What is the best thing to work towards in this life?

[Shodburrito]

All the inner work we do as well as practical self-help and goals that are pursued are manifestations of what one believes is "best" for themselves. As people get older they develop new desires and perspectives on life which replace old ones. 

Let me give an obvious example of what I am trying to state: A person making $60,000 a year quits and gets a new job making $100,000 a year because of the increased quality of life they believe they will have because of the new, higher-paying job. They made that decision because they thought it was better.

Now let's take this concept and apply it to self-help: A person buys a new fancy self-help book that just came out and reads it. He found practical advice in the book and now changes his perspective and habits because of it. In this example, the person not only bought the book and read it, but also attempted to change their perspective and habits because simply put they believed that doing these things was better.

What I am trying to get at is a very simple concept yet I don't see people state it this way. Everyone does anything at all because they think doing so is better; meaning their experience of their existence will improve. This includes wanting anything, pursuing a physical goal, changing one's perspective, believing something, learning something, loving something, or literally doing anything at all.

 

Here is what I am getting at. If our lives are all about improving our experience of existence, should we not orient ourselves toward pursuing what is best?

The question then becomes: What is best? A lot of people would start with having infinite power so we will grant that. Then they would probably create a bunch of money, fame, sex, a good family, whatever. But this is obviously just a limitation because why exist as a slave to these things, needing them to be happy? What if you could be happy without these things, wouldn't you fear losing them? So now imagine an existence always feeling the same way as those things would make you feel. But again don't limit yourself, now create the best pleasure and bliss forever, that never ends and can never be taken from you.

Wait a second... now what's the point of doing anything at all? Everything that I could experience, perhaps a sunset, tv, nature, music, it all becomes arbitrary. These things would no longer be of value to me because I have removed myself from the limitations of needing them to improve my experience of life. Would there even exist a concept of "something better" because anything I could experience, even physical torture, I could choose to enjoy infinitely? What then would be the point of doing anything? To me, the answer seems that there wouldn't be. Only... if of course you could be satisfied. Think about it, if I could create the best thing I could imagine, why could I not just imagine something better? Then create that, then imagine something better, and so on for infinity. So paradoxically, would I be infinitely bored or satisfied forever?

 

But what does this have to do with us? Obviously, I do not have infinite power right now. But yet, I am still trying to improve my existence and chase after whatever I think is "better". In an infinitely imaginative scenario, does that not entail giving up all my wants and just loving that which I am experiencing right now? Because by definition, wanting a different experience than now limits my enjoyment of existence to that experience. But this requires me to be able to love everything infinitely in the first place. If I am being honest it is very difficult to just sit down and love doing nothing for even an hour... but I can't imagine this for a week, a year, or for eternity. I don't feel like I have the capability of loving everything, unless that means me meditating in a cave for 20 years. What if meditating in a cave and detaching from all my desires isn't actually the route to infinite love? How would I know?  But what if I'm fooling myself and that isn't possible for me in this life? Shouldn't I be more realistic with my goals and pursue things that seem achievable? What do you think is best?

Edited July 12, 2023 by Shodburrito

[Holykael]

God doesn't do anything with infinite power, just generates bliss. I don't understand why even create universes, so pointless, but the fool loves suffering

[Hojo]

I think the best thing to do is find inner peace asap then everything else is easy street

[hyruga]

Other than awakening stuff, there is no best thing to do in life. You mind will always seek something else. 

Say you are a good seller of electronics. You earn quite a lot. Then your friend will tell you electronics market is based on marketing and tech. If your marketing and tech failed, the items won't sell very well so the market is unpredictable. Take Nokia or Blackberry for example, their market crashed after they lost their edge. Who's going to say that other brands like Sharp or Sony won't lose this edge? They already did!

Then your friend tells you to get into the food business. He said everyone needs to eat and if you do well, you can use the same recipe and expands into several outlets and collects money every month. You don't have to worry much about market cycle.

McDonald easily collects more than 10k a day per outlet. Does it mean food business is better?

So which is the best thing to work towards in life? You have to decide for yourself.

Edited July 12, 2023 by hyruga

[Ramanujan]

@Shodburrito what is the name of the guy in your pfp

[Shodburrito]

@Ramanujan Fyodor Dostoevsky

 

[Leo Gura]

I can almost certainly promise you that sitting and doing nothing for years is not what's best for you.

It's quite simple. What's best for you is to identify your top five values and devote the majority of your life working towards them. This will produce the maximum happy life. If one of your top 5 values is doing nothing, only then is that something you should pursue.

It is a mistake to pursue the doing of nothing just because you are copying someone else you read about.

The reason I do self-help is because one of my top values is to improve myself.

Edited July 13, 2023 by Leo Gura

[cetus]

9 hours ago, Shodburrito said:

But what if I'm fooling myself and that isn't possible for me in this life? Shouldn't I be more realistic with my goals and pursue things that seem achievable? What do you think is best?

Do whatever comes most naturally and you will never regret it.

[Sugarcoat]

Oh where to start…

 

First of all. You are not the only driver in your life trying to do the best for you. There is intelligence at work trying to do its best for you in each and every moment but people are worried about doing it all themselves

Edited July 13, 2023 by Sugarcoat