From a scientific and philosophical point of view, the definition and concept of the meaning of life implies the existence of certain goals of existence, the individual and general purpose of a person.
The meaning of being is the basis of the worldview, which determines the entire path of development of the moral image of people.
In philosophy
In most cases, the meaning of life is perceived and positioned as philosophical problem. Philosophers of antiquity wrote that the secret of human existence lies in himself, and, trying to know himself, he recognizes the surrounding space. There are several historically recognized points of view on the problem of meaning:
- Followers and successors of Socrates said: "It is a shame to die without realizing the strength of your spiritual and bodily." Epicurus, exploring the topic of human death, urged not to be afraid of it, because the fear of death is inherently irrational: when death occurs, a person is no more. However, oddly enough, the attitude towards death significantly affects the attitude towards life and determines it.
- The problem of the meaning of life was also actively discussed in Kant's philosophy. In his opinion, a person in itself is a goal and the highest value, he is a person and the only creature on the planet capable of independently managing his life, pursuing any goals and achieving them. The great philosopher said that the meaning of a person's life is not outside, but inside himself: at the same time, the determining factor is the idea expressed through moral laws and debts. Kant also tried to describe what "meaning" is. In his opinion, meaning cannot exist independently, as a kind of object of reality, it is in the minds of people and it also determines their behavior, forcing them to voluntarily obey the laws of morality and thereby putting a person one step above other living beings on the planet. That is, from the point of view of Kant, the destiny of a person is expressed in the presence certain worldview, or religion. At the same time, religion, as an explanation for the emergence of our world, Kant denies - its significance lies precisely in the fact that it is the basis for the development of human morality.
- Kant's philosophy was further developed by other German classics. According to Fichte, the search for the meaning of human life on earth is the main task of any philosophy. Comprehension of meaning is the complete consent of the individual with himself, which is expressed in human freedom, rational activity, development. Developing and becoming a free and reasonable person, a person changes and improves the surrounding reality.
Throughout the history of philosophy and religion, attempts have been made to find a universal, suitable for everyone, meaning of human existence.
Religion calls on a person to prepare himself for "life after death", because it is outside the "biological" existence that real life begins. From the position of virtue, the answer to the question: “why do we live?” obvious: to do good deeds and serve the truth. In addition to religious ideas, there is a widespread point of view that sees the purpose and meaning of human life in obtaining physical and moral pleasures and the opposite, which presents suffering and death as the purpose of birth.
In psychology
Psychology also did not ignore the eternally relevant dilemma - why does a person live on earth. At least two directions in psychology are actively engaged in the search for a solution to the problem “what is the meaning of human life”:
- The notorious psychologist and philosopher Viktor Frankl worked for a long time to create his own school, focused on the study of a person who is looking for something worth living for. According to Frankl, the goals of achieving the true destiny ennoble a person, make him more conscious, reasonable and morally healthy. As a result of his research, the psychologist wrote a book: "Man in search of the meaning of life." This work contains answers to the most common questions about the search for meaning, elaborates on this topic and suggests three ways to achieve it. The first way is aimed at comprehending the goal of existence through labor activity and bringing it to the ideal; the second way is the experience of feelings and emotions, which in themselves are meaning; the basis of the third is to gain experience through the passage of suffering, pain, anxieties and the struggle with earthly hardships on the path of life.
- Psychology has also been actively engaged and is engaged in the study of the meaning of human life in the existential direction or logotherapy. This direction calls a person a being who does not know why and for what he came to this world and his goal is to find this knowledge. Therefore, the center of logotherapy is psychological aspect this process. And people have only two ways - either, despite possible failures and disappointments, seek their calling, be responsible for their actions, try, experiment; or - to give up at the very beginning of his path and his life will pass without touching awareness.
Forms
The purposes and meaning of human existence are seldom universal for all life or consist in the same thing. Most often, they change with age, internal personality changes; or under the influence of external circumstances. For example, in adolescence and youth, the solution to the problem - what is the meaning of life - will be: obtaining education and the necessary skills to start working; after the age of 25, the most common answers are starting a family, building a career, improving the material conditions of existence. Closer to retirement age, when life becomes more meaningful, people are puzzled by questions of spiritual development and religion. For some people, the problem of meaning is solved through a hobby in which a person is realized in parallel with the goals listed above. In the latter case, the life of such people is more full and bright, because in parallel they achieve several goals and are not very dependent on one, which means that they are easier to experience possible disappointments and obstacles, are able to comprehend them and move on.
The birth and upbringing of children is one of the most common types of life goals and the meaning of life.
The birth of a child leads to most of parents' attention is focused on him: they earn money to provide their child with the best, they try to give a good education help in difficult times instill the right way of life. Most mothers and fathers try to raise their children properly, to instill in them the desire to live by the principles of justice and high morality. And if this succeeds, the parents believe that the life path has not been passed in vain, it made sense to leave its worthy continuation on earth.
