Once a child ask a friend of mine:
“Why are we born if we have to die?”
Please give me your thoughts in this.
Love,
Paulo
Why are we born if we have to die?
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can you be called a doctor , without doing your PHD :)
you need to pass through certain tests , time & experiences to achieve that .
Human soul is the most superior in all of HIS creation and we need to prove that , its only but fair to the rest of his creation,
thus the life n death process :)
This is very similar to what i wanted to say!
I believe that God has created us to live and experience this life; to learn about ourselves and about others-after all life is just a lesson we need to learn in order to pass the test, and only those who have learned and used what they learned to be and do better, will pass the test and go to HEAVEN.
We never actually Die, our souls will forever exist, whether our soul is stuck inside a body or not. Whether it is going through this thing called Life, went to AfterLife, or is somewhere unknown BeforeLife.
to live and love
i believe that our souls had already exist and will always exist in this universe , but, from time to time the soul needs a place to live which is our body , then when we die , it is just because our soul needs to be free again ..so we live to give our soul a home and we die to liberate it
it’s simple bcoz we are born beings and in that state.. we don’t have permanent existence so we do have to face death, and the “experiences” when we are still alive are just “by-product” of having life. No one told us so if we want to be born or not, what parents you want to have or being born exactly what you want. Therefore, we are just plainly the observers of what is happening when we are born. The point is we are born if we are caused to be born etc. You can’t bring your consciousness after death so experiencing heaven or hell is not sure. Souls has no feelings in my opinion (it requires a brain to have it). The most important fact is, we should dedicate our lives for the sake of others existence. Especially for those next born-lives if we want them to experience happy or grudge when they exist we should reflect on our every action.
Why are we born if we have to die?
We are born to salvage our sins and to pay for our “karma”, i.e., deeds of the bygone births. That is one answer. Bookish answer!
Who says we are born? We are, and we will be.
We are eternal, everything stays. My body may be having so many atoms and molecules and minerals and vitamins and proteins and so many others. They will lose the bonds, will mix up with the earthly matter and some day they all will reunite to form another me. No atom will be able to escape this earth.
The thing is that sexuality made us think of birth and death. No? Then think- who is alive for the past billion years? Or more? Yes, the first living cell that ever formed on this earth. That cell divided, did not die. $Bacteria divide, they are eternal.
When does the concept of death arise? Asexual reproduction is sans death. Sexual reproduction, involving male-female union, brings the concept of death. We lable it as death. Do we die? No, we also try to reproduce asexually, by forming the sperms and ova. If that sperm were to develop into a full adult, then we remain alive as we are. Only because the sperm meets the ovum, they unite and form a new being having all the same features of us. We live through the progeny.
Concept of birth and death are the price we have to pay for our sexual union.
dear friend
i sware by Alah (the only GOD that should be worshiped) that death is a step on our lives , we should one day pass by !
Please, I’m asking you to think about these :
From the novel “veronika decides to die” ,I felt that Veronika doesn’t believe in GOD or she was just trying to show us that it doesn’t interest her to know if there is a GOD or not !
But when she faced death, her faith changed?
you’ll die one day , I’m pretty sure that in 2090 you’ll be in your Grave, Alone, without you family , without your followers , without your friends …
Would you feel happy there ? don’t answer me , answer your self ?
I’m not trying to convince you because may be you have more experiences, you are famous and great intellectual …and if you want to skip my questions you will do so easily…
But I’m convinced that even if you do skip ? your soul will never let you in peace ? would know why ?
Because I’m saying the truth , the only truth ? and you should certainly feel that truth is the only way for real change, Real revolution, real sacrifice, real life, real love and happiness …
So this is the truth about us : “ in this life, Allah tests his creatures (only human and djin), he want every one from us to follow his path, he informs us, but he let us free to do everything we want,
And then comes death, after it we have to be judged… after death no more work, no more love , no more celebrity, no more money , the end of what we call “ life”?
Think about your self , in what situation would you be then? Happy ; if you believe in Allah , and did well in earth? Or sad , very very sad , because you did not ? and because you’ll not have another chance to correct your destiny.
It’s very hard to believe ?
Believe it or not , this is what will come to every one of us , this is why we have to die ?
