What is God's purpose for us to achieve in the life he has given us?

Till today I cannot understand what God wants us to achieve in life. Is it happiness? Love? A good career? A significant experience? There are moments of frustration where I am skeptical on what to do and what step to take next. With the belief that our mind is impermanent, is it that God wants us to figure out what we had done in our previous life and continue that same responsibility? Is it a test? A test of how strong our mind is to say no to our distractions and our afflictions? Is he preparing us for something? There have been many years of debate of whether the world will end. The recent speculation is that the world will end on December 21st 2012. The Ancient Mayans state that their calendar stops on this date and hence the world will come to an end. Many have scoffed at this prediction - singers like Britney Spears and Jay Sean have written songs and created an image in teens minds that this prediction is a joke! Movies have been directed showing catastrophic events happening on this day creating a feelings of fear and confusion. 

Are these predictions perhaps warnings to us humans of whether we have accomplished what we are supposed to in life? Perhaps God is reminding us of what our goals are in life, if not, why are these dreadful events happening and harming many innocent people. There have been earthquakes, tsunamis, and many unexplained deaths of penguins, birds and other animals. Why would God want to strand these good people in these awful situations. Is this really God's way of showing that he loves us? Why is he harming our creation - the only explanation I can come up with is that it is a test of our strength. All cultures, religions and races to come together and stay united no matter how deadly an event may be. 

If God is preparing us for something bigger, than perhaps this so called "world ending" is not a physical death but rather a mental death. Perhaps our minds will finally be more open and we will finally be a united species ready to take on anything that may occur in the future. 

Buddhist Retreat

I attended the Buddhist Retreat in Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu. I went to this retreat with an aim of learning how to control my mind and returned back to New Delhi with much more - I had learned how to manage my mind a bit better, learned about meditation and Buddhism and gained a new perspective about life and people. I had returned back with this new awareness that wanted to be a better person and help others!

Waking up at quarter to six in the morning is definitely not a teenager's idea of a summer holiday yet I decided to embrace this spiritual experience! I would hear the monks chanting coming from a distance that instead of commonly bringing someone into a blissful sleep, managed to initiate my awakening into the day. Gorgeous, swaying trees huddled close together and the brightly colored flowers seemed to unconsciously bring a smile to my face. While drinking my tea, and enjoying the breath-taking view of the valley, I felt at ease and far away from all the chaos and poverty that Delhi capacitates. My mind finally took its first single breath.

Meditation seems a breeze to many who have never tried it however, once beginning, one will realize that meditation requires a lot of discipline and determination. It takes years for one to meditate properly and control what thoughts enter and exit your mind. Yet when one begins to meditate, it provides a significant aid when conducting your daily activities. Meditating for ten days, I recognized that I had - by a wide proportion - been able to make better use of my mind. I would analyze situations with much more thought and care and look at them with positivity and optimism. This is a tremendous benefit to one's character because being happy really allows one to appreciate life more than one usually does.

The teachings and discussions gave me a firmer understanding about Buddhism and helped me with meditation to some extent. I have realized that life is truly beautiful but humans are unable to appreciate this because of our afflictions consisting of impatience, anger, hatred, jealousy and pride. These afflictions are part of human nature and act as barriers to our permanent happiness. At times, we feel happy yet this is not permanent happiness, this is temporary happiness. Permanent happiness resides within us and is something much harder to achieve. Temporary happiness, for example, exists in a bar of chocolate. When eating this delicious temptation, we feel energized and happy yet this taste eventually subsides and our happiness disappears. We cannot continue to eat chocolate bars for the rest of our life to obtain permanent happiness. We must conquer these afflictions in order to gradually love life for the way that God has created it!

There are two steps:

I believe that the first step is to be mindful. Be mindful to every action that you conduct in your life. Closing the door, drinking your tea, taking a shower, even going to the loo! It is wonderful what the miracle of being mindful can do to one's mind and character overtime - the positive seeds begin to bloom and the negative seeds begin to rot. The negative seeds are our afflictions - of course these seeds will never disappear, but if one tries to use the positive seeds frequently, it will become a habit to leave the negative seeds untouched. (This step will most likely take many, many years of our life, perhaps we will not accomplish this even when we are 80! It's never too late to start though!)

The second step is to help others while sharing this new found knowledge you have discovered about life. With good intentions, you may not get the result you wish for, but your heart was in the right place and thus God will reward you in some way. I only know of one relative who has achieved both these steps. He keeps to his routine and lives a simple life - visits the temple, goes for his walks, eats, watches television and sleeps yet whenever I come and sit next to him, he finds the time to teach me a new lesson about life in anything he does. Whether it is something that enthralled him that day, whether it is something he is watching on television, he teaches and shares his wisdom with patience and kindness which always seems to have such an effect on me that I feel strongly about helping others and making a difference in the world!