Meaning of Life

[Stookie]

life is simple -
people make it difficult

[Awakened_Mind]

The meaning of life is dynamic, constantly changing.

-AM

[loppoppy]

So many different opinions on this. It points to the truth that life is what we make it and we all have our own meaning for it.

[Awakened_Mind]

To me, the meaning of life is being yourself. Nothing more. I think I simply live, not live for.

"Happiness is a synonym of well-being." - Bruce Lee.

-AM

Which is what I said in the first place.

Fun thread to be involved in 

-AM

[jub jub]

To experience...we are the eyes and ears of God!

[Sharpe]

As above, so below.

If our physical bodies have evolved in this planet, so our minds and our other bodies must evolve accordingly.

The meaning of life is evolution so when can unite heaven and earth in one, and happiness is not always the best mean to achieve so.

Aw man, this is like the best idea i've heard... aside from the "heaven-part".
The meaning of life, I don't think we have one, we are nothing important. Just like you said, we may be just a small part of evolution. By-products of a planet called earth? We exist just to keep the nature balanced? We are not special, we are just mammals with better brains... I mean... isn't that it? We're just a part of the evolution, maybe theres a pattern of evolution, like on every planet, there's like this law of evolution. It starts with water, then the first lifeforms come etc. then there's us, maybe it'll keep going and going and going untill the sun blows up. Like... we gotta finish the evolution before the sun blows up. We are given a few billion years for that. It could be as simple as that? But yet, if we DO have a life, if we DO have consciousness, if we DO have serotonin as chemical in our brains to make us happy, why not use it and BE happy instead of letting life pass like it's nothing?

Again AM, your quote: "Happiness is a synonym of well-being" , which is exactly, what i've been trying to tell you. Well-being or quality of life, is how comfortable you live. This includes money. Money is something which is essential. Because of social-controll, if you don't have money, your status gets lowered. Which makes it harder to find a nice girlfriend, which could lead to depression or isolation, and that makes people very unhappy.

"To me, the meaning of life is being yourself. Nothing more. I think I simply live, not live for."
I really can't understand this if I just look at it, but if I think through: you just let life pass, and you see what happens. Well, i just wanna say that you're not the only one who thinks this, this IS what normal people think... i mean, why would you live FOR something when you can just let life pass and don't live for anything right?

So about what i wrote earlier, releasing some chemicals in your brain to make you happy, first of all: you need something to stimulate it by, you cant just "on and off" it. It's not something you can consciously activate, if it was, everyone would be at home playing with their brain chemicals and not worry about anything. Since we don't have this "luxory" we have to do it with experiences, our "instincts", being in love could be the best thing in the world, maybe thats SOME form of happiness? If you add love with well-being (a lot of money) and a nissan Z350, prada shoes, 2 triplex houses to just "THINK" you get RESPECT from people, all these experiences combined should give you joy, happiness, or whatever you'd like to call it.

BTW, i get the idea you think that I think all this is correct, but I'm against this form of consumerism, just saying that this would be the things a normal guy chases, however (quote: remember the leprechaun from the lucky charms, always going over the rainbow searching for the pot of gold, but in the end, it's just cornflakes.) This is some form of reality, you get a job and you want to work work work, and earn more money, what are you chasing? The same rainbow the leprechaun is chasing, but you won't find a pot of gold when you're retired, you'll probably realize, just like my mom is starting to realize: You wasted 40 years of your one time given life. That you can't ever get back. If you really, deeply thing about life, you start asking yourself: "is this it"? Anyways, i just wanted to get that off my chest.

[loppoppy]

hmmm not sure i can agree with the "we aren't important" part, but the rest is understandable enough.

[Awakened_Mind]

Again AM, your quote: "Happiness is a synonym of wellbeing" , which is exactly, what I've been trying to tell you. Wellbeing or quality of life, is how comfortable you live. This includes money. Money is something which is essential. Because of social-controll, if you don't have money, your status gets lowered. Which makes it harder to find a nice girlfriend, which could lead to depression or isolation, and that makes people very unhappy.

"To me, the meaning of life is being yourself. Nothing more. I think I simply live, not live for."
I really can't understand this if I just look at it, but if I think through: you just let life pass, and you see what happens. Well, i just wanna say that you're not the only one who thinks this, this IS what normal people think... i mean, why would you live FOR something when you can just let life pass and don't live for anything right?

You're still attributing happiness to solely external forces.

I'm saying if you live your life searching for the meaning of life, then your meaning of life becomes the search for the meaning of life. So If you live your life living your life, then your meaning of life becomes to live your life. When I say to be myself, I am saying that my self is the most balanced part of all wholes and then some. The state that requires different particulars for all of us, but ultimately ourselves is where we are most comfortable and productive. Optimal. Hence the reason I am most happy. Materialism has something to do with it of course, what I'm saying is that it's not everything.

-AM

[Sharpe]

You're still attributing happiness to solely external forces.