I’m sure you’ll see it by yourself. Remember me then?
Dear Soufiane,
Just would like to say that one cannot force ‘the truth’ to others. ;) ‘The truth’ for each individual may be different and it has to come from within. And, in fact, I believe the only ONE who can give the spark of the truth and change a human being is God Himself. I can’t remember the exact verse, but I remember reading it once in The Koran.
Man shall not judge other man regarding the truth, since the truth itself belongs only and ONLY to The Almighty. So let God be the judge since God is the one deciding who will be blessed and touched by the truth.
What we can do is to follow our heart, since our heart is ‘the gate’ that connects us with God.
As for the question of why we were born if we will die someday, my answer is because God wants us to feel and realize the blessing of life. In the end, we are expected to be ‘united’ with the divine essence, to be able to show the quality of man that reflects God’s existence.
Thus, my answer. Wallahualam.
cheers,
evi
Purpose. We are born to complete our little part in the global spiritual tapestry. If we can understand that our underlying purpose to being on this earth is to add to the completion of this perfection – and we seek to fulfill that purpose (after all we do have choice) the world will be well on the way. We die to allow others to add, whilst our spirit returns from whence it came.
I must agree to Purpose.
I just started reading Sophie’s World by Gaarder. This is a question that I asked myself yeeeaaars ago and stopped when I realized I was growing gray hairs before I should be growing them.
The answer to What is our Purpose or What exactly is this “universal tapestry” is a question that philosophers have been questioning throughout history and there really is no concrete answer.
Whether or not one believes that the universe is “Order” or “Plain Chaos”… Just by going back to science class and the whole lessons in natural equilibrium… I find it undeniable that Purpose alone must exist whatever the meaning or bottom line of this Purpose is.
i think dying is a natural organic process of course and we are as much part of that as any other matter on Earth … does it have to be this way?
well – if we knew why Eve and Adam had to lose their immortality in the Garden of Eden – this would be easy to answer! ;o)
i think we come into life, to learn
and the ultimate purpose of learning is to love.
perhaps earth is just a dress-rehearsal for a greater universal stage?
I like to think that we occupy a physical body here on Earth but are free of only this after death…
to understand and appreciate our freedom, perhaps we must inhabit the heaviness of the body .. as a means to learn, love… live..
after all… Life is Eternal ;o) xx
Blessings to all.
dearest Paulo,
We are born enjoy life, to spread love,fulfil the expectation of those who expect something from us and to find the treasure that awaits us.
one of your most benifitted readers
shamik.
Life is great period God give us. Good for those who follows rules and learns those litle tips all of us must follow. Bad for those who ingores them and pretend to make their own rules. It has its stages and all of them have its own emotions and interests, they`re long enough for those who live it patiently and respecting these universal terms.
The simple answer would be:
I believe that we all have to accomplish a mission..
agree with that.. Read “Five People You Meet in Heaven” by Mitch Albom
When children ask you why we have to be born and then die? you can answer my children, we live so we can enjoy first love and then when that first love are gone, you can enjoy its eternal pain that resides in your heart forever…..and then you can arise from your sadness and tell yourself: “I have failed my first love, but I shall not fail on my personal legend, whatever it is, I will find the reason God or whatever it is send me to this stupid earth….I will find it and after I have found it, I’ll put my best efforts on following it, following its signs, untill with bruises and scars that left in my body, my soul are as free as a swan flying in the ocean because I have succeeded finding my personal legend…..and then my tears will flow in my cheek, the tears of happiness because at the end of your life you will know that God or whatever it is is kind to those who follow their personal legend………….so when you die you can tell the gate keeper, I have scars and bruises in my life, but with their help, I finally arrived here…..so please let me in and let me have a rest…..
And not to mention that we were born in order to love and that’s all,so when we die we have the best story to tell!
isn´t it a law in the Universe that all what is born has to die ? I could feel this when my son was born. I had the feeling that I have to go one day for to make space for the following generation ( for him) . I think that I knew all this before I was born again in this world and I accept it because I still have to learn much. So we are born to learn, and we have to die because life has to go on.
