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Luis Velazquez

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The Most Powerful Thought

I think that all we do, is consciously or not, strongly influenced by the meaning we give to life and it´s purpose, if we think it has one. So, I wanted to know, your thoughts about that, and how you think it is connected with your daily life.

Some options could be:

a) I believe that God (Allah, Jesus, and all religions God) gave us life, and we have to live as he say until our death, and infinite perfect life, or reencarnation.
b) I believe we are spiritual creatures, but we can´t understand it at all, we need faith to live. Don´t believe in religions, but think life never finish, death is just a change to something unknown. Maybe some time, humankind could understand this during life.
c) Life has no meaning, self consciusness is just something happened between the infinite possibilities that universe allow, but we´re just a combination
of elements with no aim. We have to stand with this, and try to keep happy until death, or singularity and a new way of living.
d)I don´t know, I try to give it my own meaning, I don´t believe life has a meaning.
e)I don´t know, I try to give it my own meaning, I believe life has a meaning,
but don´t know what it is (so, do you read, or do something about?)
f) There´s no reason to think about that, just live. (but how?)
.
.
.

you can say, 50% a) 50%d), a new option, or whatever, the idea is to
think this big question, and the connection with your life. I think we all did it sometime, but it´s really interesting and as we have different cultures,
it could open our minds, and why not, change our view of life.

Related Talks:
Topics: God afterlife ia life meaning philosophy psychology religion science sociology
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    Patrick McCarthy

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    Jul 29 2011: I as a Christian, One who seeks to put on the Mind of Christ, seek to learn to live in harmony with the Divine Mind, or Divine Reality as I am able to discern spiritually. Other religions have there own paths and none at all can be said to offer nothing towards Spiritual fulfillment. Growing un in a European culture influenced me to Christianity, and it has taken a life of commitment to Christianity and the understanding of same to show transformational results enabling me to be eternally grateful and ever recreated as a living Soul, a unit of awareness, a child of the Divine Mind.

  • nick edward

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    Jul 27 2011: (The following are just my opinions and in my mind that makes me neither right nor wrong)a,A:i feel that all religions around the world are praying to the same god whether it be 10 separate animals in the rain forrest or a statue ect. There is only one GOD one creator and with that being said,i doubt he cares how we pray to him as long as we pray "GOD is too big to be in one building or even one place.

    B:,A:no single creature in the universe knows everything,there will always be something new to learn though.

    C:,A:Life does indeed have a meaning (in my opinion) the meaning of life is to obtain spirital and physical knowledge.

    D,A:It does,here is a religious story it goes like this:The world was flooding and a man was lucky enough to find tempary refuge on one of the tallest moutain but eventually the water was up to his knees,a boat came by:the captain said "hey the world is flooding hop on" and the man replied "Thats ok GOD will protect me",several hours later the water was up to the mans chest,and a bigger boat came by and the boat capatain said"hey the water is getting really high,why dont you hop on" and the man replied "Thats ok GOD will protect me", finally the water was up to the mans neck and a helecopter came by and droped a latter and the capatain sid"Hey its up to your neck you might want to hop on" once again the man declined.Right before the man took his last breath,he asked god why did you not save me and GOD replied"i tried i sent two boats and a helecopter" In my opinion the moral of this story is life always presents soulutions to any problem we might face but you might have to look a little harder than before.So keep youe eyes open.E,A:The meaning of life is in the eye of the beholder(its something we all have to figure out on our own,nobody can figure it out for us.F,A:you have to find a happy medium in my (opinion) between living for the moment and planning for the future.Thanks for you alls time and have a great night/day and take care.

  • Kunal Bavishi

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    Jul 26 2011: Nothing Lasts Forever, not even this thought.
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    Christopher Hampson

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    Jul 5 2011: I'd say "a," but the meaning given to life by different religions will be so disparate that "a" really shouldn't be a single category. For example, Jesus lived, died, and rose again by the principle of total, self-giving love. That meaning is supremely exalted in the Christian faith, but may not be in other religions, which may prioritize other virtues or ways of being.
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    Peter Law 30+

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    Jul 4 2011: Hi Luis

    I believe that this life is like college where we learn about good, evil, love, hate etc & how to handle them. After death we are transformed according to our choices in this life.

