The Meaning Of Life

[RIchardo]

Ah, we have heard the age old question......."What is the meaning of life>?" it has puzzled philosophers and great minds alike, yet myself, a 17 year old male wonders what the point of asking such a query is when the answer is so obvious.

So many people either kill themselves asking the question or are too busy trying to find how to make life more mundane, or complain about it, but the meaning of life really is....

Enjoying each and every day as much as possible and intaking everything in life with ardour and vivacity unequalled by the average joes of this planet. Take a walk outside, enjoy the air you are breathing, take a look at the beautiful foliage around you... realize that people are the greatest fun you can have.

There is no such thing as nothing to do, or being bored. Read a book, do something, anything, create havoc in a grocery store even..... and just realize everything in your life is a gift and the meaning of life is enjoying the **** out of it. Life is heaven and the Earth is paradise.

 

[Titus]

*clap, clap, clap*

Where's the beef?

 

[Julian]

42

 

[Enduro]

I think he's seven.

 

[Nine Breaker]

The meaning of life?

That's an easy one...

Contentment

Yep, that one little word holds the meaning and the reasoning behind every single action mankind has ever made since the beginning of time. What is interesting is that people have always known this one - subconsciously, but their conscious minds cannot grasp it.

Pick a type of person, anybody. What they do can be seen as a reflection of their quest for contentment - namely this: what they define contentment to be. Look at those high-end corporate executives - you cannot deny that they would see money to be the motivation behind their actions, the very core to their being. For many of them, the more money you have translates into more things and power under their control, and when they have enough under their immediate control they might feel content.

Now take the example of a charity worker who selflessly works tirelessly towards the aid of others. They might not get paid for their work in monetary terms, but you can bet your life that the contentment they take away from their work exceeds anything money can do for them.

Now (and here is where it gets interesting) take the example of a nice guy. His idea of contentment is to find love, in the form of a perfect goddess of a woman. For the nice guy, love is his idea of how to achieve contentment. This idea that love is the pinnacle of the emotions has been fed unto him for his entire life, and he simply sees no other way in which to be content with his existence.

Sound familiar to anyone here?

But wait! For the "Jerk" persona is no better than the nice guy. He might not want committment from a woman, nor may he have the hesitation or lack of "****iness" that the nice guy has, but he is still bound to the same fate - for he also sees women as his means for attaining contentment. While it is only through the fleeting moments of intercourse, the jerk still lusts after women in a very similar fashion to the nice guy.

Now is the part where you can throw back your head and laugh at these poor chumps, for you know the secret that 99% of the men on this Earth do not:

Being a MAN is not about needing women to be content with one's self. Being a man is about achieving your goals in life, striving for perfection in all that you do, and living your life the way that others are too spineless to try. That is the true essence of contentment.

Now here's the final point: contentment must be found from within yourself - it CANNOT come from another person. For if that other person should ever leave - your so-called contentment shall leave as well. If you can find contentment from within yourself - it shall stand as strongly as you yourself will, and it shall endure longer than anything those AFC's will ever cling onto, so desperately.

Take it easy.

 

[RIchardo]

good addition nine.

 

[Nocturnal]

whoa nine i didnt know you were still around. you inspired me when i got here .

 

[CamaroMike]

Meaning of life? Make children so they can contemplate the question, and shut up with these philosophical posts. It is an age-old question because no one can answer it.

 

[es_mer8]

The meaning of life is a fun debate but ultimately meaningless. That sounds funny. The reason why is that the meaning of life is different for each person and this in turn is the meaning of life.

Finding yourself and who you are is the real meaning of life.

Some people's meanings are to become millionaires. Some people may just want to settle down and raise a family. Then you got some that just want to spend most of their lives high off weed. Some people can point out and pick out what is flawed in their purpose and they all even out.

A weed smoker can say that a rich person spends all his time working and never has time to enjoy his wealth.

A rich person can say that a weed smoker never achieves anything in his life and is all play and no work.

The family man says that both are flawed and that raising children and the "9-5 suburban life" is the best life because its neither high or low. Its average. Average is comforting because its secure with little risks.

Then both the rich man and the weed smoker point out the flaws in the family man's meaning of life.

I believe that the meaning of life is to find yourself and what you are to achieve in this world.

 

[McKindley]

The problem with asking the question "what is the meaning of life" is that it presupposes that there IS a meaning to life. Existentialists would argue that life HAS no meaning. But let's suppose that life DOES have meaning.

Are there other, better ways to ask the question "what is the meaning of life?" This is important to ask one's self. The question "what is the meaning of life" is a pretty vague question in of itself. That's why people take it in all sorts of directions.
It seems that the people that think they have the answer are not asking "what is the meaning of life" rather, "what makes life worth living," or "what is the secret of (or way to) happiness."
It also begs the question "is the meaning of life the same for everyone (objective) or can/does it vary from person to person (subjective.)"

First off, the operative word, that is often bombasticized in this question, is "meaning." What is the definition of "meaning." This poses a problem; the definition in the dictionary might be different than how it is meant to be taken. There are plenty of words in the dictionary that are defined wrongly (for an example, look up the word "know," as is "I KNOW I like ponies")

However, it looks like the best way to define meaning in the context of "meaning of life" is "value." This word works much better for the question. So now we have "what is the value of life?" This helps us to get rid of all the extraneous answers like "be happy." However, now the answer is much harder to come by. It is no longer as vague of a question that can be answered with some inspirational mumbo-jumbo. The question these people are answering is "What is the purpose of me staying alive." Now we have to figure out what VALUE life has.

And THIS is why philosophers have such a hard time with this question. Its much harder to answer now.

So instead of asking yourself "what is the meaning of life" ask "what is the value of life." or "what value does life have?"

However,

 

[MVPlaya]

Originally posted by RIchardo
Enjoying each and every day as much as possible and intaking everything in life with ardour and vivacity unequalled by the average joes of this planet. Take a walk outside, enjoy the air you are breathing, take a look at the beautiful foliage around you... realize that people are the greatest fun you can have.

Hmmm... try not to use vocabulary you are not comfortable with. If its not in proper context it looks weird that you are using it. But other than that, I think your post is true to a point, but only to a point.

I think if your entire life is no more than a continuous sampling of hedonistic pleasures, your life is really pointless. I like to look at life as a struggle. We will always struggle to change society for the better. And one day, we might succeed. But my bet is, once we get there, people won't be happy. Life is a struggle, a continuous quest to better ourselves, but as we hit our lows, our highs have more meaning.