Two absolutely opposite schools about the meaning of life

[Ivan Dimi]

It's funny, I recently realized that there are basically two main schools teaching about the meaning of life. The funny thing they are the complete opposite and one if it is false:

- the achievement oriented - almost all my life the driven force for me in life & career was this notion that I should achieve something greater than the self, to leave great legacy, serving as much as possible to a great noble heroic life purpose. This was so obvious for me that I never doubt it, I thought that's the human nature, that's evolution and it is the only possible greater meaning of life. Being 35 now after realizing some of my dreams personally and careerwise I've got how wrong I was. The achievement oriented meaning of life isn't somehow basic human core nature, but rather a construct if the society (especially the western one) to serve to itself. It is so obvious but i never look it that way, a materialist  society / culture has to brainwash us to believe that way, it is a survival mechanism of the culture! This materialistic kind of meaning of life is not only super wrong but the complete opposite of the true one!

- the second school is the spiritual one. Here a quote of Alan Watts that says it all: The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.

Edited January 16, 2022 by Ivan Dimi

[Vincent S]

Thanks for sharing ???

This is by far the best video ever made.  
Its so simple yet so easy to miss.   
Its so fitting to your post. Highly recommend watching it ✨?  
 

 

[LastThursday]

Neither is false. It's just a matter of which way you're looking. Achievement is looking to the future. Being alive is just looking at the present. It's like sitting on a train, the future is rushing towards you and you're going somewhere, but if you close your eyes you don't feel like you're moving at all. You could also look towards the past and see how much has changed - and this is also the source of your identity and history.

[Tim R]

5 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

It's like sitting on a train, the future is rushing towards you and you're going somewhere, but if you close your eyes you don't feel like you're moving at all.

Nice analogy!

[puporing]

Also from Osho: https://youtu.be/w8jLSKW_yBw 

 

[Preety_India]

2 hours ago, Ivan Dimi said:

- the second school is the spiritual one. Here a quote of Alan Watts that says it all: The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.

Thank you so much for sharing. This made so much sense. 

 

[Space Lizard]

Yes. Becoming vs. Being. Progressivism vs. Traditionalism. It's a profound divide in the human psyche. It has gotten way out of balance in the modern age, with its emphasis on achievement, improving yourself and fixing the world. I think the next age will be much more conservative, as we re-learn how to value being again instead of always being on the hamster wheel of becoming.

[BipolarGrowth]

There is no meaning to life other than the one you decide fits. 

[Windappreciator]

4 minutes ago, BipolarGrowth said:

There is no meaning to life other than the one you decide fits. 

wouldn't that make it the meaning of life

[BipolarGrowth]

15 minutes ago, Windappreciator said:

wouldn't that make it the meaning of life

Of course?? The point is you decide the meaning. 

[Windappreciator]

3 minutes ago, BipolarGrowth said:

Of course?? The point is you decide the meaning. 

so that the meaning then

[Ivan Dimi]

4 hours ago, BipolarGrowth said:

There is no meaning to life other than the one you decide fits. 

That's is exactly what the materialistic society propagandize & it is a huge trap. The notion that you can create any real truthful meaning is absurd, because that thing 'YOU' is a social cultural constructed ego, shaped in a way to serve a practical agenda or better to ensure the survival of the given society. An ego can not create any true meaning, because the ego itself isn't true. 

Life can have only one meaning > to be / to live, everything else is a game / pyramid scheme / house of cards / called it as you like. And if you think about it, all spiritual teachers pointed that same direction Buddha, Jesus... and even the current ones Alan Watts, Eckhart Tolle, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Sadhguru... everyone repeating the same thing over and over again. But it cannot be thought through, it can only be realized. Here a quote of Jim Carrey realizing the same thing: “I wish everyone could get rich and famous and everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that's not the answer.”

[puporing]

4 minutes ago, Ivan Dimi said:

“I wish everyone could get rich and famous and everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that's not the answer.”

Yes often this is what can push one into the 'dark night of the soul', is what I feel pushed some rich and famous folks to suicide. 