I'm saying if you live your life searching for the meaning of life, then your meaning of life becomes the search for the meaning of life. So If you live your life living your life, then your meaning of life becomes to live your life. When I say to be myself, I am saying that my self is the most balanced part of all wholes and then some. The state that requires different particulars for all of us, but ultimately ourselves is where we are most comfortable and productive. Optimal. Hence the reason I am most happy. Materialism has something to do with it of course, what I'm saying is that it's not everything.

-AM

Of course it's not everything, but yet most people (i know) got that idea. Everyone I meet always asks me about my school, it's always the school first, then they ask me about personal things... That's just wrong.
Doesn't anyone feel sorry for people that study for 10 years to become someone important and earn more money so they buy things they don't even need? What's more important, 10 years of your life or to consume more excrement just to show other people that you're better then them. Any job except civil service (maybe even them sometimes...) I see, it's all the same, even doctors: Buy our excrement so you can feel better. I'm sick of it...

[Awakened_Mind]

Some people don't study for 10 years to get all the materialistic things they desire. On the contrary, the majority actually spend 10 years of their lives for intrinsic reasons.

-AM

[Sharpe]

no.

[CFTraveler]

Some people don't study for 10 years to get all the materialistic things they desire. On the contrary, the majority actually spend 10 years of their lives for intrinsic reasons.
-AM

I for one spent 12 years of my life studying because I loved it so.  In college I kept switching majors because I enjoyed the process of learning, and would have continued it for the rest of my life if life didn't demand that I get a job and make money to survive.  But if I won the lotto I'd probably go back to college and study everything that I didn't  the first time, even the  stuff I'm not good at  like calculus and such. So I can resonate with what you're saying there.

[MisterJingo]

I for one spent 12 years of my life studying because I loved it so.  In college I kept switching majors because I enjoyed the process of learning, and would have continued it for the rest of my life if life didn't demand that I get a job and make money to survive.  But if I won the lotto I'd probably go back to college and study everything that I didn't  the first time, even the  stuff I'm not good at  like calculus and such. So I can resonate with what you're saying there.

I constantly learn, I study because I love learning. I am seriously looking at getting another degree (in a subject I wish to know more) and I luckily recently got a new job where they will fund a Masters and possibly a PhD, so these are avenues I'm looking into.

RE the original question. I don't think life has any meaning, direction or desire. These are human created concepts. We could say we are here to learn, but reality as we know it is changing, so life as we know it might only be possible in a very small window of certain quantum particles having certain energy values. There are potentially countless universes, many without the hope of ever producing consciousness of any kind. So what we are experiencing here and now is simply another blip in an unimaginable static of change and entropy. It is knowledge which only has meaning within its own sphere of understanding (an understanding generated over millions of years of direct experience within a very narrow range of experience parameters).
I don't think this distracts in anyway from life as we know it, it just highlights the awe-inspiring beauty of even the most mundane objects around us in our short stay here.

[CFTraveler]

MJ wrote:

I don't think this distracts in anyway from life as we know it, it just highlights the awe-inspiring beauty of even the most mundane objects around us in our short stay here.

Ecco.

[Goober]

If I knew what the meaning of Life was, it wouldn't be very fun.

[Awakened_Mind]

What if the meaning of life is to have fun?

-AM

[Goober]

What if the meaning of life is to have fun?

-AM

Then I'd be the next prophet.




Lol, that was pretty cheesy.

[nothingless]

An anthropomorphic anthropoid once wrote:

On an early morning in Japan, a novice Zen monk approached his master to share a most intense dream he had the last night.
"Master?" He inquired, "what would be the meaning of this dream?"
"Young one," answered the master, "it is meaning that is the dream."
When these words where uttered, the novice one attained understanding beyond knowledge.

- nothingless

[Old Dood]

What if the meaning of life is to have fun?

-AM

I agree...that is a 'part of life' is to enjoy or have fun.

How I look at it...Now is: To Remember Who We Are.  To get back to the 'Source'.  ( I do not use the term GOD anymore...just The Source)

Once we finally get back to The Source then we are full BE-ings!  Because we are BE-ing!

[Awakened_Mind]

After a few documentaries and readings recetnly I'd have to put forward the idea that life is a preparation for death.

-AM

[FadeEsdrasX]

I agree with AM
However isnt it possible there are many reasons for life?

[Mydral]

Existence precedes Essence


Done... 

[Awakened_Mind]

Yes. I suppose the reason it so difficult to establish a conrete definition of what the 'meaning of life' actually is, arises because there is no set meaning in the first place. We all really find our own definition, then it continues to change and
evolve within the individual.

In that view, we should really examine the nature of the meaning of life rather than the meaning of life itself.

-AM

[FadeEsdrasX]

Agreed~! 

[iNNERvOYAGER]

To get your arse kicked,

Then report back to God on how much fun that was?   

Or, strive to be mindful and simply be an objective observer.