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I just read an article discussing the existential problem most people have with the meaning of life. I have some ideas about this. if you ever doubted your own miserable existence, this may cheer you up and give you reason to wonder at just how incredible the opportunity you have been given by having a free pass to reality. I think the answers to why we're here and how to extract meaning lie not in the concept of freedom and immortality but in what can you learn and what can you contribute towards the future.
Accumulation & Transformation
What you accumulate in knowledge (however that manifests) and how can you change the world, (even in small ways), leave it more enriched than when you entered it. Many artists appreciate this simple fact, scientists and engineers also. I think it's a major component or key to thrive. Parents often feel it. People strive to discover this in so many different ways. Doctors and nurses appreciate this, all manner of therapists do. They help others, as do vets, conservationists, environmentalists, even a banker can help someone; start a business, buy a home. Anyone with an awareness of what they do to contribute, (coders included) can discover a simple realisation of an even simpler truth. To escape the velocity of one's own ego and find meaning in being through yoga, meditation..cooking, playing the flute, whatever allows you to step outside yourself. Actors know this perhaps more than anyone and are all the more vulnerable for it.
Alchemy & The Philosophers Stone
The Alchemist's holy grail of finding the philosopher's stone to transmute lead into gold is a metaphor for the transformation of the base metal of your soul into finding it's higher purpose and thus meaning, hopefully a sense of peace with oneself, the environment and maximising the potential of your short individual but potentially potent life. Incidentally, it may be you who learns to harness the power of the stars to turn lead into gold.
Character
You are a character in a thousand people's lives, not the star of your own reality TV show. When you make this realisation, the meaning of life the universe and everything becomes clear. You are a living part of the universe, albeit bounded in small blue ball somewhere way out west, you are part of an unbroken existence of a history which stretches all the way back to the big bang 13.8billion years ago (at the very least)
Evolution
You have evolved from nothing into hot plasma, cooled into matter, condensed into matter, compounded into molecules, folded into proteins, bounded yourself into the complex chemistry of cells. All the way, gathering more and more consciousness from the merest mote of awareness of heat, light, movement to full blown self aware, critical thinking, observing your own historical fact of existence. If you choose to and you are lucky, you will pass all of this through the sheer fact of MAKING LOVE - children, the ultimate expression of all that is and all that can be in our universe. everything that joins us from past to future.
Probability 1
Every single one of your uncounted TRILLIONS of ancestors faced down the most incredible challenges of existence to pass it on to you, many more did not. The chances you being alive and reading this in the whole history of existence are so incredibly and remotely small you would struggle to count the zeros of probability.
Forged in the Heart of Stars
We have all been forged in the death of stars, 1000's of times bigger than our own sun with so much power and force that we could not come anywhere near to really feeling it's magnificence and significance. Your atoms have travelled from other galaxies to be you. They have undoubtedly existed in other consciousness at other times in other places, perhaps as a thinking living breathing being, far away in a galaxy a long time ago
You are amazing, you are a one-off, you will never exist again. spend your time wisely. Leave something positive behind, have compassion and if you can, help others to find their own path. We no longer need religion to gives our lives meaning and structure, we have cosmology.
"Your atoms have travelled from other galaxies to be you." So true! And wouldn't one expect undertaking such a journey to indicate a very important destination? Maybe the small blue ball doesn't bind us but consciously offers us that specific experience of life in which we can discover the incredible meaning.
thanks @blairwitch44 good response. Recent research modelling the formation of Galaxies suggests at least 50% of our atoms were indeed formed in other galaxies and travel here on the cosmic wind.. I find that fact alone quite incredible.. All of the billions of galaxies slowly interacting with each other. The structure of the Universe looks more and more like a big hyper brain
here's the structure of the universe and at least half of the matter or information is exchanged with the nearest neighbours. Incredibly interesting
Thanks for this post @outerground. Good stuff! I couldn't help but think of this Christopher Hitchens quote as I read through it..
"Look through the Hubble Telescope and let's just see if you can get over what you see. And you want to exchange this for a burning bush?"
Thanks @steemmeupscotty yes ! A great quote. The history of the Universe is so amazing and we're the first generation to really be able to get to see it, know it, touch it. Can you imagine what we could know in 100 years time or a 1000 if we survive ? can you imagine how profoundly different we would be, could be, will be ? if we survive. I would love to see the world in 500 years time. (in the good sci-fi future) not the post-apoc version!!
Yes - it'd be awesome, I'm sure. Even 100 years ago or so, who could've imagined where we are today - tech and science wise.
Otherwise, Huxley and Orwell seemed to foresee the future pretty well, with this bizarre Brave New World/1984 style society we're currently in.
yeah, I often find myself saying ( I can't remember who originated the quote) 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not a blueprint !
the question is who is predicting the future now? I remember reading look to windward (culture novels) by Iain M Banks who painted magnificent vistas of other worlds, far more advanced than us, (influenced by asimov and clarke, aldiss) It made star wars look pithy (and l love Star Wars) .. if anything in Banks' head is on the horizon for us, it's quite mindboggling ! Pity he's gone :(
Look To Windward here's an extract <<
Breathtaking! Interesting thoughts and they will most likely follow me all day, when I'm in my studio painting.
