This is probably the most asked question in history!  I am here to help you with that question and provide some in-sights into the meaning of life and existence.  Let me introduce myself, my name is Paul and I am a Zen Master, I made this website to clear the most important answers of life up for you, I will keep this article short, clear and easy to understand.

To help explain to you the meaning of life, I especially like to use the Yin-Yang symbol developed by Chinese philosophy:

I like to use this symbol because through my own meditation I fully understand this symbol and it is the best way to understand how nature works which can also give you some in-sights on the meaning of life.  I will try to explain this symbol in my own words:

We have a white dot, a black dot, a white swirl and a black swirl.

The white dot:  This means Yang in chinese, which means the upbringing, good, happiness, or some like to refer to this as god.  The word I like to use for it, is:  Something.  Simply something.

The black dot:  This means Yin in chinese, and if you can guess right it is the opposite of the white dot (yang), which means the downbringing, or as some like to refer to this as death.  The word I like to use for this is:  Nothing.  Simply nothing.

The black and white swirl:  These swirls represent how things act in nature according to the black and white dots (or life and death), and it is the basis for balancing out the black and white dots (life and death).

NOTE:  Through out this article, I will use these terms (black and white dots and swirls) to describe what I am talking about through out, so you can then be educated on what the yin yang symbol means.

Nature is trying it's best to do whatever it can to create Yang, or life (the white dot), and it does this through balancing it's self out with the nothingness (the black dot).  Because nothing is here with us too!!  It's just that nature is doing a VERY good job of hiding it from us.  And believe it or not, you are constantly trying your best every day to hide it from yourself (and you probably don't even realize you are doing it)!!!!

The black and white dots (life and death) are really single static entities, and the swirls on the yin yang symbol perform the balancing acts of the black and white dots (or life and death).

The swirls can best be said which describes your experience in nature, and the black and white dot can best be said to describe your actual existence in nature.

An example of the black and white swirls is that you know in your daily experience that you must eat, like some of us eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc.  This can be considered a white swirl knowing that it will lead towards life (the white dot).  And knowing that not eating (a black swirl), could cause you to lose your life (the black dot).

Believe it or not, but each and every one of us is in this formula that creates life.  Every day you seek happiness (yang) and avoid things which could make you unhappy (yin).  Because naturally it feels better!  Something is better than nothing, right?  That is exactly what nature (you) is trying to accomplish!  And I would have to say that nature is doing a pretty good job of it!

The black and white swirls represents what you know is right (white swirl) and wrong (black swirl), which you think would ultimately lead to life (white dot) or death (black dot) to you, and this also defines your experience and your personal meaning of life!  What you believe is right or wrong could be totally different to someone else.  This is what leads me to the word:  EGO.  An Ego means exactly this, an individual's experience of knowing what is right or wrong (or good and bad) to them.

The black and white swirls also represent the following:  day and night, summer and winter, male and female, even time and gravity.

Yin constantly changes into Yang & back into Yin again. This can be seen in the changes of four seasons, and the changes throughout a single day (24 Hour Cycle), as seen below:
 

Dead center in the yin yang symbol is the center, and nature moves clockwise around it. Now keep in mind the yin-yang symbol does not just represent a single day, but explains how EVERYTHING happens in nature.

As with many things, it also represents the cycle of life, where as we go through a large amount of yang in our lives, then as time progresses we start to feel yin pull on us, which ultimately leads to our death, but we go back to yang again (a new life), as discussed below:

Where do we go when we die?  Is there a heaven or hell?

My belief is that your existence (white dot) is eternal and will last forever but your ego (black and white swirl) is not.  Yes I am sorry but when you die, your ego will never return and what defines you will no longer be.  You will not go to heaven and you will not go to hell, it is my belief that there is no heaven or hell.  The only way I can see them existing is that you are in both of them right now!!!  As the black and white dot.  Life (white dot) itself could represent heaven, and death (black dot) itself could represent hell.  Remember these are just words and could have one meaning to someone, or another meaning to someone else (thus the black or white swirls again, or ego).

So if life (white dot) does represent heaven, and death (black dot) does represent hell.  Then you must do whatever you can in your life to enjoy the heaven that we are in, but to avoid the hell that is around us too!

But don't worry because nature will take care of that for you for the most part, but you still have to make decisions yourself (that should naturally come to you anyway).  So remember nature is on your side!  Sometimes leaning towards death (black dot) could be the best for you, why?  Because you may not be enjoying your experience enough to appreciate life (white dot), which leads me to the next question..

Why do we have to die, why can't we last forever?

Wouldn't it be nice to live forever?  You may be thinking that right now, but over time you will naturally start to get tired of what is going on in your experience, and this naturally happens to everyone.  What may make you happy today, may not make you happy later in life.  A good example of this is video games.  You start to play a video game for the first time and you like it a lot and it makes you really happy to play it, but over time you start to get less and less happiness out of it, it will start to get repetitive and boring, that is when you need to start to look for something else to play.

