THE MEANING OF LIFE
©2008 House of Transcendent Reality

VISIBILITY
We cannot see back to the beginning of time, nor forward to the end of time, Or even if such limits exist as a beginning or an end. Neither can we see down to the tip of the roots from which we sprang, nor can we see what may be the highest limits of our possible achievement. We only have limited sight in any direction from where we are now, and from that we can only report what is seen, conjecture at what is partially revealed in the shadows, but not what lies beyond. So the meaning of life given here can only go so far, and falls far short of being comprehensive. Thus it is with all knowledge.

OUR PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE

In what we call “the universe” we are apparently an insignificant speck of flotsam. We can not see its borders, if there be any. Its vastness engulfs us in a sea of emptiness filled with nuclear fire, primal ice and untold, apparently infinite distances we can not measure. Untold galaxies occupy the universe in all directions without seeming end. We do not know if we are the only universe, or but one of many universes. Our universe may be alone, or it may be as a small bubble in a froth of bubbles on a larger wave in a sea of universes. In looking out, we see light emanating from objects as they were thousands, millions, or even billions of years in the past. What the universe might look like in an instant of time is hidden in a vastness so great the ripples of light rays finally reaching our eyes may no longer represent what is now. In the cosmic scheme of things we appear to have no known meaning.

OUR PLACE IN OUR GALAXY

We exist in the universe as part of a galaxy we call the Milky Way. Our Milky Way galaxy is but one of uncounted billions or trillions of galaxies strewn in strings and clusters throughout the visible universe. Our star in the Milky Way galaxy is but one of billions of stars, star clusters, unknown systems, dust, and gases circling a central amalgamation of super stars making up the Milky Way galaxy. The distance across our Milky Way galaxy is so great that species might emerge and fall extinct, or scores of human civilizations rise and fall, in the time it takes light to travel across the Milky Way. The stellar inter-actions around us are cataclysmic, and our presence by chance only has yet escaped annihilation in stellar chaos. In the galactic scheme of things, we appear to be insignificant.

OUR PLACE IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Our sun is a star on an outer fringe of a spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Our sun, or star, forms a system of several orbiting planets, comets, asteroids, dust clouds, and other matter anchored into seemingly permanent, synchronous orbits around the central star, our sun. We ultimately derive most, if not all, our energy from the sun, which appears to be a nuclear fission and fusion furnace. The earth is significant in our solar system, as it appears to be the only planet in our solar system to naturally evolve life forms, and the only one inhabited by higher life forms such as humans. It is possibly the only planet in the solar system to naturally support any life forms. The earth is the only known planet to reside within an orbital zone around the star which is conducive to the creation and evolution of life forms, having an oxygen-rich atmosphere, oceans of water, a protective magnetic envelope around the planet, and the average temperature being neither to hot, nor to cold, to support life. Within our solar system, we humans are most significant, and apparently unique.

OUR PLACE ON OUR PLANET

Our planet, which we call Earth, is tilted in its orbit, producing the four seasons. The seasons in turn gives rise to tolerance to mild temperature variances in plant and animal forms, and require humans exercise imagination and cunning to exist comfortably within its temperature extremes. Like most planets in our solar system, we have a moon orbiting around our planet. The influence of our moon, intertwined with the solar seasons, on plant and animal life, including humans, appears to be substantial – the solar seasons affecting food supplies, and the lunar cycles affecting the tides in the ocean, and apparently influencing the cycles of fertility in some life forms, including humans. Humans are the dominant life on the planet we call Earth, having subjugated all larger life forms, and striving mightily to subjugate the microbes that feast upon us.

On the earth we alone appear to have the power within us to consciously change our environment to suit ourselves – anywhere, and anytime. Other animals also modify their environment in the form of nests, burrows, and tunnels, and a few primates and birds have used simple tools, but none have the very extensive tools and edifices that human societies produce, and none have the capability, on their own, to leave the bounds of Earth. Only humans have that capability, and that also appears to be our manifest destiny – to colonize our solar system, and the galaxy beyond.

OUR PLACE IN SOCIETY
The meaning of life for an individual human is about his or her place in human society - where we fit in with our family, our group, our clan, our tribe, our state. The soul of society at the political state level is God - the collective consciousness of the state society aware of itself, continuing-in-kind and prospering. The conscience of society is its religion - the keeper of what is moral or immoral -- that which is good or bad, measured against whether the act is beneficial or harmful to the greater, collective society.

