The meaninglessness of life

Proteus wrote: But I think developing the ability to sit with yourself (like you used to as a kid with crayons and paper, or simple toys for you to manipulate out of your own imagination) can be a very important thing to have - to be able to set aside all the adult stresses (not resist them or reject them, just set them aside and let them be) and seize the moment for the sake of enjoying your own awareness of it.

Joseph Campbell said the following: "You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen."

Am I right in thinking that this is what you meant?

If so: what would such a place look like? Would it be a physical location or mental state?

Yes, Edan is right ... Frankl's book is a grand example.

What we must absolutely keep ourselves from doing - at all psychological expense ! - is to try to make our meaning-making include the defeat of someone else's, no matter how "evil" we think they are. If my way of giving my Life (and the suffering in it) "meaning" is to make someone else suffer (no matter who or what about), then my made-meaning is still meaningless.

If meaning doesn't include a pretty extensive degree of compassion, then it is a bull-shit meaning.

I come back to this passage quite often:

The search for meaning, much like the search for pleasure, must be conducted obliquely. Meaning ensues from meaningful activity: the more we deliberately pursue it, the less likely are we to find it; the rational questions one can pose about meaning will always outlast the answers. In therapy, as in life, meaningfulness is a by-product of engagement and commitment, and that is where therapists must direct their efforts — not that engagement provides the rational answer to questions of meaning, but it causes these questions not to matter.

-Irvin D. Yalom (b. June 13, 1931)


I am not convinced that the search for meaning, as such, will give you what you are looking for. There is value in it, no doub. I am a champion navel-gazer and recommend it highly. But that effort answers different questions.

Cyan Sarden wrote: How does one go about creating meaning in life?

Quite an excellent question. As cliche as it may sound, you have to appreciate the little things. Of course, that leads to, 'how' do you appreciate them. Well, it takes a lot of experience. Sometimes, negative ones. But if you're able to look at the universe with the wonder that a child might, at the pure improbability of things existing the way they exist, you can start to enjoy even the smallest event. You can look at the sky and it will blow your mind; look at the ground and be firmly rooted there.

You have to look beyond the words, for they are only man-made. No one can tell you about it. You have to find it on your own.

I believe that life itself presents no meaning, that we are simply lucky to have formed on a chaotic planet in a rare part of the universe. That does not mean, though, that there is no meaning for individuals. I believe that the only thing, for me, is to make a positive impact on as many lives as possible. It's like the butterfly effect... Who knows how many people in the future will be better for my endeavors?

Just finished Frankl's book as it were...excellent to say the least.

This reminds me of a speech that comedic musician Tim Minchin gave to a graduating college class in Australia. I'm at work now but when I get home I'll try to find the video and post it here. If you've never hear his stuff before I highly recommend it. He's hilarious and has some rather Jedi opinions.

Basically in that speech he says that life is, in and of itself, meaningless and that's what makes it awesome. If it had its own meaning then we'd have to adhere to that, but the fact that it doesn't frees us to do whatever we want, to make our own meaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb-OYmHVchQ

I have not read the other posts....

Cyan Sarden wrote: How does one go about creating meaning in life?

Watch a child be born into your hands, raise that child to be a beautiful human being, play with her or him, laugh with her or him, cry with her or him, suffer with her or him, sleep with her or him, work with her or him and experience everything that is. Life. With her or him. The creation and the meaning of life is naturally is found.

"The misery that oppresses you lies not in your profession but in yourself! What man in the world would not find his situation intolerable if he chooses a craft, an craft, indeed any form of life, without experiencing an inner calling?"

Robert Greene in his book "Mastery" describes how man often loses meaning in life, he also goes into great detail on how they find and obtain it. He describes it as a "inner voice" that unfortunately, many shut or drown out as a result of social pressures. Those that discover this voice or "Muse" and manage to block out the negative Influences brought on by society seem to find a calling. Those that pursue this calling to it's fullest not only become fulfilled with a purpose, but take their endeavours far beyond those of the typical mortal man.

In today's society, mobile devices are quickly either directing this inner Muse, or drowning it out altogether. With all the distractions grabbing one's focus and attention, finding a purpose in life is challenging now more than ever. Man must look within him/herself to find purpose and meaning instead of expecting to find it in the palm of their hands or elsewhere...