What is the ultimate aim of life? What is the meaning of living and dying?

That’s depend on how people view life. Some see life as being alive, get a job and live like a normal person. Some want to do something they want before they die. Some has no goal in life and waste their time living for today…

In summary, this question depends on each individual and doesn’t have a “right” answer.

I’m beginning to think it might be some sort of test

The ultimate aim of life is procreation. To produce viable offspring. To keep life going.
Life is its own purpose.

The secret meaning to life is that there is no secret meaning to life. It just is. It continues from one generation to the next because, as @ragingloli points out, it has mastered the art of reproducing itself. Make the most of the brief time that you have and do what you can to make life better for yourself and for others.

@stanleybmanly, a test set by whom to monitor what?

At our animal level, we are born to reproduce, protect and nurture our young and then die. However, we also have an intellectual quality that can be used to satisfy our needs and wants and recognizing the needs of others help to meet them. Beyond continuing our species, no single purpose for our being exists. As one adds selflessness to the selfishness inherent in their animal nature, they become conscious of the many opportunities for them to mitigate the suffering of others. Acting on this awareness is a higher purpose for being.

@ZEPHYRA See, there’s the problem. What exactly is the function of a “test”? I’m vain, so of course I would prefer to believe the test (and everything else) to be about ME. So, proceeding from this stipulation, laziness dictates that I not endeavor to determine who or what it is that has set it all in motion. The one thing that I’ve surmised is that speculation over the “parties” administering the test leads to ugly and obnoxious traps like Jihads and Catholicism. Much better to ignore the “who”, and for that matter the “why”, and get on with playing the hand I’ve been dealt. Now my take on the matter is no more or less valid than the next guy’s but it’s convenient for ME, and as previously mentioned- that’s what REALLY matters. So it pleases ME to conclude (guess) that we’re put here to learn, otherwise the gross inequities involved with the world and living in it are too cruel to contemplate. That being said, it’s a great pity that youthful indoctrination has rendered me unable shake the nagging monkey on my back mocking me to my grave with “Is this a test you can fail, and if so, what are the consequences?”

@Bill1939 I agree but I am deeply astonished with the fact that some years from now we will not remember who we were,where we were, We are here right now on this planet wondering and thinking about life,this question will not be existent for us when we die. So point is the very nature of being ALIVE is astonishing. Taking breaths ,thinking something,doing some things in life and one day disappear. So will this question be self answered by us in future ? If not what all are we thinking,doing,living is utterly a question in itself.

Yep, reincarnation appears ever more plausible.

I don’t know why I’m here. My father got horned up and did my mother, and nine months later I popped out. I went through some good stuff and some shit stuff growing up. I got my act together and decided my goal in life is just to make my corner of the world a little nicer, however I can. I enjoy all of the pleasures of life, and try to help others do the same. And then I’ll die some day and become worm food. It’s the circle of life.

Live thoroughly.

The problem with “why” and “purpose” questions is that they to some extent remove you from the living itself; you get sidetracked into the exercise of building some thesis about living while life itself unfolds in and around you. Life is understood by living it thoroughly, not by theorizing about it. You can’t dissect the lark to find its song, as the saying goes.

As for dying, just take that as a reminder that taking self-advancement as your purpose is a lousy long-term strategy.

I believe the ultimate aim of life is to pursue and define the answer for ourselves, not for others.

Most has already been said by the other wise jellies. Yep, there is no particular “purpose” and a meaningful life is subject to the one assigning it meaning. It will be different for everybody based on individual temperament/personality style, culture and societal programming. Ultimately our “purpose” aside from original biological and reproductive purpose is to simply be. You know, the saying that we are human beings not human doings.

Of course there are doings we have to do in order to secure the basics of living, but otherwise we really should just be basking in our beingness and taking in the world around us. Just experiencing the aliveness of our organism. Marveling at the natural world, taking in our environment from a place of true presence and attention.
I have been having the best time lately watching the 100’s of lizards around my house. haha

Running along the rocks and deck and walls of the house, doing their crazy little lizard bobbing push ups, chasing each other around in lizard lust. I wish I were a lizard, good times, good times. lol

There is no aim, no goal, no plan to life or death. Life is purely a fluke and then you die.

