What does life mean to you?

I am wondering what peoples outlooks on life are, and their reason for living.

****life is a ride,
from birth to death.****

Life is all about being happy at the expense of others.
Not really.
Life is about being happy, and NOT at the expense of others. Everyone needs to relax and stop being in such a hurry. Because when you're running around trying to save time, you're using up all your time. The less you try to save, the more you have. In fact, it seems most people are rushing off somewhere, and it's never where they already are!

Life is about turning bad experiences into life lessons. Turning bad things into good things.

Life is about finding inner peace. It's about realizing "faults" or inadequacies and turning them into individual traits that make us useful. Accepting that everyone is good for something.
Mostly, life is about giving. The more you give, the more you have.

Philosopher Jane will make her exit now.

Hmm, my reason for living?
Well, to live up to my goals and I'm curious on what happens at the end. I want to start a family and I want to live for my family's sake. I'm not the type of person that gives up easily. I believe that life is full of obstacles so you can learn from them, and learn to not run away from them. I want to learn more about myself, I wanna figure out who I am, that's why I'm living. I think I do have a purpose and to figure out what that purpose is, I have to keep living.

My view on life is rather similiar to buddhists but with one key difference. i do believe that happiness excitement depression sadness etc are all illusions that only exist within the mind and none of them are any more real or important than any other. i believe we are all flawed and imperfect but where i differ is i dont believe these illusions and imperfections are a curse, i believe thay are a gift. i dont believe our goal in life is to reach the perfection and nothingness of nirvana but instead is found in the journey to it. and even though i know my mind is flawed and everything it senses are only illusions, i still love to play with them all, both positive and negative, by god it keeps life interesting and worth living.
i love all the different experiences in life, both good and bad, as if we had a life with only good experiences ,it would have no substance to it and would probably drive me insane out of pure boredom.
i love the fact that every one is flawed and imperfect because that is where all our myraid personalities come from.
and whats my reason for living, because it is exciting and fun. because change is the only truelly stable thing in the universe and i never know just what tomorrow might bring. be it good , bad or whatever it is still interesting
i will end this on a quote i love
"remember all ye that existence is pure joy.your sadness and griefs are but as shadows, they pass and are done. but still you remain"

Oh, oh, I'd like to add something.

My favorite quote of all time, "This too shall pass."

The above poster's comment on change reminded me of that quote: change is the only truelly stable thing in the universe and i never know just what tomorrow might bring.

Good or bad, it will pass! Change is inevitable and it is so exciting!

My outlook on life is this from a quote of mine

"people say life is what you make it the real truth is what life makes you"

ths is my understanding about life

Life has a purpose indeed

Mm, I don't know if life does have a purpose. I sort of think it doesn't. I think life is a gift and like any gift, we're meant to enjoy it.
Life is simple but most people can't fathom that it is, so they make it complicated by trying to discover things that just aren't there.. aren't meant to be discovered. Then life becomes a competition, a puzzle, a complication, a mission, a frustration, a challenge; something to overcome. It's not meant to be overcome.
I think other animals understand what I'm talking about. Humans don't simply because they're humans.

I just read 5 books consecutively in the past week that have given me this current opinion on life. [Call of the Wild, White Fang, Into Thin Air, Tao of Pooh, Chosen by a Horse]

To sum it up, life is basically: birth, experience and death.

Sometimes while I am sitting, doing nothing, I start thinking about the most complicated thing in life: life it self. I don't think about how the universe began or if life is fair; I think about the ultimate truth in life.

Well, lets see, what is life? We are all are born, then we all experience little things such as loosing our first teeth, or the first day of Kindergarten. As we grow older and do more important things like get married and have kids. Then one day it hits us, we are getting old. Some of us are lucky enough to enter the stage of wisdom. After most of us have grandkids we retire, never once taking time to think, why we are even here, or even the ultimate truth in life. When some of us actually realize that there is a huge mystery to solve, it's to late, we're dead. So, to sum it up, life is basically: birth, experience and death.

If we take life and divide it into three sections, one for our birth, another for experience, and the last for the ever feared death. Which is the most important? Anyone of these three can not work without the other. If you think birth is the most important, then how are you to live up life? Then again, how can we experience without birth. And what if that experience is bad, how could we die? Then there is death, something that everyone fears, when we should actually honor it. But if death is more important, then how can you die without being born and experiencing things.

This brings us back to the beginning. Let me try another approach to this. What is the ultimate truth in life? What is the only constant in life? Change? Is change the only constant? No matter what, people will always love and hate. If we have to take something out of the three (change, love and hate) it would be hate. No matter what, a person can not only hate and not love. But a person can always love and not hate.

Love and change, which one is the ultimate truth in life? Everything, and everyone is bound to change. Which of the two is stronger? Both can hurt, and be joyous. Both are powerful yet too delicate.

Life isn't just about love or change. We need to be born, we need to experience everything or at least everything. But we must also die. But that doesn't help me or you figure out what the ultimate truth is in life. Where do we end up in life? Where does it all end?

Maybe the ultimate truth in life is that everything is the truth. Meaning that what you believe is really the truth. For everyone the truth is different. But maybe we are no suppose the ever find out what if the ultimate truth in life is. Welcome back to square one.

Life is about having a sip of ice cold water only to have it taken from you... Life gives you half a life of sadness and happiness...

"My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
It gives a lovely light!"

"I love humanity but i hate people"

^ AY, who said that? And what's the difference?

One is the reality. Or supposed to be.

I love both.

And thats the "Fig" of it

Wha?
Unsuccessful Adam and Eve ref?

You dill....play on words re the "first fig" from "A Few Figs from Thistles"...

Err.. Nicko, you're almost as bad as Michael when it comes to no one else knowing what the heck you're on about.

Ok let me explain......... both those quotes come from "A few figs from thistles" by Edna St. Vincent Millay the American poet who won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry, Abbys quote being "The first Fig" "I love humanity but I hate people" was also one of her famous quotes.

There you have it...call me a vague fig