# Reading > Philosophical Literature >  What is your meaning of life?

## Bakiryu

*Ok. I've been reading philosophy and the question yammers on and on, I don't know THE meaning of life but what is YOUR meaning of life?


.Jin*

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## Dori

Although I'm relatively inexperienced in life experiences, I will form a meaning from what I have experienced thus far. To me, the meaning of life is to acquire knowledge and to use that knowledge to contribute to society. However, I am somewhat inclined to believe that life has no meaning. In other words, people give life meaning. But I am more content with the former.

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## Pensive

_Carpe diem!_

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## tulysg1982

" meaning of life' - - I couldn't find it yet.

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## Midas

When asked this question, someone once responded: "I am here to do good to others. What the h*ll the others are here for, I have no idea."

Sometimes I wonder if our raison d'etre for life, is to figure it out.
Or, to adapt John Lennon's quip on the subject - "Life is what happens while we are trying to understand why it happens '

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## formality hater

The most uncertain thing I own!One second I have it with its full colour,the other second...its obscure or may cease to exist!

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## JediFonger

since i'm a Xian, i'm going to have to defer to the Bible's book of ecclesiastes, which answers that very question.

actually, even in the Xian circles, not many know of this, the answer to the meaning of life is revealed: the answer is to serve God by following what he says in the good book:

12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
http://www.online-literature.com/bible/Ecclesiastes/

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## Video Drone

My meaning is to be happy and let others be happy...

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## symphony

well i wonder if i qualify, with my 17 years of life experience (filled with confusions and silly mistakes), to answer  :Tongue:  .

btw, are we looking for an "aim" or a "meaning" in here? cuz i think they're slightly different from each other, my answer, like the others, might make them sound quite like the same thing though  :Smile:  .
So...
Meaning of life to me: Life means the joy of being what u are, the recollections of the yesterdays, the anticipations for all the tomorrows. Life is in the dewdrop on the leaf, in the smile of a child, the delicacy of a food etc etc. Life is meant to live. So the meaning of life is living it. And with joyfullness.
Aim in life for me: To live it with Life. Like bon Jovi, i wanna "live while i'm alive"  :Tongue:  .

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## PrinceMyshkin

To respond as intelligently, humanely and/or creatively to that which is immediately before you. 

To experience pain, when it comes your way, as deeply and truthfully as you can, the better to experience joy when that comes your way. 

To be the transit for future life as others were the transit for yours. 

To balance the time you spend wondering whether you are doing right, with doing what you know it is right to do. 

To accept love gratefully when it is offered you and to love the other even when she or he cannot or will not love you back.

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## motherhubbard

> To respond as intelligently, humanely and/or creatively to that which is immediately before you. 
> 
> To experience pain, when it comes your way, as deeply and truthfully as you can, the better to experience joy when that comes your way. 
> 
> To be the transit for future life as others were the transit for yours. 
> 
> To balance the time you spend wondering whether you are doing right, with doing what you know it is right to do. 
> 
> To accept love gratefully when it is offered you and to love the other even when she or he cannot or will not love you back.



I don't know how I could improve on that. 

For me, the older I get the less time I spend analyzing the true meaning of life and I just try to make the most of things. I have a family and there is a great deal of life meaning in that.

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## Lily Adams

My meaning in life is not worrying about the meaning of life.  :Tongue:

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## Bakiryu

My meaning of life is: to find meaning.

To stay myself without drowning in the chaos of society.

To confirm my existence through kindness.

To fight the invisibility that washes over me and turns me into a pale shadow of myself.

My meaning of life is: to find meaning in life.

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## ozbey

The Koran...

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## rex-craft7

mmm...>> well, my own philosophy is always changing, but recently, its been this::::

life is essentially pointless, but that does not mean it doesnt have to have meaning; what meaning life has, depends on the person

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## Logos

_Mod note: moved from General Literature._

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## Bakiryu

> _Mod note: moved from General Literature._


Ooops. I'm never placing these right  :Blush:  Thank you Logos!

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## Logos

S'ok  :Wink:  , its great fodder for discussion as you've given a spin on that timeless philosophical question--what is _your_ instead of what is _the_ meaning of life.