Leaving a mark on the earth is already a rarer option for finding meaning. Most often, people with some rare talent are capable of this. These are great scientists, artists, representatives of royal, noble and other families, famous managers, etc. However, not everything is so sad.
A person who does not have a very bright talent, but who is hardworking, persistent and purposeful, who lives, understanding and imagining what the meaning of his life can be, can leave his mark on the earth.
For example, this is an educator who puts his soul into his wards, or a doctor who has healed many people, a carpenter who improves the life of people through his work, an athlete, perhaps not possessing bright abilities, but achieving better results every day, etc.
The problem of achieving meaning in a high-tech society
In today's world, humanity lives at an accelerated pace and spends a lot of emotional and physical resources to maintain a standard of living. We rarely stop and think about the meaning of human life. Society and progress require conformity to fashion, certain norms, the format of relationships between people. A person is likened to a squirrel in a wheel, making thousands of monotonous movements brought to automatism; he does not have time to think about what he himself wants and what he lives for.
Modernity is characterized by the daily pursuit of illusion, false ideals. The culture of consumption does not allow one to develop spiritually, the moral side modern man becomes less developed, mundane and primitive; the miracle of life turns into ordinary existence.
Naturally, people have become more susceptible to diseases nervous system, depression, hysteria and chronic fatigue. The number of suicides over the past decades has increased several times. Human sense has become an expensive luxury.
However, for people who are strong in spirit, persistent and resistant to social influence, capable of thinking, progress opens up new opportunities for self-development and improvement of the world. Now it is much easier to acquire knowledge that contributes to the search for goals and meaning; easier to promote own ideas: for them they will not be led to the gallows and will not be burned at the stake; technological capabilities allow you to create and build new objects and objects. We live in a relatively calm period and the desire to maintain peaceful relationships, take care of nature, find compromises and grow spiritually is the purpose and meaning of human life.
Introduction.
Great philosophers - such as Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Diogenes and many others - had clear ideas about what kind of life is "best" (and, therefore, most meaningful) and, as a rule, associated the meaning of life with the concept of good. That is, in their understanding, a person should live for the benefit of other people. He must leave a legacy behind.
From my point of view, such people who have brought significant benefit to the lives of others are writers such as Pushkin, Lermontov, Bulgakov and many others, these are scientists such as Einstein, Pavlov, Demikhov, Hippocrates and others. But that doesn't mean that we simple people and not at all great minds do not bring benefit to others.
The question “about the meaning of life” excites and torments in the depths of the soul of every person. A person can completely forget about it for a while, plunge headlong into worries, into work, into material worries about saving life, about wealth. I think that on this question There is no single answer, but there are many different opinions. And their abundance is explained by the fact that different people pursue different goals in their lives.
In my essay, I will consider different opinions about the meaning of life on Earth, and in conclusion I will write what is the meaning of life for me.
The meaning of human existence.
The ancient Greek philosopher and scientist-encyclopedist Aristotle, for example, believed that the goal of all human actions is happiness (eudaimonia), which consists in the realization of the essence of man. For a person whose essence is the soul, happiness consists in thinking and cognition. Spiritual work thus takes precedence over physical work. Scientific activity and the pursuit of art are the so-called dianoetic virtues, which are achieved through the subordination of passions to reason.
To some extent, I agree with Aristotle, because indeed each of us lives life in search of happiness, and most importantly, when you are happy internally. But on the other hand, when you completely devote yourself to art or low-income science and you don’t have money for normal clothes, good food, and because of this you will start to feel like an outcast and become lonely. Is this happiness? Someone will say no, but for someone it is really joy and the meaning of existence.
The 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer defined human life as a manifestation of a certain world will: it seems to people that they are acting according to own will, but in fact they are driven by someone else's will. Being unconscious, the world will is absolutely indifferent to its creations - people who are abandoned by it to the mercy of random circumstances. According to Schopenhauer, life is a hell in which a fool pursues pleasures and comes to disappointment, and a wise man, on the contrary, tries to avoid troubles through self-restraint - a wisely living person realizes the inevitability of disasters, and therefore curbs his passions and puts a limit to his desires. Human life, according to Schopenhauer, is a constant struggle with death, incessant suffering, and all efforts to free oneself from suffering lead only to the fact that one suffering is replaced by another, while the satisfaction of basic vital needs turns into satiety and boredom.
And in the interpretation of Schopenhauer's life, there is some truth. Our life is a constant struggle for survival, and in the modern world it's just "fights without rules for a place in the sun." And if you do not want to fight and become a nobody, then she will crush you. Even if you reduce desires to a minimum (so that there is somewhere to sleep and eat) and measure yourself with suffering, then what is life? It’s clean to take and live in this world as a person about whom they will wipe their feet. No, this is not the meaning of life in my opinion!
Speaking about the meaning of human life and death, Sartre wrote: “If we must die, then our life has no meaning, because its problems remain unresolved and the very meaning of the problems remains uncertain ... Everything that exists is born without a reason, continues in weakness and dies accidentally ... Absurd that we were born, it is absurd that we will die.”
