Says the Ramchal [Eitz Chaim]:
"הלא האדם רוב שנות ימיו עומד לחשוב חשבונות עסקיו עסקי חיי שעה ולמה לא ישים אל לבבו אפילו שעה אחת גם לזאת לחשוב מחשבת ממנו מה הוא ולמה בא לעולם".
We spend most of our time thinking about material matters. Part of the reason is that our body cares only about our body, so that is the focus. Another reason is that EVERYONE AROUND US almost believes and lives according to the principle that the purpose of life is to maximize our physical pleasure. We are not always cognizant of this and don't realize that this attitude informs literally everything people say and do all day. Tell me what the purpose of life is and I will tell you what to do for the next 15 minutes. It would be easier to realize how far away we are from others if people would just say things like "The purpose of life is physical pleasure. Right now my physical pleasure is to watch the Knicks playing the Lakers while eating ice cream". There is nothing wrong per se with watching a game or eating ice cream but phrasing it that way would make us think twice before joining him to watch.
We should say like this: "The purpose of life is to get close to Hashem. In order to do so I need to relax and enjoy myself right now. So I will watch the Knicks-Lakers game [doing all I can to avoid looking at the Laker Girls רחמנא לצלן (if they still exist)] and make a zaftige shehakol on some cholov yisroel ice cream.
The Ramchal says we have to think about two things: 2] Why we are in this world. and 1] מה הוא?!! What am I? Who am I? What are my unique talents??? What are my weaknesses? Overeating? Oversleeping at times? Undersleeping?? [Interesting!! We have all heard the word "overslept" ten thousand times but never hear "underslept". Spell check claims that it is not a word. But it is a much bigger problem than oversleeping ואכמ"ל]. Addicted to my phone? Get angry too easily and too often? How can I change the world??
Two questions that encapsulates sooooo much and could and should change the entire trajectory of our lives.
