A question about one's journey to satisfy meaning and understanding?

[Chris]

Phemonimal question, one in which 1000's of books could answer. Here's the basic building blocks of feeling "complete" and "content."

Over 95% of the population has no clue of what is really going on, the majority of which are found in the "followers" catagory. Indoctrinated sheep by gov'ts, religions, etc. Most leaders (of gov'ts, groups, religions etc) are charismatic "faces" lacking a well rounded understanding of the world and its people, getting by on an expertise that happens to make good sense for those followers who need meaning in their lives.

The key is freeing your own mind is finding truth. When you have truth - you have POWER. Power to lead you to success in all areas of your life so you can Live and enjoy life as you go along. "Life is a journey, its a destination.)

The second key is "forgiveness." Forgiveness is neccessary because when learning the "truth" and finding out how utterly blind and stupid others are, you need to understand they are only like you - someone searching for the easiest, best way to be happy in their lives. Even if its a thief, there's a world of variables that drove them to it.
You Cannot, or willnot grow spritually or intellectually to your maximum until you forgive. Holding anger in impedes growth.

After forgiveness comes the 3rd, Love. Thats love yourself, and learn to create constructive relationships with people around you, and eliminate as much contact with those (even close family members) who are negative.

Now comes the hard part: Study the following:

Philosophy: Read the 1 hour online free PDF called the "garbage generation." This will explain in part why western society is messed up, people are miserable, and it'll show you what makes people tick.

Religion: Study a bit of all the religions, find the good in all of them, and realize each of them are man made. Watch the first 25 minutes of the best online video of all times: "zeitgeistmovie" dot com. You'll be changed forver.

Political systems: Study Socialism, Fascism, Communism, and Free market systems. You'll learn how taking money via taxation creates dependant mindsets, while leaving it in the hands of individuals creates generous people. (More from the free market teachings.)

You'll learn equal is an impossible goal, whereas our current systems direct us to equal outcome (communism) based on race / gender rather than performance.

You'll discover we're on a path with the roman empire, and our end result will be 1 civil servant per 1 worker, rendering us too poor to feed our people and pay our military = self implosion and hostile take over by other nations.
(Read my "Best" answer on "Socialism."

It is said the "expert" has the least amount of decisions to make, and I both believe and practice this in my daily business dealings. The end result, is you Don't need those groups to exert influence on you for decision making because you know the underlying principals of how most things work and can ultimately think for yourself with confidence.

The last key is travel. Travel to different countries, find out what makes people tick. Understand why children living in dirt floor huts are happy, content, and smiling, and their western counterparts with PS2's, dirt bikes, TV and internet are miserable.

Have fun, finding own meaning in my life and the confidence to make my own decisions without feelings of guilt or "fear" has brought me (and my family, friends) great happiness.