What is the ultimate goal of practicing your religion/philosophy?

[The Sum of Awe]

For me it is generally to make a quality life for myself and the people I care about, and, if I'm able to, make people I don't know happy as well.

Quality of life not necessarily in sustenance, but in a balance of peace of mind and sustenance.

How about you?

 

[JustGeorge]

I feel there's a lot...

Yes, quality of life for myself and those around me, like you say. General happiness. Guidance for confusion. Also...

Fun. Culture. Art.

Connection to something greater than myself, and to times past. People past. The land I live in. The lands I may have lived before(in previous incarnations). To people here and now. To the cycles of the year.

 

[exchemist]

For me it is generally to make a quality life for myself and the people I care about, and, if I'm able to, make people I don't know happy as well.

Quality of life not necessarily in sustenance, but in a balance of peace of mind and sustenance.

How about you?

Yes I think the role of religion generally is to be a guide in living your life: how you deal with the triumphs and disasters, how you relate to others, both personally and in wider society, and to provide an anchor in your life, through traditions, practices, community and a sense of identity.

(This is where the Dawkinses of this world misunderstand religion. They seem to think it is an alternative explanation of the natural world, which is actually quite beside the point.)

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Yes I think the role of religion generally is to be a guide in living your life: how you deal with the triumphs and disasters, how you relate to others, both personally and in wider society, and to provide an anchor in your life, through traditions, practices, community and a sense of identity.

(This is where the Dawkinses of this world misunderstand religion. They seem to think it is an alternative explanation of the natural world, which is actually quite beside the point.)

Well said, I agree.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I feel there's a lot...

Yes, quality of life for myself and those around me, like you say. General happiness. Guidance for confusion. Also...

Fun. Culture. Art.

Religious art and stories are certainly something else!

Connection to something greater than myself, and to times past. People past. The land I live in. The lands I may have lived before(in previous incarnations). To people here and now. To the cycles of the year.

That's a nice thing to reflect on

 

[JustGeorge]

Religious art and stories are certainly something else!

They are! One doesn't have to be Hindu to appreciate the Mahabharata.

 

[Secret Chief]

Not sure I'd use the word "ultimate" as it is ongoing (till it isn't) but I would say the fundamental is to live authentically.

 

[SalixIncendium]

The ultimate goal is moksha (liberation). But there are a multitude of other goals one must achieve to achieve the ultimate goal.

 

[The Hammer]

For me it is generally to make a quality life for myself and the people I care about, and, if I'm able to, make people I don't know happy as well.

Quality of life not necessarily in sustenance, but in a balance of peace of mind and sustenance.

How about you?

I'm not sure there is an "Ultimate" goal. But the aim is to live in harmony with the land and it's Spirits, one's Ancestors and the Shining Ones above.

To encourage mindfulness of the ways we are all interconnected and impacting the world around us, and to make changes that brings a person more in balance with themselves and their external environment.

 

[1137]

Rediscovering my true self.

 

[The Hammer]

Rediscovering my true self.

God, is that you?

 

[Quintessence]

There isn't one. If anything, the "goal" is to learn to stop fixating on goals and pay attention to the journey.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

There isn't one. If anything, the "goal" is to learn to stop fixating on goals and pay attention to the journey.

Why?

 

[mangalavara]

The ultimate goal is moksha (liberation). But there are a multitude of other goals one must achieve to achieve the ultimate goal.

I second this.

Moksha, liberation from the cycle of life, death, and rebirth is the ultimate goal of the Hindu. Of course, this is what Swami Vivekananda taught about our kind of Hinduism. @Aupmanyav and other non-theistic Hindus have got other perspectives on moksha.

 

[sun rise]

Per Meher Baba, the goal is to be united with God through love.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

The ultimate goal is moksha (liberation). But there are a multitude of other goals one must achieve to achieve the ultimate goal.

Can you describe what moksha looks like to you?

 

[Bthoth]

The mamushka

 

[Quintessence]

Why?

To quote what is probably my favorite line from Starfield as an NPC was waxing about why life is about the journey, not the destination: "because the destination is death."

But in seriousness, though, folks today are gods awful at just living in the present. It's a dumb cliche, but the present is a gift. Enjoy it.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Can you describe what moksha looks like to you?

I'm not sure I can do so to your or anyone else's satisfaction, but I'll do my best...

It's a realization that that the reality that I perceive is a manifestation of what I am in my true nature through the lens of time, space, and causation, and that all of this is a temporary appearance.


The best way I can describe it to someone is to compare it to a dream that spontaneously becomes lucid...

My dream character perceives a reality that is very real to him, with real people, real places, and real interactions with the dream world, unbeknownst to him that he is actually a the dreamer lying in a bed.

But the character starts to realize that the dream becomes oddly familiar through brief flashes of a feeling of oneness, and the character eventually finds such a oneness with everything in the dream, he realizes that he is not the dream character, but something else much more real and permanent.

At this point, the dream character becomes dispassionate to that which lies within the dream reality and holds no attachments because he knows that the dream is temporary and will ultimately end, but the dreamer remains engaged with the dream for other dream characters, which the dreamer realizes are identical to him in his true nature. But the dream character goes on through the rest of the dream knowing that he and his dream world are merely an appearance within that which remains unchanged from the perspective in the dream...the dreamer lying asleep in the bed.


This description is the closest I can currently intellectually convey the experience, but it doesn't come remotely close to what it actually is.

 

[Vinidra]

Salix's explanation is how I understand moksha as well. I have not achieved it, mind you, and probably won't for a long time. But that's my intellectual understanding of what is the ultimate goal in Hinduism.

My current goal is to get closer to God, and that is one of the paths to moksha, ultimately.