    My perspective is eternity; I have friends whom I know I will share it with, & friends I hope I will share it with. Love is the motive of our creator, & I seek to make it mine. It puts a whole new complexion on life knowing that this is just the beginning. Things like material success are of little importance; what matters is the well-being of people, body & soul.

    :-)

    • Micah Zehnder

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      Jul 10 2011: Did you watch the video you linked to?...

      It is a lecture about how there are no reasons to believe in the soul.

      (Unless you meant "reasons" in the most brute sense possible, there amy be some really bad reasons to believe in the soul, for example, but usually one would not cite such reasons as reason FOR something).

      • Luis Velazquez

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        Jul 11 2011: Hi Micah. I watched all the videos, and he gives all reasons for both sides, with the obvious conclusion that there´s no certainty for trusting any of them. You can think the one´s against soul seems more rational, but at the end, there´s always a hole that you can fill with faith or nothing. Anyway, I´m not defending the existence or not, I´m not a fanatic, I just wanted to show that there are reasons for both sides, and wanted to know your positions and how it modify your way of living .

        • Micah Zehnder

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          Jul 11 2011: You only have to fill in the hole with "faith or nothing" if you believe in the soul.

          It seems pretty clear even from that professor's fair treatment that there is no good reason to believe in the soul.

          Bad reason are still reasons, as I said, but almost no one (I would imagine anyway) would sight bad reasons as a reason FOR holding a belief, or taking an action (at least I hope not).
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        Peter Law 30+

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        Jul 16 2011: Hi Micah

        Don't think I linked to any video ??

        :-)

  • Mahmure Cakiroglu

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    Jul 4 2011: The meaning of life: My experince is, that humans are looking for the feeling of "feeling complete", which does not contain any feeling of duality, bad or good. Whatever humans do in daily life, is for the purpose of feeling the ONENESS, feeling of "Yes, I made it", "I arrived home", "I feel safe", "no struggle anymore", "feeling LOVE". Humans are looking for it everywhere:When a man feels attracted to a woman and thinks: "She is the ONE, she will make me feel complete, she will make me happy".This feeling of falling in love, feels like being complete and you see the world complete and wonderful.This is the feeling they want to keep on feeling---> but humans forgot that, she, he or things like my house, my car, my work, they cannot make you "feel complete". You may enjoy being with her and give attention to each other.This "JOY" you feel is not because she gave "the joy" to you. The joy is there because without being aware, you have connected to feeling of "completeness", to "love", to "oneness", which is always "INSIDE YOU" and not somewhere "outside you". When she feels also this "love, completeness, oneness, inside herself", then you will recognize this feeling in eachother and there will be a flow of energy into eachother, which feels wonderful.Humans want to maintain this state of feeling in love in whatever they do.This feeling of ONENESS, you can see and feel in everything.How to see and feel this feeling: Connect into your "INSIDE", where it is, always has been waiting for you, wherever you are, whatever you do.As far as I know, the number of humans, who can be in permanent connectedness with this wonderful feeling, are a few. So, it is possible, to feel this feeling permanently. There is another way to live, to be in ONENESS,in LOVE, which has no opposite. This is the prior purpose of life, BEING in ONENESS. Secondary purpose:BEING IN ONENESS + DOING=JOYFUL DOING without struggle + GOAL=ENTHUSIASM.THIS IS MY EXPERIENCE. THIS IS MY AWAKENING TO MYSELF,LIFE.

    • Luis Velazquez

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      Jul 4 2011: Mahmure, I think that´s completely true, but do you think it´s some connection to a soul or some kind of "superior" energy, or just to our biological nature (what still could means all)?

  • hugo ellis

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    Jul 4 2011: perhaps humans are simply too inquisitive and imaginative for their own good.

  • Gene Doray

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    Jul 2 2011: Despite the obvious religious meaning, I subscribe to the notion that "we are blessed to be a blessing." To my way of thinking, the meaning that we derive from life is in how we build relationships and impact the lives of those around us.

