In Search of Life and Its Meaning
What is the meaning of the life, why do we exist, what is the purpose are philosophical questions that often come to my mind every now and then. A question which has no definite answer or a question which can have several answers depending on our current circumstances, our background, personality and thinking.
There are so many things that life consists of and meaning of life often changes from time to time. A change in its meaning can be noticed whenever we we move from one phase of life to another, when we cross one barrier of life to reach another, our age and changing priorities seems to be responsible. Things that we want now or something that we may love now are often very different from what they used to be some time back.
So, one thing seems to be clear that life is a phenomena, a variable with ever changing values.
Why Sometimes Life Seems Meaningless
Our life can look meaningless at some point of life on one or more occasions, when we loose sight of our objectives, our goals, when we find that there is nothing new that we have to do. We do not find enough motivations which can keep us attracted to life.
Stagnation at any point in our life can make it seemingly meaningless. Stagnation or stillness doesn’t represent life and this happens when we reach a point where we see nothing new happening or challenging for us, we lose our interest in life and we feel as if life is tasteless, meaningless.
A stage where life looses its meaning can be reached when we have reached almost everywhere we wanted to take our self i.e., a highly successful profile. It can also mean that after reaching a most endeavored goal successfully, we find that it is not fascinating or we discover something which we least expected to be here.
A feeling of meaninglessness can also be felt in-between two tasks when we manage to complete one and another task is yet not decided or there are still no plans to start another task.
When we have nothing to do due to any reason (which can also mean laziness) we feel mentally exhausted and life seems meaningless to us.
What Is the meaning of the life ….. to be continued in …. next post about “How to make a meaningful life“.
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Tags: goal of life, life meaningless, meaning life, meaning of life, purpose of life, what is life, what is the meaning of life, what is the meaning of the life
I like that we are different and a single definition cannot apply to all! Wonderful, and yes all you are saying about selfish motives is true, even when it looks to others like you are being unselfish. thanks
Thanks for visiting and sharing your views.
ur views cover a broad aspect of life…..to understand life is too critical….u hv tried….and tried well…i also got frm it too much…
thanks for giving such a nice openion regarding life
Thanks for visit and comment,your comments act as a guiding force, to let me know where I’m going with my views and thoughts.
I think the focus on ‘meaning’ and ‘making a meaningful life’ tends to leave us in the domain of the mind alone. I notice that animals, when they are in their natural habitat and have what they need, appear to be very content. Are they asking about meaning? No. Are they unconscious? No. They have senses, they have feelings and they have intelligence as well. Maybe we can learn something from them.
If the basis of everything is what the Hindus call ‘sat-chit-ananda’ (being-consciousness-bliss), then we don’t ultimately need ‘meaning’ to find fulfillment. Bliss is at the basis of everything. Perhaps what we need is the ‘direct experience’ of this sat-chit-ananda. Animals, it appears to me, live from their direct experience. They don’t think about experience, they simply live it, and as long as their environment is suitable they are happy.
‘Meaning’ is a creation of the mind. What I’m writing here has ‘meaning’ and it is a creation of my mind. And I enjoy the process. But my real happiness does not come from writing these words. Rather, it comes to me when my busy mind takes a break and I sink into a deep relaxation while remaining in a fully aware state. It is this internal reality which, for the most part, enables me to remain good-natured and happy in this hectic and unstable world. So, I love to play in the realm of ‘meaning’, but it is not ‘meaning’ which is foundation of my life.
Thanks Duart,
I totally agree with you, our search for life and its meaning is actually a creation of mind, life is what it is, our questions and answers do not change anything, they only satisfy our mind.
Actually most of the problems that we face today are creation of mind, mind is very powerful and very difficult to control and in today’s modern lifestyles we are making a big mistake, we are using machines for easy to do tasks at home and office (which not only help us to stay healthy and fit physically but also entertain our mind and thus relax it.
Today we have made the task of controlling mind even more difficult, today most of our task require mental work without physical involvement which is dangerous (as we aren’t always in a healthy mood and all of us are not so cool to understand mind and its nature), may be sometime from now we’ll realize this mistake.
I’ve also written a post on views which are somewhat similar to yours in this blog titled “Life An Illusion of Mind”.
Hello Yogesh Bailwal,
Namaste, and thank you for your thoughtful letter.
My life partner, Lyse LeBeau and I have been leading seminars for many years on relationships, leadership and self-esteem. We have noticed a significant deterioration in people’s character in general: less honest, expecting immediate gratification, pretense, superficial thinking processes, reluctance to commit. Lyse, who refuses to learn how to access the internet, believes that technology (especially the computer and internet) is proving very destructive in the area of relationships. I agree with her.