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## CdnReader

> To respond as intelligently, humanely and/or creatively to that which is immediately before you. 
> 
> To experience pain, when it comes your way, as deeply and truthfully as you can, the better to experience joy when that comes your way. 
> 
> To be the transit for future life as others were the transit for yours. 
> 
> To balance the time you spend wondering whether you are doing right, with doing what you know it is right to do. 
> 
> To accept love gratefully when it is offered you and to love the other even when she or he cannot or will not love you back.


This list is a very good match for my personal beliefs, especially #2 and #5. I would add:

To create within oneself an awareness of the interconnectedness of all and an understanding of the impact of our actions -- on others, on the environment around us, and on the spiritual path that we have chosen to follow.

To live as much as possible in a spirit of truthfulness and thankfulness, and in a manner that hurts no one, including oneself.

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## PrinceMyshkin

> I don't know how I could improve on that. 
> 
> For me, the older I get the less time I spend analyzing the true meaning of life and I just try to make the most of things. I have a family and there is a great deal of life meaning in that.


*Family is the self
in selflessness,
those other essences
that are somehow
more oneself 
than ego is 
(Poor, self-absorbed
ego) and as ones family
grows to become
a family of families
one may feel ones self
touch the familiar
outer reaches
of humanity.*

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## Granny5

> To respond as intelligently, humanely and/or creatively to that which is immediately before you. 
> 
> To experience pain, when it comes your way, as deeply and truthfully as you can, the better to experience joy when that comes your way. 
> 
> To be the transit for future life as others were the transit for yours. 
> 
> To balance the time you spend wondering whether you are doing right, with doing what you know it is right to do. 
> 
> To accept love gratefully when it is offered you and to love the other even when she or he cannot or will not love you back.


Outstanding. You weren't kidding when you said Intelligent, humane and creative. I'm very impressed. Thank you, Prince.

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## Granny5

> *Family is the self
> in selflessness,
> those other essences
> that are somehow
> more oneself 
> than ego is 
> (Poor, self-absorbed
> ego) and as ones family
> grows to become
> ...


Gosh, I really can't believe it's getting better all the time. How beautifully put.
Thank you again, Sir.

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## kiobe

Experiance all that comes and learn from it.

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## MaryLupin

> To confirm my existence through kindness.


I was struck by the beauty of this. It allows both vulnerability (i.e. I don't really know if or how I exist) and compassion (but I will walk softly in the world despite the fear this lack of surety must sometimes generate) to coexist. Brilliantly done Bakiryu.

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## Midas

There is always a weakness when responding to this type of question to answer not what is truly in the mind, but to offer that which sounds good, and feeds that ever hungry ego. We are always ready to risk a choking halo.

We see it in the answers given by the Miss Universes, and other beauty contest winners.

Maybe, it is sometimes how we would like ourselves to be, but the truth, if it were known, belies the fine sounding clich&#233;s.

This is one of the quirks of the mind, it constantly searches for the truth from others, but is very selective, and reserved, in providing it.

I will attempt to give my honest one, and I do try to make it work, though it is a struggle at times to keep it at the forefront.

Mine is this: To accept life not as a gift but a loan, a lone that can be called
in at any time. It is therefore in my interest to value the loan, and thank my
Creditor. A loan is meant to be used wisely, to bring benefit. From our nature and nurture we are fed with information from which we make choices.

We get a profit, or loss, in the way we 'invest' this loan (our time) from the choices we make. Errors in some bad choices are not negatives, if we learn from them. 

For true happiness with self, I have found from self observation, and of others, that it is necessary to have a goal. If and when reached, to set another one. Always have something to make you look forward, and to drive you.

Appreciation, not taking things for granted, be that life itself, friends, relatives, and those amenities we have today just as simple as going to the
the tap and finding we have running water. I try to remind myself that not long ago it would have been an undreamed of luxury, and there are places today where it still is. 

I will actually think of this when I go to the tap, or use the shower. or pick up the phone and speak to someone thousands of miles away, or watch pictures being beamed to me for my enjoyment and relaxation. No one need be 'lonely' today. It is so easy to take these things for granted.

Yes, Appreciation, of everything, and that means giving thanks - something I close my eyes with at night, and with which I wake up in the morning by going to the window and gazing out at my panoramic view of London, for which I am particularly thankful, and saying (sometimes shouting) 'Good morning World!

Have a great day! Enjoy, invest your loan wisely, you never know when it will be called in.