We can say that according to Sartre there is no meaning to life, because sooner or later we will all die. I completely disagree with him, because if you follow his worldview, then why live at all, it is easier to commit suicide, but this is not so. After all, each person clings to a thin thread that holds him in this world, even if his existence in this world is disgusting. We all know very well about such a category of people as the homeless (people without a fixed place of residence). Many were once wealthy people, but they went bankrupt or were deceived, and they paid everyone for their gullibility, well, there are many other reasons why they have come to such a life. And every day for them is a lot of problems, trials, torments. Some can not stand it and still leave this world (with their own help), but others find the strength to live on. Personally, I believe that a person can say goodbye to life only when he does not see the meaning in it.
Ludwig Wittgenstein things in personal life may have meaning (importance), but life itself has no meaning other than these things. In this context, it is said that someone's personal life has meaning (important for oneself or others) in the form of events that happen throughout that life and the results of that life in terms of achievements, inheritance, family, etc.
Indeed, to some extent, this is true. Our life is important for our loved ones, for those people who love us. There may be only a few of them, but we are aware that, in this wide world, we are needed by someone, important to someone. And for the sake of these people we live, feeling needed.
It seems to me that it is also worth asking for the search for the meaning of life also in religion. Because it is often assumed that religion is a response to the human need to stop feeling confused or afraid of death (and the accompanying desire not to die). By defining a world beyond life (the spirit world), these needs are "satisfied", providing meaning, purpose, and hope for our (otherwise meaningless, purposeless, and finite) lives.
I would like to consider it from the point of view of some religions.
And I want to start with Christianity. The meaning of life is to save the soul. Only God is an independent being, everything exists and is comprehended only in continuous connection with the Creator. However, not everything in this world makes sense - there are meaningless, irrational actions. An example of such an act is, for example, the betrayal of Judas or his suicide. Thus, Christianity teaches that one act can make life meaningless. The meaning of life is God's plan for man, and it is different for different people. It can be seen only by washing away the adhering dirt of lies and sin, but it is impossible to “invent” it.
“I saw a buffalo frog and said: “I also want to become a buffalo!” Pouted, pouted, and finally burst. After all, God made someone a frog, and someone a buffalo. And what did the frog do: she wanted to become a buffalo! Well, it crashed! Let everyone rejoice in what the Creator has made him.” (The words of the elder Paisius the Holy Mountaineer).
The meaning of the earthly stage of life is in gaining personal immortality, which is possible only through personal participation in the sacrifice of Christ and the fact of His resurrection, as if “through Christ”.
Faith gives us the meaning of life, the goal, the dream of a happy afterlife. It may be hard and bad for us now, but after death at the hour and moment when it was assigned to us by fate, we will find eternal paradise. Everyone in this world has their own test. Everyone finds their own meaning. And everyone should remember about "spiritual purity."
From the point of view of Judaism: the meaning of the life of any person is to serve the Creator, even in the most everyday affairs - when a person eats, sleeps, takes care of natural needs, performs marital duty - he must do this with the thought that he takes care of the body - in order to to be able to serve the Creator with full dedication.
The meaning of human life is to contribute to the establishment of the kingdom of the Most High over the world, to reveal its light for all the peoples of the world.
Not everyone will see the meaning of existence only in constant service to God, when every moment you first of all think not about yourself, but about the fact that you should get married, raise a bunch of kids, just because God ordered so.
From an Islamic point of view: special treatment between man and God - "surrendering oneself to God", "submission to God"; followers of Islam are Muslims, that is, "devotees". The meaning of the life of a Muslim is to worship the Almighty: “I did not create jinn and people so that they bring Me any benefit, but only so that they worship Me. But worship benefits them.”
Religions are written rules, if you live according to them, if you are submissive to God and fate, then it means that you have a meaning in life.
The meaning of modern life
Modern society, of course, does not impose the meaning of life on its members, and this is the individual choice of each person. At the same time, modern society offers an attractive goal that can fill a person's life with meaning and give him strength.
The meaning of the life of a modern person is self-improvement, the upbringing of worthy children who must surpass their parents, the development of this world as a whole. The goal is to turn a person from a "cog", an application object external forces into a creator, demiurge, builder of the world.
Any person integrated into modern society is the creator of the future, a participant in the development of our world, in the future - a participant in the creation of a new Universe. And no matter where and by whom he works - he moves the economy forward in private firm or teaches children at school - his work and contribution is needed for development.
The consciousness of this fills life with meaning and makes you do your job well and conscientiously - for the benefit of yourself, other people and society. This allows you to realize your own significance and a single goal that you set for yourself. Modern people to feel involved in the highest achievements of mankind. And just to feel like a bearer of a progressive Future is already important.
Yes indeed - good question. What is the meaning of this life?
And you know, in this article we will give you the exact answer to this question!
Only it will be at the end of the problem book. Remember how in the algebra textbook at school?
We just have to warn you right now!
