Nirvana
 

I had a bit of an epiphany the other day, and realized that the only point in life is to try to reach nirvana--which I now take to be the same state of consciousness which Christ was bringing about when he referred to the "kingdom of heaven." the way there is long and filled with suffering, but we must keep on keeping on. there is a light at the end of the tunnel....

Nevermind is pretty good...

anybody know how the rest of their stuff is?

Funny enough, I was just reading Brave New World

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rstEdition.jpg

It's a good read if you're wondering what man is pursuing. Would we rather have truth or happiness?

aldous huxley is a genius...ape and essence is one my favorites by him.

as far as the topic of the thread...nirvana could be considered happiness and of course the goal of all our lives is to attain happiness. actually, considering happiness is so fleeting i would replace happiness with contentment. i feel this is why it seems people with so much money become so disillusioned and appear even more upset with life than a lot of other classes of people. it is easy to feel that while you have something to work for in the middle and lower class, once you have all the money you need it is easy for your life to seem like it has nowhere else to go. that is why it is so easy to become power hungry and desire even more money.

meditation is the way to go.

nirvana is more than happiness or contentment though, it is pure bliss, ecstasy, it is infinite love overflowing itself. happiness and contentment are objects of desire which keep us trapped in suffering, offering only temporarily breaks from the hell our ego puts us through. that's why nirvana only means anything after we have come to terms with the futility of our existence, which consists fundamentally of chasing after things that we can't have or that don't exist (like nirvana).

i disagree...nirvana could still be considered an object of desire. who would not WANT pure bliss, ecstasy, and infinite love? people strive to attain nirvana just as anyone strives for happiness and contentment. the reason i say nirvana and contentment are synonymous is because as i said, happiness implies its opposite...sadness. they are polar extremes and impossible to maintain either for an indefinite period of time. contentment shows one's understanding that no matter what happens, good or bad, it is simply the way of things and nothing would be able to impact our appreciation of the world. i guess it really depends on our individual definitions of contentment, but i believe it to imply a wisdom and understanding that can provide total bliss.

How does one obtain pure bliss and ecstasy and yet does not have happiness and contentment?

Happiness and Contentment (peace) are good and to desire what is good is not evil. How is it that to desire what is good like Happiness and Contentment keep us trapped in suffering?

Happiness is obtain when a person fulfills his/her responsibilty, and if each person has some responsibity to fulfill then that person's life could not be futile, because his/her life has a purpose.

I dunno man, Nirvana sells for about 10 dollars a pill here. Exists pretty good to me.
I'm kidding, but I'm not.

I agree with most of what you said though. But I think that the search for true happiness, in whatever degree, is instrumental in providing a foundation of purpose and a direction in which to move forward in your life. Without it, nothing would matter to us. If all that was left would be the search for Nirvana, then Nirvana would simply take the place of the previously sought emotional states and nothing would be different. We'd still be trapped in the same perpetual motion.

Either way, I personally believe that the journey is more valuable than the destination. To me, Nirvana would be learning how to remember that every day.

i dunno what i'm talking about

How so?