The meaning of life wiki. Meaning of life
/D/Eitenzsinn; /E/ Meaning; /F/Raison;
/Esp./ Razon de seg.
The ideal idea of a person about his mission in the world, the purpose of his life, the possibility of self-realization according to the samples of a social or personal ideal. The meaning of a person's life is a personal worldview setting that determines the direction of his active activity. Depending on the orientation of the attitude towards the past, present or future, human existence acquires emotional and social fullness and tone.
Great Definition
Incomplete definition ↓
MEANING OF LIFE
a person's understanding of the content and direction of life, his place in the world, the purpose of all mankind. “Without knowing what I am and why I am here, it is impossible to live” L. N. Tolstoy. Ideas about the meaning of life are formed in the process of people's activities and depend on their social status, lifestyle, worldview, and a specific historical situation. If favorable conditions are created in society for the free development of a person, then he is inclined to see the meaning of life in achieving happiness and well-being. If the world turns out to be hostile and cruel, then earthly life can lose its value and be considered only as a preparation for another, “true”, unearthly life, for the sake of which one must live. In extreme situations, the feeling of the indestructibility of evil and one's own powerlessness in front of it can lead a person to the conclusion that life in general is meaningless. Understanding the meaning of life involves choosing goals and means to achieve them, preferring certain values, focusing on certain moral ideals, understanding one’s own abilities and capabilities, constantly evaluating one’s behavior, the actions of other people, revising and reevaluating the existing order of things and what is happening in it. The more acutely a person feels his connection with other people and at the same time realizes himself as a free personality, individuality, the more actively he contributes to the establishment of good in the world, the more uncompromisingly he fights against evil, the more fully, more meaningfully his life. A meaningless life can only seem. The problem of the meaning of life is formulated as follows: is there something higher and more important for us than our immediate life? The very appearance of the question and its existential acuteness are connected with the belonging of a person to two worlds: the world of direct being and the world of spiritual search, striving for eternal and unconditional values. Without this second world within us, life would turn into a "vanity of vanities" (Ecclesiastes), a squirrel's wheel. A life devoid of meaning is an inauthentic life, because, being absorbed by the immediate, a person moves along a trajectory predetermined by external necessity. S.zh. there is an existential-metaphysical problem, and not only (and not even so much a social one. A person who has found meaning and lives in accordance with it is rooted in being, infinitely important for himself. It is then that vanity has no power over him. The search and acquisition of S.zh does not at all mean any disregard for immediate life, eternal conflict with it as a source of suffering (cf. with the East: Brahmanism. Buddhism). Furthermore. it is our immediate life that is the criterion of the truth of the meaning we have chosen. The movement of our, or rather, my life. subject to meaning, should elevate, liberate, make me free, deepen my unity with the world, which is now my world, and I am its free creative beginning, regardless of whether I find S.zh. in the idea, favorite work. loved one or something else. If this is not so, if my life humiliates and suppresses me, then the S.zh. is a lie, and life itself is a tragedy. For Russian self-consciousness. whose ideal is holiness, the problem of sacrifice is very relevant. Sacrificing oneself is the right, and sometimes the duty, of a free man. But self-sacrifice cannot be regarded as the meaning, the goal of life, for sacrifice and despotism are sides of the same relationship. Undoubtedly, every era, every culture tends to develop some semantic options. but the choice of meaning always takes place in a deeply intimate, existential sphere. That is why the meanings are not set, the meanings become clear.
Great Definition
Incomplete definition ↓
“The misfortune of modern man is great:
he lacks the main thing - the meaning of life "
I.A. Ilyin
None of us likes meaningless work. For example, carry bricks there and then back. Dig "from here to lunch." If we are asked to do such work, we are inevitably disgusted. Disgust is followed by apathy, aggression, resentment, etc.
Life is work too. And then it becomes clear why a meaningless life (a life without meaning) pushes us to the fact that we are ready to give up everything that is most valuable, but to run away from this lack of meaning. But, fortunately, the meaning of life is.
And we will definitely find it. I would like you to read it carefully and to the end, despite the volume of this article. Reading is also work, but not meaningless, but which will pay off handsomely.
Why does a person need the meaning of life
Why does a person need to know the meaning of life, is it possible to somehow live without it?
No animal needs this understanding. It is the desire to understand the purpose of one's coming into this world that distinguishes man from animals. Man is the highest of living beings, it is not enough for him only to eat and multiply. By limiting his needs to only physiology, he cannot be truly happy. Having the meaning of life, we get a goal to which we can strive. The meaning of life is a measure of what is important and what is not, what is useful and what is harmful to achieve our main goal. It is a compass that shows us the direction of our life.
In such a complex world in which we live, it is very difficult to do without a compass. Without it, we inevitably go astray, fall into a labyrinth, run into dead ends. This is what the outstanding philosopher of antiquity Seneca spoke about: “He who lives without a goal ahead always wanders” .
Day after day, month after month, year after year, we wander through dead ends with no way out. Ultimately, this chaotic journey leads us to despair. And now, stuck in another dead end, we feel that we no longer have the strength or desire to go further. We understand that we are doomed all our lives to fall from one dead end to another. And then the thought of suicide arises. Indeed, why live if you can not get out of this terrible labyrinth anywhere?
Therefore, it is so important to strive to resolve this question about the meaning of life.
