A life worth living
What is a decent life? I have often thought about what a valuable life means for me and what it would take to live one.
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There is of course the legacy option where the value of life is what one leaves behind. This could be money or the ideas one generates for future generations to live with. Some kind of collector process to gather belongings.
Some may live for a heaven of some kind or another. They live the best they can to give them what they think is the best chance at entry into an afterlife of their own design. This is not my idea of what comes but I do understand that it can lead to a valuable life of service to a god, even if there is no god to serve. Does a life worth living require reality?
There is also the hedonistic lifestyle, a life filled with pleasure in the moment with no energy put into what does not increase pleasure. This type of life is very attractive to many where they work only at what affords them the next dose of excitement. I do not see that this leads to a valuable life as it would require a continual ramping of input to get the pleasure like any addiction and quite soon the work outweighs the high gained, defeating the purpose of the position.
Rather than a general approach, I wonder where I want to be when I die. If I know that will the life I lead follow a path towards it? This could be a physical location but, how do I want to feel about the life I have lead? Perhaps it is important to feel like one has lived a valuable life in that last breath. Perhaps if we look into the future and think about how we want to feel, we will live our life accordingly to the future self.
I wonder if there is something even higher than the emotional self. After all the emotional self has the tendency to justify behaviors to make it feel better about it self. It is very likely to reframe life to protect its ego. As good as this may feel in the moment, does it equate to a good life in the lead up?`
What interests me the most at the moment is the consideration of consciousness. What makes me aware of life, what I am. This has interested me for several years now and is a big part of the reason I spend so much time thinking. It is not in contemplation mostly though, it is in observation of my interactions with life but one day I will have the time to meditate 'properly'.
What I am thinking at the moment is in what state of mind do I want to be in at the end, how much of myself do I want to understand. The problem is, I want to understand all of it. I want to know what I am fully and to do this is going to take a fair amount of work I think.
Some say they want this or that but it is mostly through words only, they are not actually serious about exploring what these things mean to them. Perhaps it is a fashionable trend to 'explore the self' without ever actually taking many steps into the journey and definitely not into where the going gets tough.
I am quite serious in this although I am not completely immersed in it still. I do not have the time or energy to take the journey fully in my opinion but I wonder where that will leave me at the end. Is it enough to only make it half way to discovery?
Perhaps it matters nothing how one lives life or how one gets to the end of it. Thinking about it at all might just be a huge waste of time that eats into the time of other things. Every movement carries an opportunity cost with the expenditure of energy and if there is no right way, moral path or ethical action, why think at all?
Morals and ethics seem to be there regardless of religiosity and they seem to point that nearly all of us believe that a life worth living is something that has intrinsic value, that life itself is valuable and to not use it effectively is to waste life.
Some may say, waste what god or nature has given us but it doesn't really matter. Because, we seem to be conscious beings and no matter how this consciousness came about we believe that it is beneficial to use it well and not waste it. When someone takes a life of another or their own, when natural disasters strike and claim their victims when accidents happen, we say 'what a shame or what a waste' of life.
This indicates that no matter what we believe, there are right ways and wrong ways to live in relation to ourselves and the environment and when others are unable to live well, we are disappointed in the result. But, how often do we think about how well we ourselves are living up to our expectations of what is a valuable life?
I find the problem messy as you can see in the writing but, I also find it very important to act upon. There is discovery and value in here somewhere, potentially a lot of truths too. Who knows, let's see where this life leads and who cares when and where it finishes.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
There was a time when I was a young man when the life of a Tibetan monk vowing silence among other things in exchange for a life of devotion to thought and meditation seemed extremely attractive to me and still does in many respects but I try to live my life without regret and believe somewhat in synchronicity and things happening for a reason since I have more personal evidence for this being the case than many other beliefs. I have many of the same thoughts as yourself and would consider myself a prolific thinker also, though I have no idea whether that says anything at all about my intellect since most of my thoughts seem to be confused, hypocritical, contradictory and repetitive.
There are a million different belief systems and philosophies that help men and women get through their lives here with some semblance of purpose but really if any are right then it can be only one and the others are all wrong so is it better to have a belief system or not?
Most of us at least do seem to have an inbuilt knowledge of what is good and what is bad though as you know a lot peoples behaviours can be due to social engineering. The trouble is, most of us let other people do our thinking for us and unfortunately I can't say where I think the positive change in this regard will come from in future.
For me, I know I have some inner voice calling me to something, though I have no idea what it is but what once scared me has become something that I now fully enjoy and embrace. I have no idea why I am here or where I really came from but I am enjoying trying to find out whether there is an answer even if ultimately there isn't one.
Hope you are well my friend! :)
I am running to work but this is something I have felt since very young. There is something there, it has been 30 odd years since I noticed it first, am I just an idiot for not realising?