After reading this article, your life can change 180 degrees.!
Yes Yes exactly!
Do you really need this answer? Are you sure you're ready to hear it?
If not, or you are not sure, then feel free to close this page and go further somewhere on google or Yandex to read hundreds of other articles there that the meaning of life is in children!
For those who have already read up to this point, let's say right away: the meaning of life is NOT in children!!
The last phrase can be underlined and highlighted in bold!!!
Why? We'll explain a little later...
So what is the meaning of human life? BUT...?
Why is it all this: work that you need to get up every morning on an alarm clock, some goals, plans, loans, constant lack of time, stress, traffic jams, metro, family, children, medicines and headaches?
Why is all this necessary? What is the meaning of such a life?
Where are you going? What are you striving for? You rush headlong into the future at a speed of 200 km / h, not noticing how the events of your present slip through the window. And you don't even have time to smell the flowers?
Loans, suppliers, contracts, partners, kickbacks, taxes... and now the alarm goes off again in the morning! Ring-ring! Climb! And again flashed pictures of life at a speed of 200 frames per second. And somewhere now the sun is rising, the surf is rustling, seagulls are screaming and the air still smells of morning coolness!
Or do you have a blank space ahead of you? All the colors of your life have long been erased. And you live only in thoughts about the past ... experiencing old grievances, heartache, betrayal, slowly fading from the lack of love, warmth, care, understanding ... regretting the possibilities, blaming your fate and other people who made it so for you ? This must be fate, you say to yourself.
So what is the meaning of life then?
Why live at all?
After all, every year there are more and more wrinkles on the face, and why a person lives, what is the meaning of his life, no one has explained.
Well, okay, stop guessing already, poking around in your past, thoughts, experiences!
From now on, you can start smiling! Like this: :))))))))
Just what you were looking for!
First, let's break down the wrong answers!
Although, probably, 99% of people will answer the question "what is the meaning of life" in this way, because they also do not know what it is! :))
Wrong answer #1
The meaning of life is in children!
And why not in children, you ask!
Yes, because!
Just think: Masha had a little daughter. And Masha decided to name her daughter Katya. Beautiful name! But before the birth of Katya, Masha had no meaning in life. None at all! More precisely, no, he was: to give birth to Katya. All 35 years Masha lived only to give birth to Katya. And now, finally, she had the meaning of life: to raise and educate her beloved daughter (or son, whatever). But what will happen when Katya grows up? When she is already 21 years old and she finally says: "Mom, well, that's enough already! I'm not small ..." Masha will again lose the meaning of her life!
It turns out that way.
The saddest thing is that for most of these Mashas, for whom the meaning of life is children, this is exactly what happens. After their child grows up, their life becomes aimless and dreary again.
But Nature has already conceived that sooner or later Katya and Vasya will grow up and leave their parental home to start building their own independent life!
And if their mother (or father) by this moment does not find the correct, Natural answer to the question "what is the meaning of my life", then she will continue to "cling" to her children, trying to control their life without having her own!
And if you continue this chain, then Katya will think the same way as Masha: I must give birth to a child, because this is the meaning of my life. And then history will repeat itself!
Night, street, pharmacy lamp... pharmacy, street, lamp...
Because the meaning of human life is not in children!
A child is only a tactical (intermediate) goal, but by no means the main, strategic one.
Although most people, not knowing what the main goal of their life, put a child in this place!
Wrong answer #2
What difference does it make, what is the meaning of life!
Do not worry. Just live and DON'T think about it!
And what, also an option! Indeed, what difference is the meaning of human life!
Live and live! If you die, then maybe the guys with white wings from above will explain, finally, what was the point. And they will pass or fail... Well, like at the institute, remember? :) And then they will be sent back to Earth for retake, but in another body, in a new incarnation, in new family... To some popuases in the jungle. And all over again: to be born again, to scream, to suck a boob, to learn to walk... And then, one fine day, when the Sun will be at its zenith, warming the earth with its warm rays, you will be devoured by some saber-toothed tiger in the bushes, where did you go for a little. And again to heaven, welcome to heaven, to the selection committee with his tattered record book from past incarnations! Just some kind of circle of Samsara!
So what's the fun in that? Can someone explain? And then I got tired of going back and forth ... I have changed so many bodies, I have been both a man and a woman, I have seen so much on this Earth for many centuries, but how much I was a fool, I remained! Hey, guys in white coats, what is the meaning of life?
Well, I finally thought to ask! And you type in Google "what is the meaning of life", they will answer with thoughts in your head .. You will find the article "what is the meaning of human life." And read. Read attentively! Until the end. If he himself for so many lives has not yet understood what the meaning is. They will explain everything to you in human language. And maybe this time, when you return from Earth to us again with your record book, we will give you a solid 4 instead of zeros and ones for past unlived lives.
Wrong answer #3
The meaning of human life = power, sex and money.