Also, Iccha Sakti — the inherent Will of Siva — which is accessible to all of us, is getting weaker at the level of the individual. People are losing their connection with Will, as well as their constancy, their courage and so forth. Mind becomes increasingly dominant as people are removed from an intimate and healthy relationship with the natural environment.
In Canada, the country-side gets emptied as rural people migrate to the big cities — Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, etc. The big corporations must love it, because without rural folk who love nature and want to protect Her, they can send in their technology to remove whatever resources will benefit their bank accounts.
It’s the rural people who will protect the land from abuse and when they are gone, the environment suffers even more. Once in the big cities, they become disconnected from the land and forget how even to grow their own food. They become increasingly dependent on the system (the government, the local Walmart, medicare — which means allopathic drugs, etc). It’s a vicious, downward spiral.
I believe that even India is now caught up in this. It’s a great tragedy that Gandhi, though universally admired, is considered passe. He understood the vital connection between humans, work and the land, and he sought to preserve and strengthen it. Unfortunately, it is going in the opposite direction, and with accelerating speed.
Warmest regards,
Duart Maclean
Hello Duart Maclean,
Namaskar,first of all I’ll like to thank you for your time to visit this blog and write about things that are too close to my heart.
I’m sorry, I wasn’t able to reply earlier due to several reason and one of them was to reply when I am what I am and not under the influence of environment around me.
I agree to every thing you’ve written, sometime back I too felt that “significant deterioration in people’s character in general” and this started reflecting in my work (which was wrong as today’s generation do not thinks so, they call it a generation gap and they actually do not have time or even mental resources to understand these things.
Now, I do not think in such terms (as they are what they are and such negative thoughts only effect my positivity), I do what I want to do and then I started this blog, to express myself, my views and feel that energy.
Even here I think I’m positive as I know ultimately they’ll have to return because doing things which are not natural, taking life away from nature is not life but animation (which are not supported by nature but imagination).
Currently, we have already discovered some results of our actions like global warming, changing weather, health problems which are a result of the current trend.
Today, man is running away from nature (he is no more able to withstand the so called hardships of nature), we drink treated water, eat processed food, breathe polluted air, work during unnatural odd hours, live a life which isn’t a natural lifestyle, spend time with machines (tv, computer, smartphones etc. etc.), live in an artificial environment (ac, heater), think in terms of material wealth, money, products and service (our thinking is influenced by marketing forces).
All these things indicate that we are no more able to survive on this planet (without artificial support) and I’m quiet sure that after few years, we’ll discover that it is better to survive on a chip and leave this body (as there are so many problems associated with keeping it healthy and fit) as it won’t be required, robots and humanoids will do the job.
At that time I feel we’ll realize the importance of life, its importance and understand that life is to live with everything that comes in-between ups and downs, hot and cold, everything.
India too is now in the grip of materialism, philosophy is now limited to a small group of people and so called philosophers too are suffering from food-poisoning (after all they live in such atmosphere now a days).
Still, I feel, things that are happening are happening for good and we do not need to worry about them, as man is not governing the nature, he is being governed by nature.
Regards,
Yogesh
Namaskar,God has given life to live at its fullest with all its pros and cons,with all its brightness and dullness,with all its smile and tears.I think that is what makes life beautiful and interesting to live.Nothing is more important than life.Give respect to life and god will give respect to you because this is his creation and we don’t have any right to harm it.
Namaskar, I do feel, life is life because it is uncertain, its dynamic, full of unpredictable incidents.
Our positive approach to cooperate with others, respect other views and creations really help us to stay positive and enjoy every moment of life for what it is.
Thanks for sharing your views.
There could be an invisible force since the beginning of time that designed the existance of living forms and orchestrated the events of life. Maybe the journey of reaching whatever goal/purpose/intention is in our hands but the destination was already written in the stars long before we took that journey.
The theory that nothing happens by chance is for each of us to verify the truth as we plod along in life. Keeping an open mind to possibilities is probably one step towards knowing the answers.
Can we live for just ourselves(which comes with our family,friends,etc) or for a good cause like saving the planet or is there a higher force which we feel the need to live for? If in the absense of such known entity,one would live for something more intellectual and better that oneself which takes the form of idealism?
Life becomes meaningless when one has achieved all one wanted because by then one would have achieved self-actualisation and onto self-trascendence in the Maslow hierarchy of needs.
Hello 123alanis123,
Thanks for expressing your views, there are so many theories as well as beliefs regarding life, I personally feel that each one of them have some existence as life cannot be confined in narrow minded rigid boundaries.
In spite of this uncertainty/confusion about life, our own personal attitude, actions towards nature, other forms of life, surrounding, competitors and towards our own business do make a difference.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks Yogesh for this place. I’m serching for answers too.