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## gothic

The tradgedy of life is-it's after something which it can never reach.we all seek for stability,but in the end all we ever get is endless,constant instability.
you'll find the evidence of it everywhere.for example,look at the basic element of life,electrons(dont want want to deal with quarks or more fundamental elements,dont wish to freak you out!)-electrons keeps changing their position all the time.seems like all they want is forming octate-TO MAKE THE COMPOUND STABLE.but it's seems to be their fate never to be stable,but they are destined to keep chasing it.tragic,huh?
didn't like this type of `fundamental' interpretation? okay,lets take up a broader view! now,look at the universe.wht is it doing?scientists say it is EXPANDING.okay,fine.it can't go on expanding for eternity.there will be a time when it will yawn and say,okay,hasn't it been already long enough expanding?it will take rest for a while and say-why not give CONTRACTION a chance?it has already fulfilled its destiny,reached peace(or in other words- stability)for a while and again it will start running...run,run,this is how you are fated...this time backwards.at last,it reaches again its initial state-it becomes a point again.a calm,still point.waiting to explode...again...to reach its ever-desired state...a long way to go...
so no wonder life is a race.when the whole universe is trapped in this rule,how can we deny it?
Keep running friends,to keep pace with the rest of everything.see if u can ever get the meaning of this law.if you do,then you'll know what is THE MEANING OF LIFE & _EVERYTHING._

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## Bii

> There is always a weakness when responding to this type of question to answer not what is truly in the mind, but to offer that which sounds good, and feeds that ever hungry ego. We are always ready to risk a choking halo.


This is a very insightful point. Often we hide behind the veil of what we 'think' we ought to say, instead of saying what we mean. 

For me it is simple, what gives my life meaning is:

- to be happy
- to feel like I'm achieving something
- to be loved

and that's it. I don't think anyone can expect anything more than that.

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## NikolaiI

the meaning of life is life and love, i mean everything in life has a meaning. so the meaning of life is all of those things. meaning or purpose. to eat and to drink have a purpose, to sleep and to walk have purposes, all of that, and they all together make up the meaning or purpose of life...but mainly love and happiness. the book _the farther reaches of human nature_ by a. maslow has some interesting ideas about values and fact-values.

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## MaryLupin

I have been reading this thread and thinking how I might respond, and until now coming up blank.

What occurred to me is that I judge my life by what I have done, what things I choose to do in a day, in a year.

So this is, for me, a list of the things I do repeatedly in my life.

1. put myself in situations where I am a visible minority 
2. put myself in situations where I am an ethnic minority
3. choose things because they are the hardest things I can think of to do
4. try to understand things that are all but non comprehensible (like string theory without advanced mathematics)
6. try to understand from where we come
7. try to understand the place in which we live
8. try to understand what will come of our past behaviors

I do this by reading, thinking and wandering around the world watching.

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## poofyhead15

sorry to insert in here, but can someone please tell me how to post a new thread on this website? i'm new to the forum.

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## MaryLupin

> sorry to insert in here, but can someone please tell me how to post a new thread on this website? i'm new to the forum.


So how I do it is I go to the main page of the forum to which I am going to post (in this case it would be "Philosophical Literature" then scroll down and on the bottom left there is a button that says "New Thread." Push. We have vigilant moderators here so try to make sure your thread is appropriate to the forum and doesn't contravene the rules (i.e. no politics, etc.).

You might want to go here and read the rules.

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## tulysg1982

thankyou very much :Smile:

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## Barlo

The point is that I can't exactly say what the meaning of life is to me. I could say that it is to be loved, to do good, to love and contribute to society, but i think that in order for me to say that something represents the meaning of life to me I really have to FEEL that it IS my meaning of life, but i don't. And also i would like to ask all of you, are the things that you listed the thing that consume you entirely? For if they don't they shouldn't have the "status" of things that give your life meaning. They would be more like thing that you aspire to, for the sake of living a, what is called normal and relatively fullfiled life. Something that gives meaning to life should be, in my opinion, absolutely sublime and if we were to really belive in it, we should dedicate our life to it.

Anyway it is my opinion that you can never completley find the meaning of life. For life itself is the serach for its own meaning. I liked the analogy with electrons, that shows exactly what I wanted to say here. We strive for meaning. But the meaning itself always changes - _panta rei_

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## applepie

What is my meaning of life???? Never with the easy questions :Biggrin:  No one ever asks "Why do we live?" at which point I can give a nice and very scientific answer. So my meaning of life... I guess it would be to live (I don't mean that in any sarcastic sense). What I mean is give all you can to others, experience all you can absorb, learn more than you think was possible, and love freely and completely.

