Discussion So What is the Meaning of Life?

[Doubledie2]

So what is the meaning of life? Well I've tried to answer this riddle for a long time now and have read a lot, listened a lot and thought a lot. Not that I am smart or anything, but surely any person who is alive can try figure out why. Or what is the point of aimlessly drifting through life? And what I have discovered is that life itself has no meaning. Rather it is what you value in life that has meaning. And if you don't value anything in life, well then you have no meaning in life. And if you value money, or sex, or status, or power, you will do what it takes to get such things which is what drives you in life to achieve them. They then give your life meaning. Problem is, often these things when attained to some degree of another don't seem to validate the effort in achieving them in that they are in and of themselves also meaningless. And the life you led to achieve them is littered with things that you would never be proud of. And once attained, well then what? Life then becomes an anticlimax, or worse an anticlimax of misgivings, especially if how you achieved your goal caused others pain and suffering. And that would be hell.

So what if there was something better that was worth striving for? Suffering for? Living for? That would give life meaning? Then all these other things like money, sex, status, power etc. would all be part of the experience in some degree or another, even if it is in lack of them, but they would not render life meaningless because they are not what gives life meaning. And so I thought about this and searched and found out that the answer was not material, although material things are expressions and tools of life and are enjoyable. Rather the answer to the meaning of life is to be found in a transcendent purpose for which you exist. And that begs the question, what is my purpose? The answer for most of us is, I have not idea! But it cannot be beyond anyone to find out. And it is in finding out that purpose that life suddenly starts to turn and work with you. In turn you start to work with life and the people in your life. And endure the suffering and experience the joys, of which there is lots of both. And maybe you discover your purpose seems multifaceted rather than a singular target. Maybe you find you have to cover a number of stepping stones on the way, before you reach milestones in your discovery of truth. And maybe suffering in life is all part of the discovery, rather than life rejecting you, so long as you keep searching to understand your part in this cosmic puzzle. And maybe you find as life progresses, that this transcendent ideal starts to shape how you navigate through this material world and interact with those who are in your life. And we need people in our lives because we can and do get it wrong at times. Sometimes spectacularly so and people help us. And sometimes we need to help them. And we know when we get it right because when we do, life feels good and this feeling is so strong it can be felt even in the midst of suffering, and others share, or rather participate in it too.

At least this is a start anyways.

And so that is my summary of life and I would like to know if it resonates with any of you, or not, as part of my journey to discovery my purpose/s or ideals or values or whatever you want to call them. The thing/s that drive my life. Love you all.

 

[aneurysm]

the meaning of my life is revange, redemption. And for that, the means justify the ends.

 

[insanedoomer]

The meaning ? well its a chaine :D
1. Self-harm
2. wait
3.suicide

 

[Jumper Geo]

OMG I am stumped I was on automatic pilot.
Wake up go to work come home eat watch TV and surf the net.
Go to bed
Wake up the same routine, Monday sad, get to Thursday looking forward to the weekend.
Meet family have a booze
Then it's Monday again, lol
Save money
Buy a house, a car, go on holiday twice per year.
Before you know it 30 years have passed the same routine.
Since I became ill. I have realised. Your at school until 16 years old so from 16 years old until 70 years old you should get a good 54 years of life but you work hard, raise kids and then you're old, you die and everyone is shocked but everyone dies and you're soon forgotten and it's a vicious circle.
Life is cruel if you did have a loving family you have to watch them die, you work your bollocks off study like crazy to get qualifications but then you die and it's all forgotten.
All the shit you take in life makes you stronger and you die, haha I don't think there is a meaning of life, it's just a matter of survival until the end.

This will cheer you up it will tell you how many minutes you've been alive, asleep etc.

Homepage | Everything Birthday

www.everything-birthday.com

I hate to believe in it but I think rebirth happens, maybe heaven and hell are here on earth so next time you are born into a rich, happy family. This is the only explanation for all the shit we go through, maybe we have to spend 1000 years as humans until we are enlightened enough before we move on to something better.

I certainly have changed my opinion I never thought about death until family or friends were really ill or I attended a funeral, but now I think about it every day and look at people knowing they will die and be forgotten.

