What is the point of living if we are going to die?

[arlin]

I have been thinking about this a while. And i thought that it a an interesting question, you kniw? J wonder why i did not bother asking it before. 

Please don't throw spiritual stuff in here. I am just a 20 year old and i am not interested in the nature of reality or things like that. I say this because i know people here will come and say things like: "Wel the ego.." or "well god.." and such and such.

I would like to discuss this topic as normal as possible, like we are friends having an interesting discussion and nt talk about abstract stuff.

One answer could be "to just live" but i find this dissadisfying as it does not give meaning to my life. 

[Eph75]

So what you want to hear is that living is meaningless. Not in a sense that it's useless in any way, but it has "no meaning". That's not very inspiring is it, especially when we're indoctrinated that there is supposed to be a meaning. Our existence here has no purpose, no meaning, it's just being. Our ability to be aware starts to look for a meaning so that there's something that we can pursue and fulfill so that we can get the reward of feeling "meaningful".

So the point of living is "just being".

When we accept "just being" we can awaken to it being the path to happiness/peace and the pursuit for that meaning that we previously were supposed to find, somewhere or in something, was actually the very thing that kept us miserable. 

But you didn't want to mix in spirituality. That's difficult, because that "meaning" is found within your spirituality.

Also, life having "no meaning" doesn't mean that you can't or shouldn't pursue achieving things. You can fill your "being" doing things that appear meaningful to you. If that helps you in your "being", that's all good. But we tend to do things for the wrong reasons, because we feel that we have to live up to something or match some external or internal expectations, and that makes "being" more difficult and oftentimes painful.

That's why it's so important to detach/let go of such attachments, so that we can "just be".

Edited February 14, 2020 by Eph75

[Hermaeus Mora]

if you do not want God and Ego some sort of Metaphysical logic on this issue

Then go check out how Marx interpreted history. which is related to Freedom (pre-history -> Main history)

I am not saying that I agree with him but he provides some idea about why we should keep going on and how to articulate this idea without referring God and so on.

Edited February 14, 2020 by Hermaeus Mora

[Preetom]

Finally good boy started to ask the right questions 

[arlin]

@Hermaeus Mora interesting, thanks.

53 minutes ago, Eph75 said:

Also, life having "no meaning" doesn't mean that you can't or shouldn't pursue achieving things

So, what do you do in your life? Are you content with "just being"? 

The reason i did not want to tali about spirituality is that often those people only talk and have no actual experience of what they are saying. 

Have you questioned thise things before? And was this conclusion actually helpfull to you? 

[erik8lrl]

It is quite simple, you can live, and you can die, so why not live? Death makes life meaningful; without it, you wouldn't need to make any choices or be afraid. But it is fear and loss that makes love so much stronger and beautiful. Life is so infinitely meaningless that you can give any meaning to it; it becomes infinitely meaningful at the same time. Why would you live life if you have infinite time? And why would you die if you have only 80 some years to live? It is perfectly designed so that love is experienced to its fullest. And experience, is why you exist, simply to experience existence, and it's infinite beauty.    

[Lento]

Because of love..

See my thread, and especially this reply;

20 hours ago, mandyjw said:

Love. 

Love of stories. God/You are a drama Queen and you love to create, infinite creates the finite. The whole creates fragments. 

My son just asked "Why is "stuff" a bad word to use in writing?" And I explained that it was nonspecific, and it's not satisfying when someone is too lazy to be descriptive in a story. Specifics and details makes life rich and colorful, they create endless possibilities. 

You are a character like a character in the alphabet. You don't make any sense by yourself, "unless you think you're I ), nor can you be specific, but together with the rest of the characters you can be part of a profound poem. Or something obscene written on a bathroom wall. Whatever you want. 

 

[Applegarden]

Whats the point of needing a point to live life? Whats the point of the point of needing a point  to live life? Whats the point of the point of the point of needing a point to live life? Life is beyond survival and therefore languages. Do you want to know or do you want to look for points?

[arlin]

1 hour ago, erik8lrl said:

It is quite simple, you can live, and you can die, so why not live? Death makes life meaningful; without it, you wouldn't need to make any choices or be afraid. But it is fear and loss that makes love so much stronger and beautiful. Life is so infinitely meaningless that you can give any meaning to it; it becomes infinitely meaningful at the same time. Why would you live life if you have infinite time? And why would you die if you have only 80 some years to live? It is perfectly designed so that love is experienced to its fullest. And experience, is why you exist, simply to experience existence, and it's infinite beauty.    