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## zealouza

Life??? We are Life!! It's the thing that we always do. It must not be question coz it it would be question it would mean that we are questioning ourselves :Wink:

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## NikolaiI

"We love life not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving."

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## catharsis

To be an experimentalist. Aka: Experiment with life no matter what you lose (as long as its not your life, your dignity or your gf/bf). 

I used to be a nihilist. But, it seems that such a "deathful" perception on life is rather ridiculous.

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## Bakiryu

> Life??? We are Life!! It's the thing that we always do. It must not be question coz it it would be question it would mean that we are questioning ourselves


Yes, but we question ourselves every minute, analyze our voices and thoughts, study our innermost motives. If we didn't question ourselves there would be no indecision.  :FRlol:

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## NikolaiI

I think we should trust the conclusions we come to after giving something thorough, honest, searching and deep thought. We should trust our ability to tell right from wrong, but not assume everything we do is right. We should trust our conscience, but also apply our conscience to our actions, and not assume our actions are conscionable just because we have a conscience.  :Smile:  So, some people should definitely question themselves more, while some should have more faith in themselves, because they act with conscience.

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## farnoosh

I think life is a game that you have to play it and keep on gonig no matter what!

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## mcvv09

This is a subject that will not be answered with any certainty in our lifetime or anybody elses. This is why philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, and writers like Dostoevsky have the same captivating energy with audiences that they do now. The inspiration for my response occured to me while I was watching a movie by Ingmar Bergman. The film was called "Persona", and as I watched the images, I suddenly recieved a tremendous amount of inspiration. Bergman seemed to be speaking of a sort of simplicity as the answer. Each person should be confident in the innocent simplicity and power of their own individual persona. This is the way to find truth.

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## NikolaiI

I also agree that people make things more complicated than they have to be. Abraham Maslow found that the healthiest 2&#37; of people- his definition was loose, but there were certain people in his life he saw were outstanding in life and happiness, and he called them the healthiest 2%- didn't usually consider moral choices difficult at all. Actually his notes and writings are very inspiring to me.

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## Shurtugal

> *Ok. I've been reading philosophy and the question yammers on and on, I don't know THE meaning of life but what is YOUR meaning of life?
> 
> 
> .Jin*


bless you baki! i've been waiting for someone to ask me that for the longest time! :FRlol:  

each person has a different goal in life, at first i didn't have one. i thought it had to be a piticular thing. boy was i wrong. i don't when i realized what i wanted to do, although i know it has been in the past months. i was probably alterated to think that as i listened to all of billy gilmans songs. :Smile:  but i found that the meaning in life for me is to make a _better_ difference in the world. and i stress the word better. for i personally believe that one can make a difference for the worse. just as hitler, binloden, and many other bad people in the world has. a murder can make a difference, but what kind of difference is that?

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## Divine Comedy

When I think of the meaning of life not big words do I remember neither do philosophical quotes come to mind. Its just a nursery rhyme that leaves me gaping at the fact how simple lines can explain such a big meaning. The rhyme is

_Row,Row,row your boat 
Gently down the stream
Merrily,Merrily,Merrily, Merrily
Life is but a dream_

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## Demian

"and for Thy pleasure they are and were created..." 
Life is meant to be enjoyed.
Joy is the meaning of it all--and within this flame is the seed of love.

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## blazeofglory

> *Ok. I've been reading philosophy and the question yammers on and on, I don't know THE meaning of life but what is YOUR meaning of life?
> 
> 
> .Jin*


The meaning of life? There is no meaning at all. Life has no meaning. If you seek a meaning in life you will get none. Life is for living, and just living. Meaning is an ideology and if you hunt for it, you will get never and none.

Life is like drinking, eating, sleeping, sharing and enjoying and letting others enjoy it.

If you keep on searching the meaning which is nonexistent in point of fact you will get lost in a whirlpool of confusion. Do you know any body who has really got the meaning of life? You may say the Buddha got it, Jesus got it. Are you sure about it?

