hi guys, recently i find myself seeing life as a meaningless existence. i mean we could be famous and rich but in the end when we die, our work is all an illusion. i do not have much goals currently, other than winning some pokerz and getting my graphic design skills better.

most of the time i behave in a very materialistic manner because i think that the society we live in emphasize alot on wealth etc. my rationale behind this is that if i lived in, lets say, india, i wouldnt mind being a simple farmer smoking some ganja after plowing the fields.

what do u guys hang on to in life?

The meaning of life is life.

Indeed. Thats all there is.

Though unlike nihilism there are values, just not what people tell us to believe.
Believing in what is not real, causes misconceptions which makes you feel divided from the rest of humanity and all of creation.

In reality we are connected to everything else, this is why material gathering even the gathering of other people make us feel empty, or like there is a void, something to fill up if you like. As we dont realise that life itself is the meaning of life. Life is our teacher. Unfortunately it seems that we first have to realise; what we are not; which will cause suffering, to then realise what we are. Which is a being, playing the part of a human.

Basically we are taught to rely on thinking rather than feeling. Therein we believe what we think we have been told is real disregarding what we feel which feels to us to be real.

If you are to immerse yourself in nihilism, bring candy.

Ganja ldo.

This comic sums up my view pretty well. Even though it's a comic I'm very serious.

i've struggled with these thoughts too. i'd like to hear more people's opinions on this

Hunter S. Thompson -
- A cap of good acid costs five dollars and for that you can hear the Universal Symphony with God singing solo and the Holy Ghost on drums.


Trip report plz.

Petty semantic quibble, but why do people ask about "the meaning of life" instead of "the purpose of life"? I think "the purpose of life" is more to the point. Thinking about "the meaning of life" puts you in the position of a film critic trying to interpret the movie called Your Life. That's a detached perspective, which is odd since you're the central character. Instead of "What does my life mean?" (and to who?), the question life puts to you constantly is "What should I do?". What is your purpose, if any?

Easy answer if you're a religious believer, at least for the major religions I'm familiar with. Do what is pleasing to God and punch your ticket to heaven - everything else is a minor detail. Vague mysterious heaven, a magical place where everything is perfect and wonderful forever, so you won't be asking "What do I want to get into heaven for?". Heaven = Game Over, You Win!

If you're a non-believer, you could say it's all arbitrary, we'll all be dead in the end. Which is true (at least under present pre-Singularity conditions) but it neglects what we are, and what we are fundamentally is survival + replication machines. Our ancestors all survived long enough to replicate. We may or may not proceed to do likewise, but we all have in common the fact that that is what our ancestors did. Their minds were structured in such a way as to prefer the behaviors that lead to survival and replication, whatever else their likes and dislikes may have been. That's your genetic inheritance, so your mind is likely to be structured similarly.

You might differ, like for example maybe you're gay (your ancestors would have at least been bisexual - all of them chose to have intercourse with a member of the opposite sex at some point, unless they were raped). But you'd still have other goals and desires in common with your ancestors. Some of the more obvious: you like to eat nourishing food, you have a well-developed fight or flight response, you tend to treat other people well if they treat you well (not quite so obvious, but reciprocity is a smart survival strategy for a social animal). Extend this a bit, it's probably worthwhile to achieve things that lead to you being held in high esteem within your community if you can manage it - higher status means you'll tend to attract a more desirable mate if nothing else. But that subgoal could make the achievement in itself feel worthwhile to you, even if you don't happen to be interested in mating. I believe that the basis of all the human universals is that we're very advanced survival + replication machines. Without analysis you already know what feels worthwhile to you.

NP

its best just not to think about it. i think life is meaningless, but it only bugs me if i sit and ponder it for hours. just go on living.

"The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living "

Bertrand Russell does not agree.

[ x ] thread has potential.

youre bad at reading.

edit: nowhere did i say, or even suggest, that we should live an unexamined life. i was only pointing out that the fact that life is meaningless is only troublesome when you sit and think about it, so its not so bad (unless you think about it all day long, every day.)

Finding some objective meaning, to my knowledge, will be impossible.

