The Aim of Human Existence – 1.1. Swami Krishnananda
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16/02/2020.
(Spoken at a Conference in Delhi on Sept. 20, 1980)
Part 1 of 3.
Post-1.1
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1.
#We have been asked to express our ideas on today’s theme, the aim of human existence.
It would appear that an impertinent world of mankind is seeking a pertinent answer to its questions when it asks for means of security and safety from immanent dangers that can threaten its existence from various corners of the world.
##Mankind seems to be asking for a gain for which it has not worked and does not intend to strive; yet it is not fully conscious of a gulf that seems to be there between what is sought, and the direction in which mankind is moving. We seem to be placing ourselves in a world of quandary.
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2.
#Is there anything existent that you see with your eyes?
We see only movements of things and a decomposition of bodies – a transformation of the structure of things – so that there is visible before our eyes a continuous incessant restless movement rather than a being or an existence of anything.
##To conceive of an aim of existence there should be a pith of reality, a kernel of significance beneath and behind the vicissitudes of transformation, movement, and the restlessness of life.
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3.
#The principle of existence cannot be seen with our eyes. What we see, what is tangible to our senses, is a process which is the historical movement of nature, which again includes everything that mankind’s values are. What we are, what anything is, is a part of nature; and the purposes of nature are also our purposes.
##We cannot have an aim which is different from the aims of nature, because we are constituents of a vast setup called natural phenomenon.
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4.
#We too are phenomena because we are born, we grow, we decay, and by a process of decomposition we seem to be annihilated totally. We do not hear of the being of anyone who has been physically decomposed and wiped out of existence.
##Where is being, and where is existence?
###Anything can be reduced to its ultimate constituents, which appear to demonstrate a character within themselves which is far from anything that can be designated as being. It is not for nothing that a genius like Buddha proclaimed that the world is a procession and not a being.
####It is transiency and not existence. It is death rather than life. This was a strange picture painted before us by stalwarts who experimented with these techniques of investigating phenomena and found nothing at their base.
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To be continued ...
========================================================================
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16/02/2020.
(Spoken at a Conference in Delhi on Sept. 20, 1980)
Part 1 of 3.
Post-1.1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
#We have been asked to express our ideas on today’s theme, the aim of human existence.
It would appear that an impertinent world of mankind is seeking a pertinent answer to its questions when it asks for means of security and safety from immanent dangers that can threaten its existence from various corners of the world.
##Mankind seems to be asking for a gain for which it has not worked and does not intend to strive; yet it is not fully conscious of a gulf that seems to be there between what is sought, and the direction in which mankind is moving. We seem to be placing ourselves in a world of quandary.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.
#Is there anything existent that you see with your eyes?
We see only movements of things and a decomposition of bodies – a transformation of the structure of things – so that there is visible before our eyes a continuous incessant restless movement rather than a being or an existence of anything.
##To conceive of an aim of existence there should be a pith of reality, a kernel of significance beneath and behind the vicissitudes of transformation, movement, and the restlessness of life.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.
#The principle of existence cannot be seen with our eyes. What we see, what is tangible to our senses, is a process which is the historical movement of nature, which again includes everything that mankind’s values are. What we are, what anything is, is a part of nature; and the purposes of nature are also our purposes.
##We cannot have an aim which is different from the aims of nature, because we are constituents of a vast setup called natural phenomenon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.
#We too are phenomena because we are born, we grow, we decay, and by a process of decomposition we seem to be annihilated totally. We do not hear of the being of anyone who has been physically decomposed and wiped out of existence.
##Where is being, and where is existence?
###Anything can be reduced to its ultimate constituents, which appear to demonstrate a character within themselves which is far from anything that can be designated as being. It is not for nothing that a genius like Buddha proclaimed that the world is a procession and not a being.
####It is transiency and not existence. It is death rather than life. This was a strange picture painted before us by stalwarts who experimented with these techniques of investigating phenomena and found nothing at their base.
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To be continued ...
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