yourself and your life accordingly. Once you have achieved this and truly grown from it, the pattern will cease, as you have learned that lesson.

This is what life's trials/hardships are for. While it may be hard to accept sometimes, we came here to do this because we will mature/grow spiritually at a more advanced rate than if we had stayed on the spiritual plane to learn what we need. The reason the growth is greater here is that we are in the flesh, with distractions to learning too numerous to count. The closer we get to spiritual perfection/maturity the closer we are to our ultimate goal of reunification with the Love and Light that is God. After all, that is where we all originated.

Sometimes though, we may loose sight of our "blueprint". We forget that we made it ourselves. In order to learn, to test ourselves and to grow. We feel that life is just too much or too difficult to continue the struggle. We feel like nothing will ever get better, nothing will ever go our way and we are destined only for misery and suffering on this earth.

Let me share with you one of the few quotes from the Bible that I truly believe: "This too shall pass". And it will! But first, you may need to figure out the key to making it pass. And for anyone who thinks suicide is a way out of it, you are WRONG! All suicide will do is put you right back in line to come back to the physical plane and go through all the same lessons again, until you have learned what you set out to in the first place.

The physical plane of existence is our "proving ground". Don't run away from your responsibility to learn, develop, and mature spiritually. Stick to it, and remember YOU helped decide your own lessons, so you ARE strong enough to do it. Figure out the meaning in the things that are happening around/to you. See what you can do to affect them in a positive manner and change yourself and your life for the better. Sure enough, you will come through your trials a better person and most of all spiritually stronger for the hard times you faced, endured and finally triumphed over. I have been there and I am telling you firsthand, anything worth having is worth working for. If that means you have to wade through a mile of poop to get to the rose patch, then by all means do it! You won't regret it!

*I PROMISE.*