Well, it’s for such chosen meanings of life that angels in white coats put zeros (0) and ones (1) in the heavenly office. Just Kindergarten some! He amused his ego under the name of personality, playing the illusion of his power over the world, well, or power over 5 janitors from the HOA. Who has what kind of power ... Small, medium and large businesses. Politics. He built his empire for 20 years, and then the government changed and everything crumbled like a house of cards in a few months. And after all, if this business was the whole meaning of life, then, in fact, there is no need to live further! Alcohol, anger, an accident... and write off the expense again!
Knock Knock? Can? Hello office! I came to you again with my record book. Some kind of unsuccessful incarnation happened. Somewhere I messed up again!
The conversation might go something like this:
But there were hints! Well, if you remember. Don't you remember?
Don't come here, your head will get snow, you'll be completely dead. Don't sign this contract, it smells bad, don't start this business, take a look right here... It's much more promising and profitable.
But NO! I said, I decided so, I want this, I will achieve this at any cost ...
And we talked to you, prompted, but you don’t hear ...
Your personality, your ego has grown so much that it seems to you that this is you. That nothing else exists. That only your personal will, your personal plans and your personal goals determine your life.
And if we tell you that you have your invisible master, your boss?
No, not the one who, spattering saliva, anger and displeasure, yelled at you every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. (By the way, your earth-office boss did this too because he doesn’t know what the meaning of his life is).
We are talking about your Spirit! And his tasks of incarnation on Earth through your physical body and your personality!
Well, why are you looking at us again with such dumbfounded, uncomprehending eyes, like 125 years ago, when you passed the last test?
Explain?
Well, we explain in a human language that you understand!
With pictures like in comics!
And don't tell us again that you don't understand.
And here is the answer at the end of the puzzle!
The correct answer to the question: "What is the meaning of human life?"
But first, let's figure out who this person is.
There is a physical shell, a material object of the dense plane of the existence of matter. Arms, legs, head, stomach, lungs, rectum, bones and heart.
But what separates the dead from the living?
Like the same set of organs. But something is already missing in this set.
What is missing, can you answer?
Right! Souls, more precisely, a subtle-material object that joins with the physical body (biological carrier) throughout life.
And the Soul or the Spirit? What's the difference. Let's see how it's all connected.
The human body is surrounded by an energy shell (in other words, an aura or a biofield). These are objects of the astral plane of the existence of matter. On the human aura (biofield), one can distinguish zones of energy concentrations, which are called chakras. There are 7 of them.
The energy shell of a person is enclosed in a cocoon of an emotional shell, which feeds the energy shell. Therefore, the more often a person rejoices, the denser and larger his energy shell and the less he gets sick, since there is a direct relationship between the state of human health and the density, size of his energy shell. "Jupiter, you're angry, so you're wrong."
What is a person?
The physical and energy shells of a person
On the video: Vyacheslav Gubanov - Rector of the International Institute of Social Ecology
The emotional shell of a person
Further, after the emotional shell, there are intellectual and software shell structures. We will discuss their functions in another article. Yes, by the way, the state of energy, any chakra distortions can be measured. And we teach this within the framework of our scientific direction "Infosomatics".
It looks like this:
Developments of the International Institute for Social Ecology.
Any material object propagates in outer space with a finite speed C. Well, you may remember from the course of school and institute physics who attended it :) Einstein also described this in his theory of relativity. What does the theory of relativity and the meaning of human life have to do with it, you ask. The answer is next.
So, the physical body and the finely material shell structure of a person propagate in outer space at a speed of C. And according to the theory of relativity, in this case, the material object loses its dimensions in the direction of the propagation axis. Those. The whole thing degenerates into a disk.
And this is what the human soul looks like:
This is a set of disks (human states) for each quantum of lived time from the point of birth. It contains all the stresses, all the emotions of a person.
And it can be measured! Yes, yes, you heard right. The human soul - the object of the mental plane of the existence of matter - can be measured!
This is what we do regularly when someone comes for a consultation with their problems. We remove the characteristics of the mental body and look for all the stresses in the past that affect the present of a person and help him "turn them off", rewrite them in his past on the life line.
It looks like this:
So what is the meaning of life?
And here's what...
The soul, the mental body of a person, spreads over the surface of the Spirit. Spirit is an object of the next order, it belongs to the causal plane of the existence of matter. It contains information about past incarnations of a person, about the experience of all past lives.
It looks like this:
This is the same record book that spherical objects of the Causal plane of the existence of matter and above, which some call angels, look at in the heavenly office. We call them Curators. Because they constantly supervise the embodied person and give him hints. The only question is whether he hears them or clings only to his personality: I, I, I, the homing head ... :)
Spirit, by the way, can also be measured. Not with a ruler, of course!
Find in it the controlling stresses and programs, both in the current incarnation (Soul) and in the past ones. By the way, a person's gender can change from incarnation to incarnation. Many problems of sexual self-identification are connected with this, when a person's consciousness still hears its previous incarnation, but is already in the biological carrier of the opposite sex.
So what is the meaning of human life?
