Purpose.

What do you contribute to the lives of others or to the world?

Think about it.
You don't have to answer.

The Purpose of Zen?

"The true purpose is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes Zen practice is to open up our small mind. So concentrating is just an aid to help you realize big mind, or the mind that is everything. If you want to discover the true meaning of Zen in your everyday life, you have to understand the meaning of keeping your mind on your breathing and your body in the right posture in sitting meditation."

Zen Mind,
Shunryu Suzuki

I rarely think about what motivates my allocentric deeds because my karma is relatively balanced

Giving and recieving is a point where opposites meet and merge in a spiritual realm

Though it seems no good deed goes unpunished XD
it is better to focus on the big picture.

To list my good deeds would only be an exercise in foolish pride and an obstruction to the wise virture of humility.

Yeah I guess... but since I asked, it's not necessarily prideful to answer :)

Do you give to charities? Do you do volunteer work? Does your job aid life? Do you make personal contributions to the world? Pieces of art for example.

I've been struggling with purpose lately. I know I serve a role in my family and I'm aiming toward a career that would involve medicine. I've donated to some charities, but not very much.
I feel like to be truly generous, you have to have little and give a lot. Having a lot and giving a little fraction of that portion doesn't seem very generous.

I don't know. I don't know what I'm saying.

Hm.

What's that old Aristotelian (or whatever) word for selfless generosity? I think it starts with an e.

Philanthropy? The love of man?

No... it is 4 or so syllables though.

Maybe it starts with an a. E or a.

Altruism?

I contribute quite little to others with everything I can. The biggest thing I can do for others is to be good to this planet, and to love it and its inhabitants dearly.

Agape?

That's the word. Altruism.

The very essence of being is selfish. At our purest core, we take our share from the finite universe..or we cannot sustain existence.
BUT let's put basic survival aside.
There isn't one purpose (unless you're thinking "to live")..there are many. What makes life so f****** complicated is usually the priority of these purposes. We all have our ideas of how life should go but how many of us are good at it anyway? The original question brings the focus to giving. The purpose of exchange of energy/matter. In true philosophical fashion, let's respond with more questions :P. How do we exchange? Why exchange? Can it just be giving or just taking?..and so on..but I think these questions are the basics and should be addressed first. My answers would be much more typing from me..I'll leave it to me.

In short though- I give selfishly; I take generously
The Golden Rule is just something good that we can say "Good luck" to. My version: I take from the world what makes me and I give to the world as I am.

Haha..then someone really philosophical would go "but what is it of which makes you? and who are you?"
wait...have a just become that "philosophical" someone O_o?

I give generously and don't take a lot, except crap.

I need to be a little more fair to myself. I'm my biggest critic... and I don't think that's *actually* true for most people.
I try to hold it in because no one likes complainers, or self-deprecators, but you should hear the conversations in my head.

Anyway, yeah, I feel what life is really about is contributing positively to the earth that we're (intruders) guests upon, and contributing to other lives; animal, plant, and human, so we can all flourish together. The selfishness of humanity will destroy us, but that's the least concerning of issues. It's the natural world and the animal kingdom that I feel guilty about.
Call me a hippie. See if I care. Screw stereotypes!

Anyway... I think we could all give a little more. Take a little less. Be better. Be good.

I think it's directed towards the way we live. We are more likely to throw the part of nature, that we interact with, out of none-human "balance". I don't know if you've watched "The Matrix" In the first of the series, one scene compares humans to cancer cells (in a lot of way correct) - demanding, destructive, deviant. In this light, we, like cancer, seem an unnatural part of the world/body..therefore deemed intruders.
The question of choice and the weight of necessity are tough to be sure about. We have the choice of striving for further human existence. We have to wonder: is our existence a necessary part? Does our seemingly infinite complexity make us charming and self-evidently important? The world can carry on with or without humans..but if no one's around to hear it, will that tree still make a sound?

^ Exactly! I was just about to respond to Britt but you covered what I wanted to write.

