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Life is absurd, stop trying to find a meaning
betaboy
Veteran
in Philosophy
I mean this most sincerely. I know I have wasted an awful lot of time on this. I know many people who have gone insane trying to figure things out. Truth is, Life is not supposed to make sense. Life is not a person endowed with intellect - so logic does not apply. We use logic to be able to make sense of things. But life is illogical, so the question why can never be answered.
For instance, if one asks, "Why did the person I love get cancer?", there is an answer from a medical PoV. But that's not the answer we want when we ask why. Ours is a philosophical why - a deeper why to make sense of what's going on. Unfortunately, though, life won't make sense.
I know as rational beings, our deepest desire is for meaning (not even happiness). But it is time we accepted that one cannot find meaning in life - it is supposed to be absurd because it is not a rational being, just an impersonal force.
For instance, if one asks, "Why did the person I love get cancer?", there is an answer from a medical PoV. But that's not the answer we want when we ask why. Ours is a philosophical why - a deeper why to make sense of what's going on. Unfortunately, though, life won't make sense.
I know as rational beings, our deepest desire is for meaning (not even happiness). But it is time we accepted that one cannot find meaning in life - it is supposed to be absurd because it is not a rational being, just an impersonal force.
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Comments
You are trying hard to make it something it's not.
It's you who needs to go with the flow.
To ears
muddied with sermons,
a cuckoo
~ Shiki
I'll answer the " why does someone I love get cancer" thing.. well because we simply cannot ACCEPT that people just die, its a natural part of life, at any time and any age.
We have to come up with some story or reasoning as to WHY, mostly so we can have something to blame and be angry at LOL.
I know why..god! that SOB!
I know why... karma! God damn karma!
I know why... no reason! ... LIES! I won't accept such nonsense.
is real, compassion is real. Awareness is real and with our real awareness we can use compassion to help end suffering. Yes, there is awareness without an object and that is fine. But that doesn't make nothing of life. If life is nothing then the Buddha's teachings are worthless. I don't see it that way. There is suffering and there is awareness and the care that comes from living gives a cause for human kindness.
I wrote this poem to express this truth. It is esoteric but it might be worth getting through. Be kind and care and the Buddha's teaching will be there. Purusha means "the Person" it is early Sanscrit.
Purusha
All is one and one is many so none is any.
None is any and yet all begins, to what ends?
To be and yet become is one so none is many.
Everything begins and nothing ends.
The spirit moves a bit of mass
And Man and Priest and Church conspire
As though a living poetry could pass
And be that None which moves the choir.
Do we that mighty self aspire
Who wields the self which is The One
Or love and hope and care transpire
To make the One who is that None?
dlc 1995
from 'the man from onion valley'
http://www.unfetteredmind.org/30-pieces-of-sincere-advice
Others search but do not find.
And still others (and apparently you're in this camp) do not search, or perhaps did search but have now stopped.
The 'cause' of concluding life is absurd is the mistake of believing there is no greater reality than the thoughts swirling in your own head. You haven't yet realized there's a whole wide world outside what you think, and that is great news! Be heartened, you haven't seen the half of it yet.
Gassho
Gassho
~Zen Master Seung Sahn
“I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. That is, we have to believe in something which has no form and no color--something which exists before all forms and colors appear... No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea.”
~Shunryu Suzuki
We all want to be the one who knows. But if we decide we "know" something, we are not open to other possibilities anymore. And that's a shame. We lose something very vital in our life when it's more important to us to be "one who knows" than it is to be awake to what's happening. We get disappointed because we expect one thing, and it doesn't happen quite like that. Or we think something ought to be like this, and it turns out different. Instead of saying, "Oh, isn't that interesting," we say, "Yuck, not what I thought it would be." Pity. The very nature of beginner's mind is not knowing in a certain way, not being an expert.
~Zenkei Blanche Hartman
"Life has no meaning. Absolutely no meaning! And when you realize that, you find true meaning. What we call in Buddhism "Big meaning", which is to help other beings. You realize all the stuff that you want, and all the stuff you don't want, is completely empty. Because it just comes and goes, and comes and goes"
~Dae Kwang Sunim Zen Master
Letting go of trying to find some meaning in why a loved one has cancer, or died or whatever, is a good thing IMO! If you go to a funeral, most people are thinking "OMG, how could this have happened?! Why did this happen?!, etc, etc. But it really does not matter why. If you can just let go of "OMG, why did this happen?! you can just accept that it happens and then be at peace with it. Being at peace is a good thing IMO.
betaboy is onto something valuable here I think. Letting go of "I need to know why!" is peace.
You choose 'absurdity' as a meaning to life. Possibly, because you are obstructed from seeing anything else. There are ways to get around this.
I choose a simple pat;, that we can be permitted to determine our own lives.
At least choice is an option - or is this an absurd notion?
Well actually I am just a monkey who has been tapping away at a typewriter for trillions of years to produce this sentence - Wake up beta boy, WAKE UP!
Heaven knows this planet is a mess and needs our loving and skillful help. On an individual level at least, if not a collective level.
But maybe that's just me... :-/
While I generally sympathize with the sentiment (existentialism lead me to Buddhism), I don't think it's always a skillful thing to say to others. Has a very "get over it, why doncha?!" vibe to it.
Speaking a truth and knowing the truth are different things.
The difference between platitudes and wisdom.
Pattern finding, the evolutionary need to solve problems, makes it difficult to accept an impersonal but interconnected, interdependent universe.
So what connections and interdependence, in other words what path do we take?
It is all meaningless, nothing matters . . . ?
. . . or we make connections, we make peace with ourselves and with and for others . . . ?
I find choice one empty, choice two is empty too . . . but I like it . . . :wave: