the true meaning of life

[Terxpahseyton]

Some think meaning lies in self-examination.
I am sure there is value in self-examination. The issue is just to realize what "self" means or in other words what "you" even are.
Because what you are is not a reflection of the meaning you have constructed. That is just the ghost of your delusional consciousness - the product of your brain emitting chemicals which make you feel and think in a way kinda adapted to your traditional environment. Those provide no truth - only instincts, only flashes of directions as your dog gets them.
What you are is a reaction of chemical compounds moving totally beyond your ideas.
If you try to catch what you are by ideas you are chasing ghosts.
All you got is experience and the experience of how your experience changes in accordance to inner or exterior stimuli - work with that - learn from that. This is your calling.
Anything else IMO fits the definition of insanity.

 

[warpus]

There are many ways to find meaning in almost everything. If I want to get meaning out of a painting, I can look at it from the perspective of the way painting evolved as an art form. I can analyze the patterns in cubist artwork with math and devise formulas. I can analyze how the painting makes me feel by attaching electrodes to my brain. I can meditate while taking in the beauty of the painting and gain an emotional meaning that can't be easily put into words. I can analyze the frequency of the light that bounces off the painting before hitting my retina. I can analyze the tools used to paint it and their effectiveness. I can analyze the texture and find more meaning there.

Life is full of various objects and events, and you can analyze most of them using a crazy variety of tools and approaches. Items and events come together and form larger meta-events, which can be analyzed using a variety of tools on that level still. Take that to a couple levels and life becomes a complex intervowen web of meanings, gained from various sources using various tools at various times and stages of personal, emotional, social, spiritual, physical, and whatever else development.

That is all on top to your personality changing and maturing as you age - with which come new priorities as old ones are dropped. The more experiences in life you go through, the more you learn, the more complex your sense of meaning of it all will be.

So how can you ask about the true meaning of life? Everyone is living through their own first person adventure game, we've all got different priorities, different tools, different upbringings, have learned different lessons, are at different stages in our lives, our webs of meaning might be similar in general structure, but the details will be undeniably different.

And how could you ever describe such a web in one sentence? You can't. If you could life would be incredibly simple and it wouldn't be worth writing so many paragraphs about.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

You well describe the myriad of ways life offers meaning - and then ask me how I can ask for THE meaning of life?
I must ask - did you read the OP? What did you think of it?
I ask for the meaning of life exactly because I agree with you that it can't be articulated. More - I wanted to succinctly explain why it can't be articulated and what it in abstract truly is so that the individual can look at that abstraction, learn from it and peruse what meaning actually is for said individual.
Even a lot more - I wanted to demonstrate that meaning is everywhere and nowhere - that every single one of us has all the meaning of the world at his or her fingertips - as long as this person chooses to see it.
Finally - I wanted to demonstrate that we can actually truly choose what meaning the world holds for us. That choice knows limits, don't get me wrong. We are human creatures after all. But those limits know enough room for everyone within reasonable limits, within which we are incredibly awesomely empowered like that. It just requires effort to do so. No more.

Or to quote a figure relateable to the American audience:

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be”
- Abraham Lincoln

 

[Snorrius]

That is one of the shortest treatises on the subject of the meaning of life I've ever read.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I take that as a compliment.

 

[Borachio]

I find meaning in forgetting myself and remembering others.

 

[Cutlass]

Life doesn't have a meaning. It just is. Make of it what you will, or what you can. But don't think that it actually means anything.

 

[classical_hero]

We were made to serve God.

 

[Snorrius]

We were made to serve God.

Even if we were, we have broke this contract for good.

 

[Farm Boy]

Forty-two.

 

[Zack]

Going 12-0 in arena.

 

[Perfection]

We were made to serve God.

Why does God want servants?

 

[Borachio]

Because he's an idle so and so?

Or maybe because he's very old, and decrepit?

 

[strijder20]

He's certainly a narcissist, creating beings to worship him.

 

[Farm Boy]

I don't think that is the direction of the need/want CH was expressing, but it's easier to comment on his meaning of life rather than an observation of your own, eh?

 

[strijder20]

I don't think that is the direction of the need/want CH was expressing, but it's easier to comment on his meaning of life rather than an observation of your own, eh?

Even if we would be created by 'God', I think it'd still be more meaningful to not serve him than to do so.

My view on the meaning of life has already been stated:

Life doesn't have a meaning. It just is. Make of it what you will, or what you can. But don't think that it actually means anything.

There is no proof to it, but it seems the most likely one to me.

 

[Borachio]

Isn't it natural to ask, and don't most people at some stage ask:

"What's it all about? What am I doing here?"

*in a waily, whiny tone of voice*

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

We were made to serve God.

It's a cookbook!

 

[Cutlass]

It's a cookbook!

God eats people!

 

[potatokiosk]

No, we eat God.