How to assess how true a certain meaning of life is
We see a man doing something in the mechanism of his machine. Does it make sense in what it does or not? Strange question, you say. If he fixes the car and takes his family to the dacha (or a neighbor to the clinic), then, of course, there is. And if he spends the whole day digging around in his broken-down car, instead of devoting time to his family, helping his wife, reading a good book, and not driving anywhere in it, then, of course, there is no point.
That's how it is in everything. The meaning of an activity is determined by its result.
The meaning of human life must also be evaluated through the outcome. The result for a person is the moment of death. There is nothing more certain than the moment of death. If we are entangled in the labyrinth of life and cannot unwind this tangle from the beginning in order to find the meaning of life, let's unwind it from another, obvious and precisely known end - death.
It was about this approach that M.Yu. wrote. Lermontov:
We drink from the cup of life
with closed eyes
golden wetting edges
with their own tears;
when before death from the eyes
string falls
and everything that deceived us,
with a string falls;
then we see that it is empty
was a golden bowl
that there was a drink in it - a dream,
and that she is not ours!
ILLUSOR MEANINGS OF LIFE
The most primitive answers to the question about the meaning of life
Among the answers to the question about the meaning of life, there are three of the most primitive and stupid. Usually such answers are given by people who have not seriously thought about this issue. They are so primitive and devoid of logic that it makes no sense to dwell on them in detail. Let's take a quick look at these answers, the real purpose of which is to justify your laziness and not work on finding the meaning of life.
1. “Everyone lives like this without thinking, and I will live”
First, not everyone lives like this. Secondly, are you sure that these “everyone” are happy? And are you happy, living “like everyone else”, without thinking? Thirdly, what to look at everyone, everyone has their own life, and everyone builds it himself. And when something goes wrong, you will not have to blame “everyone”, but yourself ... Fourthly, sooner or later the majority of “everyone”, finding themselves in some serious crisis, will also think about the meaning of their existence.
So maybe you should not focus on "everyone"? Seneca also warned: “When the question arises about the meaning of life, people never reason, but always believe others, and meanwhile, it’s dangerous to adjoin those who go ahead in vain.” Maybe you should listen to these words?
2. “The meaning of life is to understand this very meaning” (The meaning of life is in life itself)
Although these phrases are beautiful, pretentious, and may work in a group of children or low-intellect people, they do not make any sense. If you think about it, it is clear that the very process of searching for meaning cannot be at the same time the meaning itself.
Any person understands that the meaning of sleep is not to sleep, but to restore body systems. We understand that the meaning of breathing is not to breathe, but to allow oxidative processes to occur in cells, without which life is impossible. We understand that the meaning of work is not just to work, but to benefit ourselves and the people in this work. So the talk that the meaning of life is to look for the meaning itself is childish excuses for those who do not want to think about it seriously. This is a convenient philosophy for those who do not want to admit that they do not have the meaning of life and do not want to look for it.
And postponing the comprehension of the meaning of life to the end of this life is like wanting to get a ticket to a luxury resort on your deathbed. What's the point of something you can't use anymore?
3. "There is no meaning in life" .
The logic here is: "I did not find the meaning, so it does not exist." The word "find" implies that a person has taken some action to find (meaning). However, in truth, how many of those who claim that there is no meaning actually searched for it? Wouldn't it be more honest to say: "I have not tried to find the meaning of life, but I believe that there is none."
Do you like this saying? It hardly looks reasonable, rather it just sounds childish. To a wild Papuan, a calculator, skis, and a cigarette lighter in a car may seem completely unnecessary, meaningless. He just doesn't know what this item is for! To understand the benefits of these items, you need to study them from all sides, try to understand how to use them correctly.
Someone will object: "I was really looking for meaning." Here the following question arises: were you looking for it there?
Self-realization as the meaning of life
Very often you can hear that the meaning of life is in self-realization. Self-realization is the realization of one's capabilities in order to achieve success. You can realize yourself in different areas of life: family, business, art, politics, etc.
This view is not new, as Aristotle believed. He said that the meaning of life is in a valiant life, success and achievements. And it is in this self-development that the majority even now sees the meaning of life.
Man, of course, must realize himself. But to make self-realization the main meaning of life is wrong.
Why? Let's think about it, given the inevitability of death. What difference does it make - a person realized himself and died, or did not realize himself, but also died. Death will equalize these two people. You will not take success in life to the next world!
We can say that the fruits of this very self-realization will remain on earth. But firstly, these fruits are not always of good quality, and secondly, even if they are of the best quality, then the sense of the person who left them is zero. He cannot take advantage of the results of his successes. He is dead.
Imagine that you have managed to fulfill yourself - you are a famous politician, a great artist, a writer, a military leader or a journalist. And here you are... at your own funeral. Cemetery. Autumn, drizzling rain, leaves flying to the ground. Or maybe summer, the birds rejoice in the sun. Words of admiration for you sound over the open coffin: “How happy I am for the deceased!N very well managed this and that. All those abilities that were given to him, he embodied not only 100, but 150%! ”...
If you come to life for a second, will such speeches comfort you? ..
Memory as the meaning of life
Another answer to the question about the meaning of life: "To leave my mark, to be remembered." At the same time, it happens that it doesn’t even matter to a person whether he leaves a good memory or not a very good one about himself. The main thing is “to be remembered!” For the sake of this, many people strive in every possible way for fame, popularity, fame, to become a "famous person."