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## Bakiryu

> The meaning of life? There is no meaning at all. Life has no meaning. If you seek a meaning in life you will get none. Life is for living, and just living. Meaning is an ideology and if you hunt for it, you will get never and none.
> 
> Life is like drinking, eating, sleeping, sharing and enjoying and letting others enjoy it.
> 
> If you keep on searching the meaning which is nonexistent in point of fact you will get lost in a whirlpool of confusion. Do you know any body who has really got the meaning of life? You may say the Buddha got it, Jesus got it. Are you sure about it?


Does it say THE meaning of life? No, it doesn't. It says the meaning of YOUR life, does your life have to meaning, blaze?

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## pinkmoon

Well, to me life is a serious event, or it is of serious events but it is like a game,

the game always has rules, ways, and participants, it is like a very big land, having many and many ways, (good and bad ways), and most important, it has rules that govern life, that govern our behavior, so if we walk through the good ways and follow the rules, we will be happy and at the end we will be immortals in Paradise, but if we walked through bad or wrong ways, we will be tired and at the end we will have the (game over), and be immortals in Hell, of course if we did not woke up from being on the wrong way, and rules are given by Allah (God)

What I mean is that life cannot be meaningless, there must be a reason of why do we exist, so life is a level that leads us to a higher level, which is the immortality, (in Paradise or on Hell).

thank you Bakiryu for ths topic.

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## miss tenderness

Life is just bigger that any explaination !

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## blazeofglory

> *Ok. I've been reading philosophy and the question yammers on and on, I don't know THE meaning of life but what is YOUR meaning of life?
> 
> 
> .Jin*


I haVE NONE.

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## Rakthor

> Well, to me life is a serious event, or it is of serious events but it is like a game,
> 
> the game always has rules, ways, and participants, it is like a very big land, having many and many ways, (good and bad ways), and most important, it has rules that govern life, that govern our behavior, so if we walk through the good ways and follow the rules, we will be happy and at the end we will be immortals in Paradise, but if we walked through bad or wrong ways, we will be tired and at the end we will have the (game over), and be immortals in Hell, of course if we did not woke up from being on the wrong way, and rules are given by Allah (God)
> 
> What I mean is that life cannot be meaningless, there must be a reason of why do we exist, so life is a level that leads us to a higher level, which is the immortality, (in Paradise or on Hell).
> 
> thank you Bakiryu for ths topic.


Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This claim is based on nothing but faith, which extraordinary only in that it is extraordinarily weak evidence. How can you say that life must have meaning? I believe in what I see, and what I see is this existence, this life, this moment. If we live our lives as if this existence is nothing but a step on a ladder, then we have completely wasted our time here. We have completely invalidated our lives. What is important is not what happens after we die (because most likely there is nothing) but what you do with your life now. Live life, and be prosperous.

Life is indeed a game, but there are no absolute rules made by some higher being. There is no supernatural punishment, at least none that I can see. It is up to us to make the rules. It is up to us to create and abide by our own morals. Now, we've done a fairly good job creating them, but we haven't yet done enough to abide by them.

...Whew. That was an intellectual exercise. I'm reluctantly posting this, in the hope that the backlash will not be too severe.
Be gentle,
Rakthor

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## jgweed

"...life cannot be meaningless, there must be a reason of why do we exist."

IF there "must" be a reason for existence, both that imperative itself and the final reason cannot come from existence itself, but apparently has its origin in the human demand for meaning. That this seems to be the case is shown by the historical attempts to provide meaning and the different conclusions that have been drawn, none of which have universal assent.
It seems as strained to demand that existence even HAS an ethical meaning as it does to demand that nature be "good." And if life has "rules" that inevitably lead to bliss, it is difficult to find agreement as to what these rules are; what kind of game of chess can be played if both white and black follow different rules for the movement of the pieces? Even to liken existence (or human life) to a "game" seems to beg the question.

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## Trystan

My life gets its meaning from the following things:

Red wine
Guinness
Pizza
Literature
Music
Cigarettes
Sunshine
Relaxation
Contemplation
Family

Nothing too profound, really.

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## aabbcc

There is no meaning/sense in life but the "constructed" one [... "l’existence précède l’essence" ...]; consequently, there is no meaning in my life unless I choose to "construct" the meaning of my life in order to, I don't know, consolate myself, bring some 'order' to my life, or whatever else are the reasons why most people desire to "construct" some meaning, or to run into various directions with various schemes of already "constructed" meaning (read: religions, schools of thought, etc).

