aftona

Have you found meaning of your life so far?
What I mean is - are you fulfilled in you life?
If yes what did you do, if not, what are you going to do?

I say this because I feel my life is like big long Sisyphean journey and in the end we die.

pai mei

Do not search for the "purpose" of life. There is none. Imagine if "we" invent new technologies , colonize the universe, colonize everything, know everything, then what ?

What I say is that life is like dance or music. We are not insects or robots, to do everything with a purpose - to survive or whatever. Same as dance or music, life must contain "moves" that seem to have "no sense" or "no utility". Utility is not the meaning of life. Just be happy

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Blog
One day there will be so many houses, that people will be bored and will go live in tents. "Why are you living in tents ? Are there not enough houses ?" "Yes there are, but we play this Economy game"

Plan9

"To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women."

...

No, seriously. I think the goal of life is to overcome obstacles, see the rewards of victory, and be surrounded by women that never shut up.

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

aftona

How do you be?

anti fishstick

the purpose in life is to find a purpose.. create meaning. existence before essence

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And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~Anais Nin

RogueGypsy

What, no Monty Python fans here???? Life is obviously about devouring everything in sight, then regurgitating it on your friends and family! What could be more meaningful?

JK, sorta.

It's like this: No one really knows (or if they do, they aren't sharing) why we're here or what the hell we're doing. Just GO FOR IT. Live every day like it's the last. We don't really know if it is, do we. That's not to say, go skydiving, bungy jumping and spend every dime to your name in reckless abandon. Just do whatever comes to mind. Of course, take care of the trivial crap expected of any member of a society; paying bills, not spitting on those we dislike, accepting others as they are and only shopping in the nude between 2am and 5am. If you think it, give it a try.

Those who make silly rules and tell us 'don't....' or 'you shouldn't....' or 'you better not....' are the same pussies who're too afraid of their own shadows to ever contribute anything meaningful to evolution anyway. It is in our nature to be a little crazy and unexpected. Imagine if our forefathers (and mothers) had remained huddled and cowering in their caves. We'd have died off long ago. But thankfully, some brave and stupid son-of-bitch raised his finger to convention and ran screaming "FUCK YOU" from the cave in search of a better life. He was likely eaten by a bear shortly their after, being stupid. But, he inspired others to do as they like, instead of as others say they should like. Now, only a backward few still live in caves.

Admit it, we've all had crazy thoughts that likely would have been a lot of fun and not ended in mutilation or dismemberment, but we let ourselves talk ourselves out of it. Why? Because someone, somewhere told us not too. That it wasn't acceptable behavior, that good people don't do those kinds of things. We could create a never ending string under the topic "things I've been told not to do". Fuck'em! We didn't care when we were kids, why care as adults? Now we have the life experiences those well meaning soul crushers were trying to warn us about. Most of which we had to experience for ourselves anyway. At least now we have an awareness and thought process that allows us to differentiate between those things that will likely kill or permanently mar ourselves or others and those that won't. Go for it. That's what the TFP is about isn't it, life?

Free thought followed by action is contagious, spread the dread! Let the Nay Sayers and the Oh, You Shouldn't survivors, quake in their overly comfortable, ugly ass shoes! WHOOO HOOOO, light a fire and dance naked in the rain, wear your underwear on the outside, wave wildly at a stranger until they think they know you. Live your life! THAT, after all, IS the meaning of life, TOO LIVE.

Really, look it up.



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Methods, application and intensity of application vary by the individual. All legal wavers must be signed before 'treatment' begins. Self 'Medicating' is not recommend. However, if necessary, it is best to have an 'assistant' or 'soft landing zone' nearby. Any and all legal issues resulting from improperly applied techniques should be forwarded to: Dewy, Cheatum & Howe, Intercourse, PA 17534. Attn: Anonymous.

levite

Yes.

I took a long time working on myself and my issues, so that my interaction with life wasn't clogged and blurred by unresolved psychological crap getting in the way without my being properly aware of it.

I decided on what really meant something to me. What would I want to remember in the last moments of my life if I died in my bed at 100, and what would I want others to remember about me? What would I run into a burning building to save? What do I need-- not want, not enjoy, not prefer, but need-- to be content, and why do I feel that way? What would I see myself doing if I had a job that I felt was meaningful and satisfying and made me want to go to work? And so on, and so forth.

In the end, what I personally decided was that what was important to me was my people, my family, my friends, and my culture. Second to that level of importance was beauty, art, spirituality, and social change. And I decided that time was more important than money. So I made sure to arrange my life in such a way that my chosen profession serves my people and my culture, and also promotes social change and spirituality. My time outside of work is mostly spent with friends and family, doing simple enjoyable things. I spend a lot of time reading and cooking and hanging out with people I love over delicious meals and good wines, going to theater and movies and museums, singing and listening to music and taking in sunsets and beautiful days on the beach, learning and praying and meditating, and talking about the things I find interesting and important-- both with friends and family, and also with some interesting and cool people online!

I stopped worrying too much about things I can't control, like the future. And I tried to worry less about the things I could control, because life isn't all about control. Life is about always being, not always doing. And I learned to live in the moment. Life is just a series of moments. Don't strive to alter the flow of years and months in your life, alter the moments. Make them count. Pay attention to them. Savor them. Then the days and weeks and years will take care of themselves.

I did these things through meditation, clear dreaming, prayer, contemplation, education, and introspection. Anyone can do likewise.

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Dull sublunary lovers love,
Whose soul is sense, cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
That thing which elemented it.