Cheers

Geo

 

[Doubledie2]

OMG I am stumped I was on automatic pilot.
Wake up go to work come home eat watch TV and surf the net.
Go to bed
Wake up the same routine, Monday sad, get to Thursday looking forward to the weekend.
Meet family have a booze
Then it's Monday again, lol
Save money
Buy a house, a car, go on holiday twice per year.
Before you know it 30 years have passed the same routine.
Since I became ill. I have realised. Your at school until 16 years old so from 16 years old until 70 years old you should get a good 54 years of life but you work hard, raise kids and then you're old, you die and everyone is shocked but everyone dies and you're soon forgotten and it's a vicious circle.
Life is cruel if you did have a loving family you have to watch them die, you work your bollocks off study like crazy to get qualifications but then you die and it's all forgotten.
All the shit you take in life makes you stronger and you die, haha I don't think there is a meaning of life, it's just a matter of survival until the end.

This will cheer you up it will tell you how many minutes you've been alive, asleep etc.

Homepage | Everything Birthday

www.everything-birthday.com

I hate to believe in it but I think rebirth happens, maybe heaven and hell are here on earth so next time you are born into a rich, happy family. This is the only explanation for all the shit we go through, maybe we have to spend 1000 years as humans until we are enlightened enough before we move on to something better.

I certainly have changed my opinion I never thought about death until family or friends were really ill or I attended a funeral, but now I think about it every day and look at people knowing they will die and be forgotten.

Cheers

Geo

thanks Geo for taking time to give your thoughts. It really does help me, believe it or not.

 

[Breakout92]

I had a teacher who used to say the meaning of life is to figure out what the meaning of life is.

 

[FreeAngel]

Life has no meaning, at least not to me.

 

[EmptyManForever]

We are all like puppets brought into this world , to eat, survive and reproduce, none of us are in control, it's like we are programmed to survive and reproduce, hence the survival instinct which saves most of us when we try attempting ctb , and this cycle repeats itself, life is all about surviving I guess and when the right time comes all of us will die and fade away

 

[Bootleg Astolfo]

The Meaning Of Life is a pretty good Monty Python movie

 

[booray]

I don't know if life has any meaning. Everything about it seems so random. I think what scares me most about ctb is dying without ever having figured out the purpose to my life.

 

[usernameforhere]

I have this person I know. The purpose of his life appears to be manipulating other people. He's got some wounds around control it seems.

I know another person and he's climbing that corporate ladder. Gonna make something of himself. At all costs, it's just what he compulsive lot does.

I know another lad who... the meaning of life appears to be satisfying urges related to old wounds.

maybe the goal is to overcome those desires, maybe it's to lean into them. This is a confusing place, no doubt.

for me I'm just gonna try to have some fun while I replace something I threw away and now has become hard to find.

no purpose now, just wasting time.

 

[signifying nothing]

Every meaning, no meaning - not sure it really makes a difference.

 

[Mentalmick]

To punish those least able to defend themselves seems to be the meaning of life.

 

[EDMisgood]

There is no meaning to life until you create your own, most of the time it doesn't matter how meaningful your life is cuz no one gives a fuck

 

[pls.deleteallmypost]

I think this is really simple. No, life has no sense at all. Life on earth is the consequence of casual events in the universe. We have no real goals in life. Every posible interpretation of life is no more than that, an interpretation, it's just in our minds. The universe doesn't give us a purpose or a reason to live. It just happens and that's all.
Of course this is just my opinion.

 

[WornOutLife]

It would seem there's no meaning at all. I mean, humans will be able to visit Mars and maybe another planets in the future but... Will we find the answer? I don't think so.

I think everything is really weird. How can something as the universe come from nothing? Those who are religious would say a God created everything but where did he/she/it come from? Nonsense.

I bet we're simply "nerfed" and living in some kind of simulation with limited knowledge. We'll know the truth and understand the meaning of life once we log out from it. Just a theory but sounds better than a smiling bearded guy taking care of us haha.

As for the eternal nothingness, it makes no sense either because there shouldn't exist anything in first place. Damn, I wanna have all the answers but I might never have them! :(

 

[BumperCrop]

The Meaning Of Life is a pretty good Monty Python movie

This is the only good answer.

 

[NormaJeane]

The meaning ? well its a chaine :D
1. Self-harm
2. wait
3.suicide

Life on planet Earth has no meaning. Universe and human life is meaningless because with time everything will die.