I have been down many paths in my thinking and my quest for understanding. I have listened to both religious and scientific protagonists lay out their reasoning for why their beliefs are the right ones and I have been influenced by many peoples words but I myself have come to the realisation that everything is just Chinese whispers and on my own journey I have also realised that listening to my intuition is the best method for me to navigate my way through the world. I have never had a 'spiritual' experience in the traditional sense but I do feel some sort of spiritual connection with something is there and that through time it has been lost, for whatever reason. (at least to most of us)
I think we both realise that no matter how much we discuss our thoughts with ourselves or others, the answers will never be found during our time here in the 'walking world' but what does it say about us that we know this but continue to seek answers that are not to be found? Perhaps others are right when they say there is no point asking questions with no answers and that ultimately it will not do us any good but for my part at least it isn't a choice. For me, I see it as the reason I am here. At least the main reason. I couldn't stop asking these questions if I wanted to , which I don't. It may sound conceited and arrogant but for the little I actually profess to know and no matter how confused I know I am or how lowly my position within the current societal paradigm may be, I still feel like I am way ahead of the game in terms of my understanding of self and my reason for being here. I'm not satisfied with the hypothesis' of others, so I continue to formulate my own and if I fail to come to satisfactory conclusions in my own thinking then so be it. As Bill Hicks said, ''It's just a ride!''. :)
I think you make a great point regarding morals having nothing to do with religion. I think more self awareness and personal responsibility would greatly help society as a whole.
Yes, the more one looks in the less conflict comes out.
Insightful post! As I get older I'm constantly considering my own consciousness too. Where does it come from? Is it inside my own head or is it a puppet master in the cosmos pulling the strings of my body?
Do we have a life worth living? I'd say we have a lifetime of puzzles to figure out and we don't have long to do it.
Time is always an issue. In some ways I think society is designed that way to dramatically lower our chances of discovery of the truth.
Well written post @tarazkp and it's an interesting subject that I think we all think about it or get lost in it. I'm not trying to make a point or try to push God into people's lives, but just simply exploring what I feel or believe. Because I believe in this point of my life after many experiences and just life, is that everything does happen for a reason. We can't see it or understand it at that right time, but eventually, we will. We all have a purpose in life, but sometimes we just have to dig in deep to find what it is. All the dreams and heart desires inside of us is what God put inside of us, but sometimes we get to tired and give up and then forget what is inside of us, what is it that we like and want? I love meditating, it is very helpful, but I also meditate on the word of God. God had done amazing work in my life that I know it couldn't be a coincidence, so that is why I strongly believe in Him. I still feel confused about my purpose, but I trust God that he is directing all of my steps, and that is what gives me peace. I try to do everything the best way I can, I try to help people as much as I can and enjoy life day by day. If we keep on living our lives the right way (simply doing good things) and keep on learning and living the life, I believe in the right time, when we are ready God will show us His purpose. The thing is I choose to believe in my dreams and hope for great things in life and choose joyful life and enjoy my time here, even if I don't get my dreams at the end, but I strongly believe I will. Or we could simply not believe, be unhappy all of our lives and still not live our dreams. I believe the best thing for all of us to do is just be happy within ourselves. I went way off. Sorry.
It is okay to talk about gods and no gods in my opinion. It is part of the discovery and ultimately we all end up in the same place as per the laws of nature. What that place is may be less important than how we get there and how we help others along the way.
I nice post.
I used to think along those lines. The big questions.
Then I suddenly realized I was stealing time - from myself.
For every minute pondering the big questions, is a minute not living in the now.
Avoiding the present, if you will.
The one certainty is - we only have the present.
Does it not behoove us, to live it? - the rest just being a distraction from it?
Keeping things simple, I found, makes for a much happier 'present'
my take on a very interesting article...
Actions in the moment are dictated by the stories we hold past and future, without enough thought, we can do a lot of damage in the moment. But, spending all time in thought is not useful either and the moment is where life is.
living in the present, with the past experiences humming in the background as a default filter setting, is how I like to look at it.
Well, my dear friend. I guess, in the most minimalist way possible "A life worth living" is summed up in cultivating everyday the philosophy of the following phrases:
¡Never do anything you can regret!
And..
¡If something good does not happen to you today, it's because something better awaits for you tomorrow!
Cheers!! :)
Life has many curves as I am sure you have and are experiencing. Your advice over the time has helped me a lot :)
Oh brother! read this is for me a great compliment and a big joy to know it. Since my advices, simply are product from a long trajectory exercising logic, an eidetic memory and the experience of an old maverick. :)
Everyday is a new exploration and it's a never ending process. Change is the constant anyway. So keep the life interesting will do :)
Post of the day.nice photography.go ahead.
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