Also, there's a little something called the law of overproduction. Humans have demolished that natural law and we're overpopulating the earth at rapid speed. It's getting worse. Not steadily worse, but multiplicably worse. I made that word up, but I can't think of the actual term.
How weird is adoption? That's atypical of animal behavior. There are too many babies looking for parents in the world - and their own parents are still alive. It shouldn't be that way.

Humans are cancerous. That's an ace metaphor.
The Matrix is a total cheese-ball movie but I agree with some of the messages 100%.

Actually (I love this word..usually leads to a correction :P), animals "adopt" as well. In some cases and yes, it's rare. Animals take care of the young of others when their natural parents aren't available. Sometimes it's even cross-speciess. I think one example can be seen in elephants. It's a complicated process just as in the human adoption process only minus paper-work plus smells and force of habit.

Oh and we can be like a virus and we can be like an anti-virus. We're bad but not that bad. We can go above and beyond even ourselves..that's how messed up we are :D

I know animals adopt, but like I said, it's atypical. Rare cases, like you said.
It's becoming commonplace for humans. Oh, got pregnant too young? That's ok, you can give your baby away!
I don't like that.

I'm not against abortion though... Oi. That's a whole 'nother debate.

So you can kill your baby but you can't give them away and let them have a chance at life? haha..

Rare doesn't mean none.

Yeah, I know what rare means. Do you know what atypical means? Lol. It means rare. So we agree.

No, I can't kill my baby. Did I say that? I don't agree with killing babies.
I agree with therapeutic abortions and elective abortions if they're early term. 90% of abortions are carried out prior to 12 weeks, though I think it should be closer to 8 weeks. Abortion has been around a long time - much longer than adoption.

I don't necessarily disagree with adoption, but I think it's weird. If you're going to go through with bringing a child into the world, I feel like it's your responsibility to raise it and dedicate the next 20 years of your life to said child. Adoption isn't wrong, but it's been glorified. "Don't abort - give your child away!" It's great that that child would [hopefully] be raised in a loving, healthy environment with non-biological parents... but in a big sense, promoting adoption is taking away the seriousness of what it means to practice unprotected sex and get pregnant.
Do you know what I mean?
Animals have children with the idea that they will raise their children until they are old enough to venture out on their own.
Humans are animals, but some of our most basic processes have become strangely complicated. Like reproduction.

Anyway... I don't want to be accused of being a baby killer by crazy people. I would never choose abortion (or adoption) for myself, but I understand sometimes it might be the better of two wrongs.
If you disagree with me, so be it. Let's not be nasty.

I think the *best* solution to the overpopulation of this planet would be to stop having babies :) At least for a few years! The quantity of babies being born each day in comparison to the quantity of deaths each day is staggering.

Actually :P I'd go with the lesser evil as well if I were to get my fiancee pregnant.

and actually..some animals are driven by instinct/hormones to reproduce but not take care of their young because they usually don't have to.

I was just pointing out the obvious..no intentions of getting nasty.

Tell your solution to a loving couple in a healthy relaitonship. I want my babies! All three of them..eventually

That's interesting. Tell me more about these animals!

And check your inbox, Mr. Chaos ;)

Most insects are like that aren't they..and a lot of fish. Just lay the eggs and off they go. There's a type of bird that lays an egg in other birds' nests (different species)..then their young in turn is "adopted" by the fooled mother..it kills the real babies even when it's just hatched.

It usually depends on how developed the young are at birth. The more complicated the being is when matured, it seems, the weaker they are when they are born. The ones that are well-adjusted even at birth are usually left to fend for their own. I guess it serves to have weakness.

I dont really have a purpose like many people. I wish to make a change but i never get round to doing any changes. I know there is no way some one like me could change the world but i know that if i tried i could change some one elses life in my community which would in turn change anothers and so forth so in a way that is changing the world to the better its just acting out on that need for a purpose

I work with adults who have learning difficulties, which is a good thing.

I try to recycle and buy ethically.

I'm a generally cheery person, you know, I don't like bringing people down, or sharing my problems and depressing them, so, by staying silently and stoically depressed myself, I make the world a better place.

I try to stay reasonably informed about currrent affairs, so if important choices have to be made, I don't make bad ones.

I try, you know.