What do you keep living for? Is there a specific person, goal, or idea that you work for? Is there no meaning to life in your opinion?
Context: I’ve been reading Camus and Sartre, and thinking about how their ideas interact with hard determinism.
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I currently live to make life a little better for animals and other people. And when I have time left over I use creative outlets to create stuff.
Ecclesiastes is a good read. I found “Everything is meaningless” to be very liberating. The book does go on to say what is good: to love God of course, but also to eat, drink and enjoy your work. But the whole thing is worth a read.
Im not sure. I stay for my family and husband and my animals.
But I wouldn’t mind dying. Eternal rest from all the grind. Even if there is nothing after death. It would be nice to just sleep forever.
I stopped looking for external meaning in life a long time ago.
Look into nihilism (like actualy nihilism, not like “hurr durr I hate everything so I’m going to make the world suck” people who label themselves “nihilist”). It’s actually very freeing.
Edit: Just saw your “Context,” so it appears you’re on that track already. I guess I lean more toward the, “there is no meaning, so stop wasting time and effort trying to find or invent it” side than the “create your own meaning” side.
You’re in luck, there’s a whole movie devoted to this very topic.
Although, basically, it’s nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.
Well, Camus and Sartre are not exactly about finding meaning, but dealing with the world with no inherent meaning.
No advice here, but I suppose it would be rather difficult to argue for objective meaning of life under atheism, which seems prevalent here on lemmy, so I would consider the feasibility of the existentialist project, in creating meaning or living with the condradiction between our desire of meaning and the meaningless world.
For the meaning in life to is explore and play with my best friend…my wife. Even my career has switched to something that feels more like play than a grind for a corporation who enjoys the lion’s share of my labour.
It’s a great relief to come to the realization that there is no grand inherent meaning to life, and no need for one. No constant worrying about what the meaning is and how much time you have left to “figure it out”, no need to feel like there’s some big thing you have to accomplish, no pressure to be someone important or make an impact on the world. No need to find the correct religion or moral code. It’s simple: we’re all (humans and animals) just trying to live our lives in peace and find happiness, so as for goals: Live and let live. Try to not hurt each other, and better yet, help each other–helping1 someone isn’t always easy but it’s a good feeling. It creates a feeling of meaning/purpose better than most anything else I can think of.
1: besides doing some task for someone, it could also be as simple as a smile, a kind word, or just listening/being there.
The closest thing to meaning I believe in is derived from evolution. Meaning for me is to lift myself and those around me.
I have a lot of books left to read.
Books and computer games for me
You could say, in a way, that I live to convey what to live for.
Perhaps I’ve done a little too much LSD (probably not), but I have a certain innate understanding of recovering from rock bottom. I want to help people help themselves, as psychedelics have done for me. I hope the insight I have about myself can translate to others’ struggles. Any number of things could end up helping or hurting someone, and I’m doing my best to provide resources to people on learning how to do more than simply tolerate life. Psychonautics were what helped me, but what would help my friends, or people I don’t know at all?
First will come my psychonautic journal on harm reduction in substance use (my main hobby in life), but then a book about the hardships and joys of life in a more broad sense.
The world hurts right now. It needs all the help it can get, so I do what I can. When a friend hurts, I listen, and I do my best to make them smile.
Truly, simply being a human is good enough for me.
I’ve had zero interest in taking psychedelics in probably almost 10 years or so at this point (what’s the quote, “if you get the message, drop the phone?” something like that?), but I feel as though so much of my understanding of the world, and myself, was facilitated through them. I can’t imagine that I would be nearly as self-possessed and self-realized as I am now, if I hadn’t gone through those experiences when I was younger.
It’s about connection. You can feel it when it’s there with your loved ones, in art, in nature, anywhere you can find it. You can’t think it into being. You can only open yourself up to it when it’s there.
I have discovered that the meaning of life (for me) is to just exist. Whatever I do in life, I was meant to and builds on why I am here.
Meaning must be generated, not found.
there is no inherent meaning to life.
i choose to continue living each day because a) i am still enjoying myself enough to stick around, b) i’m a chicken and nothing has motivated me to voluntarily face quicker death just yet, c) i am committed to not fucking up my kids in that particular way if i can continue to avoid it, and d) i do work that matters and eases the suffering of others to create meaning for myself.