Of course, a good memory has some value for eternity - it is the grateful memory of our descendants about us, who left them gardens, houses, books. But how long will this memory last? Do you have a grateful memory of your great-grandfathers? And what about great-great-grandfathers?.. No one will be remembered forever.
In general, the external achievements of a person (the same realization) and the memory of others about these successes correlate like a sandwich and the smell of a sandwich. If the sandwich itself is useless, then all the more so - you can’t get enough of its smell.
What business will this memory have for us when we die? We will no longer be. So is it worth it then to devote your life to “leaving a mark”? No one will be able to use their fame when they leave this world. No one will be able to assess the degree of his fame in the grave.
Imagine yourself at your own funeral again. The one who is entrusted with the eulogy is thinking hard what good things to say about you. “We are burying a difficult person! That's how many people came here to see him off on his last journey. Few get that kind of attention. But this is only a faint reflection of the glory thatN had during his lifetime. Many envied him. They wrote about him in the newspapers. At the house whereN lived, a memorial plaque will be fixed ... ".
Dead man, wake up for a second! Listen! Would these words make you happy?
The meaning of life is the preservation of beauty and health
Although the ancient Greek philosopher Metrodorus argued that the meaning of life is in the strength of the body and in the firm hope that it can be relied upon, most people still understand that this cannot be the meaning.
It is difficult to find something more meaningless than living for the sake of maintaining one's own health and appearance. If a person takes care of his health (goes in for sports, physical education, undergoes preventive medical examinations in a timely manner), then this can only be welcomed. We are talking about something else, about the situation when maintaining health, beauty, longevity becomes the meaning of life. If a person, seeing the meaning only in this, gets involved in the struggle for the preservation and adornment of his body, he condemns himself to an inevitable defeat. Death will still win this battle. All this beauty, all this imaginary health, all these pumped-up muscles, all these experiments on rejuvenation, solariums, liposuction, silver threads, braces will not leave anything behind. The body will go underground and rot, as befits protein structures.
Now you are an old pop star who was young until her last breath. There are many talkative people in show business who will always find something to say in any situation, including at a funeral: “Oh, what a beauty has died! What a pity that she could not please us for another 800 years. It seemed that death had no power overN! How unexpectedly this death snatched her from our ranks at the age of 79! She showed everyone how to overcome old age!”
Wake up, dead body! Will you appreciate the way you lived?
Consumption, pleasure as the meaning of life
“The acquisition of things and their consumption cannot give meaning to our lives ... The accumulation of material things cannot fill
the emptiness of the lives of those who have no confidence and purpose"
(Merchant-millionaire Savva Morozov)
The philosophy of consumption did not appear today. Another famous ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC), who believed that the meaning of life is to avoid trouble and suffering, to enjoy life, to achieve peace and bliss. You can also call this philosophy the cult of pleasure.
This cult also reigns in modern society. But even Epicurus stipulated that it is impossible to live only for the sake of obtaining pleasure, while not being consistent with ethics. We have now reached the reign of hedonism (in other words, life only for the sake of pleasure), in which no one even agrees with ethics. We are set up for this by advertisements, magazine articles, television talk shows, endless serials, reality shows. This permeates our entire daily life. Everywhere we hear, see, read calls to live for our own pleasure, to take everything from life, to catch a moment of good luck, to “break away” to the fullest ...
The cult of consumption is closely connected with the cult of pleasure. In order to have fun, we have to buy something, win something, order something. Then consume it, and all over again: see advertising, buy, use it for its intended purpose, enjoy. It begins to seem to us that the meaning of life is to use what is widely advertised, namely: certain goods, services, sensual pleasures (“sex”); experiences that give pleasure (travel); real estate; a variety of "fiction" (glossy magazines, cheap detective stories, ladies' novels, books based on TV series), etc.
Thus, we (not without the help of the media, but of our own free will) turn ourselves into meaningless half-humans, half-animals, whose task is only to eat, drink, sleep, walk, drink, satisfy the sexual instinct, dress up ... Man myself reduces himself to such a level, limiting the purpose of his life to the satisfaction of primitive needs.
Nevertheless, having tried all conceivable pleasures by a certain age, a person becomes fed up and feels that, despite the various pleasures, his life is empty and something important is missing in it. What? meaning. After all, there is no meaning in pleasure.
Pleasure cannot be the meaning of existence, if only because it passes and, therefore, ceases to be pleasure. Any need is satisfied only for a certain time, and then it declares itself again and again, and with renewed vigor. In our pursuit of pleasure, we are like drug addicts: we get some pleasure, it soon passes, we need the next dose of pleasure - but it also passes ... But we need this pleasure, our whole life is built on this. Moreover, the more we get pleasure, the more we want again, because. Needs always grow in proportion to the degree to which they are satisfied.. All this is similar to the life of a drug addict, with the only difference being that the drug addict is chasing the drug, and we are chasing various other pleasures. It also resembles a donkey chasing a carrot tied in front: we want to catch it, but we cannot catch up ... It is unlikely that any of us consciously want to be like such a donkey.
So, if you think seriously, it is obvious that pleasure cannot be the meaning of life. It is quite natural that a person who considers his goal in life to receive pleasure sooner or later comes to a serious spiritual crisis. For example, in the US, about 45% of people drink antidepressants, despite the high standard of living.
We consume, we consume, we consume… and we live as if we will consume forever. However, death is ahead of us - and this is reliably known to everyone.
