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I know that having my son felt like it gave me "purpose" to life, as I was floundering there for a few years leading up to that. Partying non-stop and that knocked sense into me instantly, and feel like it gave me a "new lease on life" or something.
Purpose and meaning - not the same of course. But I feel like I kinda understand "purpose".
This thing from David Bowie I found interesting:
"Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been."
I thought that was pretty neat. The only part I like about getting older is gaining knowledge from experience of life. I've spent a lot of time thinking about these things and never really come up with what I think is an answer. Part of me is like "Just enjoy the time while you're here". Part of me is like "Gain as much knowledge and try to pass it on to my son as much as I can". And part of me is "There has to be a bigger thing about life than this stuff".
Also, I feel like I have enjoyed the journey, more than the destination. Such as, when you're young, and you are discovering new things, which lead to other new things... how fucking exciting that is. Then when you're an adult.. you're sort of "at the destination" and things are not as exciting because not much is really a new "discovery" anymore.
Sorry for all the """"""""
Wow, lots of amazing ideas.
You're thorough in your consideration of the options for meaningfulness. Meaning is found in:
positive mental states (enjoy life),
being a part of something more than yourself (knowledge/relationships),
or there's something greater than our daily lives (God’s plan)
Another option is nihilism. Nothing matters since, in a short time, everything will be the same as if it never happened.
Your enjoyments, knowledge, and relationships are nothing, since they end in nothing.
Subjective, objective, religious, and nihilism, I can't think of any other options, but I bet there's loads.
LOVED the part about childhood and discovery.
Here’s a related but different take:
The meaningfulness of youth was due to how we were oriented towards the world. Although children are egoistic, they are more open to immersion in the world. Largely due to, as you noted, novelty/discovery, they are immersed in the world, not thinking about themselves, not judging what is happening, just there in the wonder of life. They are the music while the music lasts.
Unlike kids, adults are more closed off to the world. They have an inner than outward orientation. Instead of responding to an amazing world that is out there, we think about ourselves, judge what's happening, and tell the world what we think about things. This inner, egoistic orientation is not meaningful compared the outward/egoless orientation.
So, the meaningfulness of youth isn’t because everything was new, it’s that newness orients us outwards. We don't need discovery for meaningfulness, we need an outward, rather than inward, orientation to the world.
this is where long term meditation practice and/or occasional ingestion of LSD/Psilocybin can be of aid to the bored, closed adult mind running on repeat, viewing it all through the same brain grooves that have been cut deep through a lifetime of survival.
regarding meaning in life, I'm here to dig it. a few near death experiences, serious injuries, people dying and suffering in my immediate proximity could crush me, sometimes it's gotten close, but I'm here to smell the air, feel the dirt between my toes, watch the clouds move across the sky, laugh, cry, feel, and process it. Do these practices of awareness deliver meaning or are they meaning? I'm not so sure it matters. when I sit and watch the ocean crash on rocks and cliff face, I'm often fully present and any idea of meaning no longer pertains. So then, meaning is attached to an ego driven experience, which is fine and undoubtably important, but I don't know about being attached to the meaning. Such things shift, no?
the lived-experience is meaningful. The sense of being at home in the world; teleologically fulfilled.
I just heard somebody make a similar point - on one side there’s the question, but no answer, on the other side there’s the answer, but no question.
Are you pointing out a contradiction?
Non-attachment is pursued for personal gain
To pursue for personal gain is attachment
So, non-attachment is attachment
That’s a fun problem. Buddhism has a similar problem - don’t they crave to end craving?
I’m not sure how to answer.
What things shift?
Topic: Meaning of Life (Read 1391 times)