Asking, “What is the meaning of life?” is like asking what is the meaning of a flower. You can say that the meaning of a flower is its function—to attract insects to propagate the plant and to produce seeds and fruit. But this is not the meaning, it is its utility and purpose on a very practical level.

A flower is much more beautiful than the function it performs actually requires it to be. Merely attracting bugs and spreading its seed doesn’t require roses to display the richness and variety of colors and fragrances it produces. So if life had meaning, it wouldn’t need to go overboard with so much beauty, it’s simply enough for everything to serve its purpose in one big biological dance of birth, reproduction, and death.

Life is in and of itself. The human mind assigns whatever meaning makes sense to it at the time. Some people don’t even think about it, they just go through every day on the level of the insects: Running around, feeding and expelling food, driven by instincts they never examine or question,. Other people put a religious spin on the meaning of life. God has set out a path for our estrangement and reunion with Him and that is enough for them to know.

Some people think that because there is no meaning it’s all a big, horrible joke, that inevitably ends in disease and death. This is because the human mind demands a story. It wants a neat little beginning , middle, and end. It must assign a purpose to everything so it can feel in control of something that is way beyond its grasp. But to know that life just is, is very freeing. We can sit back and admire its beauty, ingenuity, and perfection without demanding that it stands for something else.

Higher consciousness is a characteristic of any living being that is in touch with the inner light that corresponds to the fundamental intelligence of the Universe as a whole. Dolphins, dogs, and other creatures may have this higher consciousness, even if they can’t put it into words or communicate it in other ways. It is an awareness of our connectedness to it all at the deepest level. It goes beyond the daily grind, survival tactics, fear, and anything that is ego-based.

Pure consciousness is that fundamental intelligence of the Universe of which higher consciousness is aware. It is the organizing principle behind all of life, the planets, the galaxies, and our souls. We can connect to it any time but we must “get out of our own way.” In other words, we cannot be running interference with never-ending streams of thought, usually based on anxiety, inability to be in the present moment, and a feeling of lack.

They are not the same, but they are related. One cannot exist without the other. If we are not aware of something, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. It just means it doesn’t exist for us. Pure consciousness keeps on being pure consciousness forever. Higher consciousness depends on who attains it, who works for it, who is able to step aside from the endless bombardments of worries and fearful thoughts.
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To the animals and other beings, higher consciousness comes naturally. They do not live fretful lives and they are connected to the Peace of the Universe (unless humans interfere, cage or abuse them). Humans, however, do need to work for this peaceful state. It takes effort to cast aside the barrage of thoughts and fears. That is why meditation, yoga, and other modalities have come to be. Sometimes higher consciousness comes spontaneously to humans, especially after “The Dark Night of the Soul.” But in general, it takes intention and effort to get there.

Socrates wasn’t a hedonist, but his student Aristippus of Cyrene, was what is known as an “ethical hedonist.” He stated that pleasure is the highest good.

Aristippus explained that hedonistic ethical egoism is the concept that everyone has the right to do everything they can to attain the greatest amount of pleasure possible to them. He also said that everyone's pleasure should far surpass their amount of pain. He came to these conclusions after sitting at Socrates’ feet and hearing his musings and stimulating questions.

Socrates never made an explicit stand against hedonism itself. He stated that knowledge is virtue (which is what brings happiness and fulfillment). He was more interested in concepts such as, “Know Thyself” and “The unexamined life is not worth living.” This could be seen as the very opposite of unthinking hedonism, in which people satisfy their every whim and desire without anything else in mind besides having fun.
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Frolicking around in an endless party doesn’t always end well, though. Ultimately, the fun will go away, and then what will we be left with if we don’t know who we truly are in the depths of our heart, inner-mind, and Soul? Gorging on food and drink, sex and riotous living is actually the opposite of what Socrates was pointing to if we want inner peace and contentment.

In a sense, we can determine that Socrates thought hedonism was self-defeating. If we are totally self-interested and seek nothing but pleasure, we are bound to fail because the appetite for pleasure is insatiable. It’s called the “paradox of hedonism.” So, although Socrates doesn’t think hedonism is bad, he just saw it as self-defeating and would never bring true happiness.

Yes. We can go about our daily lives and not notice that someone important to us is stuck in old patterns and beliefs that we have already moved beyond. If we are on a path of growth and development while they are content to stay where they are or regress, it can be a problem. We love them dearly and yet it feels frustrating to be around them.