HIERARCHY

Life for an individual, or for a group, has different meaning at different social hierarchal levels -- as individuals; as members of a family; as a member of a clan of related families and individuals; as a member of a particular group; as a member of a tribe of related clans, families, and individuals; and as a member of a state (nation) controlling a territory - within which may dwell tribes, clans, families and individuals in various degrees of alliance and conflict with the state and with each other. Each higher social level has superior purposes that can conflict with a lower hierarchy level purpose. Within each level of the social hierarchy, the primary purposes are to survive, continue-in-kind, and prosper.

The individual and the family are near inseparable in the hierarchy of human society -- for out of one comes the other - in a continual issue of yin and yang. The family produces the individual, protects it nourishes it until it matures. The individual, once mature, may find a mate to form a new family and reproduce new individuals. And so it can continue - seemingly cycling forever. Both are the basic social level from which spring all others.

When an immature individual has no family to protect, nurture and guide it, it is then the individual against everyone and everything, else. It will likely not long survive, nor mature and reproduce-in-kind, nor prosper. At the end of it's life, very likely to be short and unpleasant, if not painful, the line of continuance that brought forth that individual, and which had promise to branch and continue on forever, is extinguished and ended. If such an individual manages to survive to maturity, it will likely engage in activities inimical and destructive to the greater society.

The highest hierarchal level in which the individual exists has a duty to ensure that sound, healthy individuals are born into the society, and that immature individuals are protected from disease, accident and abuse, and that they are sufficiently nurtured, educated, and otherwise groomed to enter the society as productive, loyal contributors to the greater society.

From a genealogical standpoint, the purpose of the individual ends when it produces the next generation. However, in the context of a family, clan, tribe or state, the individual may serve other important and necessary functions within a society other than that of reproduction. In such context the purpose of the individual is as a necessary or desirable part of the mechanism of a greater society, be it clan, tribe, or state, which aids the greater society to survive, continue-in-kind, and prosper.

When an individual becomes so self-absorbed so as to attend to only those self-centered, egotistical, and selfish purposes, as sometimes occurs through accident, developmental abnormalities, misguidance, or the influence of drugs, alcohol, and other intoxicants, such an individual loses value to the attending society, and may even become harmful and destructive, requiring removal or elimination.

It is an innate individual need in most human individuals on maturity to form a family unit, to ensure the protection, care, and nurture of the next generation. It is in the best interest of the containing society to promote the formation, and strength of the nuclear, two-parent family, as individuals who are conceived and raised in a cooperative, nuclear (two-parent) home have the best chances to mature and successfully integrate and contribute to the greater society. Those conceived outside the cooperative, nuclear family have a lesser chance to mature and successfully integrate into the greater society, and more apt to become counter-productive, or even harmful to the greater society.

The individual and the family, though intertwined, have different purposes. The individual may serve many different and essential purposes within the greater social structure, while the family is the nursery of the society -- where new individual humans are born, protected, and nurtured until mature, then initiated and integrated into the greater society. Not every individual is destined to form a family. Those that do should be encouraged to form a nuclear, two-parent family, consisting of mother, father, and their children. The needs of the family transcends and are superior to the needs of the individual parent.

No human child can survive without some sort of family to protect and nurture it through the very vulnerable years of infancy and childhood. And the best way to ensure the maturation and success from childhood, into adulthood, and successful integration into the greater society, is the cooperative, nuclear (two-parent) family.

The next higher social level above the family is the clan, which is a collection of blood-related individuals, including brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers, cousins, uncles and aunts, and grandparents, and perhaps more distant relatives. The clan also generally includes unrelated spouses of relatives while they are allied with the relative. The clan may span several generations. In a world with no tribes or states, the needs of the clan transcends and are superior to the needs of the family or the individual. However, in a world with tribes and states, the clan is often a counter-productive organ within the tribe or state -- much analogous to a tumor within a body.

The primary purpose of the clan is to provide greater protection to all the extended family members belonging to the clan, primarily against other clans. A well-organized and aligned clan also has a much better chance of continuing-in-kind than does a family, and also a much better chance of prospering. A higher clan purpose -- one that might conflict with the purpose of a family, is to continue the clan, even at the expense of the individual or family. And for a clan to continue-in-kind, it is not necessary for all the individuals to form family units and procreate. Thus some individuals can be devoted to other clan service, such as warriors.

It is in the best interests of the clan that family loyalty be replaced with loyalty to the clan, and one essential method of accomplishing that is to prohibit intra-family procreation (sibling-sibling and sibling-parent marriage), and promote inter-family (cousin) marriage, which strengthens bonds to the greater clan family, and weakens intra-family bonds.

