A life lived without purpose or value, the kind in which one doesn’t know the reason why one was born, is joyless and lacklustre. To just live, eat and die without any real sense of purpose, surely represents a life pervaded by the life-state of Animality, that of animals.
On the other hand, to do, create or contribute something that benefits others, society out ourselves and to dedicate ourselves, as long as we live up to the challenge, that is a life of true satisfaction, a life of value.
To live the Buddhist way is a humanistic and meritorious way to live.
The Search For Enlightenment 
Oct 12, 2011 @ 22:00:00
very true, but part of the challenge is finding that purpose in life. Even when you THINK you have a purpose, Buddhism often warns us to make that distinction as a “purpose” or “dreaming wildly”.
Oct 12, 2011 @ 22:03:23
even when it is a purpose… isn’t it an object of impermanence since everything that come …will go? That purpose in life dies off eventually…so what will keep you going?
Oct 13, 2011 @ 01:00:11
The purpose of life, every life, is to follow the path towards enlightenment. If you took a train from Atlanta to Seattle, you would stop at many, many stations, each one a transitory stop. But that doesn’t mean that the final destination is transitory, each stop is a stop closer to that final goal, destination, purpose.
Only our karma follows us from one life to the next, so our mission is to make the causes in this life, for the effects we want to see in the next, or subsequent lives.
So even if your short term goal is say, passing your exams, it doesn’t detract from your long term goal, that of true enlightenment.
Oct 13, 2011 @ 01:37:33
but what if my ultimate goal is to completely escape for the reincarnation of life altogether, anything i do in this life will have cause and effect, will build into my karma, and I’ll have to pay it back my next life.
Oct 15, 2011 @ 02:01:40
But what if your goal isn’t to escape from reincarnation? What if, having reached enlightenment, your karma is such that you want to help other achieve it too, and in a state of blissful happiness, you just want to go on in that state forever?
In such a state, you will make good causes and see good effects in that life and the next.
Why then would you want to ‘escape’ reincarnation.
Nirvana means to extinguish, to blow out, to cease to be. Why on earth would that ever be your final goal?
Surely enlightenment is the final goal, and having reached that goal, your existence becomes a cycle of perfect lives.
None of us are perfect … yet. So change your goal, make enlightenment your goal and embrace the wheel of life, rather than trying to escape from it.