Just a teaser, a scratch on the surface of the topic: The Meaning of Life (wiki). I quote:
Contemporary concepts of the meaning of life:
Regardless of our values, we understand the meaning of life mainly as a relationship to:
- Striving to perform or resign from various functions and roles in family and social life,
- The ultimate goal of man's existence as a person and the ways to achieve it in accordance with his own beliefs,
- The sense of undertaking or avoiding: suffering, inconvenience, difficulties and sacrifices (Epicureanism),
- The sense of getting satisfaction and pleasure (Hedonism).
Ontology: the branch of philosophy dealing with being; deals with the structure of reality and the concepts of essence, existence, its ways, object and its properties, causality, time, space, possibility and necessity; (...) Ontology is sometimes identified with metaphysics, but some people separate these disciplines;
Paul Gauguin: Where did we come from? Who we are? Where are we going?
I want to draw attention to the concepts of the ultimate goal, partial goals, path, paths, meaning as a whole and as a part.
In Western civilization, the concept of purpose and goals is a paramount, almost religious value, and even religions themselves have their own goals (salvation, nirvana, etc.). We learn to pursue goals from the youngest to the oldest years, through education, work, business, relationships, playing social roles, achieving success, wealth, happiness, etc. In addition, there is ubiquitous competition. We cannot function without any goals, both short and long-term. We jump from goal to goal sequentially, pursue many goals in parallel, and fill the void with action. I have the impression that when there are no goals (regardless of whether they are achieved or not), we lose a sense of meaning, and when there is no sense, we do not want to set goals (I am giving you a recipe for depression 😆).
In Eastern civilizations, a little more attention is paid to the process of achieving goals. Is the path itself a value in itself and can we forget about the destination? Maybe yes, maybe no, it's definitely worth stopping and shifting some of your energy from the goal to the road. This allows you to temporarily fall out of the vicious circle of goals and allows you to experience the "Here and Now" state. The past and the future are an illusion of the mind: everything happens in the present!
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There is a dilemma of choosing a path, decisions, criteria, patterns, ideals, authorities, ethics, morality, values worth following: what is most important here? What is worth focusing on and what to ignore? Where to get it, where to find the source? What is "good" and what is "bad" (article: Good-bad, Life), choose selfishly or altruistically? Should we undertake or avoid difficulties and pain and strive for pure pleasure (article: Pleasure-pain, benefit)? Or maybe dualism does not exist and everything is equal (Nondualism)?
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What is the Meaning of Life: this is probably the most important question from which I started my magical journey 😃. "⏪Why" and "why⏩"? Is the meaning of life to satisfy instincts and needs? Well, the Final Goal of our (current, earthly, biological) life is death. And period! Thank you, I have solved the eternal problem of humanity, a discovery worthy of a Nobel Prize 😆. But seriously, this answer is not enough for us (people). We don't want to believe that our whole life leads only to this one goal (the end), we are looking for something bigger, broader, more important.
Even biology alone is not enough for us, i.e. the reproduction of the species, the transmission of genes as a goal or a path. Spreading and extending Life on Earth or in the Universe as a Whole? Still not enough. That's why we keep looking, we keep pushing, that's where the need for spirituality or religion comes from.
Spirituality leads to the concept of the soul, something broader than the body itself, perhaps immortal. Does the soul exist once or repeatedly? Is there such a thing as the process of soul development through repeated cycles of birth and death? Incarnations can be presented in a linear, non-linear, parallel or even circular manner, depending on the perception of the phenomenon of time. Time may be different in the physical and non-physical world 😱.
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But does the idea of Consciousness as a Whole, its narrowing (separation, individualization) to the form of the soul and development through incarnations provide any answer about the meaning of life and existence?
Considerations about the Meaning of Existence, viewed from a human point of view, led me nowhere (and straight to nihilism...). Only changing the perspective to the highest possible one, i.e. God himself (Source), gave me a revelation 💡! Based on my life experiences and information from the RV session, I came to the conclusion that for the Source there is no distinction between "Good" and "Bad" and there is no Final Goal (but I am brave: I know God 😇). Its Meaning is Development through the path of Experience, each component brick is worth the same, and the direction of changes is arbitrary and even indifferent to the Source. The development can be infinite, or it can be looped like a Mobius Strip.
God experiences through us, we are his receptors, senses, he sees and feels through his partial Manifestations. The "good" or "happiness" of a person is not particularly important, because he is like a small drop in the sea of all possible experiences and from a high perspective he looks like an ant in an anthill or an electron to the Universe. So what is the meaning of life for a small and mortal entity? The universal key to it seems to me to be Free Will. From the lowest to the highest level, there is a possibility (quite limited by environmental conditions) to choose one's own path of conduct, ethics, and one's own morality. We can decide for ourselves whether we follow the path of love or hate or any other path. This is our Lesson that we pass on above.
| The Meaning of Existence is Development through Experience, the Final Goal does not exist, the most important thing is the Path, and the Universal Key is Free Will. |
- Viktor_Frankl: creator of logotherapy (a psychotherapeutic method focused on reflection on meaning).
- In his therapy, Viktor asks one basic question (it's strong 💪 and I feel it 1000%!) and conducts further discussion based on the answer received.
But if you are really (really) looking for an ultimate explanation, look here: 😉:
