To take life seriously or not

[Someone here]

Do you think of life as a serious matter or something to be enjoyed lightly?  Are you serious about life? Should you be? Or do you think of it for fun? 

What's your attitude towards life? 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Someone here

[Khan 0]

24 minutes ago, Someone here said:

Do you think of life as a serious matter or something to be enjoyed lightly?  Are you serious about life? Should you be? Or do you think of it for fun? 

What's your attitude towards life? 

Have fun, love everything. Best thing is the love, which is the creating reason of so world, creation or duality. And relax. 

[Someone here]

25 minutes ago, Judy2 said:

Life can be so much fun and freedom that it seems serious. And when you get serious enough about life, you reach a point where you can't help but laugh

 

4 minutes ago, Khan 0 said:

Have fun, love everything. Best thing is the love, which is the creating reason of so world, creation or duality. And relax. 

I think balance is key. 

[softlyblossoming]

I try to take life as unseriously as I can, but without acting on the urges/impulses that arise as a result of taking this attitude. Basically I try to act like it is a serious affair, but with an attitude that it isn't.

Edited January 3, 2022 by softlyblossoming

[Tim R]

I like Alan Watts' take on this very much; life shouldn't be treated seriously, but sincerely.

[vizual]

You take life seriously without letting life take you over. If you don’t take it seriously your life is meaningless. A life aimed toward hedonism is empty, just drifting from one pleasurable experience to the next. That’s not a life worth living, you have to make use of your capabilities that have been gifted to you. At least try.

[Khan 0]

19 minutes ago, Someone here said:

24 minutes ago, Khan 0 said:

 

I think balance is key. 

This includes effort. Effortlessness is the key. Just love it and let it go. Thats all. 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Khan 0

[Tim R]

12 minutes ago, softlyblossoming said:

I'm just glad I'm a native English speaker and that this worked the magic on me that, I assume, Mr. Watts intended when he said it.

@softlyblossoming You should be glad! I'm not a native English speaker (I'm German) and I recently found one of Alans books (it was of course translated into German) in a small book store in my town. In the introduction, they translated his idea of "living sincerely instead of seriously" as 

"das Leben ehrlich führen, statt ernst", which loses the meaning of "sincerely". "Ehrlich" means "honest/-ly", but a better translation would be "aufrichtig". 

Alan Watts was an absolute genius with words, a true poet of mysticism. 

[softlyblossoming]

10 minutes ago, vizual said:

You take life seriously without letting life take you over. If you don’t take it seriously your life is meaningless. A life aimed toward hedonism is empty, just drifting from one pleasurable experience to the next. That’s not a life worth living, you have to make use of your capabilities that have been gifted to you. At least try.

@vizual I think I get what you're saying — be motivated for goals that, or take actions that, provide lasting fullfilment, right?

But ultimately, what is there other than hedonism? Like what if even seemingly anti-hedonistic lifestyles come from a desire to be happy (because what else are desires ever really for?)? Can you really escape the desire to be happy, or is doing that a cleverly disguised desire to be happy? Intelligent hedonism is still hedonism, surely.

I feel like these meanings of life are roadblocks to happiness even greater than what they provide. Like imagine being so happy you don't have to try to be good any more. Imagine not being bothered by meaninglessness. Imagine a life so good you don't need a reason or purpose to live it. Imagine not needing to exert any effort to feel content. What do you think, sounds pretty good eh?

[Tim R]

@Someone here

1 hour ago, Someone here said:

Are you serious about life? Should you be?

Seriousness means regarding life in a context of a constantly looming, possible disaster. 

What is this "disaster"? See most people don't even really know an answer to that when you start pushing them a bit. "What's the worst thing that can happen?", you ask them.

Well, in some way or other, the answer will always be "death". Not necessarily only physical death, but the death of some part with which we're identified (ego). Wether it's our health, our business, our money, our status, our sanity, whatever. 

So long as we really cling to these things, we're serious. Because we are constantly afraid of the possibility of losing these things, losing ourselves. 

 

We can even be serious about spirituality, which... is really not such a good idea, you know. Because being serious about spirituality instead of sincere means that we have created a spiritual ego. 

Some people will tell you that for example enlightenment is a serious matter. And in a way that's true, because you will lose yourself, so in that sense, so long as there's a "you" to lose something (including itself), you are being serious. But once you realize that there is nothing and nobody to be lost! Well. See if you're still going to be "serious". 

Which is why enlightenment is ultimately not serious at all. And don't you let people fool you into believing otherwise

[Someone here]

@Tim R

31 minutes ago, Tim R said:

@Someone here

Seriousness means regarding life in a context of a constantly looming, possible disaster. 

What is this "disaster"? See most people don't even really know an answer to that when you start pushing them a bit. "What's the worst thing that can happen?", you ask them.

Well, in some way or other, the answer will always be "death". Not necessarily only physical death, but the death of some part with which we're identified (ego). Wether it's our health, our business, our money, our status, our sanity, whatever. 

So long as we really cling to these things, we're serious. Because we are constantly afraid of the possibility of losing these things, losing ourselves. 

 

We can even be serious about spirituality, which... is really not such a good idea, you know. Because being serious about spirituality instead of sincere means that we have created a spiritual ego. 

Some people will tell you that for example enlightenment is a serious matter. And in a way that's true, because you will lose yourself, so in that sense, so long as there's a "you" to lose something (including itself), you are being serious. But once you realize that there is nothing and nobody to be lost! Well. See if you're still going to be "serious". 

Which is why enlightenment is ultimately not serious at all. And don't you let people fool you into believing otherwise

Great reply. Thanks for sharing. 

[Nahm]

Spend just one single entire day for anyone & everyone else, with no self serving motive or intention whatsoever, and the experiential difference between seriousness and authentic expression is made clear. As usual, only the direct experience will do. 

[The0Self]

Insincerely Unserious ->

Sincerely Serious ->

Sincerely Unserious. ? 

[gettoefl]

what i do i take serious, what you do i just enjoy

[happyhappy]

4 hours ago, Judy2 said:

Life can be so much fun and freedom that it seems serious. And when you get serious enough about life, you reach a point where you can't help but laugh

+1

[SQAAD]

If you take life too seriously you will suffer enormously because many many things won't go your way. 

If you don't take life seriously at all then again you will be having problems stemming from your lack of commitment and involvement. 

Personally I don't take my life too seriously. Its very short. Full of things I cannot control. I know it's ending soon so I put it in proper context. 

I take my life seriously enough to care for it but not too much that I freak out about it. I am always ready for cancer and whatever else bs because that's life. You may have to deal with many unpleasant things no matter what. I can't take the brutality of life too seriously otherwise I start losing my mind. 

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by SQAAD

[BipolarGrowth]

Take taking life unseriously incredibly seriously. When you’re fapping, smoking weed and listening to music, or talking to a good friend, spirituality and Truth “should”leave you for no longer than five minutes and “should” be something you are directly practicing with intent in every other time than those times where you really need to “take a chill pill” FOR the sake of being able to practice better

Edited January 3, 2022 by BipolarGrowth

[Breakingthewall]

serious in the sense that life tests you, there are times when you have to give it your all, or you get stuck in a dead end and the game can get very unpleasant. not very serious in the sense that deep down it doesn't matter. it's a serious game, but a game

[StarStruck]

It shouldn't be an either or question. Personally I try to balance between work and play. 

From a productivity standpoint you need both. Same counts for the existential standpoint. 

The difficult part is to find the right balance between seriousness and non seriousness. I'm definite somebody who leans towards the seriousness. The way to solve that is to get in touch with the inner child.