The meaning of life

[Eoin McLove]

Also,  yesterday while I was trying to click over to watch the Six One News I almost accidentally set my Eir box to season record the Angelus. Imagine an entire year's worth of the Angelus. I'm not sure if that would come under religion, philosophy or downright mental torture 

[blessed1]

I guess for me anyhow the meaning of life is finding something your happy with and just doing that to your hearts content. Be it music, sports, art.
Im lucky in that i have a job i absolutely love and wouldnt change it for the world and then ive got my music on the side as well.
So im fairly convinced thats the meaning of life for me.

[Eoin McLove]

I feel that that is probably it alright.  You inject meaning into your life through interests, family and friends.  Probably most of us here could agree,  our religious experiences are the feeling of hearing music that blows the mind or those moments in jamming or writing when one enters a flow state, time stops and surroundings disappear. No doubt drugs can give that experience to people as well,  but it's it really the same of it's artificial and not earned through activity? Maybe,  maybe not...

[Paul keohane]

Being content and happy is the meaning of life imo,you need a few things to go your way to help.Like being healthy in body and mind,have the correct work/life balance,have a good social life.I work with some utter miserable pricks,moaning 24/7,like the whole world is against them.An utterly miserable outlook on life.Im working with fellas donkeys years ,fellas in their 30s,and all they are pining for is retirement.I mean whats the fuckin point of wishing your life away?.Ive a busy life with kids etc etc,but im lucky that ive family close by to help out whenever we want,so i  can get out for a few scoops,dinner,go for a cycle etc regularly.Do what you enjoy.

[mickO)))]

You know you've been cooped up too long when you begin to ask these questions,  and that's true in my case.  The last two and a half months I've been doing a job that is utterly pointless and meaningless, 

I don't see it as being cooped up too long it's the most important question anyone can ever ask and one I have been asking myself since I was a child. As for the job being pointless so are 99.9% of all other jobs in existence. Working in itself is pointless for most people as the vast majority are stuck in dead end jobs that they both despise and are detrimental to their health all so the elite few can get richer. But we are enslaved into doing it because it's very difficult to survive without money.

Currently I'm becoming obsessed with Carl Jung who was a student of Freud and who had a great love of Nietzsche. He talks about many things from our collective subconscious, how we are far more than just blank slates when we come to this world and despite him being one of the founding fathers I suppose of psychology, he delved into spirituality and mysticism to levels that are at times frightening.

This for me is where this conversation would go but you can't talk about topics like this on these forums going by the way the conversations went anytime it was brought up on the old forum. If you are only getting into Jung keep going as he will lead you into other stuff that will just blow your mind as long as you have an open mind. The red book is his best work.  Jung of course is 1000 times > than Freud ever was. Some footage on youtube of him talking about Freud not sure if it's still up there though.


Then as well as that the meaning of life will be different for almost every person and depending on current life situations and past experience which also means it can change from time to time so you won't really get a right or a wrong answer. Most people in my experience seem to be happy with a simple life and don't feel the need to look any deeper.

[Eoin McLove]

It is easy to be content and tip along,  living for the weekend or the next holiday and that is something everyone does, and I think it's fair enough. We all work and like to kick back in our spare time.  I do, however, think that exploring new ideas in some form,  and not necessarily just in terms of science or philosophy,  or maybe even art in its broadest sense,  rather just exposing yourself to new experiences and possibilities can only add meaning to your life.  Easier said than done,  but putting yourself in new situations is generally rewarding in some way.

[Scáthach]

42...

[Eoin McLove]

Indeed.  But what's the question?

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Well, the question is what is the meaning. And, according to the same source, we're cogs in the machine designed to figure that out. Look at us go!

[Eoin McLove]

This is where philosophy becomes impractical as a way to discover the meaning of life.  Unanswerable questions are useful as a technique for stretching your mind,  making it more elastic and dynamic maybe,  but are inherently pointless.  That was what I was getting at earlier. I'm sure,  a with everything,  there are all sorts of strands of philosophy and that belongs to one,  where other strands are designed to offer more concrete explanations.  Maybe they work together in some way.  I don't know enough about the subject.

[Pedrito]

Hmmmm I'm so locked after my wedding in Cancún, dancing with some of the most beautiful women I've ever laid eyes upon to respond to any of the previous stuff but Mickoo is on my wavelength. Cups of tae and all is good in the world is all good, you find happiness, do what makes you 'happy' but the 'happiness' thing was seen as semi-slow in the head by many of the philosophers. Do what you like and have a wank and a few pints..is that it or does it have any meaning? My point being that the thinking about what or how your thinking can actually unlock so many doors that you never even believed existed and I've only scratched the surface in the last year. I'm happy watching.porn, I'm happy doing nothing, I'm happy scratching my balls, I'm happy eating KFC..happiness is a strange thing to value your life by, and what IS happiness ad how is it measured.