Life is the exact same way!  So with my analogy, is life similar to a video game?  I think it has some resemblances yes!  Either way you are experiencing something.  And as you age you might find new things which can make you happy, or even the old things still make you happy, but deep down your existence itself (white dot) will start to get old on you regardless of your experience, and the older you get the more oldness that is going to be put upon you.  You may have seen it all, done it all, you have seeked enough happiness in your life and you will start to realize that everything around you is just that, it is what it is and you are ready to see something entirely new to you, but you don't know where to look.  This is when death (black dot) takes it's toll on you, but for good reason!  Why, because you are ready for an ego wipe (as I like to call it).  Seeing and exploring new things for the first time are great!  It is a really good feeling, and nature knows this.  That is why we die, and can die.  Remember I said that your existence is eternal and you will live forever, just not your ego (or your personal experience)!  Your ego will die, and you will start fresh again with a brand new ego.  Which leads us to the next question, does it do this through spirits?

Do we have spirits, and is there such thing as reincarnation?

Does each and every individual in this universe have it's own spirit?  When spirits die, do they reincarnate somewhere else into a new life form?  This is my belief on this:

I believe that only ONE spirit exists, and we ALL share from that one spirit!  So yes I believe that WE ARE ALL ONE, but egos is what makes us feel separated and unique from the one spirit.

This one spirit also represents the black and white dots you see on the yin yang symbol.

So as far as reincarnation is concerned, it does not have any use in my belief, since reincarnation refers to multiple spirits.  But I do believe that you will be experiencing something for eternity (just not through your current ego).  Egos are constantly being reborn anew, and old ones are being thrown in the trash can (which can also be referred to as the black dot, or nothingness).  This represents the cycle of life!

So we are all one eh?  That sounds hard to believe!

Yes I believe that there is only ONE conscious mind that exists, and we all share from it.  Just like there is only one NOTHING (black dot) that exists there is only one SOMETHING (white dot) that exists.  And that something is consciousness, and it is what allows us to perceive. Everything we hear, see, feel, smell, basically all of our senses is something we share from the one consciousness.  Egos (black and white swirls) is only what makes us feel separated and unique from everything else.  Egos is what isolates everything individually.  Ego is all the information contained within your brain.  But when you fully step out of your ego you can see that EVERYTHING is all one.  All the matter you see around you is YOU, because everything is one.  All life around you is also you, because we are all one.

One interesting thing I like to say to people is that, lets say the universe goes through the big bang and the planets and everything are just forming anew, and the first life form pops up on some random planet, that life form is going to be YOU!

So is this ONE THING god?

That is a good question, I do not have an exact answer for you.  If that would be true, then that would mean that WE ARE god.

Did god create the universe?

That is another good question!  I do not know for sure on this, and some interesting questions for me, is:  what created something?  Was nothing created at the same time with the universe (the something)?  Did something (the universe) get created out of nothing?  Or after the nothing?

My belief (which isn't exactly very very strong) is that nothing (aka the black dot) and something (the universe, aka the white dot), has ALWAYS been here for eternity and time itself has nothing to do with either one.

One of the scariest questions I have asked myself through out my life is this:  What would happen if there was only nothing and no something?  If you really think about it, it could make sense and it sounds pretty darn scary eh?

Relating the yin yang symbol to drug use:

Naturally the black and white dots kind of run in our backgrounds and we don't even realize it for the most part, but what we do see everyday, is the black and white swirls, of what we know is right or wrong to create life (white dot) for ourselves.  When you hide the ego from yourself, it can be done through meditation (or drugs such as magic mushrooms or LSD), you then hide the black and white swirls and see the white and black dots straight up to you, this is when you can really appreciate what is REALLY going on here.

The recreational drug that is widely used in this world, marijuana does the opposite, it actually heightens the ego (black and white swirls), when you are high on marijuana all your right and wrongs to you become over pleasured (by the hormone dopamine).  With magic mushrooms or LSD, your actual existence (black and white dots) will get heightened and over pleasured by the hormone serotonin.

Here is a recap on what various drugs effects on the yin-yang symbol:

You can learn a lot through a hormone overdose, since I believe that hormones is the most powerful biological force in this entire universe.  Hormones are balanced in each and every one of us to create life for yourself (white dot), and to avoid death as much as possible (black dot).  Just like hormones influence us to reproduce, control our metabolic rate, gives us a good mood, help us adapt to our environments etc etc.

So what is the meaning of life and existence?

I have two answers (from my own words) -and remember they are only words created from my ego!

The meaning of life is to experience something rather than NOTHING.  (black and white swirls)

The meaning of existence is so that YOU can exist, rather than NOT existing.  (black and white dots)

Why?  Because something is better than nothing, right?  That is for you to decide!

Take care!

Zen Master Paul