Love,
Markus
Dear All,
Idon’t exactly remember whether i told my son or i didn’t – about why do we live.
but once, when he was about 4 years he asked questions, and one of them is – why he lives, why i live, why people live. and also why people live in different conditions. He noticed the beggars on the street, the mad man wondering the local markets, the rich people who are rude and snobish, some people are fat, thin, etc.
I thought I said to him, that peach people live with a reason, God made people live for a purpose.
I think again, i had given him a not suitable answer for a child at his age.
I was hoping that he would accept this life he is in. His condition (and mine) which is not very common in this side of te world, not very well (and easy to be) accepted.
I am a single parent, not on the basic of being one, is based on my own choice. Partly, i can say, 99,9% i was not ready, I am not ready for this role I had to take. I forced my self to be ready, but I am not sure i am doing it well enough.
I do not know nor sure about I said / answered correctly to him..
Paulo, Friends, you may give your comments..
I’ll be thankfull for any comments and reaction.
Best regads,
Liany
To live & love.
But I probably wouldn’t tell that to a child. I would ask him back “And why do you get up in the morning, if you have to go to sleep in the evening ?” and let him guess until he says that he has to go to school, so I would tell him, that it is the same between our birth and death: we go to school, we have to learn…
or, who knows, just keep on talking with that child.
Love,
Michele
porque todo lo bueno tiene un final o porque nuestra vida es un viaje…en realidad casi nadie tiene una respuesta adecuada a la pregunta de los ninos, a veces ellos son mas sabios que nosotros y todavia conservan mucha inocencia.
its better so
Dear Paulo,
DO we really die? Or just change forms. We make too much fuss about this thing we call death. This is just a chapter, a snipet from a film. Out lives on Earth are not the WHOLE BOOK or the WHOLE FILM. Just a small part of it. WE must die so we can continue.
Peace and Much Respect
hi paulo,
Man identifies himself with the body, that’s the work of the ego-seperation from the whole. I don’t believe we are ever born or ever die. The spirit is eternal, immortal. Just the expression in the physical form comes to a halt but we continue to be in the subtle layers of existence even after we drop the body.
Yes but the journey to adorn the physical body and drop it continues because of our sense of seperation from the whole. To merge with the whole or to become aware of who we are is nirvana, enlightenment, moksha and we are born and die in the physical body to attain to this realisation which is the ultimate goal of life.
juhi.
TOUTESTUN.C’est pourquoi le mystere de la vie est si obscur.
No one has any control over his birth or death. SO No question of WHY ? or IF ?
Try to understand this world, enjoy every colour of life and try to be happy. Live the life the way you want.
prashant harit
life is change. there are 4 seasons in a year because there always have to be change. when someone is born , he is a season in his parents life and then seasons change as he grow untill one day it is winter and everything stays still or dies so that spring with come after that , new and fresh .
Deus tenta de todas as maneiras, o aperfeiçoamento do nosso espírito, nos fazendo nascer e viver, já que a morte é perfeita.
Acho que todos nós somos partículas do universo, que Deus tenta formar o desenho de sua vontade, pretendido desde sempre, através das nossas missões durante a jornada da nossa vivência, para que o próximo mundo esteja mais perto do que Ele quer.
Beijos,
Mari Raphael.
we live because we are here.. we die because it is time..
I suppose the child that asked this question has experienced a lot in his life although so young. The question is a very deep thought.
I think we live to take the chances life has and try to make something better. I think helping other people, as you do, dear Paulo in your institute, helping children means to improve their life. Even if we can help only one person, it is one drop compared to the whole world, but it would be missing without our help. I think our mission on earth is to make good things.
I wish you all the best, dear Paulo!
Silvia
We are born to inherit The Universe from our parents.
The question should not have been “why do we die,” but “why do we live”! We were non living matter before birth, right? we were accumulated from minerals!
Death defines us. Without death, life is incomplete. Acceptence of Death is the goal of life. We are born, we are enslaved to matter and the world and death. Over these, by God’s command, we were destined to rule. We learn to overpower death in our lives, we learn not to fear the struggle for existence, we learn not to fear what the world thinks of us, and then we learn to follow our dreams.
The goal of our lives would not be fulfilled if we weren’t mortals. We have a goal, because life is finite.