 

[WornOutLife]

This is what I've been trying to figure out during these weeks in an obsessive way.
The more I read and watch videos about it, the less sense everything makes.

I just can't understand why we're forced to exist instead of not existing. In other words, why there's something instead of nothing.

Anyway, it's quite an interesting topic to talk about, especially when I'm drunk lol.

Edit: I just realized that I had already commented on this thread. I'm deffo more confused than that day lol.

 

[PaxAmerica]

I dont think we will ever know. We create reasons for life. If you have a dream you reason to try to achieve it. But once you have then what? Or you have kids and the point is to give them a good life. But really I don't think there is a real reason for it. Something in human evolution gave us this reasoning that makes us search for a meaning but beyond the automatic needs such as air and sustenance, is there any reason to life? Sometimes I cant see one real meaning of life. But I like to whistle like the Pythons when I realise this

 

[TotallyIsolated]

Life isn't inherently meaningful. There's no god, no plan, and nothing happens for a reason.

To quote a wise man "its like that, and that's the way it is."

 

[keep moving forward]

You have to find your own meaning, an anchor for your motivation. Whether it's your dog, significant other, children, or hobby. If you can't find meaning then you find other ways to escape.

 

[avoid_slow_death]

Had a discussion with @WornOutLife about this earlier. Well, if you don't follow a religion or form of spiritualism, chances are, you're an existentialist, which is to say, you don't believe life has an overall universal purpose. But, that simply means you make your own meaning of it. Whatever that may make sense to you for existence, (or non-existence) is what life means. Period.

 

[lonerclown666]

Nothing life is overrated there is not meaning we are nothing but npcs

 

[Moose.000]

No f**kin idea anymore.

 

[Wayfaerer]

It's actually super simple. The meaning of life is that there is no meaning. It's just seemingly random stuff that exists for no reason or purpose. That's it, that's really all there is to it. Just matter and physical energy acting upon each other.

 

[Quiet Desperation]

I've thought about this a lot over several decades. It was the first question that really bothered me as a kid. I guess that's probably a common experience.

My conclusion, like several of the above responders, is the only meaning which exists is that which we ourselves assign. If you feel that there may not be any obvious meaning, that may well be your truth at the current moment. For those of us who are lost in life, I think meaning is something that requires sustained effort over time to produce for ourselves rather than a grand universal truth to be discovered.

Personally, I derive the most joy and meaning out of life from social connections. Since I'm basically hopeless at them, here I am.

 

[profoundexperience]

So what is the meaning of life?

Life most definitely has a "purpose":

This purpose is "emergent" from [1] the fact that chemical molecules can literally form into "machines"*, and [2] the "feedback loop"** of "compounding interest" (just in biological, not monetary "returns") that we also call "evolution".

In all the eons this process has been going-on, but one, singular parameter — above all others — has gotten "optimized". Figure-out what that parameter is... and you will know life's "purpose". (Hint: It's obvious; this is not a "trick question".)

As part of that process, human beings have developed a very flexible/open way of "imagining possibilities". By which, may ask all kinds of questions: Good questions. And meaningless questions...

"What is the color of love?" and also "What is the meaning of life?"... Just because one can formulate a grammatically-valid question... doesn't mean it is a "valid" question, nor that it has a sensible answer: Your question PRESUPPOSES that life has "a meaning". But, before "going there", the prerequisite question that MUST BE ANSWERED FIRST is, "Does life have [a] meaning?"

The reason we're here... and the reason we have the capabilities to ask any questions... come as a result of our "emergent" "purpose". And, if we really want to know the real "truth" WE MUST seek it from that context/understanding.

* Trillions of these "machines" are operating inside your body right now... some even visible in a microscope, as during cell division.
** via reproduction

 

[Homecoming]

A few weeks ago I (disguised as Jean Stan, a tribute to former SS member @Jean4 and @Stan) asked this guy Richard Martini on Quora the very same question:

What’s the meaning of life on Earth from the perspective of those people who’ve left the planet/returned back “home”?

Richard Martini's answer: Look in the mirror. The meaning of ones life is reflexive. Only the person asking the question can comprehend the answer. People report a myriad of reasons for their journey. Lessons. Teaching others. Compassion. Exploring paradigms; addiction, courage, anger. They all...

hackingtheafterlife.quora.com

 

[Dr Iron Arc]