If we try to talk to them about it, they either don’t get it or get hurt or angry—even if we approach the subject in a gentle and loving way. If we express anger because of frustration with their stuck-ness, it creates a further wedge and does not really solve the issue. If we dumb ourselves down just to get along, it also doesn’t feel good.

It can be very disruptive when we are growing, learning, and expanding into new horizons, while “the other” is mulling around in old patterns. I had a friend for over 35 years who was on my level of consciousness, adventure, and passion for life when we met. Then she got married and took on endless responsibilities of house maintenance and drudgery. She became consumed by houses, repairing them, cleaning them, and all sorts of endless activities that were not in the same creative mode that she had displayed to me for so many years in the past. They made her cranky, distracted, and anxious—testy and difficult to be around.
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I just didn’t buy into why she had to live this life of restlessness and striving while she neglected her Soul. So you can say I outgrew her. It was not a happy experience to feel as we parted. I don’t think she had any insight into why it happened. She was completely unconscious. And I had also been unconscious as it happened through the years. But when I finally woke up, it was over.

The “easy” problem of consciousness answers questions like the following:

• How do we learn, store memories, or perceive things?
  
  
• How do we know to pull our hand away from a hot stove?
  
  
• Why do we hear our name spoken even in a noisy gathering?
  
  

The “hard” problem of consciousness asks these questions:

• Why do all those complicated brain processes feel like anything from the inside?
  
  
• What is the point of this kind of awareness?
  
  
• Why aren’t we just useful robots, capable of retaining and acting on information, of responding to noises, smells and other environmental stimuli—but totally blank and dark inside, lacking an inner life?
  
  
• How could the gelatinous, tissue inside your skull (the brain) give rise to something as mysterious as all or our experiences and feelings?
  
  

Questions like these, which blur the boundaries between science and philosophy, make some experts angry and confused because they cannot begin to answer them. Some argue that conscious sensations, such as pain, don’t really exist, no matter what we feel as we slam our finger in the door. Others argue that that plants and trees are conscious.

The Hard Problem has prompted arguments in scientific journals about what is going on in the mind of a zombie, or ask the question “What is it like to be a bat?” Some argue that the problem marks the boundary not just of what we currently know, but of what science could ever explain. On the other hand, in recent years, a handful of neuroscientists have come to believe that it may finally be solved – but only if we are willing to accept the conclusion that computers or the internet might soon become conscious, too.
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We know for certain that we have inner experience of sights, smells, touch, emotions and the rest. Some scientists say we should concede that consciousness is just the physical brain, doing what brains do. Others say that consciousness is the only thing that matters and the rest is illusion. And since no one really knows for sure, the debate goes on.

Viewing the huge amount of mental illness in our homeless population, learning of the school shootings by kids on drugs meant to treat mental illnesses, and knowing of the widespread number of people on anti-depressants as they trudge through their unhappy lives, I say that psychology today is a huge failure. It has resorted more and more to drugs that have limited effect:
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• People adapt to these drugs and need add-ons or more
• People who need to take anti-psychotic medication the most do not have the mental stability to be consistent in taking them
• Drugs are masking the underlying issues that are causing the maladaptive behavior

I understand that when a person is in a violent psychotic episode, drugs are important and necessary. But everyday drug use as a substitute for teaching and learning coping skills is a abdication of responsibility.

One of the problems is that psychology is dealing with our ego minds, which will always be dysfunctional. And the more we delve into it, the more entrenched in it we get. Our mother forced us to eat carrots and now we hate the color orange. Does it make us any happier or more fulfilled to know this after years of analysis? This is why the next step for psychology will be to bypass the human ego-mind altogether and allow people to find pathways to the one part of themselves that is not dysfunctional: Their Eternal Soul.

Insanity is believing everything the dysfunctional ego mind churns out. If we cater to this mind and live in it, we will be insane and act insane. Look at the planet today and see where the functioning of the ego mind has brought us. Therefore, psychology today, if it is to be at all effective, instead of a pill-pushing cop-out, must find ways to bring people in touch with their Souls, where there is always peace.

The only absolute certainty is that the Universe exists, everything else is probability. Even the atom, when examined under scanning electron microscopes, consists of particles and waves that have a probability of being in a certain place at a certain time, according to physicist Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.

Heisenberg states that the position and the velocity of an object cannot both be measured exactly, at the same time, even in theory. To bypass the details of his theory, but to get to the meat—-He is saying that even the most fundamental “building blocks” of material reality, are based on the probability of being there rather than certainty because we can’t measure them together. Position, energy and time, are unknown, except by probabilities because they cannot be measured simultaneously.