Now over your coffin they can say this: “What a rich lifeN lived! We, his relatives, have not seen him for months. Today he is in Paris, tomorrow in Bombay. One could only envy such a life. How many pleasures he had in his life! He was truly lucky, a darling of fate! HowN changed cars and, sorry, wives! His house was and remains a full bowl "...
Open one eye and take a look at the world you have left. Do you think you lived your life the way you should?
The meaning of life is the achievement of power
It's no secret that there are people who live to increase their power over others. This is how Nietzsche tried to explain the meaning of life. He said that the meaning of human life is in the pursuit of power. True, the very history of his life (madness, heavy death, poverty) began to refute this statement during his lifetime ...
Power-hungry people see the point in proving to themselves and others that they can rise above others, to achieve what others could not. Well, what is this meaning? That a person can have an office, appoint and dismiss, take bribes, make important decisions? Is this the point? In order to gain and retain power, they earn money, look for and maintain the necessary business connections, and do many other things, often overstepping their conscience...
In our opinion, in such a situation, power is also a kind of drug, from which a person receives unhealthy pleasure and without which he can no longer, and which requires a constant increase in the “dose” of power.
Is it reasonable to see the meaning of your life in the exercise of power over people? On the threshold of life and death, looking back, a person will understand that he has lived all his life in vain, that for which he lived, leaves him, and he is left with nothing. Hundreds of thousands had enormous, and sometimes even incredible power (think of Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Hitler). But at one point they lost it. So what?
Power has not made anyone immortal yet. After all, what happened to Lenin is far from immortality. Is it great joy to become after death a stuffed animal and an object of curiosity of the crowd, like a monkey in a zoo?
There are many armed guards at your funeral. Investigating glances. They fear a terrorist attack. Yes, you yourself did not die a natural death. Guests, dressed in black with a needle, look alike. The one who “ordered” you is also here, expressing condolences to the widow. In a well-trained voice, someone reads from a piece of paper: “... Life is always in sight, although it is constantly surrounded by guards. Many people envied him, he had many enemies. This is inevitable given the scale of leadership, the scale of power thatN... Such a person will be very difficult to replace, but we hope thatThe NN appointed to this post will continue what he startedN…”
If you heard this, would you understand that you did not live in vain?
The meaning of life is the multiplication of material wealth
The 19th century English philosopher John Mill saw the meaning of human life in achieving profit, benefit, and success. It must be said that Mill's philosophy was the target of ridicule by almost all of his contemporaries. Until the 20th century, Mill's ideas were exotic views that were not supported by almost anyone. And in the last century, the situation has changed. Many people believed that there was a meaning to this illusion. Why in illusion?
Now many people think that a person lives in order to earn money. It is in increasing wealth (and not in the pleasure of spending it, as we discussed above) that they see the meaning of their lives.
It is very strange. If everything that can be bought with money is not meaning - pleasure, memory, power, then how can money itself be meaning? After all, not a single penny, not billions of dollars can not be used after death.
A rich funeral will be little consolation. The dead body is not relieved by the softness of the upholstery of an expensive coffin. Dead eyes are indifferent to the shine of an expensive hearse.
And again the cemetery. Location next to the famous. The grave site has already been tiled. The cost of a coffin could have taught a poor young man at the university. A cloud of mutual hatred swirls over a group of relatives: not everyone is happy with the division of the inheritance. Even in admiring speeches hidden gloating slips through: “N was the chosen man. An alloy of luck, will and perseverance helped him achieve such success in business. I think if he had lived another 3 years, we would have seen his name in the list of the largest billionaires of Forbes magazine. We, who had known him for many years, could only watch with admiration how high our friend soared…”
If you break the silence of death for a moment, what would you say to that?
There will be something to remember in old age
Some say: “Yes, of course, when you are on your deathbed, everything loses its meaning. But at least there was something to remember! For example, many countries, fun parties, a good and satisfying life, etc.” Let's honestly analyze this version of the meaning of life - to live only in order to have something to remember before death.
For example, we had a well-fed, full of impressions, rich and cheerful life. And at the last line we can remember the whole past. Will it bring joy? No, it won't. It will not bring because this good has already passed, and time cannot be stopped. Joy can only be obtained in the present from what has been done really good for others. Because in this case, what you did lives on. The world remains to live, with the good that you have done for it. But to feel joy from what you pleased yourself with - went to resorts, threw money, had power, satisfied your vanity and pride - will not work. It will not work because you are mortal, and soon there will be no memories of this. All this will die.
What joy for the hungry is that he once had the opportunity to overeat? No joy, but on the contrary, pain. After all, the contrast between the good “before” and the terribly bad and hungry “today” and no “tomorrow” at all is visible too well.
For example, an alcoholic cannot be glad that he drank a lot yesterday. He's just sick of it today. And he can't remember yesterday's vodka and thus get a hangover. He needs her now. And real, not in memories.
During this temporary life, we can have many things that we think are good. But we can take nothing with us from this life, except the soul.
For example, we went to the bank. And we are given the opportunity to come to the bank vault and take any amount of money. We can hold as much money as we want in our hands, fill our pockets, fall into piles of this money, throw it, sprinkle it on ourselves, but ... we cannot go beyond the bank vault with it. These are the conditions. Tell me, that you held innumerable sums in your hands, but what will it give you when you leave the bank?
