Leechard says:
First a human being would ask, what am I living for.
This was the question haunted me when I was a little kid. Until to day, I still cannot quite understand, how could a kid so young to ask a question like this.
But the question was good. It has given me lots of stimulation in my years of writing.
I could not tell where did the question come from. But the story of Bambi must have inspired me.
It was my first book. I still remember how I got that book. It was a summer night. A kind-hearted uncle came to visit us. I still remember his loving face. I had a little fever then. He said, take a coin to buy some candies. He had given me fifty cents. I was so happy that I had forgotten my fever completely. I ran to the shops in the corner of the street, thinking what could I buy with fifty cents. I brought the story of Bambi home and I have read it hundreds of times since.
And I had never realized that the story was actually my own story. My mother died one or two years later, same as the deer's mother.
When Bambi had lost his mother, there was an old deer to guide him, telling him many of the secrets about life in the forest.
A hunter had come to the forest. He fired a gun. The smell of the gun power spread around the forest for a very long time. And the forest was never the same as before. That was a smell Bambi had never have experienced. And his mother was gone since. The hunter was dead also. The old deer brought Bambi to see the corpse of the hunter. The hunter had a fight with another man. He died with his gun lying nearby. The smell of the gun power was so strong that Bambi could hardly breathe.
The old deer told Bambi, man is not perfect, and not sacred. They will die like every one else. And the old deer told him many other things that he had never heard of. They had become very good friends.
One day, the old deer told Bambi, his days have come and he has to go. Bambi asked him where would he go. The old deer did not answer. And Bambi had become the old deer from then on.
Bambi was the old deer.
How could a child's storybook tell you philosophy?
Yes, when you have read it hundreds of times.
As I am getting older and older now, the story kept coming back to me, just to remind me that very question:
What is the purpose of life?
As I have said earlier: "feeling is above understanding". Whenever you have the feeling, you will understand all. If you do not have that feeling, the theories will be too complicated for you.
The question is not an isolated question. It is the surface of another much bigger question:
What is the purpose of human being? In the long history of the universe, why a special species was here?
And this bigger question is not big enough. Another much bigger question is waiting for you:
What is the purpose of the Universe itself? What for?
And if some one have a very clear and logical mind, he needs not to have any "feeling" and he will say, the universe needs no "purpose". The so-called purpose is but the weakness of us human beings. Only we would ask such silly question and the universe will not bother to answer it.
And such idea would lead to a terrible conclusion, which is much more terrible then the terrorist idea: Then we need not to have a purpose in life. You are what you are and you can do what you like to do. That is all. Just do it.
And he would seek material pleasure, and seek vanity, and lie, and do every thing for a selfish purpose. He did have a purpose, but he denied it. He would not tell you. All his life was constructed on lies, and a lie doesn't need to tell you its purpose.
What is the purpose of life?
This is a question anyone would ask himself in the course of his life span. And I was lucky to have it so early. Many would face that question suddenly when they were failed at some point or when they had come to unsolvable difficulties. So people are always worried about failure. They hope and believe that they would never fail. But sooner and later they would die like every one else. They will die more tragically than others. It was when they came to the thought, what have I been doing all my life? What is the purpose of my life? It would be too late for them to think.
To ask for a purpose is very basic human behavior. If you are human, you have to answer it. Please don't say Just Do It. Ask first.
Then he would ask, is there a God to guide me?
Or, should I do as I like or do as God directs?
If he were willing to be guided by God, then he would have the resolution that God must be perfect.
He can never come to the thought that God may or may not be perfect.
Chinese philosophy is different. The major trend is from Confucius. He thought that the Heaven were far away and not connected to human beings. Therefore human beings need to behave themselves, that is, to obey the elders and that is morality. He thought morality is everything.
Yet the major thought of the Chinese were from other ancient myths.
The myths maintained that the Heaven was not balanced, and needed human effort to balance it.
This thought was very different from the West and the East.
Both the early Western philosopher and Indian thinkers thought the creator was perfect. The thought was not the same as the Chinese.
Another philosophy was Zhuang Zi. He thought that we human beings were created by the creator yet we were given a choice.
It means we are free.
We are not only free from the external aspect, as some politicians would think. We are free internally.
We would think we are equal yet we are not balanced and more importantly, we are free. We can help each other and we ought to.
Are human beings created equal or born equal?
How should I treat my fellow beings? Should I love them or make use of them?
If I love them, so what? If we are in love, what is the next thing we ought to do?
The question remains unanswered till this moment. What are we human beings living for?
And now we can come back to the original question: What is the purpose of the Universe?
Or: What is the purpose of "all"?
Abraham Lincoln said for the people, or for "all the people", if you feel like to put it that way.
But what is the ultimate purpose of "all"? What are we human beings here for? What are the purposes?
Are we here to serve only? Are we not to be served but to serve?
And that needed a feeling.
If you know the purpose of your own life, you will know the purpose of the entire Universe.
It is just as funny as that.
Yet the most important question is not in philosophy, or religion. It is elsewhere. We will talk about it soon.
9113 what am I thinking about the human situation (part 2) 20170612
*Leechard Asks*
(#The author is a question raiser. He has raised more then 9000 questions. The above article is question no.9113 . He is an expert on cultures and he is a qi master as well as a songwriter.
Leechard is an explorer of the Chinese Culture secrets. Send a stamped return envelope to GPO Box 4048 Hong Kong for a free DVD on the secrets of the "Dream of the Red Chamber" by Leechard. Or you can order one of his books. Donation is very much appreciated, it will be acknowledged in his books. And if you love music and like to sing, you can ask for a copy of the scores he has written.)
（#The author can be reached by Whatsapp at 852-91864286）