Uhmmm, those questions particularly the first part i found interesting. I understand that death makes life meaningfull, but, why am i here in the first place? Is it just random? Why do those questions bother me? Why do i need some special meaning to things? 

@Lento this is interesting. So i am part of the whole universe? To be fair, i feel quite limited and powerless. 

28 minutes ago, Applegarden said:

Whats the point of needing a point to live life? Whats the point of the point of needing a point  to live life? Whats the point of the point of the point of needing a point to live life? Life is beyond survival and therefore languages. Do you want to know or do you want to look for points?

I don't need spiritual woo woo answers or answers that are far too much complicated fo me who am only 20 years old. Only practical down to earth  answers. Otherswise everybody would just talk and conclude nothing. 

[wavydude]

One day you are going to die anyway so you basically got two choices :
1. You can just live your life and enjoy it while it last.
2. You can ponder on that question which according to some wise people for example Ramana Maharishi leads to death before death aka disidentification with false self aka the ultimate freedom. 

So whatever you feel like do that or maybe you can go for both 

[arlin]

@wavydude i am going to do some research about ramana maharishi. Thank you

[Eph75]

4 hours ago, arlin said:

@Hermaeus Mora interesting, thanks.

So, what do you do in your life? Are you content with "just being"? 

The reason i did not want to tali about spirituality is that often those people only talk and have no actual experience of what they are saying. 

Have you questioned thise things before? And was this conclusion actually helpfull to you? 

"Just being" can manifest in different ways. Not necessarily sitting in a cave, meditation om being nothing. I do have a normal life, I do normal stuff but focus on "being" changes the dynamics between "you" and "something". 

Being content with "just being" still means that you can do things. You can e.g. make a career and earn money but the things that hou choose to do are done because you can, not because you need to in order to fulfill some idea that is stuck in your head, in the society, the culture etc.

Yes I have, excessively, stuff like this is a journey and not a destination to reach, and yes it has literally completely transformed me and the life I live. 

[seeking_brilliance]

You might say we live to die. ?

[Nahm]

Help me with my suffering but don’t mention ignorance. 

[seeking_brilliance]

@arlin here's a relatively non spiritual answer..

If we didn't die, nothing would get refreshed. Old ideas would stagnate, wither, and rot. Death brings the possibility of a brighter future. We live, and die, for progress. The children inherit the earth. 

[Raw Nature]

@arlin purpose is self referential, so you look at the purpose of a human, or in this case just yourself, and then you begin to extrapolate purpose externally. 

My purpose is to help save the planet. 

I arose out of it. 

I will likely return to it when I'm dead. 

I am more the earth than I am human, so I look forward to returning home when the time is right. 

Earth is constantly creating species of all various shapes, sizes, characteristics and subsequent purposes. Some have damaging purposes, some have healing ones, some have constructive ones, some have mere consumption based ones, some have mere reproductive based tendencies, etc, etc.

Life, when the pieces are put together in the right order appear as obvious as ones reflection in the mirror, but if the mirror is broken or we never think to get a large enough mirror, we will never see that obvious picture of reality and think of it instead as something too complex to figure it out.

 

[LfcCharlie4]

If you want the simplest answer- 

To enjoy life and be happy. Life is meaningless and you give it it's meaning. 

If you want 4 series worth of good TV that could help answer this question while making you laugh, watch The Good Place on Netflix. 

[arlin]

1 hour ago, seeking_brilliance said:

@arlin here's a relatively non spiritual answer..

If we didn't die, nothing would get refreshed. Old ideas would stagnate, wither, and rot. Death brings the possibility of a brighter future. We live, and die, for progress. The children inherit the earth. 

Hum, it might be. I already considered this. 

 

@Raw Nature interesting purpose. 

 

59 minutes ago, LfcCharlie4 said:

If you want the simplest answer- 

To enjoy life and be happy. Life is meaningless and you give it it's meaning. 

If you want 4 series worth of good TV that could help answer this question while making you laugh, watch The Good Place on Netflix. 

Uhm interesting, i will check it out! 

 

@Eph75 @wavydude

[ajasatya]

@arlin There is no intrinsic meaning to life. And even if there were one, you'd rebel against it.

You're completely free to build your own meaning. It's impossible to pick the wrong meaning. You just gotta be aware of the consequences of your choices.

[Raw Nature]

@ajasatya You don't know that don't make stuff up.

We don't build our own meaning there's no logical basis for that.

Our cognitive syntax shares a symbiotic relationship with the syntax of reality, thus purpose is bound to the inferences derived in that loop.

No offense, its just a sensitive topic that I think warrants accurate or open minded responses rather than statements without merit.