Separately, I would like to give an argument for people who want to commit suicide. To you, as to no one else, the futility of good memories should be obvious. And you have had good times in your life. But now, remembering them, you do not feel better.
ONE OF THE OBJECTIVES OF LIFE, BUT NOT THE MEANING
The meaning of life is life for the sake of loved ones
Very often it seems to us that life for the sake of loved ones is precisely the main meaning. Many people see the meaning of their lives in close person, in a child, spouse, less often - a parent. They often say this: “I live for him”, they live not their own, but his life.
Of course, to love your loved ones, to sacrifice something for them, to help you go through life - this is necessary, natural and right. Most people on earth want to live, getting joy from the family, raising children, taking care of parents and friends.
But can this be the main meaning of life?
No, to idolize loved ones, to see only meaning in them all life, all your affairs - this is a dead end path.
This can be understood with a simple metaphor. A person who sees the whole meaning of his life in a loved one is like a football (or other sports) fan. A fan is no longer just a fan, this is a person who lives for sports, lives for the successes and failures of the team he is a fan of. He says so: “my team”, “we lost”, “we have prospects” ... He identifies himself with the players on the field: he seems to be chasing a soccer ball himself, he rejoices in their victory as if it were his victory . Often they say this: “Your victory is my victory!” And on the contrary, he perceives the defeat of his favorites extremely painfully, as a personal failure. And if for some reason he is deprived of the opportunity to watch a match with the participation of “his” club, he feels as if he was deprived of oxygen, as if life itself passes him by ... From the outside, this fan looks ridiculous, his behavior and attitude to life seems inadequate and even just stupid. But don't we look similar when we see the meaning of our whole life in another person?
It's easier to be a fan than to play sports yourself: it's easier to watch a match on TV, sitting on the couch with a bottle of beer, or at the stadium surrounded by noisy friends, than to run around the field for the ball yourself. Here you cheer for “your own” - and it seems that you yourself have already played football ... There is an identification of a person with those for whom he cheers, and this suits a person: there is no need to train, waste time and effort, you can take a passive position and at the same time get a lot of strong emotions, almost the same as if he himself went in for sports. But no costs, inevitable for the athlete himself.
We do the same if the meaning of our life is another person. We identify ourselves with him, we live not our lives, but his. We rejoice not in our own, but exclusively in his joys, sometimes we even forget about the most important needs of our soul for the sake of the petty everyday needs of a loved one. And we do it for the same reason: because it's easier. It is easier to build someone else's life and correct other people's shortcomings than to take care of your soul and work on it. It is easier to take the position of a fan, to “cheer” for your loved one, without working on yourself, simply giving up on your spiritual life, on the development of your soul.
Nevertheless, any person is mortal, and if he has become the meaning of your life, then having lost him, you will almost inevitably lose the desire to live on. A most serious crisis will come, out of which you can only find a different meaning. You can, of course, "switch" to another person, and now live for him. Often people do this, because. they are accustomed to such a symbiotic relationship and simply do not know how to live differently. Thus, a person is constantly in an unhealthy psychological dependence on another, and he cannot recover from it, because he does not understand that he is sick.
Transferring the meaning of our life to the life of another person, we lose ourselves, completely dissolve in another - the same mortal person as we are. We sacrifice for the sake of this person, who also will not necessarily someday be gone. Once at the last line, do not we ask ourselves: what did we live for? They spent their whole soul on the temporary, on something that death would swallow up without a trace, they created an idol for themselves from a loved one, in fact, they lived not their own, but his fate ... Is it worth devoting your life to this?
Some live not someone else's, but their own life with the hope that they can leave an inheritance, material values, status, etc. to their loved ones. Only we know well that this is not always good. Unearned values can corrupt, descendants may remain ungrateful, something may happen to the descendants themselves and the thread will break. In this case, it turns out that living only for others, the person himself lived his life without meaning.
The meaning of life is work, creativity
“The most precious thing for a person is life. And it is necessary to live it in such a way that it would not be excruciatingly painful for the aimlessly lived years, so that, dying, I could say: all my life and all my strength were given to the most beautiful thing in the world - the struggle for the liberation of mankind.
(Nikolai Ostrovsky)
Another common answer to the question about the meaning of life is work, creativity, some kind of "business of life". Everyone knows the common formula for a "successful" life - to give birth to a child, build a house, plant a tree. As for the child, we briefly discussed this above. What about "house and tree"?
If we see the meaning of our existence in any occupation, even if it is useful for society, in creativity, in work, then we, being thinking people, will sooner or later think about the question: “What will happen to all this when I die? And of what use will all this be to me when I lie dying?” After all, we all perfectly understand that neither a house nor a tree is eternal, they will not stand even for several hundred years ... And those activities to which we devoted all our time, all our strength - if they did not bring benefit to our soul, did they have do they make sense? We will not take any fruits of our labor with us to the grave - neither works of art, nor gardens of trees planted by us, nor our most ingenious scientific developments, nor favorite books, nor power, nor the largest bank accounts ...