In order to accumulate as many layers of your Spirit as possible during the current incarnation and smooth its surface as much as possible due to positive emotions from the tasks / problems that arise on the road of a person’s life. The spirit is the same invisible host that leads a person through life, helps and protects him, or, conversely, slaps on the pope! And he has to spank oh, how often. Because otherwise a person does not hear, or rather does not want to hear.
After all, many begin to think, turn on their heads and change only when they feel bad!
After all, you probably found this article not lying on the beach with a cocktail in your hand.
Hello from your Spirit! :))
Well, now to the answer, what is the meaning of human life, you can add new question... It sounds like this: how free is the will of man!
The will of a person is free within the framework of the combat task set before him by the Spirit!
Want to know more?
Maybe yes!
Then download these 2 of our DVDs.
And change your view of the world already by 360 degrees in a spiral upwards!
Greetings, inquisitive mind! Before raking monumental questions a la: “What is the meaning of human life?”, “How to find the meaning of life?” or “Is there a meaning to life at all?”, let's understand what unites us all.
What is the meaning of human life
Someone or something did a great job of inventing us so dissimilar to each other, but in one thing this something was clearly driven slightly, namely in the human the need to strive for something. Yes, each person is unique, but there is not a single life in which there would be no dreams, desires, and goals, because we all move somewhere in our existence, it is important for us to achieve something, none of us wants to live in vain .
About the need for self-realization
Why it happens? When creating a new life, the Universe gives a person a set of resources, usually a pair of legs and arms, a brain, a bouquet personal qualities, some crappy character, a number of basic skills, well, actually life itself.
Taking all this from the shelf and solemnly handing it to you, the Universe voices just one short wish: “ It's yours, please use it somehow».
So we smoothly approached the main human need, which is based on everything. This is about the need to realize oneself, to reveal one's potential. The desire that unites us to achieve something and to come somewhere - this is the thirst to satisfy the need for self-realization.
Perhaps here you will cheerfully clap your hands with a joyful exclamation: “Hurrah, now I know what the meaning of human life is!” - do not rush to conclusions. The need to realize oneself is as much a need as the need for sleep or food, self-realization is simply part of our existence.
Is there a meaning to life
The most global joke is that there is no meaning to life. There is not even a concept such as "purpose". When creating life, the Universe does not ask itself what this life should result in. This is logical, because by assigning to each person from the start any specific meaning of existence, the Universe deprives us of two things that it itself gives us - the right to choose and freedom.
This concept, to put it mildly, looks miserable, and the Universe can only act brilliantly, therefore, all of it the idea is to give a person a testing ground for experiments.
You can imagine life as an area of land allocated to you, and the rest of the resources, generously bestowed from the universal shoulder, as tools with which you can use this platform in the way that seems most fun to you.
If you want - set up a garden, if you want - build an amusement park, a house, a swimming pool or anything that will be able to visit your bright head. This is the greatness of our existence - we are not limited to how to manage ourselves and our lives. We are limited only by the fact that one must somehow dispose of all this (but this is not a limitation, but, on the contrary, a concept leading to infinity).
The good thing is not that life is long, but how to manage it: it can happen, and it often happens, that a person who lives long does not live long.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Why was the very meaning invented
An idea with the meaning of life is entirely a human invention, and this invention is brilliant, if you understand its essence.
Let's start with a little bit of terminology, we already know that the only desire of this world for us is that we realize ourselves. This desire is so deep in us that we have built a strategy that allows us to unlock our potential.
The essence of the strategy is to streamline your entire life, reducing everything in it to one more or less specific idea in the direction of which you need to move. In this way, the meaning of life is an idea that allows you to realize yourself.
A meaningless life is terrible
A meaningless life never ends well. It is much easier to live aimlessly - it does not oblige you to anything, but it does not lead to anything either.. Without an answer to the question “What is the meaning of my life?”, a person cannot direct and use his energy.
The presence of meaning is not weak focus, which allows some of us to do truly monumental things. That is why in the article about that, one final idea was mentioned, against which all actions should rest.
When a person does not know which pier he is on his way to, not a single wind will be favorable for him.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Desire to be significant
Every person wants to mean something, it’s hard to feel like a nobody that no one on this planet needs. Meaning gives weight to our lives, significance, because by realizing any idea with the help of yourself, you suddenly begin to matter in your own eyes and in the eyes of the world as a whole.
interest in life
Another important argument in favor of the genius of the invention called "The Meaning of Life" is that having this idea in mind keeps our zest for life. Life interests us exactly as long as we need something in it, and when there are no more ideas in the mind, our growth stops and death occurs.
There is no answer to the question of meaning
All this, of course, is very cool, but one critical question remains about what exactly needs to be created on that very land site, or in other words: “What is the meaning of my life?”.
There is no answer to this question anywhere., it does not exist, not only on the Internet, it does not exist in nature, because nature did not conceive any specific meaning for us, as we have already found out. Nature has given us the opportunity to choose any meaning on our own.
