Excellence Reporter: Dr. Liberman, what is the meaning of life?

Jacob Israel Liberman: I’m not sure if life has a meaning. However, it appears to have a purpose – to discover who we are.

Are we the body we see in the mirror?

Are we the voice in our head that thinks ahead, makes choices, has preferences and identifies with being black or white, male or female, Christian, Muslim or Jew? Are we the being that believes it is separate from others?

Or, are we the observer of these illusions?

Have you ever wondered who notices the activity of the mind?

We are often so caught up in life that we forget that we would not be aware of anything, if “we” were not observing it.

The question then is, who or what are “we”?

In The Gospel of Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted as saying, “There is a principle which is the basis of things . . . a simple, quiet, undescribed, undescribable presence, dwelling very peacefully in us . . . we are not to do, but to let do; not to work, but to be worked upon.”

What if we are not the ideas of the mind, but the choiceless observer noticing it? And if we are, in fact, the silent observer with no point of view, then perhaps the observer within you and the observer within me are one and the same.

In The Gospel of Thomas, Jesus said, “When you make the two one. . . the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside. . . the above like the below. . . the male and the female one and the same . . . then will you enter the Kingdom.”

Was Jesus giving us the key to discovering who we are?

More than 1,400 years ago, Seng-Ts’an, the Third Zen Patriarch, mirrored Jesus’ message in his classic poem Hsin-Hsin Ming:

“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for or against anything. It is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things.”

Discovering who we are – that is our purpose.  And perhaps living our purpose is the meaning of life.

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~Dr. Jacob Israel Liberman’s discoveries in the fields of light, vision, and consciousness have been enthusiastically endorsed by luminaries in the fields of health, science, and spirituality from Deepak Chopra and Bruce Lipton to Eckhart Tolle. He is the author of Light: Medicine Of The Future, Take Off Your Glasses And See and Wisdom From An Empty Mind. His newest book, Luminous Life: How the Science of Light Unlocks the Art of Living, reveals how light guides our every step, so we may fulfill our reason for being.
www.JacobLiberman.org

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