This is a very unguided post full of brainstorming ideas that have just coursed through my mind. I don't know if I necessarily agree with all of it, or any of it, but I think thinking about it is the important part. Take what you can take from it.
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Is life a continuum or a segment of time? Either way, what happens now is only going to happen now, and tomorrow, or even 5 minutes from now, now will no longer be "now" but "then."
Now is opportunity. Opportunity in the sense that you can add value to it. Opportunity in the sense that within your own percieved reality, you can create "value" that gives you a reason to experience more "now"s. In the big picture, your now only really matters to you. The person next to you, whether they are your closest friend or a simple stranger, does not value your now. They are living within their own reality and working through their own nows.
Everyone wants to find meaning within their own reality. Everyone wants to know that there is something to be gained by traveling through time as a bundle of organic matter. In truth, the only meaning that can be applied to our existence is the meaning that we want to see. We cannot find any meaning or purpose whose existence we do not consciously seek.
So, "the meaning of life?" Sure, it can exist. But it is not universal. The meaning of your life, whether you are consciously aware of it or not, has already been formulated and tucked into a dark corner of your mind. But you still seek it. It is right in front of you, but it is not enough for you. How can you validate a purpose on a universal level if you have decided that purpose yourself? As you look at it, you cover your eyes. You know that time will continue, but you want to know why tomorrow is important enough to travel to, when in reality you know that it doesn't matter. But you either tell yourself that you haven't found the true reason yet, and so you must keep searching for it, or you trick yourself into thinking that there is some greater meaning to life that justifies its existence. But is the universe conscious? The bounds of space and time that you live within do not care about the life of one man, nor do they care about the life of a million men. Meaning can only come from a place that it can be applied to. That's why it is meaing.
What does this mean? It means that you should not live life tricking yourself into believing that the pain, and suffering that you experience is all justified because of a meaning that you do not even know for yourself. It may sound sad to some, and wonderful to others, but, to truly enjoy life, you must live within the limits of a reality that you create for yourself. You can only be happy if you allow for happiness in your own universe. You should understand that once you are pulled from your reality, it loses any meaning it was given.
One way to look at is it to compare us to robots. Robots only "live," or operate, if they have a reason to. That reason only exists because of the robot's creator/controller. The difference between us and robots, however, is that we are always operating, simply because of our biology. Mother nature turned us on, and now we are wondering what she wants us to do. Nature pushed the on button. When we push the "on button" on a robot, we have a purpose for taking action. The question is, then, what is nature's purpose for taking action when it decided to push our "on button"s? Is it possible to have action without purpose? Within our limited view of things, we cannot say. We cannot assume that nature has purpose if it is not conscious, and even it were, what about the action that created it? And if that had purpose in creating nature, what about ITS creator? The cycle continues infinitely. In essence, we could search for meaning/purpose for eons and never find the single point at which purpose began. It would be a paradox to do so.
That means we can either accept the idea that there is no inherent purpose to our realities, and continue to live life as a piece of raw matter, without direction, or we can create some artifical purpose to live by. Artificial you say? Yes. Depressing, maybe. But the truth is, it is pointless to search for what does not exist. So we can try to make the best out of the situation. But then again, it is only "the best" out of the situation because of whatever meaning we have artificially applied to the situation. The question then becomes, can someone feel fulfilled if they know that the value they place on their life is not real value? The answer only results in more ciruclar logic.
Think of it like the money supply. Currency only has value because we give it value. We have developed our system into one where artificial value has become widespread enough to serve as real value. But could we have ever gotten to that point if each individual considered only the initial artificial value that the money represented? Meaning, the value we artificially place on our lives can be developed into something that actually means something to us, as long as we are willing to subject ourselves to the process.
----------------------------------------------------
Is life a continuum or a segment of time? Either way, what happens now is only going to happen now, and tomorrow, or even 5 minutes from now, now will no longer be "now" but "then."
Now is opportunity. Opportunity in the sense that you can add value to it. Opportunity in the sense that within your own percieved reality, you can create "value" that gives you a reason to experience more "now"s. In the big picture, your now only really matters to you. The person next to you, whether they are your closest friend or a simple stranger, does not value your now. They are living within their own reality and working through their own nows.
Everyone wants to find meaning within their own reality. Everyone wants to know that there is something to be gained by traveling through time as a bundle of organic matter. In truth, the only meaning that can be applied to our existence is the meaning that we want to see. We cannot find any meaning or purpose whose existence we do not consciously seek.
So, "the meaning of life?" Sure, it can exist. But it is not universal. The meaning of your life, whether you are consciously aware of it or not, has already been formulated and tucked into a dark corner of your mind. But you still seek it. It is right in front of you, but it is not enough for you. How can you validate a purpose on a universal level if you have decided that purpose yourself? As you look at it, you cover your eyes. You know that time will continue, but you want to know why tomorrow is important enough to travel to, when in reality you know that it doesn't matter. But you either tell yourself that you haven't found the true reason yet, and so you must keep searching for it, or you trick yourself into thinking that there is some greater meaning to life that justifies its existence. But is the universe conscious? The bounds of space and time that you live within do not care about the life of one man, nor do they care about the life of a million men. Meaning can only come from a place that it can be applied to. That's why it is meaing.
What does this mean? It means that you should not live life tricking yourself into believing that the pain, and suffering that you experience is all justified because of a meaning that you do not even know for yourself. It may sound sad to some, and wonderful to others, but, to truly enjoy life, you must live within the limits of a reality that you create for yourself. You can only be happy if you allow for happiness in your own universe. You should understand that once you are pulled from your reality, it loses any meaning it was given.
One way to look at is it to compare us to robots. Robots only "live," or operate, if they have a reason to. That reason only exists because of the robot's creator/controller. The difference between us and robots, however, is that we are always operating, simply because of our biology. Mother nature turned us on, and now we are wondering what she wants us to do. Nature pushed the on button. When we push the "on button" on a robot, we have a purpose for taking action. The question is, then, what is nature's purpose for taking action when it decided to push our "on button"s? Is it possible to have action without purpose? Within our limited view of things, we cannot say. We cannot assume that nature has purpose if it is not conscious, and even it were, what about the action that created it? And if that had purpose in creating nature, what about ITS creator? The cycle continues infinitely. In essence, we could search for meaning/purpose for eons and never find the single point at which purpose began. It would be a paradox to do so.
That means we can either accept the idea that there is no inherent purpose to our realities, and continue to live life as a piece of raw matter, without direction, or we can create some artifical purpose to live by. Artificial you say? Yes. Depressing, maybe. But the truth is, it is pointless to search for what does not exist. So we can try to make the best out of the situation. But then again, it is only "the best" out of the situation because of whatever meaning we have artificially applied to the situation. The question then becomes, can someone feel fulfilled if they know that the value they place on their life is not real value? The answer only results in more ciruclar logic.
Think of it like the money supply. Currency only has value because we give it value. We have developed our system into one where artificial value has become widespread enough to serve as real value. But could we have ever gotten to that point if each individual considered only the initial artificial value that the money represented? Meaning, the value we artificially place on our lives can be developed into something that actually means something to us, as long as we are willing to subject ourselves to the process.
