I've covered this ground before, but I've been asked about it lately, so let me mention it again: life has no 'meaning.'
Humanity came into existence however many millennia ago on this dirt spaceship, and will probably cease to exist without having ventured very far beyond it. We've been to the moon, and maybe we'll leave footprints on Mars, and we've lobbed a couple of tin cans out past the edge of out own solar system. But for all intents and purposes, we will live and die as a species on this same rock. And when we're gone, the galaxies will continue to spin and drift as they have for billions of years. A week after the last human has died, it will be like we were never here. Hell, it's like we were never here right now.
We talk casually about billion of years, but in fact, we can't begin to conceptualize how much time that is. Nor can we begin to conceptualize how big this universe is, and how small we are in comparison.
I believe in what Alan Watts called the 'theory of the automatic universe.' "If this is what you believe," he said in one of his talks, "you may as well kill yourself right now."
Well, this is what I believe, but I don't understand why it necessarily follows that I should kill myself. I considered it a relief, not a soul-crushing realization, when I finally came to believe that I had no 'higher purpose.'
I have also been asked, "Well, if life has no purpose or meaning, why not just be an asshole? Why not just steal and kill and rape and plunder?" To which I can only respond, "Huh? If life has no meaning, why not help other people and do good? In the big picture, it won't make a dime's worth of difference, but it's just as easy to do good as it is do harm."
In fact, if you look at history, you'll see that some of the worst shit ever done on this planet was done by people who thought their lives had a purpose and a meaning.
No, my life has no meaning. Please don't think one up for me.
iTunes: Schubert: String Quartet #13, "Rosamunde" - The Brandis Quartet
4 comments:
While the size and age of the universe is undoubtedly immense, it does not follow that one's life is without meaning. I believe the best you can logically posit is that you do not know and have not otherwise discovered meaning for yourself. It means that from your prospective your past, present and likely future is meaningless. You may have a different perspective as your life goes on, unless you've closed your mind to all possibilities in a very large and chaotic universe. A meaning may come to you somehow.
To me, the danger of thinking one's own life meaningless is that it tends to make one believe that MY life is also meaningless. That may be, but I'm attached to it in a very un-Buddha-like way.
The question that arises in my own mind about doing good or evil within the framework of a life without meaning is how do we know that what we do is either one. I may mean to be evil but do something that comes out well for other people and I may intend to do a kindness but cause much distress. As you say, do-gooders have brought their share of sadness into the world. We must nevertheless do something, else entropy kills us quickly -- pretty fast if we find it meaningless to get a drink of water every few days.
One last question: why did you confine yourself to a single meaning? Might you have many meanings, the consequences of your acts unknowable by you? OK, that was two questions, but they're asking the same thing.
unfortunately...he does believe your life john... is meaningless...my life is meaningless...all life is meaningless..!!! mike made this very clear during our rather disturbing conversation two nights ago...a most upsetting conversation...keeping me up all night...over and over in my head i heard his words... "yes i believe your life is meaningless"
however... it only makes sense when one chooses..to be alone... chooses unhappiness and has no connect with the past...or future... for mike this is it... nothing more... no love... no family... nothing... i suppose... it would be easier...and more comforting to think...that all life is meaninless...if i felt i was meaningless...
the funny thing is... mike lives life...meaningful.. compassionately... loving and kind... go figure...!!!
Whatever. I really don't care if your life has meaning or not, ya bloody wanker. (I've been hanging around the Brits)
Seems to me that the whole meaning of your life is to convince others that it has no meaning.
I get it! Your life has no meaning. So stop blogging, stop facebooking, stop twittering, and stop telling others that their lives have no meaning because that would mean that you think your life is so meaningful that you have the right to tell someone else how meaningless their life is.
If your life has no meaning, by what authority do you tell others about theirs?
You are full of shit, MCARP, and that is why we all love you.
Mindovermary
Sorry to double post, but I am reminded of that great Woody Allen joke. Woody's been taken to a shrink by his parents. The shrink asks the childhood Woody why he's so depressed and Woody replies that the universe is expanding and that means that everything will end. The shrink says to the kid that the sun will blow up and destroy the earth long before the universe ends. Woody says, "great! something else to worry about!"
Cracks me up.
blogblah
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