The meaning of life speculation

Leviosa

I set out to try to come to a realisation through everyday logic of how we can find out the meaning of life.

What is life? It's the state of being within a physical vessel that pumps blood and presumably has a consciousness. Although we would consider someone in a coma alive I am not setting out to speculate on whether that state of being has meaning as it is an entirely different state to that of the average person who is conscious of what we see as reality.

When I say meaning I describe a purpose, something fixed and unchanging. If the meaning of life was ever changing then it wouldn't be THE meaning but it would be various different meanings changing all the time. Life operates within time and time as we know is an illusion as yesterday or tomorrow do not exist as a fixed object but rather in our perceptions and our thoughts. So trying to find the meaning of life is pointless as when you set out to look for something you are aiming to get from point A to point B. Point B exists in the future and as the future doesn't exist your search has instantly failed. So one last place to look is in the now. How can we approach this? By thinking about it is one method but of course when you're thinking you're not present and completely aware of the physical realm around you, but rather you're present in your thinking or illusion of mental images. Meaning cannot be found in an illusion of thinking as it's an illusion and so you can't grasp the idea of meaning in this state as the meaning is fixed and unchanging, but thoughts in the mind are ever changing as we think many different thoughts within a moment! Even if you realised the meaning how would you know it's the meaning? So thinking about the meaning won't bring you to the meaning. The final place to look is between one thought and the next, perhaps by meditating. If we could grasp the space without thought that exists between the end of one thought and the beginning of another then the truth of the meaning can perhaps 'reveal itself to us'. I say 'reveal itself to us' as looking for meaning, as we have already discussed, is utterly useless so we can only hope that it will reveal itself to us in that non-existent space of not thinking. You don't exist in that space as you are not thinking. 'You' would presumably just be aware. So in this case the meaning of life can never be known as you wouldn't exist to know it, one would be aware. Aware means having knowledge of a fact, and to know means to be aware of through observation. If you do not exist then there is not an observer and therefore the observed cannot be known. Awareness means having knowledge but if you don't exist and time is an illusion then you can never have knowledge.

To conclude this speculation, I have come to the idea (although I really haven't come to one as there isn't anything to come to) that the meaning of life is not the meaning of life if it can be expressed within time. So the meaning is without meaning/explanation and without meaning/explanation it has meaning. Both claims are correct. Would we call this the meaning of life? I am not so sure as within the gap between thought where you do not think is a realm where you do not exist, nor does life. Can the meaning of life be found where no life is? Are you even alive when you are empty of any concepts? I can only think that the meaning then is to become innocent and empty of thinking/biases/schemas. If this state becomes constant and incorruptible then surely this would be truth, as it is unaffected by time and space and doesn't exist, YET does exist as it can be reached within time.

Possibility

↪Leviosa

You appear to have trapped your thinking by blocking awareness left, right and centre. When you open your mind to the possibilities of the future as a form of existence, and to the possibilities of not thinking as a form of existence - even to illusion as a form of existence - then you might begin to grasp what life and existence is. Each of these who claim to not exist can be ‘reached’ within time - through the human mind - and so they do exist...the question is how...?

Leviosa

↪Possibility

To reply to you it will seem like I’m going to go very far off topic but it’s necessary:

Think of life at the very beginning as a person standing/ walking around a pitch black room. Each time this person thinks the room changes colour. Once one thought ends the colour changes to pitch black until another thought begins and then the room will change colour again. Once one thought cycle is complete (let’s call this the time it takes from the beginning of one thought to the end of it) the room becomes pitch black as it gives form to nothing. In this state, the previous thought no longer exists (even if it can be recalled and it occurred as a result of a prior event) it is a moment that can never occur again (at least in our illusion). No matter how much you think: the room will react by changing at that instant of your thought. The meaning of life cannot be the meaning of life if you can think it up because thinking gives rise to phenomena (in our case a newly coloured room) which may not exist in the moment as our perceptions may be flawed( some are colour blind and we may all be on a spectrum of colour blindness). So once we open ourselves up to the possibility that our perceptions are flawed as we have biases etc etc then the final thing to do is to try to give permanent rise to a pitch black room. In this absolute darkness where there is no concepts and no thinking (perhaps no you either!), can we ever hope to gain any true insight into the nature of the universe. Through the experience of the impossible to experience as there is no one to experience it can one hope to ‘grasp’ reality or nature.

