I had decided to post to an ongoing thread about the purpose of life seeing as I had previous put quite a bit of contemplation into this subject. It is likely that I had been doing some mushrooms around this time.

I posted the purpose of life a few years ago, summed up in eight words:

"To better oneself through forming mutually beneficial relationships."

How did I come up with that?

I figured it out from observing life.

Look at how life has evolved here on earth over the past billion years...

Everything forms a relationship that mutually benefits both life forms, and this goes for everything from single-celled organisms to higher forms of life.

It's all part of the circle of life, and includes the cells within your own body.

Think of something like a lowly skin cell in the epidermis of your hand -- it plays an important role along with millions of other skin cells. It may not live long, but it is kept alive by neighboring cells, and them by your body as a whole.

When that skin cell dies, if it is inside the epidermis, it gets recycled. If it is on the surface, it flakes off and becomes dust. This dust is potential food for dust mites and other mites, or may be inhaled by you or another person.

All in all, this lowly cell lived a good life, and had a mutually beneficial relationship with your body. You took care of it, by keeping it alive, and it took care of you.

This pattern is repeated throughout nature.

The eventual goal is to help our planet sustain as much mutually beneficial life for as long as possible, and beyond that to help the rest of the universe do the same.