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PROBLEMS OF LIFE. WHAT THEN IS LIFE?
By
We see in the world many forms of life, all different. All struggling for something, striving to express itself further.
There is the life of the insect seemingly trying to excel in its enjoyment of life; the life of the tree in all its glorious beauty. In fact all nature is full of life, manifesting itself in all the many various forms, and all and every form of natural life seems to be conscious of some greater life. This is what nature is struggling for—a greater expression of consciousness, that it may have a greater power of enjoyment of happiness, but this fuller consciousness does not always being happiness; it also brings the greater consciousness of pain, and so all life is made up of experiences which we express in happiness and pain.
When we look at human life which has a reasoning consciousness, it is quite different from all other forms of life which are governed and controlled by consciousness in the form of instinct. Now it is only Human Life that has this reasoning faculty developed to such an extent that it can be relied upon to be a guide for life; that is, Human Life can reason on what experiences it has had, which give pleasure, and which give pain. But there are not many Human Beings who can really use this faculty of reason. They seem to be bound by some law which is continually repeating itself: what was done in the past must be done today, and if we are to get away from these ideas of the past, we must try to understand what this something within our lives is, that is urging us to a fuller expression.
But what is life? This must be the first thing we try to understand. We say quite unconsciously: natural life; so we can safely say that Nature is life. What is Nature? God. So all things seen and unseen are God. Nature and life. Three in one and one in three, each inseparable.
But all that reasoning life sees of Nature is not all that there is of Nature—any more than instinct, which guides and controls insect and animal life, sees or expresses all of Nature.
But reason having come to the conclusion that Nature is life and God, it then sees all things enclosed in life as experiences which must develop and evolve life—such experiences as happiness or pain—which are most ordinarily expressed as good or evil. When we can look upon life with that higher kind of reason which sees all experiences (whatever they may be, whether happiness or pain) as something in life that will enable us to get a fuller knowledge, a wider outlook, and a greater expression of life we shall never be really unhappy, but would then become indifferent to all unpleasant things, and look always for that which brings happiness. Then we should begin to understand that life exists only in the present. The past has gone, the future does not exist; and it is this present moment that is ours. And with that moment of life we can do what we like, with that moment we can form habits, that from experience of life will depend the happiness or pain of the future.
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