A peculiar dream

I had a peculiar dream the other night. I woke up during the dream and in the real world I willed myself back to sleep so I could continue the dream. I did continue the dream and at some point I discovered I was in another place/state. I moved between the other place/state, reality, and the dream world easily.

THis is hard to describe but after I awoke and I reached for my writing pad and I tried to explain.

There is another place/state. It is not sleep and it is not awake. Nor is a a place in-between. It is a different place. Maybe I can return there and gain an insight into the meaning of life. How you ask a question depends on what state you are in.

My 43 things list of things to do in my quest

I have been trying to thing about how to keep my quest organized. I have a lot of things to do in my search for the meaning of life. So I started a 43 things list. it is located here:

43things search for the meaning of life

First quest?

I have been thinking a lot about what kinds of things I will do in my search for the meaning of life and maybe I have found my first sojourn. It is a short sojourn and it revolves around a painting called: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? It is by Paul Gauguin and it is being kept in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston Massachusetts which is within reasonable driving distance for me.

Wikipedia has an excellent explanation of this painting:
The Painting at Wikipedia

A little about Gauguin: In 1891 he sailed to the tropics to escape the european world and as he describes it "everything that is artificial and conventional" He wanted to find a simpler life "where he could live on fish and fruit."


Here are two interesting quotes by Gauguin:

In order to do something new we must go back to the source, to humanity in its infancy.

I have tried to make everything breathe in this painting: belief, passive suffering, religious and primitive style, and the great nature with its scream.

The search continues

Proof of God

Every day we are surrounded by this amazing and awe inspiring thing we call life. But for the most part we are blind to it. Busy making money, paying the bills, watching tv, dealing with the little things that consume us.

The complexity and the sheer scope of it all is enough of a proof that there is something beyond us and we will call this something beyond us God -not as an old wise man with a grey beard, but as a force that brought everything into being.

Proof for the skeptic

Now if all of this isn't proof enough for you - You might say it is just a series of things that happened, or it is a grand coincidence, or evolution or whatever you want.

God knows you would think this and he created something to convince you of his/her/it's existence. -- The eclipse ---

God created a moon and set it in motion around the earth in exactly the right place and distance so that it would exactly cover the disc of the sun. This is no coincidence. It was done on purpose. It is part of a language that god uses to speak to us.

What is he trying to say? He is saying: I am here and here is the proof.

Join me in the search

Book Review and thoughts about "The Alchemist"

I was driving through some countryside that I hadn't gone through before and I spotted a book store that sells used books. I made a note of its location and a few days later I made a special trip out there.

Something like this is always a wonderful event for me. Little bookstores like this often hold serendipitious events for me.
It was many years ago that I discovered a tattered copy of the hobbit in a bookstore just like this. And this was before anybody ever heard of the Hobbit. It wa also in a bookstore like this that I discovered Dostoevsky and Watership Down.

Combing through the stacks I came across a book that was on my list for a long time: "The Alchemist" by Paolo Coelho. I took this as a good omen and I bought it.

There is a small irony about this book and me. I had asked for it as a christmas present from someone and they gave me the wrong one. There is another popular book called The Alchemist. I read that one but it doesn't compare. That one is pretty much just a run of the mill fiction work. Interesting and fun but not what I am looking for.

Back to the real Alchemist.

It's a good book, simple and short and with a great theme and idea but it suffers the same affliction that many of these kinds of books suffer from, books like Illusions by Richard Adams and even The lord of the rings.

Let me explain. THis book has a mysterious, seemingly all-knowing character that appears to our main character as he sits on a park bench. Hey there's something new.
These books always seem to have this kind of character that sets our hero on the path he must embark on.

Well, that's all fine and good but it doesn't do me, or you any good. In real life there is no character like this. So how am I to embark on my quest to find the real meaning of life? Beats the hell out of me. It would be so simple if some Gandalf, or King of Salem would come and show me the way -show me even a glimmer of the way. But there is no Gandalf.

Every single one of us here on this planet is standing in a cave and looking at shadows on the wall. Every single one of us.

Will
The Search Continues

Book Review - The Call by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

I just finished The Call: Discovering Why You Are here by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
and it is a wonderful book.

There are some wonderful scenes in it and beautiful little things about life and about Oriah herself. She is truly an unusual woman and a seeker of truth.

But as far as the title of the book goes the book itself doesn't answer any questions at all. It doesn't help you at all to discover why you are here.
It is just a tome on one woman's angst in this crazy world we live in and her battle with what she sees as contrasted with what she feels.

Overall the book adds some nice threads to the tapestry of my search for the meaning of life but it doesn't bring me any closer to my goal.

The search for the meaning of Life

New interface to the meaning of life stories

I have designed a new look for the meaning of life stories. The stories used to be in a simple text list format and it had no pizazz.
I have created a visual interface where you can get a sense impression of the stories by looking at a picture.
It has a really nice feel to it. The stories are interesting and short.
Here is a thumbnail of the interface:

You can check it out at The search for the meaning of life website

Will