Life Question

[Orange]

Why should we do anything in life if life is irrelevant and there is just emptiness? 

 

[-nbolt-]

irrelevance implies that there is relevance. true emptiness (nonduality) doesn't imply either. it is your ego that is projecting this negative feeling of meaninglessness. meaninglessness only has value when there is the underlying assumption that other meaningful things also exist. if you take away the whole conceptual paradigm, life becomes very free.

Edited August 18, 2016 by saiko

[Eelco1981]

@Orange Here is your answer: Rupert Spira - The True Goals of Life

 

[egoeimai]

@Eelco1981  who is hurt,is his best video.

 

[J. M. Wigglesworth]

6 hours ago, Orange said:

Why should we do anything in life

 

But you're already doing things. You're still doing things. Are you literally doing nothing right now? Are you the donkey from the parable who doesn't know whether to drink or eat and plans to die of doing nothing? We don't have to do anything. Should is not must but merely an inclination. Welcome to the universe. This is how it works.

 

6 hours ago, Orange said:

life is irrelevant

Irrelevant to what? To the agony of a tortured soul? Try again.

 

6 hours ago, Orange said:

there is just emptiness?

Yes there is emptiness. There is also form. There is also the divine. You've got 1 for 3. Or is it 1 for one because they are one and the same? Try reconstructing your perception of reality.

 

TL; DR: Ask a higher quality of question. A question is a quest. This seems like a shitty quest to go on that won't really lead you to anything that would satisfy you on any level except for the part of your ego that is validated by you expressing of how bleak and empty the world is. 

[Orange]

11 minutes ago, J. M. Wigglesworth said:

But you're already doing things. You're still doing things. Are you literally doing nothing right now? Are you the donkey from the parable who doesn't know whether to drink or eat and plans to die of doing nothing? We don't have to do anything. Should is not must but merely an inclination. Welcome to the universe. This is how it works.

 

Irrelevant to what? To the agony of a tortured soul? Try again.

 

Yes there is emptiness. There is also form. There is also the divine. You've got 1 for 3. Or is it 1 for one because they are one and the same? Try reconstructing your perception of reality.

 

TL; DR: Ask a higher quality of question. A question is a quest. This seems like a shitty quest to go on that won't really lead you to anything that would satisfy you on any level except for the part of your ego that is validated by you expressing of how bleak and empty the world is. 

To sum up, you're asking me to find my own truth here right? To accept that reality is empty and find how I fit in that emptiness?

[J. M. Wigglesworth]

@Orange

Not really. I'm telling you that your current line of inquiry isn't going to get you what you want. It's a dead-end. Give up on it and try a different approach. The world of self-dev and spirituality is immense. There are many paths and many traps. You are in a trap. It's a trap because you won't go any further if you insist on sticking with it.

There is emptiness in life. So what? There are also penguins. Are you disillusioned knowing there are penguins in the universe. Will you fixate on penguins to the bitter end and become jaded because of their horrid flippers and awkward squawking?

Or will you realize something? Something like this:

I'm here. Reality is here as well. Some parts of reality make me uncomfortable because my brain is not wired to accept reality unconditionally. Oh well. Oh fucking well. Ooh look! I'm here and I'm uncomfortable. Oh well. Let me just enjoy the moment and take steps to ensure that I can deepen my enjoyment of the moment. 

 

In case I wasn't clear. You're are focusing on one aspect of reality. You've somehow become more aware of it and are fixating on it. You are uncomfortable with it and you are making a problem of it. But there is no problem. There never was and there never will. Stop making the problem and start enjoying yourself right now. 

[Orange]

2 hours ago, J. M. Wigglesworth said:

@Orange

Not really. I'm telling you that your current line of inquiry isn't going to get you what you want. It's a dead-end. Give up on it and try a different approach. The world of self-dev and spirituality is immense. There are many paths and many traps. You are in a trap. It's a trap because you won't go any further if you insist on sticking with it.

There is emptiness in life. So what? There are also penguins. Are you disillusioned knowing there are penguins in the universe. Will you fixate on penguins to the bitter end and become jaded because of their horrid flippers and awkward squawking?

Or will you realize something? Something like this:

I'm here. Reality is here as well. Some parts of reality make me uncomfortable because my brain is not wired to accept reality unconditionally. Oh well. Oh fucking well. Ooh look! I'm here and I'm uncomfortable. Oh well. Let me just enjoy the moment and take steps to ensure that I can deepen my enjoyment of the moment. 

 

In case I wasn't clear. You're are focusing on one aspect of reality. You've somehow become more aware of it and are fixating on it. You are uncomfortable with it and you are making a problem of it. But there is no problem. There never was and there never will. Stop making the problem and start enjoying yourself right now. 

Wow, I really like your answer. Thank you wise cat. I wish i could like your post again  twice.

 

PS. I don't mind the penguins, it's cool. 

Edited August 19, 2016 by Orange

[Matthew Lamot]

11 hours ago, Orange said:

Why should we do anything in life if life is irrelevant and there is just emptiness? 