@Coloma Oh sure, lizards. You’re probably lubing them up too.

@Adirondackwannabe Astroglide on standby for those lizards stuck in flower pot holes. ;-p

There is no meaning beyond those we invent to keep ourselves busy and motivated between birth and death.

Oh, and cookies.

Ultimate aim of life:

To accept the fact that God is alive, He created us, and gives us a free will to follow Him, or not. While we have the free choice, the way we choose has consequences We can follow God, and live a life eternal, after our flesh has died, or we can decline to follow Him, and live a life of suffering and separation for eternity.

It is not always easy to do, as this life has turmoils and trials, with pains, agonies, and frustrations. However, if we make the right choice, He will help us get through it, and live the Eternal life with Him..

To eek out a living without the wealthy, government, or religious fanatics taking everything away from us,some say to procreate OMG we can slow down on that one just a bit.

For the optimist:They would say to live life at it’s fullest and enjoy every tid bit thrown your way.
For the pessimist:They would say eek out a living,and watch the rich get richer, the poor get shit,and hopefully when we die it’s quick and painless,oh and bury me face down so the world can kiss my ass.

@SQUEEKY2 I wish it were legal to just put your carcass out in the woods and let the critters have a banquet, or, be able to bury yourself at home. If I can bury a horse on my property with a backhoe why can’t I have myself buried too? lol
Damn government, can’t even bury yourself at home. I could paint my own headstone on a rock just the pets in the pet cemetery, I’m certainly smaller than a horse, maybe about the size of a a large Golden Retriever. haha

@Coloma In a way you can be buried at home, you just have to be cremated first,maybe officials are afraid of critters digging you up,or new owners disturbing you,or maybe they just want to pay for a plot, but all I know you can have your wish to be buried at home you just have to be BBQed first.

@Coloma I think you might be able to be buried on your own property if it’s overseen by a licensed funeral home. Anyone can correct me if I’m wrong, but we had a recent case in NYS and it stood up.

@SQUEEKY2 Haha true, I do wish to be BBQ’d actually. I can still paint my own headstone then. ;-)

@Adirondackwannabe Interesting.

You provide the meaning and purpose to your life. And it is only important to you in the grand scheme of things. Make it what you will.

There is no meaning other than living the one life you’re given to the fullest without causing harm to other folks trying to do the same.

The dicks that break that rule usually end up in jail or get elected to office.

@Coloma Sure just in one small corner it has to say( from Fluther to beyond)just kidding. :)

Choose Life like Wham did.

There is no single aim or purpose to life. The aim or purpose to your life is whatever you choose for it to be. We can’t tell you what that is; you have to decide for yourself.

Likewise, if you keep waiting for it to be revealed to you by others, or by the universe, or by some external force, you will never find any purpose at all. You need to make decisions about your life’s direction, and then act on them.

@donduck, as a young man I imagined that we were like grains of sand gathered from a beach to be part of the mortar holding bricks together and wondered what difference to the edifice’s construction would it be had I not been chosen. If I do not exist in the future, will there be meaning to my having lived? Would it have mattered if I had never been born?

I struggled with the notion that the experiences of my life will vanish when the body in which my consciousness resides dies, and that the relationships I treasure, my family and friends, will also end. The idea that there might be a ‘next life’ where I can exist in the company of those I love and that we all will be without the physical and mental afflictions that had caused us to suffer in this life is appealing.

The problem with such thoughts is that they are egocentric, that I think I am separate from everything and everyone else and that I have been chosen to fulfill a small part of a greater plan. However, unlike the grain of sand I have consciousness. I can consider the needs of others as well as my own needs. I can envision a future wherein all life is nurtured and nurturing and that my efforts will have had a part in its construction.