Although we cannot give you a specific answer, we can provide information that will help you in your search and help you understand how to find meaning in life.
How does the self-realization process work?
If any meaning of life is a way to realize oneself, then we need to understand how the process of human realization itself takes place. It is based on five basic principles from which we all live.
Some people are well aware of these principles, which allows them to realize themselves in the most effective way, others are not aware and still follow the same principles subconsciously, although this approach is much less effective.
Excellent, the intrigue is created, it's time to show the cards.
Development
As soon as the male cell successfully meets the female cell, announcing the beginning of a new life, from that moment the constant development of a person begins in all aspects of life. Especially in the first 15 years, this process is striking, a person visually undergoes serious changes, and intellectually develops at a gigantic pace. forcing us to evolve with it.
Any human achievement is the result of a long development, otherwise we would all here from the first minutes of life without much difficulty be able to produce something ingenious, but any really worthwhile result is achieved in a protracted process of obtaining skills, knowledge and practice. To do anything meaningful, you need to grow up with who you are now.
Search
Needless to say, the most popular resources on the Internet are search engines in which we are all looking for information of interest.
Life never becomes unambiguous, understandable or simple for a person precisely because the process of self-realization implies a search, which is impossible if all the information sought is already in hand.
The need to seek in an attempt to know the world and maintains our interest in life. Any interest or curiosity that arises in us is the desire to find something, which means we are looking every day.
Another idea of the search is self-knowledge. Every person is wildly interested to know what he is and what it looks like from the side.
There is no desire more natural than the desire for knowledge.
Michel de Montaigne
Creation
The ability to create is the greatest human privilege. Take any citizen who has left a mark on history and you will see that he managed to leave a legacy there because he created something grandiose in his life.
Some of them created brilliant music or a film, someone invented the wheel, and someone created equality between black and white people.
Creation is the process of building up a land area using the tools at hand. It is impossible to realize oneself and at the same time create nothing, because the very process of unlocking the potential involves extracting resources from yourself and investing them in your idea - during these manipulations inevitably something happens..
Probably, every child, sick of the constant intrusion of this world into his life, dreamed of just being alone on the planet. We invite you to present this picture as vividly as possible.
Imagine that right now there is no one else left on the planet, not a single person at all. How long will it be fun for you to stay in such a world? We assure you that it will not be long, and all because each of us needs to serve.
What distinguishes successful person from the rest? - he shares with the world the best that he has, makes a contribution. What makes a person influential is not his talent or superpowers, but how significant the benefit of all this is for other people.. Detailed analysis flights on the topic of the need to share have already passed in an article about.
The life of an individual person is meaningful only to the extent that it helps to make the lives of other people more beautiful and nobler.
Albert Einstein
The element of service in human life was not invented by chance. Everything on earth strives for unity, and service is our way of creating unity within our ranks. It is only thanks to other people that we have the opportunity to express ourselves and feel our significance. Look at our world, we constantly use someone's services and each of us provides some services to others. Any person has his environment with which he interacts daily.
Of the five principles, this one is the most obscure, because we have become too involved in separating ourselves from others and have become divided. The distance between people is now too great: we divided the planet into countries, invented religions, subcultures, families, social statuses and a bunch of other factors - all this so that everyone can define themselves in some category. Coming to the idea of service while in this position is not very easy.
Love
Love is the thrill with which a designer assembles his new car, or the dedication with which a titled athlete trains, or the diligence with which a director makes his film. In this context, “love” can be understood as a hellish and irresistible desire to do something.
Realization of oneself is a life long journey, it takes a reactive driving force to be able to go through this path, and love looks great in this role. The inability to do what you love is one of the main reasons why.
Without love, nothing can be beautiful, therefore, everything that is most essential is always created with love and thanks to love.
Misconceptions about the meaning of life
IN modern society There are several established opinions regarding the meaning of life. These are ideas that many of us believe in, but they fall completely outside the concept of self-realization that we are talking about here. Let's take a closer look at them so that someone does not inadvertently make the wrong choice.
Life is the meaning of life
“What is the meaning of human life? “You have a life - live, just be, this is your great meaning” - this is the traditional understanding of this idea, and, alas, we often live with it.
We return to the metaphor, where life is a land area allocated to a person. What is the deep meaning of this site and can it be in it, in principle, if it is not used in any way, not implemented, not built up?
Life is just a space where you can express yourself, it cannot be a meaning, but it is a resource that allows any meaning to be realized.
The idea of making life the meaning of life is very convenient for humanity, as it is very easy to follow, in short, nothing to follow at all, nothing forces you to move You just exist and that's it. Apparently, this is why this idea is so popular, but about as mediocre, because it does not allow a person to reveal himself in any way.
Life is one, you have to take everything from it
This idea is another way of understanding the idea that life is meaning. If you imagine that there is only one life, then a person simply has no right to make a mistake in it, because you are not given another chance.
It's funny, but here we are in the desire to "take everything" are mistaken already at the start. Realization of oneself is not “taking everything”, but “search in oneself, extract what is found and give it away with love” These are two fundamentally different ideas.