Well - I don't. In fact, I don't even care about constructing a meaning; when I was younger I used to go through phases of belonging to various schools of thought and philosophies, but with time I abandoned them all, figuring that, essentially, it's all together rather pointless. Now I take it all as a good joke, and I ceased to take life very seriously. And guess what? I'm happy _exactly because of that_.

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## jgweed

Meaning is always a human phenomena, and it seems that the search for the meaning to one's lived existence is one of the cardinal properties of man separating him from beasts and other living things. 
As Sartre would say, one is free to choose one's own meaning; even if one chooses NOT to construct a meaning, that is in itself a choice about meaning.

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## dramasnot6

Leave a legacy. Be forever true to yourself. Experience as much as you can in a balance of quantity and quality. 
Learn,learn and never stop learning! Or loving. Or wanting to live.

Hell,make your own meaning. Live life just to make a meaning of it! But the above is what I have gotten from it,so far.

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## aabbcc

> As Sartre would say, one is free to choose one's own meaning; even if one chooses NOT to construct a meaning, that is in itself a choice about meaning.


Right; one is free to make choice, and the only thing one cannot choose is whether to choose or not, because even choosing not to choose is a choice in itself.  :Biggrin:

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## Statistic

I think the phrase "meaning of life" is misleading. "Purpose of life" is a much better termonology in this particular discussion, and Trystan put it best. Living should be an unconscious decision.

Personally, my meaning of life is to get by as painlessly as possible. As a fascist, of course I would like to convert the world to an international order, but it'll take greater powers than me to make that sort of global change. I am simply a supporter in the masses. 

Theists might say that the purpose of life is dictated by a supreme being, but they say this without the backing of logic. Their opinions would be tolerable if they weren't so dangerous; religious zealots have a tendency to inflict their false beliefs on others, often using detestable methods.

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## AsILay

my meaning to life is to show that no matter how far you've fallen, or how low you are in your life. there is always time to look up.

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## V.Jayalakshmi

Dear Readers,

I concur with Dori .We find meaning from our experiences.Of late after much reading,thinking and wondering about life,I feel the need to feel for meaning itself is obsolate.Perhaps suffering in different forms,including material comforts( One way of suffering),is the meaning of life.I have also arrived at the answer to 'Why?',in this suffering.Just to set the goal that we are to reach to where there is no suffering which is for absolute oneness with God.No more and no less,is the meaning of life.

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## christophorine

Life is to know, to learn, to do, and to be

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## blazeofglory

Life is to live more than anything, and ideals, learning, ideas, principles are externals

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## Swamidragon

I think the meaning of life is to just live it and to make decisions that won't screw your or somebody elses life. Because butterfly effect applys to life and any tiny action and any decision can have huge effects on your life or life of other persons, in time. And to live to discover the meaning of life is MOST stupid thing that a man could do. Although there was a time when philosophers thought that meaning of life is to leave behind something important, creations that would be admired and remembered for generations, so they probably thought that what they would leave behind is a new expression of meaning of live. But peoples, DONT FORGET the basic rule of philosophy - every man is philosopher, thus there are as many philosophies as number of peoples that were, are and will be.

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## blazeofglory

Life or meaning? No both do not go together. Both take different courses.

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## NikolaiI

"Life is to know, to learn, to do, and to be" 
I agree with this, I would say that our meaning is what we are, who we love...or what we love-- there is no difference.
To say there is no meaning is to indicate that there is or might be a meaning that you do not see.
Meaning is one thing for one person and one thing for another.

For some meaning is their dreams. For some it is art, music, or anything, for some it is love and their family, for others it is their work or passion. It can be literally anything.

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## blp

The horse is in the stable.
The meaning is the words. 
The words are not the stable.
The meaning is wild.

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## blazeofglory

> *Ok. I've been reading philosophy and the question yammers on and on, I don't know THE meaning of life but what is YOUR meaning of life?
> 
> 
> .Jin*


Bakiryu, we have discussed earlier also. We pretend to be what we are not in point of fact. We live pretentiously. Man has many personalities. At times you identify yourself with parents and you tag their names or their castes and creeds with yours, you attach their philosophies and beliefs to yours, and they will be yours. You follow a particular Guru, and internalize his ideas and you will call yours. 