(From "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne)

Zeraph

Right now I'm feeling the meaning of life is to overcome our "slavery" to our flesh. I.E. not getting depressed over looks, controlling hunger, pain, etc. Basically to be comfortable with sacrificing your life (not that you *need* to to prove anything, just be ok with it). Be willing to accept our fate that lies beyond our bodies.

Master_Shake

No.
No.
Drink.

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You know something, I don't think the sun even... exists... in this place. 'Cause I've been up for hours, and hours, and hours, and the night never ends here.

tisonlyi

Explore myself.
Find out a little more about other people.
Less about the rest of the universe.

__________________
"I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place." - Winston Churchill, 1937 --{ORLY?}--

icevrething

Ask yourself this: If the human race shoots a capsule out into space with all of our history and knowledge right before the end of the human race, what meaning do we have in terms to the cosmos? Some other intelligent lifeforce may discover it one day and find use, but in reality, our place in terms of the cosmos is zilch. Now after accepting that, work on Your personal well being. Do this by interacting with people (yoga, dance, band, forums) because we are, by nature, social beings. As Walt Whitman wisely stated. "Re-examine all you have been told . . . Dismiss what insults your Soul." Find interests and share them with people. Focus on your emotions, don't try to ignore them. If you're feeling depressed, reflection can often bring about a possible cause to your negative emotions. Once you've figured out possibly what is causing your sadness, decide to do something about it. Having gone through the lowest of the lows with depression, I can say I am now a much happier person due to digging deep from within, and making changes, i.e. being more extroverted, joining yoga, campus band, reading more, and focusing more on how to make other people happy.

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Altavoz

42?

Ok, seriously.. The question shouldn't be "What is the purpose of life?" It should be "Do we really need a purpose?" I think people spend too much time trying to figure out what the MEANING or the PURPOSE of life is. There isn't one, but since we're here we may as well enjoy it! Just do the things that make you happy, which for me is to study Spanish, read books, sleep a lot, and play video games. It may sound lazy or unambitious, but it makes me happy and it's not hurting anyone else!

braindamage351

There is no meaning to life. And the question is wrong in the first place. Why should life have a meaning? Does it even make sense that it could? It really doesn't. Things only have meaning relative to something else. A hammer is a hammer because we use it to bash in nails. But a hammer without people to use it is just a stick with metal jammed in it. Mankind, or more appropriately, the rest of mankind, has meaning to each and every one of us. But we have no meaning to ourselves. It makes no sense that we would.

We simply exist. There is no reason. A chemical process was arbitrarily set in motion a few billion years ago, and ended up producing us. Everyone on the planet, including me, has the cart before the horse. The most basic rule of any rational way of living is that you do things for a reason. And yet, we're doing and doing, and expecting the reason to become apparent afterward. The only reason we don't go insane is because of cognitive dissonance. Human beings cannot tolerate physically doing things that they don't mentally agree with. It wears us down very quickly. So either our actions change or our beliefs change. And it's usually the beliefs that go. Even if you're just digging up holes and filling them in, after a long enough time you'll start to believe there's a reason for it.

Some people love the freedom. They take that utter openness as an invitation to do whatever they want, like that one guy who posted about how "rules" are bad and you should go out and be happy and so on. But that's wrong. I really like the metaphor Kant used for this sort of thing. I can't remember it perfectly, but it's along these lines: as birds increase in speed, the wind creates drag, and prevents them from going as fast as they could. So some people suggest, wouldn't it be great if the wind went away? Then they could truly fly free. But in reality, if the wind was suddenly taken away, all of the birds would fall right out of the sky. Kant's real point was that if there was no concrete logical framework, all philosophies are simply invalid. The lack of rules doesn't make them free, it actually inhibits them, because none of them can exist at all, at least in terms of substance. They're arbitrary conjecture.

If human beings have no concrete meaning, then we really have no meaning at all. And there is no proper response to this state of being. Not even inactivity. After all, what's the point of not doing anything? There is no point in doing, there is no point in not doing, there is no point in living, there is no point in killing yourself. The rational response is to go "does not compute" and explode. But luckily we're human, so we can easily just ignore it and bury ourselves in our biological and social desires.

Plan9

And thus the purpose provides the meaning.

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

KirStang

To experience things. Open ended. But that's what I thought it was.

Love. Rollercoaster rides. The victory you fought tooth and nail for. Depression. Anger. Runners high.

Life's a trip. Enjoy.

ring

The life of meaning,
lives while our prescriptions breathe.
one takes, to know one.

Plan9

Life is a Whitney Houston coffee enema. Or is that Tina Turner

Life is an unexpected $20 in your wallet on pay day.

Life is duct tape on bloody knuckles after a fight you won.

Life is a large coffee when you should have gone medium.

/emo

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

tecoyah

The Meaning of Life - Unknown

The Purpose of Life - To become more than you are right now

The Result of life - Death?

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Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

ngdawg

One need look no further for the Meaning of Life than:

__________________
Don't blame me. I didn't vote for either of'em.

ametc

I bet the meaning of life is so simple that we couldn't possibly guess it so easily.


Probably the meaning of life is just to discover, to realize, to reap a purpose according to our own perspectives.

This is what life is pretty much. It's just a series of discovery, a formation of goals and their realizations. I don't believe there is an ultimate punishment or ultimate reward. We all come from a neutral existence and we all return to such.

I don't think knowing the meaning of life would change reality, though. What is here is reality and we must live with it and what reality means because without it there would be no life.

Cynosure

Heh. Only if you're Roman Catholic.



---------- Post added at 10:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 AM ----------

Doubtful. The deeper we delve into life, the more complex it gets. For example, on a purely biological level, consider the complexity of a DNA double helix!

Iliftrocks

entropy man, entropy

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bill hicks - "I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out."