Isn't that what Solomon was talking about, looking back at the sunset of his life at all his great achievements, which were the deeds of his life? “I, the Ecclesiastes, was king over Israel in Jerusalem… I undertook great deeds: I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself, I made gardens and groves for myself, and planted in them all sorts of fruitful trees; he made himself reservoirs to irrigate from them groves that grow trees; I bought myself servants and maids, and I had households; I also had more herds and flocks than all those who were before me in Jerusalem; collected for himself silver and gold and jewels from kings and regions; he got singers and female singers and delights of the sons of men - various musical instruments. And I became great and richer than all who were before me in Jerusalem; and my wisdom has been with me. Whatever my eyes desired, I did not refuse them, did not forbid my heart any joy, because my heart rejoiced in all my labors, and this was my share of all my labors. And I looked back at all my works that my hands had done, and at the labor that I labored in doing them: and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of the spirit, and they are of no use under the sun!(Eccl. 1, 12; 2, 4-11).
The "works of life" are different. For one, the business of life is service to culture, another is service to the people, the third is service to science, and the fourth is service for the sake of a "bright future for descendants", as he understands it.
The author of the epigraph, Nikolai Ostrovsky, selflessly served the "cause of life", served the "red" literature, the cause of Lenin and dreamed of communism. A courageous person, a hard-working and talented writer, a convinced ideological warrior, he lived "the struggle for the liberation of mankind", gave his life and all his strength to this struggle. Not many years have passed, and we do not see this liberated humanity. Again he was enslaved, the property of this free humanity, divided among themselves by the oligarchs. Selflessness and ideology, sung by Ostrovsky, is now a target for the ridicule of the masters of life. It turns out that he lived for the sake of a bright future, raised people with his creativity to a feat, and now these feats are used by those who do not care about Ostrovsky and the people. And this can happen with any "business of life." Even if it helps generations of other people (how many of us are able to do so much for humanity?), it still cannot help the person himself. After death, this will not be a consolation for him.
LIFE IS A TRAIN TO ANYWHERE?
Here is an excerpt from Yulia Ivanova's wonderful book "Dense Doors". In this book, a young man, a darling of fate, Ganya, who lives in the godless times of the USSR, has a good education, successful parents, perspectives, thinks about the meaning of life: “Ganya was surprised to find that modern humanity does not really think about this. Naturally, no one wants global catastrophes, nuclear or ecological, but in general we go and go ... Some still believe in progress, although with the development of civilization the probability of flying down a nuclear, ecological or other derailment increases greatly. Others would be happy to turn the locomotive back and make all sorts of bright plans about this, but the majority just goes in an unknown direction, knowing only one thing - sooner or later they will throw you out of the train. Forever. And he will rush himself further, the train of suicide bombers. A death sentence weighs on everyone, hundreds of generations have already succeeded each other, and neither escape nor hide. The judgment is final and not subject to appeal. And passengers try to behave as if they have to go forever. They get comfortable in the compartment, change the rugs, curtains, get to know each other, give birth to children - so that the offspring will occupy your compartment when you yourself are thrown out. A kind of illusion of immortality! Children, in turn, will be replaced by grandchildren, grandchildren by great-grandchildren... Poor humanity! The train of life that became the train of death. The dead who have already descended are hundreds of times more than the living. Yes, and they, living, are sentenced. Here are the steps of the guide - they came for someone. Is it not for you? Feast in Time of Plague. They eat, drink, have fun, play cards, chess, collect match labels, stuff suitcases, although they demand “without things” to leave. And others are making touching plans for the reconstruction of the compartment, their car or even the entire train. Or the carriage goes to war against carriage, compartment against compartment, shelf against shelf, in the name of the happiness of future passengers. Millions of lives are derailed ahead of schedule, and the train rushes on. And these same crazy passengers are merrily slaughtering a goat on the suitcases of beautiful-hearted dreamers.
This is such a gloomy picture that opened up to young Ghana after long reflections on the meaning of life. It turned out that every life goal turns into the greatest injustice and nonsense. Make up your mind and disappear.
Waste your life to do good to future passengers and make room for them? Beautiful! But they are also mortal, these future passengers. All mankind consists of mortals, which means that your life is dedicated to death. And if one of the people reaches immortality, is immortality right on the bones of millions?
Okay, let's take the consumer society. The most ideal option - I give according to my abilities, I receive according to my needs. There may be, of course, the most terrible needs, and abilities, too ... To live in order to live. Eat, drink, have fun, give birth, go to the theater or go to the races... Leave behind a mountain of empty bottles, worn-out shoes, dirty glasses, sheets burnt by a cigarette...
Well, if you put aside the extremes ... Get on the train, sit in your seat, behave decently, do whatever you want, just don’t interfere with other passengers, give the lower shelves to the ladies and old people, don’t smoke in the car. Before you leave for good, hand over your bedding to the conductor and turn off the lights.
Everything ends in zero anyway. The meaning of life is not found. The train is going nowhere...
As you understand, as soon as we begin to look at the meaning of life from the point of view of its finiteness, our illusions begin to rapidly disappear. We begin to understand that what seemed to us the meaning at some stages of life cannot become the meaning of the existence of all life.
But doesn't it make sense? No, he is. And known for a long time thanks to Bishop Augustine. It was Blessed Augustine who made the greatest revolution in philosophy, explained, proved and substantiated the existence of the meaning that we are looking for in life.
To quote the International Philosophical Journal: “Thanks to the philosophical views of Blessed. Augustine, Christian religious teachings make it possible to make logical and complete constructions for finding the meaning of human existence. In Christian philosophy, the question of faith in God is the main condition for the existence of the meaning of life. At the same time, in materialistic philosophy, where human life is finite and there is nothing beyond its threshold, the very existence of a condition for solving this issue becomes impossible and unsolvable problems arise in full growth.