  • Dan H

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    Jul 1 2011: Logically I support C, but emotionally I support B & E. Rational Optimists have the best of all worlds in that they rarely make regretful decisions (if they can even feel regret), and they tend to live the most fulfilling and happiest lives. A biologist might tell you that our purpose is to reproduce and spread our DNA, and while it is true in one sense it doesn't offer us much when it comes to truly enjoying life. Logic and Emotion often seem to clash heads, but when used properly they can actually supplement each other.

    We have limited control over what happens in the real world in an objective sense, but we have virtually total control over our perspective of what we are given. When a chained dog barks at you from a distance, you can feel anxious for the next few minutes or admire the dog for it's energy and smile. Either way the dog is still barking and doesn't pose a threat to you, but your perspective of the dog and all future events will affect how you feel and how you will function. We can't help but to feel startled the moment we hear the barking if we don't anticipate it, but to continue to feel uncomfortable after realizing there is no real danger is an ILLOGICAL habit that is a key characteristic of the self-doubters.

    In short I acknowledge what science has to offer, but I create my own meaning in life and thoroughly enjoy it with no need to compromise. Please note the difference in "wishful thinking" in that my beliefs are not in conflict with the real world, unlike some religions that defy the theory of evolution (or what I sometimes like to call, the collection of facts that have not been completely organized in a way that absolutely completes our understanding of evolution to the extent that there are no questions left).
    I can't really see anything inherently harmful about doubting evolution, but when the same mindset is used to replace vaccines with prayer, now there's a serious problem.

    • Luis Velazquez

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      Jul 1 2011: I expect more comments like yours to make this more interesting, thanks!

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    • Luis Velazquez

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      Jul 1 2011: I didn´t try to give it an optimistic or not view, it just sound like that because some of them give us a perspective of a trascendent meaning beyond the time we live, and others only restrict the optimistic view to a limited lifetime (it can be all we have! so, I don´t consider it being nonsense, but the others consider that and inifinite more maybe).
      I share being a humanist, I believe in honesty, integrity, and mutual respect, I am passionate about learning, etc, and also love my dog, but I am not defining my deepest thinking about life saying all that. Maybe saying "I am an atheist" could make the difference between the others options you said.
      Because I could say that I believe in the power of scientific method being Atheist, Catholic, Musulman, Transhumanist, not religious but spiritual, agnostic, nihilist, etc. but I tried to talk about all powerful ideologies, that are not compatibles, but could define our life. I wanted to talk about that.
      So, maybe we could talk in a first step, spiritual, not spiritual, then spiritual-religious, spiritual-not religious,
      non-spiritual humanist, non-spiritual nihilist, etc... If it´s clearer.
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    Daniel Sheehan 20+

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    Jun 30 2011: " I can change this."
    That is power.
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    Abhiram Lohit 10+

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    Jun 30 2011: The most powerful thought that has struck me is ..." Death is God, God is Death".
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    Dain Brammage

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    Jun 30 2011: I would say life has no meaning on a global front, but when you boil it down to who you are and who your life touches, the meaning begins to become a little clearer. Think about "It's a wonderful life".
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    Joe Delsen 20+

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    Jun 30 2011: Luis, I think that there is a fundamental unity in all our beliefs and convictions where we can find the best meaning and relevance in our lives. http://Bit.Ly/KeyPower

    • Luis Velazquez

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      Jun 30 2011: So, your answer someway is more like the a, b, or e proposition? Thanks!
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    Matthieu Miossec 100+

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    TED TranslatorAssociate
    Jun 30 2011: Life has no intrinsic meaning, but has the meaning you give it.
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    Scott Armstrong 50+

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    Jun 30 2011: Nothing really matters, nothing really matters, to me.. Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody.
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      Helen Hupe 30+

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      Jun 30 2011: Scott............Do you really feel that way. You matter, I matter and everyone matters. Your emotions are not a good indicator of what really matters. (:>)
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        Scott Armstrong 50+

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        Jun 30 2011: I'm still working on what I believe. Can't say I subscribe to anything other than humanity in all our glorious folly.
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