 

Emptiness is a Buddhist state experience.  It is meant to describe a part of a process of stages of meditation absorption.  It has nothing to do with the nature of life, or reality, and the lay person who is not interested in enlightenment or interested in fitting this description into its proper context need not bother thinking about such things.

FWIW, there are stages beyond emptiness.  Even in the Buddhist tradition.  Nothingness is the Absolute "state" and is where "God" resides.  But God is not just nothingness.  If you had exposure to the correct information you would know that God also manifests.  God manifests a vibration that projects itself outward in the form of archtypes known as the collective unconscious.

You are free to live in the collective unconscious, and all that experience has to offer you.  It is not "empty" it can be enjoyable.  Its highest condition is "Self-Actualization" and an ok life can be made there.

Further to that is Self Realization, a condition where one is free from the collective archtypes and where one is living their true nature.  This is not for everyone, and not everyone will get there either.  But either way, none of this manifest life is "empty".  You just have a misguided perspective.

[FindingPeace]

20 hours ago, Orange said:

Why should we do anything in life if life is irrelevant and there is just emptiness? 

'Irrelevant' and 'emptiness'. You're still looking at reality from the paradigm of evaluation. Both those terms are 'negative' evaluations. 'Emptiness' implies a 'fullness'. 'Irelevant' implies a relevence. Just suppose that there were no evaluations. That everything was just as it is. No meaning or value. Just 'being'. Then think about your question again.

In any case, who said that life was irrelevant and empty?

If you remove all judgments and evaluations then you are free to live life however you want. Whether that be living in a cave meditating, or living the high-life of success and achievement. There are no rules, no conventions or protocol. No positive or negative evaluations to interfere with you.

So why should we do anything in life? Why not?

[Pav]

Is there are point to listening to music or watching a nice sunset? Do children play for some ulterior purpose?

The best things in life are pointless.

Your whole life can be like this, if only you'll stop using the present moment for some means other than itself.

[MarcusJ]

@Eelco1981 Excellent video explanation of why we have a life.

[Christian]

The fact that life is emptiness is in itself meaningless. There is no negativity attached to it. Life has no point and that is how it should be because that is how life is in direct experience. There is no need to change reality and in fact you can't. You are an illusion. Take a leap of faith and create an actual experience of this and find your true self.. And you will not need to answer this question.

 

[Orange]

2 hours ago, Christian said:

 Take a leap of faith and create an actual experience of this and find your true self.. And you will not need to answer this question.

 

How do you take the leap of faith?  How do you find your true self?

Is it doing enlightenment you mean?

[Key Elements]

On 18/08/2016 at 11:48 PM, Orange said:

Why should we do anything in life if life is irrelevant and there is just emptiness? 

 

That's the beauty of it. It's up to "you" on how "you" want to tell your story.  "You" have a choice. "You" could leave it empty. I'm a painter. I could decide to leave my canvas board empty, or I could paint a beautiful picture with a beautiful message. I rather pick the latter. 

[Christian]

@Orange

34 minutes ago, Orange said:

How do you take the leap of faith?  How do you find your true self?

Is it doing enlightenment you mean?

To take the leap of faith, you shall simply surrender to reality. When I say reality, I mean everything you are aware of right now; taste, sound, touch, feelings, thoughts, etc. Everything in your experience and you will encounter more of your true self.

The answer to the second question is very tricky. It takes a lot of work to find your true self because we all have this life story that is a complete illusion which separates us from our true self. Your true self is everything and nothing. This true self is only accessible in direct experience and it takes time to develop the awareness level to actually realize it.. One  way which can help you is self inquiry - basically questioning what you think you are and looking for experiential answers. Not answers that you have been told by society that you are this body/mind. Look for an answer that is verifiable in your awareness and you will get to enlightenment after probably 1000 hours - maybe more or less. It is different for everyone.

Even after all of this work, there is still a lot of work left to do in terms of getting rid of the ego. The ego will still be present within you and your job is now to dismantle your ego for the rest of your life. If you do that, you will be so happy that describing it will be an understatement.. 

And btw, it is enlightenment work that I am referring to when I talk about how to find your true self

Good luck

[abrakamowse]

On 8/18/2016 at 2:18 PM, Orange said:

Why should we do anything in life if life is irrelevant and there is just emptiness? 

 

Because there's no choice?

[Robert66]

As an experiment, maybe you should try to do absolutely nothing until you can't do it anymore, then reason why you wanted to do it.  No food, movement, thoughts, breath, heart beat, sleep. etc.  Then you might find your reasons for doing and living.

[MIARIVEL]

@Orange Life is what you make it & we were given it as a gift. Think of it as taking the risk to fall in love, we are not guaranteed that the relationship or love will last with that one person but we take a leap of faith and take the chance anyway. The same with life, we have so much opportunity to experience so many beautiful things while were here, why not make the most out of it? 

We all have our moments where we feel like everything around us is crap and it won't get better so what the hell is the point. But of course life will seem crap and nothing will ever get better for you until you make the decision that you are going to do everything you can to make your life the best one ever. Tough times are here to test our character and help us grow, we need them in order to learn from our mistakes and what we don't want, we have the choice to be better, create better and this isn't always easy, but I do promise you.. if you change your mindset to a positive outlook on life... it will be worth it.