People who do not understand this think that everything they see is real and that everything they were taught by their religion is true. This makes people feel very secure and in control. It is unsettling to know that there is never absolute certainty from the human mind’s point of view.

But when we step into the world of the Spirit, it’s OK to be uncertain about it all. We can relax into the uncertainty. We know we are not in control and that the only thing we really can control is our thoughts and body movements (most of which are beyond our voluntary control anyway). It is probable that our heart will beat one more beat but one day that will be impossible too.
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When we see things from deep within our Souls we feel awe at the uncertainty and yet perfection of it all. The Universe is perfectly put together, with uncertainty built into its most fundamental nature. And yet it flows in an orderly fashion that will always be beyond human comprehension.

When we are babies we are all part of the huge, Universal Whole and do not see ourselves as separate entities. Our parents tell us that we have a name. This makes us an individual. As we grow, we begin to see that there is something that is self and there is something that is not-self. There is Me and there is not-Me.

Me wants certain things. Me is hungry. Me is upset when someone takes our toy away. Me feels all kinds of emotions and depends on others to fulfill our needs. We are too young to fend four ourselves, find food, clean up, and arrange for safe shelter. Me feels all kinds of emotions as Me begins to have demands. Me feels sad and lonely. Me wants attention.

As we grow further, we see that there are all kinds of things that distinguish the Me from the not-Me. Not only do our caretakers give us directions on how Me should behave but we also have schools, religious institutions, peer groups, and the society in which we are born. They all have their input into what Me should be and give flavor to what we see as the subjective self.

Inside us we are still that Universal Energy of Oneness but our minds have come to identify with all these messages of what the Me wants and what the Me should be. It also identifies as a separate body and its drives. That is the separate Me, what we call subjective consciousness. It wants things for itself. It sees things from its point of view. It is not longer content to bask in the bliss of Oneness. It needs to build itself up, add more to it, create an image, and constantly listen to the judging voice in the head to see if it measures up.

So, in a way, the Me is not so subjective after all. The problem is when we think we really are this little, separate Me and have lost touch with our Universal Soul. Often even the opinions that we think are our unique ideas, are just what our Me has been influenced to be or feel when we were too young to argue about it or protest. Me might feel a genuine distaste for certain kinds of people based strictly on what Me was been taught about them.
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It is natural for the subjective self to emerge. But let’s not believe that this is who we really are. It’s just a bi-product of being on the Physical plane. If we get bogged down into thinking this subjective self is real, we will lose contact with our eternal Souls and never find inner peace. Yet it will always be there, waiting for us to awaken to it.

The ego mind is never satisfied with what is. It always wants more, more, and more. It is like an empty hole that can never be filled. It is a hard-wired characteristic to never be satisfied with what it has and to seek something else.

On one level, this is a beneficial quality because it has spurred inventions and innovations. We aren’t satisfied with the dirt road and its muddy ruts when it rains. So we build a smooth paved road. Now we can travel longer and father, go more places, transport more goods, and build more traffic jams.

This is the way we are driven by our sense that what we have is not enough. Otherwise we would all sit in perfect bliss and allow ourselves to starve to death if food wasn’t immediately available. I mean it all ends in death anyway, so why struggle and strive? But on another level this drive for more is the cause of endless restlessness, feverish activity, crowds, noise, pollution, personal and corporate greed, and despoiling the planet.

Like so many things in life, in moderation the desire for more and more is beneficial. It brings with it new ideas and more creative ways of accomplishing goals. But when out of balance, the endless desire for more brings dissatisfaction and frustration.

My connection to Universal Love and Divine Light has been my ultimate source of happiness since I was a small child. Many frightening things surrounded me and my parents were too ill to intervene. My caretakers at the time were corrupt, cruel, and threatening. I began my conversations with God at about the age of four and found immediate consolation. I felt the peace that was beyond my child’s brain to completely comprehend. But I felt it and it gave me great courage.
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I was able to face my emotional abusers one day at the age of five, and put an end to the oppression. As soon as I felt the courage from a Source within and outside my small, child’s body, I triumphed. I told them, in the limited vocabulary of a little girl, that their reign of terror was finished. I knew then that I was not alone. I knew I could turn to my Source and Originator, some call God, and feel the strength that was beyond my own personal power.

Being acquainted with my Source Energy gave me an underlying happiness that stayed constant through lots of turmoil. That connection has never left me. Actually, during unfortunate events this connection comes in stronger than ever for me. It is the foundation of my life’s joy and peace. And it never lets me down so I know I can trust in it.