I'm coming undone -. [And I'd be surprised if you took the time to read this]
It is our greatest fear that death will take from us all that we had. With that, humans relied on religion, to explain life and to explain after life (I'm not implying that religion is untrue at all), to allay our fears. With that [fear] humans found the most intense feeling of all - to be loved, which beckons at chance to create life, to somehow extend it. We operate on fear - abundant fear, fear to survive, to create, to leave a print. Fear created for us direction, it created for us love.
Must there be opposites in all systems, an element to counterbalance another, such as depicted in the Chinese Ying-Yang? Perhaps we can find meaning from there. From the fear-love relationship, we could draw coroallaries in other aspects of human experience, find the balancing forces, and perhaps create a life equilibrium that optimizes...meaning. Another example would be human's craving for certainty. From times past we have longed to understand the universe, to understand the laws behind nature, so that we could cast away our fear of it, and perhaps even control it. Also from times past we have craved for the mysterious, that beckons of hope, life, and [drumroll please] the unknown. That's why we love to lose ourselves in fantastic stories, movies, music, and art.
With this in mind, can I predict what will bring meaning, and what will not?
Why, humans have been seeking meaning all along, exhausting one possibility and quickly moving on to the next. We probe and probe and never lose hope. For how can we, how can we believe that we've just been placed on this planet for no higher deed than survival?
But what are we doing now? What higher aim have we in life? What are our shapers and shakers of the world doing? Our politicians are but forming policies for us to live in peace. Our doctors are but seeking ways to prolong life. Our economists are but learning ways to gain more material. Aren't these all about survival? We've been taught over and over again to live, but not how to live. Wherin lies meaning? Life for life's sake sounds like some self-iterating loop.
One once said that art is a reflection of beauty, which is a reflection of the human psyche, that art is judged on how closely it resonates with the human passions/thoughts/sentiments. Music for example, resonates most strongly when those dormant emotions are aroused, and savored. Yet, are our emotions, sentiments true? Or are they just accidents of nature, the legacy of thousands of years of evolution, in which case they would hardly be considered 'true' but only coincidences of natural selection. So wherein lies truth? Wherein lies beauty?
Perhaps we do have a higher purpose, a purpose not obtainable in our own lifespan, a purpose we continually lay down the tracks for future generations to tread on, however slowly. So perhaps it's in life itself, the continuation of life, that we find meaning. Yet how indirect an approach that is; it translates to: the meaning of life is to wait for the meaning of life.
Dum Dum Dum. Damn...
Must there be opposites in all systems, an element to counterbalance another, such as depicted in the Chinese Ying-Yang? Perhaps we can find meaning from there. From the fear-love relationship, we could draw coroallaries in other aspects of human experience, find the balancing forces, and perhaps create a life equilibrium that optimizes...meaning. Another example would be human's craving for certainty. From times past we have longed to understand the universe, to understand the laws behind nature, so that we could cast away our fear of it, and perhaps even control it. Also from times past we have craved for the mysterious, that beckons of hope, life, and [drumroll please] the unknown. That's why we love to lose ourselves in fantastic stories, movies, music, and art.
With this in mind, can I predict what will bring meaning, and what will not?
Why, humans have been seeking meaning all along, exhausting one possibility and quickly moving on to the next. We probe and probe and never lose hope. For how can we, how can we believe that we've just been placed on this planet for no higher deed than survival?
But what are we doing now? What higher aim have we in life? What are our shapers and shakers of the world doing? Our politicians are but forming policies for us to live in peace. Our doctors are but seeking ways to prolong life. Our economists are but learning ways to gain more material. Aren't these all about survival? We've been taught over and over again to live, but not how to live. Wherin lies meaning? Life for life's sake sounds like some self-iterating loop.
One once said that art is a reflection of beauty, which is a reflection of the human psyche, that art is judged on how closely it resonates with the human passions/thoughts/sentiments. Music for example, resonates most strongly when those dormant emotions are aroused, and savored. Yet, are our emotions, sentiments true? Or are they just accidents of nature, the legacy of thousands of years of evolution, in which case they would hardly be considered 'true' but only coincidences of natural selection. So wherein lies truth? Wherein lies beauty?
Perhaps we do have a higher purpose, a purpose not obtainable in our own lifespan, a purpose we continually lay down the tracks for future generations to tread on, however slowly. So perhaps it's in life itself, the continuation of life, that we find meaning. Yet how indirect an approach that is; it translates to: the meaning of life is to wait for the meaning of life.
Dum Dum Dum. Damn...