Let's try to find the meaning of life in another plane. Try to understand what will be written below. We do not aim to impose our point of view on you, but only give information that can answer so many of your questions.
THE MEANING OF LIFE: WHERE IT IS
“He who knows his own meaning sees his purpose.
The purpose of man is to be a vessel and instrument of the Divine.
(Ignatius Brianchaninov )
Was the meaning of life known before us?
If you look for the meaning of life among the above, then it is impossible to find it. And it is not surprising that, trying to find it there, a person despairs and comes to the conclusion that there is no point. In fact, he's just not looking there...
Metaphorically, the search for meaning can be depicted as follows. A person who seeks meaning and does not find it is like lost traveler, caught in a ravine and looking for the right path. He wanders among the dense, thorny, tall bushes growing in the ravine, and there he tries to find a way out to the road from which he has strayed, to the path that will lead him to his goal.
But in this way it is impossible to find the right path. You must first get out of the ravine, climb the mountain - and from there, from above, you can see the right path. Likewise, we, who are looking for the meaning of life, first need to change our point of view, because we cannot see anything from the pit of a hedonistic worldview. Without the application of certain efforts, we will never get out of this hole, and certainly we will never find the right path to comprehend life.
So, to understand the true, deep meaning of life is possible only by working hard, only by acquiring some necessary knowledge. And this knowledge, which is most surprising, is available to each of us. We simply do not pay attention to these wells of knowledge, we pass them by, not noticing or contemptuously dismissing them. But the question of the meaning of life has been raised by mankind at all times. All people of previous generations faced exactly the same problems that we face. There has always been betrayal, envy, emptiness of the soul, despair, deceit, betrayal, troubles, disasters and illnesses. And people were able to rethink and deal with it. And we can use the colossal experience that previous generations have accumulated. It is not necessary to reinvent the wheel - it has actually been invented a long time ago. We just have to learn how to ride it. Still, we can’t think of anything better and more ingenious.
Why are we, when it comes to scientific developments, medical achievements, useful inventions that make our life easier, a variety of practical knowledge in a particular professional field, etc. - we widely use the experience and discoveries of our ancestors, and in matters as important as the meaning of life, the existence and immortality of the soul - we consider ourselves smarter than all previous generations, and proudly (often with contempt) reject their knowledge, their experience, and more often we reject everything in advance, without even studying and without trying to understand? Is it reasonable?
Doesn’t the following seem more reasonable: to study the experience and achievements of ancestors, or at least get acquainted with them, reflect, and only then draw a conclusion for yourself whether the previous generations were right or not, whether their experience can be useful to us, whether it is worth shall we learn their wisdom? Why do we reject their knowledge without even trying to penetrate? Is it because it's the easiest?
Indeed, in order to say that our ancestors thought primitively, and we are much smarter and more progressive than them, a great mind is not needed. It is very easy to say unfoundedly. And to study the wisdom of previous generations without difficulty will not work. You must first get acquainted with their experience, their knowledge, let their philosophy of life pass through you, try to live in accordance with it for at least a few days, and then evaluate what this approach to life brings in fact- joy or longing, hope or despair, peace of mind or confusion, light or darkness. And even then a person will be able to judge with full right whether the meaning that his ancestors saw in their lives was true.
Life is like a school
And what, in fact, did our ancestors see the meaning of life? After all, this question has been raised by mankind for centuries.
The answer has always been in self-development, in educating a person of himself, his eternal soul, and in bringing it closer to God. This is how Christians, Buddhists and Muslims thought. Everyone recognized the existence of the immortality of the soul. And then the conclusion seemed quite logical: if the soul is immortal, and the body is mortal, then it is unreasonable (and even simply stupid) to devote your short life to serving the body, its pleasures. Because the body dies, it means that it is pointless to put all your strength into satisfying its needs. (Which, in fact, is confirmed in our day by desperate materialists who have come to the brink of suicide.)
So, the meaning of life, our ancestors believed, should be sought in the good not for the body, but for the soul. After all, she is immortal, and she can enjoy the acquired good forever. And who wouldn't want eternal pleasure?
However, in order for the soul to be able to enjoy not only here, on earth, it is necessary to educate, educate, elevate it, otherwise it will not be able to contain the boundless joy that is prepared for it.
That's why life is possible, in particular, imagine as a school. This simple metaphor helps to get closer to understanding life. Life is a school where a person comes to train his soul. This is the main purpose of attending school. Yes, the school has a lot of other things besides lessons: breaks, communication with classmates, football after school, extracurricular activities - theater visits, camping trips, holidays ... However, all this is secondary. Yes, perhaps it would be more pleasant if we came to school only to run, chat, take a walk in the school yard ... But then we would not learn anything, we would not receive a certificate, we would not be able to receive further education, nor work.
So we come to school to learn. But in and of itself, studying for the sake of studying is also meaningless. We study to gain knowledge, skills and get a certificate, and then go to work and live. If we assume that after graduation there will be NOTHING else, then attending school, of course, makes no sense. And no one argues with this. But in reality, life goes on after school, and school is just one of its stages. And on how responsibly we treated our education at school, the “quality” of our subsequent life largely depends. A person who leaves school, believing that he does not need the knowledge taught in it at all, will remain illiterate and uneducated, and this will interfere with him throughout his future life.