Woody Allen quote:

"I had a line in one of my movies - 'Everyone knows the same truth.' Our lives consist of how we choose to distort it. One person will distort it with a kind of wishful thinking like religion, someone else will distort it by thinking political solutions are going to do something, someone else will think a life of sensuality is going to do it, someone else will think art transcends. Art for me has always been the Catholicism of the intellectuals. There is no afterlife for the Catholics really, and there's no afterlife for the arts. 'Your painting lived on after you' - well, that doesn't really do it. That's not what you want. Even if your painting does have some longevity, eventually that's going to go. There won't be any works of William Shakespeare or Ludwig van Beethoven, or any theatre to see them in, or air or light. I've always felt you've got to live your life within the context of this worst-case scenario. Which is true; the worst-case scenario is here...

Most of life is tragic. You're born, you don't know why. You're here, you don't know why. You go, you die. Your family dies. Your friends die. People suffer. People live in constant terror. The world is full of poverty and corruption and war and Nazis and tsunamis. The net result, the final count is, you lose - you don't beat the house."


So, you've reached the point where you've realized that everything around you is an illusion/delusion and without them we'd all be in constant fear and trembling at the horror of this meaningless existence. Maybe that is the most natural state one can be in..That is all good and well, but most of us, those who are "aware", aren't like this, at least not all the time.. I still can't wait to see the next (blank) movie, or really want to get with that cute girl, or fist-pump after I ship a 200BB pot and smash things when I get 1 outed, etc etc.. These things matter, I'm reacting to them in some way, the big picture all of a sudden fades away .. Life gets narrowed down and things start to matter (even if falsely).. You still have some impact on something while you're still here, the interactions you have with people matter.. if not to you then to them.. 2009 - ?? Is your little minuscule time slot, but hey, you're on the board, just squint your eyes

You can still choose the best illusion. It's difficult when you know you're worm food and all of this will not 'matter' soon enough.. in the grand scheme of things, yes, your time on earth is as meaningless as that chicken you had for lunch, nobody will remember you, it'll be like you never existed.. but that doesn't mean that taking part in the process isn't meaningful. The only hard part for me is tricking myself into it for long periods of time... Moments are fine, I can get lost in some brief absorbing activity or a drunken night out like it really mattered, but the long drawn out activities (school/work) are tougher because your mind has way too much idle time to think and the conclusions aren't conducive to being productive.

I used to think about that a lot when I was a suicidal teenager.

Then I got a girlfriend who enjoyed life, and she changed my perspective on the matter.

I enjoy dancing and working out. I like playing Mario Kart. I love sex. I also love listening to music, and like to pretend I'm good at composing and mixing in Ableton Live. These are all things I can do and enjoy without thinking about why I'm doing it.

So I basically do as many fun and fulfilling things as possible, and stopped caring about 'why'.

That xkcd comic Justin posted pretty much sums up how I think, too.

Daniel Dennett suggests that the secret to a happy life is to find something more important than you and dedicate your life to it.

Bertrand Russell claimed he lived his life by three principles, "The longing for love, the search for knowledge, and the unbearable pity for the sufferings of mankind."

What do I hang on to in my life? I'm just a drug addict looking for my next fix. What's my drug of choice? Pussy. This pursuit has caused me mostly misery but it does keep me hanging on. I don't think there's any ultimate meaning to life, but pussy feels good so I soldier on.

how is ableton live btw?

I agree, the meaning of life is sex.

I do apologise sir. I was hoping to instigate further discussion by infering that one may wish to examine such questions and did not mean to imply in any way that you were condoning not thinking about any aspect of life other than the question at hand (which happens to be a pretty major one).

I would disagree with your assertion that life being "meaningless" is a fact. If we are looking for an overall meaning applying to every aspect of our existence then I agree it will be very hard to come up with a satisfying answer.

Just enjoy life. Will it really matter to you once you're dead that your life "meant" something?

Either:
1. There is some sort of afterlife for you to continue finding meaning in,
OR
2. You are just dead in a type of dreamless sleep, which doesn't seem all that bad, and most of us have already experienced. If you never woke up, how would you know the difference?

Yeah the dreamless sleep is easy. It's life that's hard. I still fear death though cuz I'm irrational like that.

the meaninglessness of it all is kind of a cool 'truth' to be aware of but it's clearly not something you should spend too much time worrying about, it's something you can use though

.....

so basically im ****ed

how do i put it to use? im not really depressed or anything, just thinking why not laze around all day lol

You just answered your own question, try just lazing around all day. If you reach a point where you're not satisfied with that, you'll have your motivation to get up off the couch.