Why Do Human Beings Exist?
Why Do Human Beings Exist?
by RICHARD C. COOK
If we are honest about it, we have to admit that if we do not know why human beings exist, then we do not know why we personally exist, since we are in fact human.
Obviously we are driven to activity by many external sources—parents, school teachers, siblings, and friends, then later spouses, our boss at work, the tax man, the bank that lent us money, etc. We may find ourselves more or less able to meet these demands or more or less willing.
There are also the internal imperatives of hunger, thirst, desire for sex, a need for success, etc. Or sometimes we just want to escape. There are healthy ways—taking a vacation—and less healthy—becoming a drug addict or alcoholic.
We may even seek an explanation for our existence by reading books, going to church, maybe even practicing yoga or meditation. We may seek meaning through creativity of various kinds, including enterprise, parenting, art, music, athletics, etc. Such seeking is natural. So where does it lead?
It makes a great deal of difference if we think that somehow we were created by a higher intelligence vs. just happening to be here. If we choose the former, we run the risk of projecting onto that higher intelligence our own feeble emotions of anger and judgment and believing we are “sinners in the hands of an angry God,” as an 18th century American cleric put it. But this type of self-flagellation won’t take us far unless we want to be candidates for an asylum.
Maybe then we can look to science for help. Modern science has postulated a universe much larger and more expansive than suspected by people of an earlier time. Instruments like the Hubble space telescope show galaxies seemingly without end. NASA’s Kepler space probe discloses the abundance of planets in our own galaxy that may support life like that on earth. The Big Bang suggests that the universe continues to grow from a central point, with new worlds likely coming into existence all the time.
So if there is a Divine Presence who set it all in motion, where is he/she/it today? Esoteric teachings suggest that the Creator permeates the entire cosmos at the finest vibrational level, but who makes the decisions about how the whole thing operates? If there is such a thing as free will, what kind of guidelines exist by which choices made may be evaluated?
What if the universe were viewed as a very large business? Obviously the man (or woman) at the top could not do everything on his (or her) own. Perhaps the big boss would know more than anyone about the business and its products. But he (or she) would need a lot of help at all levels of the organization, from the departmental level to the production floor.
There would also be needed an entry mechanism by which new employees would be inducted, trained, and oriented to their jobs. An orderly business would provide means for individuals to move up the ladder to more responsible positions as they became more mature, knowledgeable, and responsible. It would certainly help if the firm had some influence over the educational system by which those with potential for working in its employ gained through their education the skills that were advantageous to their future employment.
Maybe the universe resembles this model. Maybe there is a Creator who has a job to accomplish through the creation. Maybe it all has a purpose. Maybe the Creator can’t run it all by itself. Maybe help is needed. Maybe beings have been created to provide such help. Maybe those beings have also been given a developmental path by which they can move up the ladder to greater responsibility. Maybe those beings are of the same nature of unconditional love as the one at the top seems to be. Maybe those beings are us.
Copyright 2013 by Richard C. Cook
Richard C. Cook is a former federal analyst and NASA whistleblower, now a teacher of meditation and spirituality in Roanoke, Virginia. His latest book is “Return of the Aeons: The Planetary Spiritual Ascension.” His website is www.richardccook.com. He may be contacted at [email protected].
Thanks, Richard. Reminds me of the story of the Prince by Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov which I stumbled upon.
The Young Prince
Imagine a young prince who has been entrusted to the care of peasants since infancy, in order for him to experience life’s hardships. He doesn’t know he is heir to the throne, and he goes to work every day in shabby clothes and with hardly any food inside him. Years later, the king, his father, decides his education is complete and sends a whole delegation of representatives to find him and bring him back to the palace. The young prince hasn’t a clue what’s going on and thinks a mistake has been made. But there’s no mistake, and they explain to him he was sent to live with peasants simply in order to learn what hard work, sobriety and modesty are. Now he’s arrived at the palace: they ask him what he would like for his meal, and all he wants is a little bread, an onion and some water. He doesn’t know the royal chef has prepared a whole feast… And you can imagine the rest of the story.
And if I tell you that, inside, you are all princes and princesses… Yes, because you are all sons and daughters of God, and one day your heavenly Father, who has entrusted you to peasants for the sake of your education – yes, symbolically that’s what life on earth is – will solemnly send for you. But only on condition that you have worked properly, of course; otherwise, this apprenticeship with peasants could last for many incarnations.
Hi Richard, Love the article, however I have a different take…
What if what we have been told was not exactly accurate, and what we were told is myth is real, and what we have been told is real is really the myth… then what if the gods of Rome and in the mythology were real beings, who are from another planet? what if the creation story we have heard from the Bible and the one from science was created to keep us small and controlled? What if these beings created us and gave us their genetics, and have been watching from afar….at times helping us not have the ability to blow up the world and all of space? What if the world is a lot different from what we have been told and now in this Golden Age we are discovering it one person at a time as we wake up to the truth of our beginnings and our earth’s creation/ solar system/ galaxy. We are gods, created by the gods who created and rule the many universes. We were originally created to mind the gold for Neubru, which needed gold to keep their planet alive and to build up their outer biosphere. What if we have evolved because they have allowed our DNA to expand. What if our creations were really gifts from them, ie: we did not create a lot of the things that people think the humans have done Nasa,Electricity, etc…I think we have been around for lots of lifetimes, and we are here to grow spiritually, to clear out the old karma, to learn to love from the inside out, ourselves first then others…and to learn the truth about our existence…to remember what we know when we are not in earthly human form. That is what the age of Aquarius is all about the Golden Age, learning these things and expanding, connecting to our god within and with each other in unity and cooperation.
As Max Planck famously said, “I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness.”
Beyond that statement, any ultimate truth gets elusive, and the temptation to project our personal view is strong. At this point in history the Business Model becomes ever less appealing. It does appear that a fundamental aspect of being human is to eat experience and extrude meaning. Unconditional love, by definition, would encompass all things. Life may well be more of an adventurous experiment and less of a school.