This is what in Veronica decides to die: Without death, we simply wouldn’t understand the magnitude of life!
And the former part, about our divine right to rule over flesh, world and death(read fear of death) is influenced by Eastern Orthodoxy.
What do yyou think, Mr Coelho?
Dearest Paulo,
We are born for the ones around us.To feel love,to spraed love..But now many are mistaken..They doesnt know the value or meaning of life..They are doing things for death..for getting close to it very soon..So I would tell the child to enjoy life to the fullest..coz there is no life after death!!!
love,Neetu
hiz,
we are born to worship our God and to do what HE says.
and HE to see who of us is better Believer and Follower of Him and who is not. everything is being logged so HE handles the accounts.
and when we die we return to Him and a never ending life after death!
Wishes,
Sid
Once a child ask a friend of mine:
“Why are we born if we have to die?”
: Child ! First of all, i don’t really know, and this question has surfaced in front of me also at times; busy as I am with my ‘routine’ i have not really been able to find an answer to this one. Ceratin things appear in this regard, everything physical seems to have a beginning and an end, life gives us an oppertunity to learn, to share, to help each other ! to raise above our pterrty self interests and ….. enjoy !
If u find any answer to this ever, please let me also know !
what do U feel / think in this regard Paulo ! once in a while u may revisit these pages !
aditya
It’s the in- between that counts the most….
I am really curious about what the little child thought, independent from all the influence us “grown ups” ad through out the years?
Because without death there would be little change, differing perspectives, or new questions. Humans become stagnant and complacent and death is the universe’s way to insure that life evolves.
i feel
we are born to experience this world to live and be human, as spirits we are use to one place so we are born to live and breathe on this earth and then we go through the stages of life we rejoice we suffer we live
then we all this is done it’s time for us to return to the beautiful place we once were.
and to experience the blessing of free will to choose, and by the father we choose right to return from whence we came
i don’t know if i make sense, but that’s life it is itself a puzzle
We are born without our decision or approval.
Also we die in the same way, without our approval.
Real question is who is taking the decision for us!?
On the other side, we are allways taking decision on starting something that we know that must end, like some holiday, we go on holiday, knowing that at some point it would have to end.
Like this question, from Paulo.
Why we have to give some answers?
Because something is started and we all wanna see how will end!
Reading this, some one will ask him self, where is the point in this answer?
At the begining, of course!
great answer.
The qustion more appropriate would be why God does not decide everything for us if he already decides where and when we start our life and where and when we end it? He made us in his/her own image, so we live and make our own decisions so that we experience how tough it must be for God too to decide to take us from the ones we love …coz decisions are not always easy..So the answer may be: we live and die to get to know God and understand him/her more. As Jesus came on Earth and led human life so that he understands us people better…We live and die to understand (eachother) better.
May be answering this particular question is the reason for which we’re here. We might live a whole life, going up and down to get the experince that stands behind our answers. There’s a task, which we might never recognise, but it’s there and nobody one do it for us. It could be as simple as a smile, or as complicated as an answer, it is there and it’s ours…And when it’s done, our exsitance will become pointless…Actually, the departure itself could be the task…Who knows? the one who’s decided our arrival to this world so as the departure time knows, knwows very well!
for a child it could be simpler if we admitted to him that the things we’re sure about, certain and know are way less that those we doubt, it’s just like grapping a handfull sand in the great sahara…it’s nothing, absolutly nothing.
Cordially,
L.
We are born to live, to learn and to love and we die to live, to learn and to love again.
to decide who among us are good to ourselves and to people at all times.. good and bad.
we are born to entertain the god… who is having fun up there… watching us struggling with life… applying the sanity test on ourselves in the middle of the night and then trying to appear the wisest person on this planet the very next morning…
To be Born and to Die are just human experiences.
Birth begins our human life experience and death ends it.
“In order to die we have to first be alive, and in order to be alive we need to first be born”
Nature teaches us this in the life cycle of every plant and animal, but as humans we think that we are smarter so this rule should not apply to us.
Most children today seem dissatisfied with simple answers,perhaps because we adults have complicated life experiences for them so much.
