29 replies to this topic

[Professor T]

Have read a few statements here lately that have given me the impression that a few of us here are suffering from lack of meaning in life, or purpose.. Perhaps this will be a good thread to share these things? And perhaps find solutions or inspiration to get out of such ruts..  So..........

Do you feel that life is meaningless? If so, please tell us why..

Is your life full of purpose and meaning?     If so, tell us how it feels and how you came to find it..

If you think you have a solution to the rut someone is in, please post it..

[catch-me-if-you-can]

Depends on what one's definition of "meaning" is.

[Professor T]

bones101proof, on 04 October 2012 - 06:27 AM, said:

Depends on what one's definition of "meaning" is.

Without purpose.. hollow.. empty..

[catch-me-if-you-can]

Well, if a soldier's purpose is to kill, a comedian's purpose is to make people laugh, a racist's purpose is to hate, a cop's purpose is to serve and protect (yea, right ha ha), and an environmentalist's purpose is to care about the earth (once again, yea right, ha ha, environmentalists don't give a damn about the planet, they're only concerned about themselves having a clean place to live), and a person's purpose is to examine others' purposes, then I find purpose to be professional.

[Habitat]

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it”

― Siddhārtha Gautama

[notoverrated]

i would say you just choose wat ur purpose is. alot of people get caught up in "finding" it when all you have to do is "make it".

[Junior Chubb]

I have a solution for some of these situations and it is very straight forward...

Spend less time alone.

I think what people need to do to stop them feeling 'meaningless' is to try and be the opposite, become needed. If people need you, require you or want you around those 'meaningless' feelings will not be there.

Feeling 'meaningless' will then be replace by thoughts like 'bloody hell people leave me alone, there are only so many days in a week!!!!'

Edited by Junior Chubb, 04 October 2012 - 08:31 AM.

[Melo -]

I have alot of friends and for the most part all they see is a very happy part me that i know inside is purely fabricated. some women take to me and after we make love i look at the ceiling and feel an emptines...no pun intended.my real outlook on life is so bland and dreary that i constantly feel like an empty vessel...like a form that was made through the collision of sediments only moving because of the constantly flailing meanlinglessness that birthed me as if it were sad itself.i feel most lonely when im surrounded by friends poor b******* lol and ill always notice a clock when the shots are gone and a pendulum always turning

I would really enjoy a relatable conversation from anyone who feels this way.

Smiley face...

[Jinxdom]

My purpose of life is simple it is just to live it.

[Neognosis]

I read a good argument that it is possible that our core purpose is to carry and pass on DNA. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake.

[StarMountainKid]

My recent status update says, "We don't honor life, life honors us." Maybe we're too ego centered, expecting our life to be fulfilled by some 'meaning' that stokes our own personal sense of ourselves. In other words, when things aren't going the way we want it to we may feel life is meaningless for us.

I suppose that would be one definition of meaningless.

Maybe if we just relaxed a little and looked around us we would discover some unexpected meaning we had previously overlooked.

[regeneratia]

No, my life is not completely meaningless. And no one else's is either.
We are creators. We are powerful.

[regeneratia]

I think out total purpose is to expereince everything, to put that experience into perspective, and to access knowledge.

Neognosis, on 04 October 2012 - 11:41 AM, said:

I read a good argument that it is possible that our core purpose is to carry and pass on DNA. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake.

[Kafkaesque]

Well, life is meaningless... We exist within a universe devoid of attachment to us. We're a fleeting thought in the back of some galactic mind. Our true value cannot be measured because of human fallibility, nor can we ever find true peace in this world because of ego. The only way to deal with an unfree world is to be so absolutely free that your existence becomes revolt in itself - roughly paraphrased. I view my life as meaningless, so I understand there are really only two options..

• Continue living in this world devoid of meaning.
  
• Kill myself.

As Camus said, in the end it takes more courage to live than to kill oneself.. So it is inherently up to us what we want to do.. Meaninglessness does not provoke absurdity, but perhaps it is absurd that life is meaningless. Perhaps our relationship to the cosmos is absurd, or not fully explored.. Or maybe we don't need to know, because we already know.. Maybe it is just as simple as others said: reproduction. We're all organisms with instincts not yet killed off by organized civilization. We all are cognitive, yes but that is the only aspect that sets us apart from other creatures on this planet.. But with ego comes overvalue. We place so much value on ourselves, yet fail to recognize the lack of value in life...

Once we recognize the lack of value in life, or the lack of value in ourselves, it is up to us to resist and to rebel by creating our own value - the only true value in life. When we assign value to things I believe the true potential for value brought upon by an individual is diminished. So we must resist ourselves when assuming.. Instead we should have careful consideration and mindfulness when we create value that was not there before, lest we lose sight of ourselves entirely..

It is a bit paradoxical to say that we create our value, but to also say that by assigning value to things, that value loses its value.

So in the end, those two statements negate themselves.. The only viable train of thought is that there is no value.

It's only an illusion, just like our meaning.. However, to have a sound mind, we must conjure metaphysical rebellion..

It is the only way to keep sanity in an absurd universe.

[Hasina]

Nope, mines totally the best life. I find an adventure every day, the ups and downs of emotions, the experiences I have with people, even the mundanity of work makes the more exciting parts all the more awesome. I love my life, the good and the bad.