I may block my awareness as you say, as I don’t see how the colour that appears in the room actually has any value. Our awareness is limited to our senses and our senses may not show us what is actual. My thinking is limited as thinking is limiting. Thinking can only operate within time and space and so the illusion that we think from one moment to the next is real and exists but doesn’t give much value to thinking. To answer your question (How they exist?) is a question that we can only intuitively know the answer to as our thinking may not reflect reality, it has to be more of a feeling but even that doesn’t do it much justice as feeling is the illusion of phenomena effecting the senses. You can intuitively know something if you experience it in nothingness where you don’t exist and then come back to thinking with the truth. Which goes back to the gap between thoughts.

Visions and senses cloud the path (or room), only one thing is absolute. This thing is nothing. Maybe in nothing we learn the ultimate truth, although who is really going to be the learner at this point? What is the learned if it’s experienced outside of time/space?

Possibility

↪Leviosa

Thinking as we observe it appears to operate within time and space because that’s how we observe anything, but it’s not a spatio-temporal relation. Just like energy, it is a relation to the universe in terms of value or potential. There is no certainty here, only probability, but just as energy exists as a potential relation beyond spacetime, so too, I believe, does thinking and feeling and loving and remembering. This is where we test the apparent limits of our awareness, because this ‘nothingness where you don’t exist’, for me, is only an actual nothing. It is in this nothingness that we can distinguish between thoughts and feelings and connections and memories, all of which relate in a diverse and amorphous ‘structure’ of values/potentiality to this four-dimensional universe in which we operate.

Maybe in nothing we learn the ultimate truth, although who is really going to be the learner at this point? What is the learned if it’s experienced outside of time/space? — Leviosa

The learner is the universe itself, and the learned is the universe.

Pop

↪Leviosa

I'm not sure whether you are seeking validation or answers?

It seems to me you have had a very deep insight into your consciousness. I am no expert, but I understand all that you and Possibility are saying and agree with you both. Unlike possibility though, you seem not to be integrating your experience into your normal existence?

Buddhist philosophy ( without the religion / ritual / costume ) describes your current situation as a time of re- birthing. It is normally a guided process that on average takes 3 years.

My solution to the problem you pose in the nothingness is that there is still an energy that defines you.
This energy also created the Big bang , the galaxies, stars, planets, the Earth, and life on Earth and ultimately you.The Big Bang is the source of all the energy in our Universe, It has fragmented but continues to drive all the processes in the universe - including you. It seems , to me, consciousness ( or a large part of consciousness ) is this energy, and you have had an insight into it.

Hope this helps. I love reading your insights.

christian2017

To conclude this speculation, I have come to the idea (although I really haven't come to one as there isn't anything to come to) that the meaning of life is not the meaning of life if it can be expressed within time. So the meaning is without meaning/explanation and without meaning/explanation it has meaning. Both claims are correct. Would we call this the meaning of life? I am not so sure as within the gap between thought where you do not think is a realm where you do not exist, nor does life. Can the meaning of life be found where no life is? Are you even alive when you are empty of any concepts? I can only think that the meaning then is to become innocent and empty of thinking/biases/schemas. If this state becomes constant and incorruptible then surely this would be truth, as it is unaffected by time and space and doesn't exist, YET does exist as it can be reached within time. — Leviosa

So after a period a time if a person becomes innocent, they have achieved the ultimate goal. Its not wrong to be simple in all cases. Its not wrong to be intelligent in all cases. Each serves a purpose in different cases. The meaning of life is to be happy, be productive without working too hard and to treat people as well as you rationally can.

The meaning of life speculation

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