The beauty of the human mind is that it has an infinite power to ask all sorts of questions that pertain to even the realms beyond human imagination, but the tragedy is that its comprehensive ability is conditioned and relatively finite and so when the answers to our questions lie beyond our human experiences and imagination we are unable to grasp them.
With advances in thinking of course, we are moving into newer and deeper levels of understanding, but the great unknown always remains one step away from us.
Maybe when we die we might encounter this great unknown and perhaps be able to find the answers to the complicated questions we had while we were alive. This possibility too, as humans we cannot know just yet!!
Until then, its better to keep things simple and give honest and straightforward answers that sometimes are a single line like ” I don’t know”, For most children this is the most satisfying, because it places us at their level and they feel that they can then question and learn with us – and we are not going to give them some pre conceived understanding of what we have, which again complicates their questions further.
From most of the posts a pattern seems to emerge, that as adults it is so easy to take a simple question and get into very complicated insights, but it is hard for us to admit and give a child (or a blog site) the simple reply that “we really don’t know.”
Thanks Paulo, for giving your readers an opportunity to share your journey and give u our views too.
I love the simplicity of your thoughts. It is the key to great and deep understanding and your spirituality shines through.
Thank you,
Laura Shahani
Chennai, India.
Pienso que nacimos para vivir simplemente, es cierto que la muerte va a llegar cualquier día, y realmente parece insecesario nacer si vamos a morir, pero la razón de porqué nacimos esta en todo lo que vivimos y aprendemos a diario y en como vivimos cada día.
Algunas veces pensé en eso, “¿porqué nací si luego todo lo que aprendí se ira conmigo?”, pero no tiene que ser asi, creo que todos podemos dejar un poco de nosotros y asi nuestra existencia no será en vano, además, tener la oportunidad de apreciar este mundo cada día, eso es suficiente razon para vivir, nacer es una oportunidad.
Because all beginnings must have endings.
wow, when I will have a child, will he ask me questions like that? Is it possible to give a satisfying answer to that question?
My answer would be: We can not know the reason because we haven`t decided that. Why are the trees green? we don`t know because we weren`t the ones who decided the color.
Alhimistis
strange? have you read “Zahir”?- by Paulo?
or is this You???
the author himself???
Agnieszka
Dear Paulo
Thank you for posting important questions.
Here are my thoughts.
I think that the word “die” in many forms and for many people have taken a very negative meaning. At least in Scandinavia, “a death” is a very “dark” thing for many people.
If we could start explaining to our children (and ourselves), that sometimes knows better than us, that we are all here in our lives to BE and to learn and experience all the beautiful and amazing things that We,God and Everything are. That when we “die” we will only continue our journey, and that the only power that´s real is the power of Light! Joy, Life and Love.
Perhaps that would end some of the fear that many of us have of dying, and we could maybe start working on the fear that may of us have of living.
Dear Paulo,
The first thought that came into my mind – we live to die in order to make this world a better place to live for the human kind. To add the value for others’ life, who will come after us.
After reading all these nice and deep comments of your readers, this thought of mine was confirmed. I would like to add, however, that it is enshrined not only in Christianity, but also in Islam and budism. Yes, maybe we have one life on earth, but if one believes in reincarnation, the Universe (or God, if you like) has given us many opportunities to make this world a better place.
———————————————–
Do not look for a long asnwer to this quetion. It was asked by a child – give him/her the most simple andswer. Lets make this world a better place!
———————————————–
Kindest wishes,
Egle from Lithuania
Dear Paulo,
Death is a start of something. We come to this world to begin something, too. Why is that? It is an examination.
You start your course while you know the hard work and pressure you may face and suffer, but still you engage yourself.
You finish this journey and finish your examination, you will be one of two. You succeed or fail.
With these two paths you have your own destiny. Failing means hill. And succeeding takes you tho the promised heaven, which no human’s brain can ever imagine the perfection and beauty it is like.
Life is a journey of experiences ans examinations.
Paolo, you are one of the human race’s treasures of all time.
I love you ..
Deja vu
Life in this body is a part of the journey through Universe. Death is a sort of a rest between two lifes of one (soul) in bodies.
I personally prefer to go back and higher. There are much more beautiful, higher (and for me wishable) places, than Earth. Here it is fine to learn and in a way exist, too, though.
