Why the Need to Search?

[Grumpybutfun]

There is something very healing and rejuvenating in just sitting with concepts and ideas and being. I am a bit of a scholarly type and read a great deal and can meditate on a line in a poem, treatise or novel for hours. I have just realized that by pondering it, I am meditating because I am letting go of the "noise" and allowing the vibrations from those thoughts and concepts to come into my conciousness.

I think we rely too much on "learning" and not enough on just "feeling." After all, spirituality to me is about our souls...what feeds us emotionally, what makes us truly grateful, or what adds that purpose of being in the universe to our lives. I am always trying to figure out what I am searching for....what questions is my soul asking? What am I wanting to be filled with and for what purpose?

Certainly any religion could answer that question, but religion leaves me pretty cold because dogmas and manmade ideaologies based on a reward/punishment system aren't really a part of my soul. They are other human's experiences and they are important individually and as a collective, but that isn't what I am looking for. I have more of a feeling of wholeness and light with nature and people themselves than through belief systems.

What is my soul longing for? Those are personal questions and no one can answer them, I suppose, but myself. Yet, I think the core question that I always come back to is why the need to search to begin with?

Grumps

Edited March 11, 2013 by Grumpybutfun

[WhatYouWantToHear]

Because you want purpose for you life. There is none, we die.

[Grumpybutfun]

Actually many people can go their entire life without wanting or expecting purpose. We do not die if we do not have purpose, we just trudge along. I guess my mind wonders why there are some who do search for deeper meaning and there are others who do not. I have known many people who get up, go to job, eat dinner and go to bed their entire life and they don't think about deeper meaning or inner connections. Why do some of us have the need to search? Is it inherent in our psyche to wonder? Do we need purpose or do we truly want to feel like we are a part of something greater than what our corporeal body holds?

Grumps

[BetheButterfly]

Actually many people can go their entire life without wanting or expecting purpose. We do not die if we do not have purpose, we just trudge along. I guess my mind wonders why there are some who do search for deeper meaning and there are others who do not. I have known many people who get up, go to job, eat dinner and go to bed their entire life and they don't think about deeper meaning or inner connections. Why do some of us have the need to search? Is it inherent in our psyche to wonder? Do we need purpose or do we truly want to feel like we are a part of something greater than what our corporeal body holds?

Grumps

 

I boldened the above that impacts me.

 

Yeah I think purpose is important and drives/motivates people who see the need for purpose being a part of life.

 

One can have purpose regardless of one's beliefs or no belief in God. For example, one of the ladies I admire so much is Angelina Jolie. She uses her fame reaped by her talent and hard work in acting to help others in need. Her adopting kids who need a loving home, as well as advocating for people who are in desperate situations, show that having a grand purpose is important to her, I think. I really admire her for all she does for others. I believe one reason why many people help others, regardless of their beliefs or no belief in a divine being or beings, is because they see the necessity of having a purpose greater than oneself.

 

Selfishness is really empty. Going "outside" oneself and helping others, and being a "part of something greater" is very positive energy, I think, whereas just living without a productive purpose seems very stale and empty and stuck, in my opinion.

[WhatYouWantToHear]

We do not die if we do not have purpose, we just trudge along

 

Mine wasn't a metaphor. We die. Do what you want with your concious life--realize if you have one or not, we all literally die in the end.

 

There are no metaphysical answers. Speculate all you want if it floats your boat.

[Grumpybutfun]

Mine wasn't a metaphor. We die. Do what you want with your concious life--realize if you have one or not, we all literally die in the end.

 

There are no metaphysical answers. Speculate all you want if it floats your boat.

 

Well, apparently speculation is a popular past time so I feel like I am in good company.

 

"An unexamined life is not worth living."- Socrates

 

Also, the point is not dying, but living a life that creates positive energy as in the end that is all our souls are anyway. The corporeal body will go back to the dust, but our spirit becomes a part of the universe so I would rather think that our thoughts either detract or add to the energy that moves on without our body.

In Larry McMurtry's novel Lonesome Dove-

 

"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's living," Augustus said. "I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live."

 

I often think he was talking about more than location, but also how you spend your time in your life. Speculating is a motivator so that we do not just sit idely by and watch our days turn into monotonous years. Without speculation we accept the vagaries of human existence. Sometimes questions really are more important than answers. I personally would not want an unexamined life, and maybe that is the answer to why some people search. To be a part of all creation, we have to give up knowing because we are trusting only our corporeal senses.

Grumps

[pie2]

Grumps, since beginning the journey to understand the purpose of the soul, do you think that, over time, you've gained some insight into questions you've had?

 

Personally, I definitely relate to "the more you know, the more you realize you don't know" cliche .

 

Regarding your core question about why the need to search in the first place...do you believe in God as a higher power who can put those questions on people's hearts?

[M30USA]

Back to the OP...

 

Because rule #136 of human nature states that people don't believe anything until they discover it for themselves. God works in strange and somewhat hidden ways. Those who have a heart for him will seek him out. When they do, it will be THEIRS instead of handed to them by parents, school, or society. This is why I keep saying that, if you examine Scrupture, you realize that God (and his angels) are engaged in an almost "cat and mouse" type game with us. The purpose is to bring us to God and the knowledge of him in a way that we, personally, can understand. I'm not saying we can make our own truth or that all beliefs are valid; rather, God is so complex that knowledge of him must be individualized.

