Random thoughts during work which involved mindless filing & administrative activities
If life is merely the accumulation of experiences, from birth through adolescence, education, adulthood and seniorship, then what are those experiences for? We commonly think of experiences as a means of knowledge, the common sense notion that we learn from experiences and somehow expect past occurences to guide our future. Then the question is what is life, a collection of experiences, preparing us for? It seems that a probable answer to that is the afterlife. It would seem not unreasonable to assume that there is an afterlife that makes all our experiences on earth worthwhile or meaningful.
Or it could be argued that that is not necessarily true. That life is lived out only once, and that the accumulation of experiences as a way of defining life is inaccurate. One might argue that experiences lived out in the phases and moments in life guide subsequent phases and experiences serve no higher purpose than to merely guide our way through the journey of life and at the end as we face our expiration, those experiences would have served its purpose to guide us to our final point, because indeed without experiences (aka living) we would not reach that final point, we would have been merely stuck in a particularized space and time. And hence experiences become a process, the vehicle of carrying us forward instead of being something we accumulate and gather. Experiences become not items (such as boxes) but instead vehicles (like trains) that transport us through locations where we feel, sense, think and reflect.
But then again, it would seem pointless that when we reach our destination, it would all have been for nothing. That at our end point, there would be nothing further. If we think about the motive of travel, there is always a clear purpose at the destination. We wish to enjoy a holiday, we engage in business, we meet with someone. So perhaps at the end of the rail, we are finally able to relax from the toils of our earthly labor. Or perhaps we're faced with a new task (maybe a new life), or maybe we meet our Maker/Creator.
Everyone goes through experiences that lead them to their end points. And the experiences they've been through mould them as persons, their psychology, their demeanor, their paradigm, etc. And it seems to me that it is hardly irrelevant to treat our lives as insignificant just because we die at the end. Specifically the argument that you should do whatever you want and maximize your pleasure (from a selfcentered POV) seems crucially flawed. Because however you live your life, I believe, has a very serious ramification at the end of life. The grave is not the end of a story. It is the start of an ineffable something that we, as a human race, have tried so hard to imagine and control. We would not know. But realizing that there is likely to be something at the end of life should make us more conscious about our day to day actions.
BTW just discovered "&" is called the Ampersand which is a conflation of the word "and per se and"
Or it could be argued that that is not necessarily true. That life is lived out only once, and that the accumulation of experiences as a way of defining life is inaccurate. One might argue that experiences lived out in the phases and moments in life guide subsequent phases and experiences serve no higher purpose than to merely guide our way through the journey of life and at the end as we face our expiration, those experiences would have served its purpose to guide us to our final point, because indeed without experiences (aka living) we would not reach that final point, we would have been merely stuck in a particularized space and time. And hence experiences become a process, the vehicle of carrying us forward instead of being something we accumulate and gather. Experiences become not items (such as boxes) but instead vehicles (like trains) that transport us through locations where we feel, sense, think and reflect.
But then again, it would seem pointless that when we reach our destination, it would all have been for nothing. That at our end point, there would be nothing further. If we think about the motive of travel, there is always a clear purpose at the destination. We wish to enjoy a holiday, we engage in business, we meet with someone. So perhaps at the end of the rail, we are finally able to relax from the toils of our earthly labor. Or perhaps we're faced with a new task (maybe a new life), or maybe we meet our Maker/Creator.
Everyone goes through experiences that lead them to their end points. And the experiences they've been through mould them as persons, their psychology, their demeanor, their paradigm, etc. And it seems to me that it is hardly irrelevant to treat our lives as insignificant just because we die at the end. Specifically the argument that you should do whatever you want and maximize your pleasure (from a selfcentered POV) seems crucially flawed. Because however you live your life, I believe, has a very serious ramification at the end of life. The grave is not the end of a story. It is the start of an ineffable something that we, as a human race, have tried so hard to imagine and control. We would not know. But realizing that there is likely to be something at the end of life should make us more conscious about our day to day actions.
BTW just discovered "&" is called the Ampersand which is a conflation of the word "and per se and"