Why are you living? 

An inquiry into the purpose of life...

I have received life, a marvelous gift from Nature. Its value is beyond measure. Life is like an ocean fathomless with no bounds. I am amazed at the immensity of it.

I look out at the world to see what others are doing with this marvelous gift. Very rarely do I see a person living the life. It seems that people have not realized the value of life, the joy and wonder of living. Many a people have turned it to problems of various kinds. To them the very existence is problem. They would ask you ‘What to do with this life’?

All what we see in the world is human suffering in various forms. There is no wonder that this suffering has arisen from the problems we have e created out of life. The greatest misconception is that life is a means to achieve something. They say you must have a goal. Having chosen a goal you have to work hard to achieve it. So you live with a desired future in mind, always looking forward.

One may ask: Can we just live? We have to provide for ourselves. I accept it. Surely one must earn the basic needs necessary for survival. But putting these ahead of living is like putting the cart before the bull. Every individual is born with the capacity, energy and intelligence to earn these basic needs for survival. Working for them is a secondary task.

I do not want to be trapped to into the ambition for earning as the primary function of life. Life is not a means to achieve things. For me “life” is the end itself. There is nothing to aspire, nothing to achieve, nothing to do. There is only being, which means living fully in every movement. What else?

Does a river ask its purpose? A river is to flow and life is to live! There is nothing beyond it. Just live, live each moment in full. You need not project joy, happiness, contentment into an imagined future as a goal to be achieved. If you look close all those gifts are there in this very moment.

An Extract from a talk by:
A.S.Balasooriya