Roger Harty: The Meaning Of Life

.

ONE of the great advantages of writing my own article is that I have the opportunity to ask myself my own questions and in turn give my own answers.

With this in mind I am going to ask myself perhaps the deepest question that there is to ask.

‘Roger, what is the meaning of life?’

The answer to this the deepest of questions can be summed up by its simplicity, in fact in the English language all it takes are two words – ‘To Love’.

‘To Love ourselves, to know that we are loved, to love others and to love the world in which we live in.

This might seem like a tall order but my point is that if we can determine this as – ‘the meaning of life’ then at least we know where we are going.

A great start in my opinion, because if we don’t know where we are going how can we get there?

Perhaps the most difficult of all of the above is the first one – to love ourselves. If we can’t find a way to love ourselves to begin with then it will make the others aspects of Love practically impossible to achieve.

That is what Jesus meant when He said –“Love one and other as I have loved you”.

He loved us in a totally non-judgemental way and He fully realised that as humans we would have many trials and failures but that they are all part of the journey of life.

Notice that He put the emphasis on ‘One’ first before He mentioned the ‘Other’.

He was telling ‘instructing’ us that we have to find a way to love ourselves first. He also didn’t just leave it like that, He didn’t just leave us in the wilderness, He gave us clear directions to follow when He said “ I Am (is) The Way”.

He clearly said “I Am” He didn’t say “I Was” (past) or “I Will Be” (future) – what He was telling us here was to pay attention to The Present and that this was ‘The Truth and The Way’.

Many millions of people have discovered this very same Truth through the practice of mindfulness (being present in the moment !!!) which is exactly what Jesus taught us to do  two thousand years ago.

Jesus was the original mindfulness Guru.

Through diligent and constant practice of Presence and Acceptance we can truly learn to appreciate and love ourselves.

The power, beauty and magnificence of our own bodies begin to reveal themselves. When we come to realise this we learn to take care (love) of  ourselves.

We also come to realise that every other human being is made up of this same magnificence and beauty whether they realise it or not. So we learn to love others.

We learn not to judge ourselves first and then not to judge others.

The phrase ‘before you judge me walk in my shoes’ make a lot more sense.

Finally, we also know that we get a great energy from knowing that ‘we truly are loved’ by God and everyone else and that we should really pay attention to loving (respecting)  our planet and all that is in it.