Edited March 12, 2013 by M30USA

[Grumpybutfun]

Grumps, since beginning the journey to understand the purpose of the soul, do you think that, over time, you've gained some insight into questions you've had?

 

Personally, I definitely relate to "the more you know, the more you realize you don't know" cliche .

 

Regarding your core question about why the need to search in the first place...do you believe in God as a higher power who can put those questions on people's hearts?

 

Pie2-

I have gained some good questions to ask since the beginning of my journey. I have more of an understanding that to ask is really the meaning of our lives, that we are aware of something more.

God as a higher power? Not so much as an energy that makes up all of us, that flows through us. We determine through free will or choice which energy we expend and which we attract. There are three types of energy in the world...

1. The first energy makes up the good, the light, love, the positive, the giving and sharing, the creative, the nurturing energy.

2. The second is the apathetic energy which doesn't flow one way or the other. It is the energy that allows us to sit idely by while the world goes on around us and do nothing.

3. The third is a negative energy which is comprised of the darkness in us, the deceit, the duplicity, the rage, the envy and the hate.

 

Therefore God is in us, is us, is our world and of the universe and all things. Obviously God in how I relate is the first energy. God is the goodness, the bountifulness, the blooms of the trees and the death of the elders when they are finished with this life.

There is a story which my grandmother told me and it is popular in the USA.

A grandfather is hunting with his grandson. He is guiding his young heart as he does so and tells him, "There are two wolves inside of each of us. There is one who is good and is made up of love, kindness, empathy, giving and respect. Then there is another wolf who is made up of hate, deceit, apathy, selfishness and disrespect." The young boy asks his grandfather. "Which one wins then?" The grandfather looks towards Father Sky and tells him, "The one who wins is the one you feed."

 

So yes, our energy invites those questions.

Grumps

[pie2]

I have gained some good questions to ask since the beginning of my journey. I have more of an understanding that to ask is really the meaning of our lives, that we are aware of something more.

 

I agree completely!!!

 

Wow, yes...that is pretty much how I see it right now. Finding the answers isn't necessarily the goal, but rather asking the question that is so important.

 

But still, why do some seek and others don't?

 

I do think that it is significant that some people pursue a quest to seek a connection to something outside of the purely physical world we live in. I don't know what it means that some search for a connection with the spiritual in this life, but I definitely think it's significant.

 

IMO, more people are searching for a spiritual connection than what we may see on the surface. Maybe many people don't come out with an overt desire to know "God". But I do think most people are trying to fill a void, and are searching for completion. I just think some look for their completion in typical vices (power, money, knowledge, alcohol, etc), and are able to shut-out the gnawing voice that tells them they're not finding the happiness they're looking for.

 

Like the grandfather in the story you posted, what we feed will become powerful. In many instances, I think the part of us that desires to connect to God is starved, as the rest of our desires grow big and drown out everything else.

[BetheButterfly]

A grandfather is hunting with his grandson. He is guiding his young heart as he does so and tells him, "There are two wolves inside of each of us. There is one who is good and is made up of love, kindness, empathy, giving and respect. Then there is another wolf who is made up of hate, deceit, apathy, selfishness and disrespect." The young boy asks his grandfather. "Which one wins then?" The grandfather looks towards Father Sky and tells him, "The one who wins is the one you feed."

 

So yes, our energy invites those questions.

Grumps

 

That's a powerful lesson.

[Grumpybutfun]

But still, why do some seek and others don't?- Pie2

 

Pie2-

Yes, that is the question. I know that many feel something is missing yet they feel empty their entire lives and have no idea why. Others feel that emptiness and they go on a walkabout, as the Aborigine tribes call it. The search for something more, the soul finding, the spirit quest is the path, and we are the seekers.

I am reading a book right now about this very thing...it is called "Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart" by Mark Epstein, M.D. Lessons from Meditation and Psycotherapy. He found that Psychotherapy alone wasn't helping people feel whole. So he asked what are they looking for? What do they need? He found they were in need of that something more for their soul, so he incorporated meditation and tenants of Buddhism in their therapy. It is an interesting read as I like to see how different communities find holistic help through spirituality.

Good chat,

Grumps

[Grumpybutfun]

Back to the OP...

 

Because rule #136 of human nature states that people don't believe anything until they discover it for themselves. God works in strange and somewhat hidden ways. Those who have a heart for him will seek him out. When they do, it will be THEIRS instead of handed to them by parents, school, or society. This is why I keep saying that, if you examine Scrupture, you realize that God (and his angels) are engaged in an almost "cat and mouse" type game with us. The purpose is to bring us to God and the knowledge of him in a way that we, personally, can understand. I'm not saying we can make our own truth or that all beliefs are valid; rather, God is so complex that knowledge of him must be individualized.

 

M30-

I missed your post somehow, but totally agree. It is an individualized process. I also think when people are ready for a spiritual awakening they seek out God.

Sorry I missed yr post earlier,

Grumps