I do not think life has a meaning at all. If it has any, it has to do with living, eating, sleeping, breeding and doing all that what your instincts say. Man must listen to instincts.

Yet all instincts are not palatable to us, for instance, we may often have murderous instincts and we must dispense with such instincts. But most instincts are not objectionable. In fact murderous instincts are primitive in nature, and it occurs when there is a question of self deference only. 

Seeking meaning in life is to rationalize the pattern of living. Your god, heaven, hell, the Devil all are things you align with in life and you attach meanings to them, but there is no meaning in life. 

The rest of animals on earth have no meaning and they follow instincts. They eat if they are hungry, sleep if they feel so and breed, mate and the like following exactly their own instincts.

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## wilbur lim

*My life is simply hectic and stressful.We go through trails and tribulations in the young age but it is intricate if we can relax soothingly in the declining years.*

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## blazeofglory

Meaning change everyday. Meaning is an interpretation. It changes with respect to time, space and people.

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## majako

I don't think it can change. the best answer I found is on the http://www.meaningoflifeis.com/
.. summed up in one word and described in few paragraphs with reasonable common sense, without religious or any other influences that tend to come up when this question is asked

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## kristian

> Meaning change everyday. Meaning is an interpretation. It changes with respect to time, space and people.


So what is the meaning of your life at the moment?  :Biggrin:

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## blazeofglory

Life has many meanings, to some persons it is money, to others it is jobs and still to others it is god and religions, and all these together in integration makes a meaning of life. But in essence life has no meaning at all.

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## Bakiryu

*You should notice it says: What's YOUR meaning of life, not what's THE meaning of life.*

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## JBI

Hmm, who is to say there actually is a meaning to life. The thought of life having a meaning is clearly a cultural construct we use to justify our way of life over another's.

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## R.A

Mmm, many times I thought of this.... the conclusion I had after my 22 years of life, that the meaning of life is to feel pleasure through pain and suffering...

For me life in its essence is nothing but a road to either Heaven or Hell.... life is to suffer, sacrifice, and feel pain....and through all of these you'll get pleasure... It's queer, but I think this is true for me.... though suffering or feeling disaster in some incidents in life, but I feel pleased coz life without pain and sacrifice is nothing...

And as one of the members said, it's a collection of past yesterdays and anticipations for future...

Life is what we don't and won't know at all!!!

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## wilbur lim

> Mmm, many times I thought of this.... the conclusion I had after my 22 years of life, that the meaning of life is to feel pleasure through pain and suffering...
> 
> For me life in its essence is nothing but a road to either Heaven or Hell.... life is to suffer, sacrifice, and feel pain....and through all of these you'll get pleasure... It's queer, but I think this is true for me.... though suffering or feeling disaster in some incidents in life, but I feel pleased _coz_ life without pain and sacrifice is nothing...
> 
> And as one of the members said, it's a collection of past yesterdays and anticipations for future...
> 
> Life is what we don't and won't know at all!!!


I wholly acquiesce!Of course life is what we don't and won't know at all.

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## zuozuo

just find yourself.

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## billyjack

to be the eyes,
the ears,
and consciousness
of the creator of the universe

kilgore trout- breakfast of champions

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## Maximus007

The meaning of life for me, is life itself. 
Where else would we love, hate, hope, dream, achieve, have children, bond with friends...life can be so many extraordinary wonderful amazing experiences and I'm sure when all is said and done we'll be wanting to come back and do it all over again!

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## blazeofglory

> I wholly acquiesce!Of course life is what we don't and won't know at all.


In point of fact the meaning of life is never found in reality. We rationalize it but essentially it is not so. We try to define life in terms of philosophies, sciences, spirituality but in essences none of these can teach you or defines the real meaning of life, no one can but you yourself can find it.

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## NikolaiI

The meaning of my life is the search for truth and for doing good.

And Blaze, this thread is not about THE meaning of life, but YOUR particular meaning.  :Wink:

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## Mr Hyde

Power,pleasure, sexual reproduction, selfishness,curiosity, and egocentrism.

Those are the main things my life revolves around.

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## blazeofglory

> Power,pleasure, sexual reproduction, selfishness,curiosity, and egocentrism.
> 
> Those are the main things my life revolves around.


In fact all live around these things whether or not we accept.

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