THE TRIBE

The next higher social level above the clan is the tribe, which is a collection of looser, blood-related clans, families, and individuals. In a world with no state, the needs of the tribe transcends and are superior to the needs of the clan, family, or the individual. However, when a tribe exists within a state, it can be a source of dissention and conflict within the state. A primary purpose of the tribe is to provide greater protection to all the clans, families, and individuals belonging to the tribe, primarily against other tribes and large, aggressive clans. The well organized and aligned tribe also has a much better chance of continuing-in-kind than does a clan, and also a much better chance of prospering.

The tribe begins to specialize individuals and non-family groups as to function, such as warrior, hunter, weapon maker, cooks, teachers, and so forth. It is at the tribal level that children are gathered in non-family groups to be taught the ways of the tribe. A higher tribal purpose is to continue the tribe, even at the expense of the clan, family or individual. It is in the best interests of the tribe that clan and family loyalty be replaced with loyalty to the tribe, and one essential method of accomplishing that is to prohibit intra-clan and intra-family procreation (cousin and sibling marriage), and promote inter-tribal (2nd cousin or higher) marriage, which strengthens bonds to the greater tribal family, and weakens intra-clan and intra-family bonds. And for a tribe to continue-in-kind, it is not necessary for all the clans, families , and individuals to form family units and procreate. Thus many more individuals can be devoted to specialization of tribal services.

THE STATE

The next higher social level above the tribe is the state, which is a collection of loosely-related tribes, clans, families, and individuals, and non-related tribes, clans, families and individuals that inhabit a common territory under a central government. In the absence of a higher socio-political organization, the needs of the state transcends and are superior to the needs of the tribes, clan, families, or individuals. A central purpose of the state is to defend its borders from encroachment by neighboring states, and from invading nomadic tribes or clans. The state provides greater protection to all the cooperating tribes, clans, families, and individuals within the borders of the state. The state also has a much better chance of continuing-in-kind than does a tribe, and also a much better chance of prospering.

The state excels in the specialization of individuals and non-family groups as to function, such as warrior, hunter, farmer, weapon maker, cooks, teachers, and so forth. It is at the state level that a dedicated police force is established, laws are given, schools and curriculums are created, and compartmentalized government established. Money is created to facilitate the movement and distribution of goods and services with the state.

A higher state purpose is to continue the state, even at the expense of the tribe, clan, family or individual. It is in the best interests of the state that tribal, clan and family loyalty be replaced with loyalty to the state, and one essential method of accomplishing that is to prohibit intra-tribal, intra-clan and intra-family procreation (blood marriage to the cousin and sibling marriage), and promote unrelated individuals for marriage, which strengthens bonds to the state and weakens intra-tribal, intra-clan and intra-family bonds. And for a state to continue-in-kind, it is not necessary for all the tribes and clans to continue to exist. It may be better that tribes and clans within a state fade away as inter-tribal and inter-clan boundaries blur due to intermarriage between tribes and clans.

Thus we see that meaning of life is complicated by the social hierarchy in which we belong. Their are many types of individuals, many types of families, many types of clans, many types of tribes, and many types of states. There are individual conflicts, family conflicts, clan conflicts, tribal conflicts, and state conflicts. There are both internal and external conflicts. Each of us have differing and possibly competing loyalties to the different hierarchal levels, and different ways of coping with these conflicting stresses.

There are also strong families clans, and tribes within a state that that can and do cause significant internal strife within a state. There are healthy, strong states, and there are sick, weak, and dying states. Generally, it appears the more diverse the population of a state, the greater the internal conflict within the state, and thus the weaker the state. However, states that establish mechanisms for promoting diverse ethnic cooperation and assimilation may well be the future that transcends the limits of states.

Transparency in government action at all levels promotes the loyalty of individuals to the state, while secrecy promotes suspicions of unfairness and favoritism, which undermine the credibility of state organizations and activities.

It is not presently known what human social entity transcends the state. It is believed that incipient, super-state entities are forming, but so far all have been short lived. In the paradigm of Transcendent Reality, the next social evolution after the state is deemed "the seventh transcendence," but as of yet neither name nor form is known. It may be that the former Soviet union, or the United States of America, was/is an incipient seventh transcendence, but more likely not -- just a more complex state. The United Nations is a remote possibility, but as of now is just a weak, corrupt body for talking and posturing among nations -- more a forum than a governmental entity, with no significant command or authority of its own.