[Ivan Dimi]

6 hours ago, puporing said:

Also from Osho: https://youtu.be/w8jLSKW_yBw 

 

8 hours ago, Vincent S said:

Thanks for sharing ???

This is by far the best video ever made.  
Its so simple yet so easy to miss.   
Its so fitting to your post. Highly recommend watching it ✨?  
 

 

Yes, it's funny. they all are saying exactly the same thing for centuries over and over again . But for us as western culture brainwashed creatures with huge egos is very hard to grasp it. I guess this simple truth isn't sexy enough for our little egos  I am really shocked how much brainwashing is going on almost in any culture.

Edited January 17, 2022 by Ivan Dimi

[The0Self]

13 hours ago, Windappreciator said:

so that the meaning then

"What is the meaning of life?" along with basically all other deep existential questions, have within them false assumptions. The question assumes that there is a meaning of life.

[Ivan Dimi]

18 hours ago, Space Lizard said:

Yes. Becoming vs. Being. Progressivism vs. Traditionalism. It's a profound divide in the human psyche. It has gotten way out of balance in the modern age, with its emphasis on achievement, improving yourself and fixing the world. I think the next age will be much more conservative, as we re-learn how to value being again instead of always being on the hamster wheel of becoming.

Yep, i hope this new age is coming soon I wouldn't even call it conservative, it is like the only true way to live, the other is a constant future projection of the ego, a projection that doesn't exist and a future that's imaginary. So for me that isn't more conservative, but rather closer to the truth. 

[Space Lizard]

26 minutes ago, Ivan Dimi said:

Yep, i hope this new age is coming soon I wouldn't even call it conservative, it is like the only true way to live, the other is a constant future projection of the ego, a projection that doesn't exist and a future that's imaginary. So for me that isn't more conservative, but rather closer to the truth. 

Yes, that's a great way to put it. The Religion of Becoming/Progress is all about projecting one's ego into imaginary futures, rather than living in the here and now. Its basic values are Egotism and Hubris--we can be whatever we want to be, and bend the world to our wills to please our egos without limits; we are gods. I think this age of hubris ends when we encounter the limits of this worldview--huge environmental problems, natural disasters, resources shortages, technological apocalypse, societal breakdown or other catastrophes that demonstrate how unlike gods we actually are. Hard to say when this will happen, but I see signs of it already.

[Ivan Dimi]

4 minutes ago, Space Lizard said:

Yes, that's a great I think this age of hubris ends when we encounter the limits of this worldview--huge environmental problems, natural disasters, resources shortages, technological apocalypse, societal breakdown or other catastrophes that demonstrate how unlike gods we actually are. Hard to say when this will happen, but I see signs of it already.

I can add additional to the environmental & ecological devastation the demage we are causing  to our minds. I am leaving in Switzerland, one of the richest countries in the world and met so many young unhappy people with depression, burnouts etc. It doesn't actually make any sense to be that way,  it is absurd.

[Nahm]

@Ivan Dimi

Amen. 

[peanutspathtotruth]

@Ivan Dimi I feel that there is a natural drive of exploration and "forwardness" in reality that is the source of all this beauty we call existence. Probably it is the burning of that internal flame which is then filtered by an inaccurate view of reality (=ego), which creates all the trouble.

But let's say we would collectively shift our focus unto the immediacy of experience (which I agree should be our focus now) and realize the ever present perfection of what we are - collective awakening - I think there would be a STRONG progressive movement coming from self-recognized Truth. That which is the ego's last barrier can be a healthy expression of embodied consciousness. Of course, this would look vastly different from what progress means today. It could mean technology merging with nature without any sort of selfish agenda behind it, other than celebrating unity of all existence. Imagine what would be possible... 

This is just a perspective to say: let's not demonize the general tendency of progressive movement, but be clear that the specific way in which it happens is a toxic and neurotic way of a confused collective consciousness which just wants to know itself. This takes away the guilt, shame and division and creates compassion for what is happening. It's just a thought, but I think even though this extreme focus on accomplishment and growth has been a great pain, it can certainly be of great use once we are awakened as a species (whenever that may be) - I think we would be able to co-create heaven on earth in no time