The question was posed, what us the meaning of life and everyone quickly answered it. Do what you like, few pints, football, music is religious experience..sounds like ye have it all figured out??

[Pedrito]

You know you've been cooped up too long when you begin to ask these questions,  and that's true in my case.  The last two and a half months I've been doing a job that is utterly pointless and meaningless, 

I don't see it as being cooped up too long it's the most important question anyone can ever ask and one I have been asking myself since I was a child. As for the job being pointless so are 99.9% of all other jobs in existence. Working in itself is pointless for most people as the vast majority are stuck in dead end jobs that they both despise and are detrimental to their health all so the elite few can get richer. But we are enslaved into doing it because it's very difficult to survive without money.

Currently I'm becoming obsessed with Carl Jung who was a student of Freud and who had a great love of Nietzsche. He talks about many things from our collective subconscious, how we are far more than just blank slates when we come to this world and despite him being one of the founding fathers I suppose of psychology, he delved into spirituality and mysticism to levels that are at times frightening.

This for me is where this conversation would go but you can't talk about topics like this on these forums going by the way the conversations went anytime it was brought up on the old forum. If you are only getting into Jung keep going as he will lead you into other stuff that will just blow your mind as long as you have an open mind. The red book is his best work.  Jung of course is 1000 times > than Freud ever was. Some footage on youtube of him talking about Freud not sure if it's still up there though.


Then as well as that the meaning of life will be different for almost every person and depending on current life situations and past experience which also means it can change from time to time so you won't really get a right or a wrong answer. Most people in my experience seem to be happy with a simple life and don't feel the need to look any deeper.

I've been asking myself the same question since I was 8-9 years of age. I could sense things, I felt mant things intuitively about the world about me, and yet I was a child who had to cram himself into some idea of being young and having to conform to all that bollox kids have forced down their throats the minute they begin to express themselves as thinking creatures. We're complex, intelligent, and far more interesting than we give ourselves credit for but we can't see outside the cup of tae and don't be voicing too many opinions box. You're only a dying human, there's no god, there's no meaning, you only fuck and die and everything you were ever told is meaningless because it's not proven TRUE in a lab...fuck that.

[Eoin McLove]

I think the nothingness of death gives our lives a definite boundary that encourages us to fill our lives with some kind of meaning.  I understand people wanting their life to continue after death as it is such a unique gift to be given but I am fine with nothingness.  So far it has offered an endless source of lyrical inspiration which adds some meaning to my own existence.

My own belief is that meaning is cumulative,  maybe even exponential but I might have to think about what that means a bit more. The more we drink tea,  read,  exercise, have kids,  work, socialise,  think,  experience,  knit, wank, knitwank (it's something I'm working on) etc the more meaning gets added to the pot.  I don't think that that is the path towards some higher end reward,  I think the path is the reward or the meaning,  as corny or clinched as that sounds.  Or it's the opportunity of meaning, at least.  We can add as much or as little as we need to that pot as we go on, which is what I'm getting at with the exponential idea.  The reward grows exponentially the more you put in... maybe?

[The Butcher]

You're only a dying human, there's no god, there's no meaning, you only fuck and die and everything you were ever told is meaningless because it's not proven TRUE in a lab...fuck that.

Oh the consequences of going beyond our primal instincts, damn this complex emotional intelligence 

I find looking for reward from things you like becomes at some point...insatiable. Being content on the other hand is more appropriate (for me anyway) as the grass always seems greener on the other side. To keep clutching for rewards brings us diminishing returns eventually and the negatives start to outweigh the positives. Oddly some show on RTE about lotto winners pops into my head and how the vast majority of them are now bankrupt, extremely unhappy
or have lost it all by trying to make more money. Not enough or enough for now?


Beyond our instincts we went on to develop communication systems, fast forward to today we are fed a daily deluge of information from a multitude of sources, telling us about something else, something more. We should be asking the OP question more, it usually leads to our likes/wants/desires in life. So if we dive into the thought processes behind those answers, we might be able to pinpoint the corrupt information we receive that might be some of the reason behind our want for more and our inability to satisfy that want which has become habit, interwoven into the fabric of daily life.

[Eoin McLove]

Good points.  Looking at it from another perspective you might argue that buying stuff you want is very satisfying and,  while maybe not exactly full of deep meaning in and of the objects themselves,  there's surely an argument in favour of the meaning behind the fleeing moments of happiness and satisfaction they bring?

Maybe beyond that you could say that they provide deep meaning to other people, a meaning that may seem meagre from the outside.  I've no doubt that the meaning I derive from listening to and writing extremely marginal music seems meagre to an outsider but is bursting with meaning for me personally.