If I will die for this life of mine, I will try to meet those who I miss so much on Earth now.
A un adulte je repondrai par une autre question:
POURQUOI HAISSONS NOUS CEUX QUE NOUS AIMONS?
Mais face à un enfant on ne peut se dérober, alors peut etre faut-il lui expliquer que depuis que le monde est monde tout va par 2 et son contraire et que si nous ne mourions pas nous ne verrions pas l’adulte extraordinaire que deviendra cet enfant…
En dernier recours je lui offre les dvd de “la petite maison dans la prairie”!!!
Ufff, que pregunta tan difícil! Quizá tenemos que prepararnos por lo que será despues. Tenemos que conseguir unas experiencias, sentir y disfrutar la magia llamada la vida.
“Why are we born if we have to die?”
From a religious point of view;
We are born to learn. Everyone has his or her own purpose in this live. When the learning is done, we die.
And, depending on how good you lived, you will be transformed into something else.
You might say that we enter a next level.
In Christianity you will become an angel when you have done good in your live.
If you have done bad things, you will be a devil ending up in hell.
In Budism, having done good in your life, your next live will be better and
you will be closer to reaching nirvana.
In Hindoeism, your next live will be better.
(according to the cast system, you will enter a higher caste).
In every religion, you will become somthing else after you die.
Depending on how you lived your life, the next life or level will be better of worse.
By doing good in this live, you will improve things for yourself and/or others for your next life. Love is the keyword!
But, whether you have done good or bad, when you die, you transform and will become something else.
From the point of view of nature;
If we just look around us, we see water in the sea, plants, trees, animals, people etc.
The water in the sea is heated up by the sun, its evaporates and turns into a cloud, the cloud drops its water/rain to nourisch the plants,trees etc.
Think about the Water Cycle, which is the constant exchange of water among the earth, atmosphere and oceans.
The Water in the sea, transforms and becomes something else, a cloud.
In other words; could you say that the cloud dies and comes back as something else?
Anyway, there is a constant flow of disappearing and coming back.
The water in the sea has its own purpose which can be good or bad.
Good; water nourisches the plants, trees etc.
Bad; water can also destroy, think of floods.
This same thing can be said about everything around us. Everything around us has its own purpose, it transforms into something else
and can be good or bad. So, why should this not be the same for humans?
Love is also the keyword, to understand this you would have to read Like a Flowing River by Paulo Coelho. There is a nice story about a cloud who fell in love with a sanddune in the desert.
So, you might say that we are born to fullfil our purpose and we don’t actually die but transform and enter a next life or level.
With love!
We are born in time to come and have a spiritual experience in every moment …It is our destiny,but how to answer that to a child ,you would have to just explain that its the cycle of life ,like flowers that grow from seed ,or a butterfly how it goes through its cycle and then spreads it wings and is transformed in all its beauty~~mostly though we signed contracts and soul agreements to come and help teach all our loved ones and each other lessons ,but you have to accept death before you can truly live , this takes facing the fear, which is the illusion of course as we never die , our spirit lives on forever..I tell my children its like driving around in a car which is our body and we are the spirit ,when it gets to old or falls apart or we dont look after it then we can leave the car , look around for a new one or trade it in , but you can get another car if you want to keep driving of course otherwise, you can stay out of the car in the waiting area,for a while ..Also that we are free to get in and out of the car ,but we must learn the laws of driving ….
Blessings Tania
Life is like Homer’s Odyssey
Its not the destination that counts but the trip
here are some words from a great poem called
ithaki(the island of Odysseas)
While you going to ithaki wish your journey to be long
full of adventure and knowledge.Dont be affraid of the cyclops or the angry poseidon cause you ll not meet them
if you dont carry them in your soul, if your soul dont want them as obstacles.Always in your mind should be ithaki, reaching there is your destination, but dont hurry at all , its better this trip longs for years and you will reach in your island rich of what you earned in this trip than expecting riches to be given you in ithaki.Ithaki gave you this beautifull trip and you couldnt make it without her.If you ever find her poor she didnt tricked you,cause with this experience and wisdom you earned , now you know what ithaki stands for.
Sorry for my bad english
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