In my humble opinion, the strength of your post lies in the fact, that it is fascinating and uplifting in its perspective but also a bit scary.. to me anyways. When I think of the dimensions of the universe(s) I get close to having a panic attack, scared like a kid that I could fall off this incredibly tiny nothing :astonished:
The odds, numbers, chances, distances and all on a cosmic level are far beyond my imagination. And yet your words make the existence of everything.. including everyone of us... meaningful
Thanks @Reinhard-schmid. What a great reply ! really glad you found it interesting. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the the Cosmos. The Day I came home from the hospital when my first daughter was born, I lay down in bed and I was in quite an exalted state, I closed my eyes. Suddenly the whole universe opened up and I fully realised for the first time, the incredible privilege (and responsibility) I had been given to nurture a human soul and it was as if the whole Universe comprehends these moments for every single one of us !
SO yeah, perhaps beyond our imagination in some ways and so integrated through the quantum function of our minds, which I liken to radio receivers for consciousness. We can tune in, and we can learn to tune in more finely to the vibrations of everything that's ever been is and will be.
Thank you for sharing all these thoughts here. Very inspiring and I am sure it will influence my thinking.. and therefore my art in some way!
That is a really good answer, my friend! I also tend to believe this way. And I believe that the universe has a meaning for everyone one of us. You know, if you can live your life without that uncertainty in your heart that you are doing something wrong then you know your meaning. And yes, contributing to the better future is definitely one of the components (we just need to know how to contribute).
thanks @writingamigo I know it's something many others intuitively feel and it's nice to hear other people get it contributing to the future I think is central to the meaning of life.
IMAGINE THIS. >>>> eveything you do no matter how small creates a ripple in spacetime, the influence of which is extrapolated and incereases exponentially the further into the future you go. So this short thread which everyone has contributed to has already created it's own sub-actions and thoughts. This process never stops, when people talk about practising mindfulness, I'm not sure they always understand what it fully means. But everyone on this page already has a head start. When you think or act, & can remember that your actions and ideas will play out forever in some obscure but deeply meaningful, way and you kind of don't need to worry about other things any more :)
I really needed that right now, but to be honest it didn't cheer me up. It made me feel so small. And we are, you're so right! But then...why bother? And if we keep also religion out of all that (which I can't really, as a theologian and a kind of religious person) then it means we're nothing, ashes to ashed, so why try about anything? We come to this life with the purpose. If our purpose for us or others is so small, maybe it doesn't even worth living. Upvoted for the well written messages and the amazing NASA photos though.
I'm sorry it made you feel that way.. It's not supposed to be a downer article. For me cosmology is the natural evolution to theology. Just look at that picture of the the structure of the universe and tell me again that you're not part of some gigantic thing. As a piece of the universe, we're pretty f*cking amazing, pardon the language. If you remember that 1 cubic metre of space on average contains about 1 atom, (I think), then we're some serious aggregation of matter.
The Stardust of many many stars
You're made from Stardust and you're over 13 billion years old.. how more amazing can you get ? you are the sum total of the universe at this point. if that's not amazing then I don't know what is ! cheer up you could still be a rock or some cosmic gas cloud. Those guys have got a few billion years to go until they can become something like you & me and everyone we know
Incredible in any way you want to think
As the title says you're incredible the way you are and all you need to do is remember that fact, stardust.. the things you've been through that you just can't remember. Do you really think consciousness is just vested into an empty vessel by some higher being as a cheap gift like a plastic toy at christmas?. Uh uh, no you earned it from the billions of years toil @meanmommy and if you want to be religious about, not that you need to be, in that brain structure image at the top of the post, deep in there is a dream, one of many playing out in the vast unfathomable mind of GOD .. that's you, if you want to think about it in a more majestic way ! Now you can cheer up
I know it's supposed to be a downer article, and it is indeed very very positive - I think I'm in a bad state now though so whatever I read, I read it the opposite way :/ But yeah, I agree that we are pretty freaking amazing and each of us unique... Well......the 'made of stardust' view kind of cheers me up! :D Wow! :D hehe ;) I DID CHEER UP NOW :D :D :D Thank you @outerground... you're amazing...a notch more than stardust amazing...'cause let's not forget that you're also a lefty ;) :D
p.s. thank you that you took the time to write all that by the way!!! But you got to the purpose...cheering up! ;) So thanks again :D
good.. I'm glad I've got that through to the right side of your brain ! If you come back tomorrow, I'll tell you our story, the human story as it really happened :)
left sided molecules are even rare..as you'll discover
Can't wait :)