A fundamental problem exists with trying to discover the meaning of life.
(Note that when we talk about the meaning of life we always implicitly assume that we are talking about the meaning of our own lives. Consequently in this piece the term "meaning of life" is really shorthand for "the meaning of one's own life". The issue of the meaning of other people's lives is another topic altogether that I will be analysing at a later stage.)
We assume that life is a process/ activity that one can somehow step outside of and examine from a distance or that life is like an object that one can scrutinise under the microscope or that one can somehow freeze-frame life and analyse its contents.
Yet one is always immersed within the current of one's own life.
Imagine trying to determine the nature of a river while being dragged along by its stream. Your view of it will always, by necessity, be limited by your position within the river and by the fact that you are always immersed in it and have no access to any other river or to land.
Similarly we cannot observe life from outside or separate ourselves from our existence even for a moment. No matter how you try, you will always be fully immersed within the river of your life.
Consequently concepts like meaning, aim and function that we use to describe and explain other activities and objects cannot be applied to life itself.
Also, in order to grasp the meaning and purpose of a process X, one needs to see it in its entirety, from its beginning to its end point.
Obviously, some processes only make sense or reveal their function and purpose at their end point or it is only at their end point that all the previous stages of the process gain meaning.
So it is with the process of life. As one can never view one's own life in its entirety, its meaning remains indeterminate, except perhaps from the vantage point of death's door.
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Comments: 11
The meaning of such is a moot issue with me also, for I refuse to get stuck in the endless loop of thought regarding the meaning of life. It just is. Science may someday come up with a formula to make the meaning more in tune with scientific terms but it will still be the Mind of God which ultimately justifies the term and the loss of clear thought of the now of life is lost in the meaning of it. Life is now, not tomorrow, not yesterday so I suppose the true question is, "what is now?". Not what time it is, but what is now. Therefore, it's meaning is to continue on till sometime in the future when the end is upon us as you have said and wait for God to answer that question. At least that is my take on the question. It has caused many smart men and women, (smarter than the sum of us), to lose sleep, hair, and sometimes their sanity trying to figure out that one but we, as a race, will always contemplate it but come short of understanding the meaning, let alone the value of life. That part is left to insurance companies and your wallet.
I suppose that as an organism we reproduce, devalue the habitat, slave for little or nothing and in the end all we have to show for it is some material objects and, hopefully, some successors to carry on the question without an answer.
It is one that comes up in philosophy quite often and since time began we have had to deal with the here and now. Socrates, Plato, even Einstein pondered this and noone has come close to the answer. We are a tree trying to figure out why we are or, as you said like someone in a river stuck to one perspective, our own.
I have had this conversation before and it is like the Gordian Knot, unless you cut it, it has no means of being unraveled, in my opinion. And, for that matter, what difference does it make? Life is defined in the dictionary and even they come short of defining the meaning. So, I put it to you, why ponder a loop? No beginning, no end, only a circle with no start and no end until it breaks.
Perhaps what you meant to ask is what is the meaning of my being here on Earth? To answer that you must first answer who or what am I? If you give the stock ego answer that you are a body, then you are here to die. That is the purpose of all that ends with time - to end, to pass away. But if you are spirit, the answer is entirely different. As spirit you are here to learn that you are not a body and that you cannot be both body and spirit except through dissociation, for body and spirit are mutually exclusive. This dissociation is the depth of madness, as is the belief that time and eternity can co-exist - they deny each other.
some processes only make sense or reveal their function and purpose at their end point or it is only at their end point that all the previous stages of the process gain meaning.
But also, if one removes the pennies from their eyes they can be gifted with just enough sight to see their lives before that knocking begins.
Good vs. Evil, Night vs. Day, Yin/Yang . . . etc.
The river of life then being within and without. Spiritual and Societal.
Co-dependent on each other in order TO sustain existence.
Co-Existent because they actually do exist as One, even though sometimes we do not feel as if they do. Even if we feel isolated within ourselves. The two shall always stand side by side in pure existence.
Thank you for your perceptive comments.
But I still don't get what the difference is between "life" and "the river of life".
Boris, this reminds me of a piece I read on the Reluctant Messenger about the Eternal Now. The future, if there be one, is undetermined, and the past only exists as a memory. We can only hope/worry for our future, and we can only exult/grieve the past. Life, the eternal now, is an experience that can and does change in the blink of an eye.
When I was helping my son write his essay on The Meaning of Life, I had a hard time going with the flow. But then.... it was because it was not my essay. A metaphor comes to mind, something about the eye of the beholder. Originality in nine tenths of the law, isn't it? ;<)