Therefore, any desire to accumulate more money, cars, houses or something else without thinking about how you use it for self-realization is an extremely stupid desire.
A person can have 15 bulldozers, 300 workers and a lot of money, but if, having all this, he does not build up the site, then everything he has accumulated will be worth nothing.
The meaning of finding happiness and success
Among the previous ideas, this one is the most sane, but it has one significant inaccuracy, which lies in the misunderstanding of what happiness and success are.
These concepts cannot be the purpose of existence, but are usually the consequence of being with a suitable purpose. If a good meaning is chosen and a person moves in its direction, then happiness and success will become a pleasant consequence of this process and an indicator that a person is effectively realizing himself.
Strive not to succeed, but to ensure that your life has meaning.
Albert Einstein
To find the answer to the question "What is the meaning of human life?" it is necessary to imagine how the process of gaining that very meaning takes place.
How does one find meaning?
Thoughts are constantly appearing in our minds, among these thoughts there are ideas. Ideas may either not interest us, and then we safely let them go, or ideas may interest us, as a result of which a desire appears in us to realize the idea that has arisen.
Then we proceed to explore the idea that interests us. Research is the movement towards an idea in order to understand its depth and significance. If in the process of research a person begins to realize the full power of an idea, it becomes the meaning of his life.. After that, all his being in all his concrete moments will be directed towards the realization of the found meaning.
When you discover such a monumental idea, you don’t have to think: “Is this really the meaning of my life?” - this question simply does not arise in the head, because everything is so clear to a person. You do not have to long and painfully adjust your life to this idea, the idea itself absorbs you with your head.
In general, the process of finding any meaning occurs according to the same algorithm: idea - desire - exploration - finding meaning.
follow desire
There is no recipe for “How to find the meaning of life”, because it is an entertaining process of searching and creating, which a person cannot be deprived of. But there is one fantastic recommendation - ignore your desire.
Desire is a measure of value.
Baltasar Gracian
Desire is something that you can boldly rely on. Our universal plague lies in the fact that we, under the pressure of public opinion, our own restrictions, complexes and other garbage, push most of our desires to hell. This explains the harsh reality in which the majority of the population is engaged in what they do not find much sense in and which, frankly, they simply do not like. We too seldom listen to our desire.
If you have a desire to realize an idea - explore it, move in the direction of this idea, try to assess its depth, because the desire did not arise inside you by chance, try to understand why this idea hooked you so much.
When we begin to explore our desires, we begin to truly seek and eventually find. It doesn’t matter at all what idea it will be: open a coffee shop, make people’s lives fun, or make a snowman out of the ground in June.
If you saw in your idea an opportunity for self-realization and it is clear to you how to implement the above five principles in the midst of this process, you should definitely pay attention to your idea, sooner or later with this approach you will endow life with meaning.
Ask "Why?"
There is one exercise that allows you to get closer to answering the question "What is the meaning of life?". Whatever you do and whatever you think, ask yourself “Why?”
For example:
- Why do I go to work? To receive money.
- Why get money? To provide for themselves and survive.
- Okay, in that case, why do you need to survive?
Or:
- Why do I need this shortcoming? He makes me stronger.
Why get stronger? This is my development process.
- Okay, but why do you need to develop?
A person who has the meaning of existence in his head will eventually come to his own meaning from any initial question, because everything in his life is aimed at realizing this meaning.
Well, if you have not yet decided on your monumental idea, then this exercise will allow you to find a few thoughts that will be close to it.
The meaning of life is fickle
Perhaps you are now thinking that it’s impossible to make a mistake in the main thing, and from here it’s not entirely clear how to find something uniquely suitable for life. Here it is necessary to understand that a person is constantly growing and what today seemed to him the most significant, tomorrow may seem insignificant and give way to a more monumental idea.
This is natural, we literally grow out of one idea and come to another. Even if over the years the idea remains the same, a person begins to understand it more fully and widely.
All this is an integral part of the search and development process, therefore, choosing a monumental idea and following your desire, you should not worry too much about the fact that after some time this idea will lose its meaning. It is important to realize that if the current idea is not explored, then the larger idea cannot be discovered at all, and this makes it impossible to reveal our potential.
Summary
Let's condense a long story into a few key paragraphs to solidify the layer of information that hit you so hard on the head.
The main human need is the need to realize oneself as much as possible.. For this, resources have been entrusted into our hands, and we need to understand how to use them.
Initially, there is no meaning to life, we invent meaning ourselves in order to be able to reveal ourselves. In view of this information, a concrete answer to the question “What is the meaning of human life?” does not exist in nature, we ourselves need to create it.
The process of human realization is based on five pillars: development, search, creation, service and love. Any really worthwhile meaning of life is always subject to these five principles.
In an effort to understand how you can find the meaning of life, it is important to listen to your desire. Ideas that give rise to desire in us are definitely worth exploring, because among them is what we are looking for.