Just as stupidly, to the detriment of himself, a person acts who, having come to school, immediately rejects all the knowledge accumulated before him, without even getting acquainted with them; claims that he does not believe them, that all the discoveries made before him are nonsense. The comicality and absurdity of such a self-confident rejection of all accumulated knowledge is obvious to everyone.
But not everyone, unfortunately, is aware of the even greater absurdity of a similar rejection in a situation when it comes to understanding the deep foundations of life. But our earthly life is also a school - school for the soul. It was given to us in order to educate our soul, to teach it to truly love, to teach it to see the good in the world around us, to create it.
On the path of self-development and self-education, we will inevitably encounter difficulties, just as schooling cannot always be easy. Each of us is well aware that any more or less responsible business is associated with various kinds of difficulties, and it would be strange to expect that such a serious matter as the education and upbringing of the soul will be easy. But these problems, trials are also needed for something - they themselves are a very important factor in the development of the soul. And if we do not teach our soul to love, to strive for light and goodness, while we are still living on earth, then it will not be able to receive endless pleasure in eternity, simply because it incapable will receive kindness and love.
Elder Paisius Svyatogorets said wonderfully: “This century is not to live happily ever after, but to pass exams and move on to another life. Therefore, the following goal should stand before us: to prepare so that when God calls us, to leave with a clear conscience, soar to Christ and be with Him always.
Life as preparation for birth into a new reality
One more metaphor can be given in this context. During pregnancy, the unborn baby's body grows from a single cell to a fully formed human being. And the main task of the intrauterine period is to ensure that the development of the child goes correctly and to the end, so that by the time of birth the child takes the correct position and can be born into a new life.
A nine-month stay in the womb is also, in a sense, a lifetime. The child is born there, develops, he feels good there in his own way - the food arrives on time, the temperature is constant, he is reliably protected from the influence of external factors ... Nevertheless, at a certain time the child needs to be born; no matter how good it seems to him in his mother’s stomach, in a new life such joys await him, such events that are simply incomparable with the seeming convenience of intrauterine existence. And in order to get into this life, the baby goes through the most serious stress (which is childbirth), experiences unprecedented pain ... But the joy of meeting with his mother and with the new world is stronger than this pain, and life in the world is a million times more interesting, more pleasant more diverse than existence in the womb.
Our life on earth is similar - it can be likened to the period of intrauterine existence. The purpose of this life is the development of the soul, the preparation of the soul for birth into a new, incomparably more beautiful life in eternity. And just as in the case of a newborn baby, the “quality” of the new life in which we find ourselves directly depends on how correctly we developed in the “past” life. And those sorrows that we meet on the path of life can be likened to the stress experienced by a baby during childbirth: they are temporary, although they sometimes seem endless; they are inevitable, and everyone goes through them; they are nothing compared to the joy and enjoyment of a new life.
Or another example: the task of a caterpillar is to develop to such an extent that later it becomes a beautiful butterfly. To do this, you must comply with certain laws. The caterpillar cannot imagine that it will fly and how it will be. This is a birth into a new life. And this life is fundamentally different from the life of a mundane caterpillar.
Life as a business project
Another metaphor that explains the meaning of life is the following:
Let's imagine that a kind person gave you an interest-free loan so that you could carry out your own business project and with its help you could earn money for your future life. The term of the loan is equal to the term of your earthly life. The better you invest this money, the richer and more comfortable your life will be at the end of the project.
One will invest a loan in the business, and the other will start eating up this money, having drunken parties, parties, but just not working on multiplying this amount. In order not to think and not work, he will find a bunch of reasons and excuses - “no one loves me”, “I am weak”, “why make money for a future life, if you don’t know what will happen there, it’s better to live now, and it will be seen there” and .t.p. Naturally, friends immediately appear who want to spend this loan with a person (it’s not for them to answer later). They convince him that there is no need to repay the debt, that the One who gave the loan does not exist (or that the fate of the debtor is indifferent to Him). They convince that if there is a loan, then it should be spent on a good and fun present life, and not on the future. If a person agrees with them, then the party begins. As a result, a person comes to bankruptcy. The term to repay the loan is approaching, but it is wasted, and nothing has been earned.
Now, God gives us this credit. Credit itself is our talents, mental and physical abilities, spiritual qualities, health, favorable circumstances, external assistance.
Look, don't we look like gamers who spend money on a momentary passion? Haven't we played? Do not our "games" cause us suffering and fear? And who are those “friends” who are so actively pushing us to skip this loan? And these are our enemies - demons. They themselves disposed of their talents, their angelic qualities in the worst possible way. And they want the same for us. The most desirable alignment for them is if a person not only skips this loan with them, and then suffers for it, but if a person simply gives them this loan. We know many examples when, by manipulating weak people, bandits deprived them of housing, money, inheritance, left them homeless. The same thing happens with those who live their lives in vain.
Should this horror continue? Isn't it time to think about what we have earned and how much time we have left for the implementation of our project.
Often suicidal people scold God for not getting what they want, that it is difficult to live, that there is no understanding, etc.
But don't you think that God cannot be blamed for the fact that we simply do not know how to earn, to properly invest what He has given, that we do not know the laws by which we must live in order to prosper?
Agree that it is rather stupid to continue to skip what is given, and even blame the creditor. Maybe it's better to think about how to fix the situation? And our Lender will always help us with this. He does not act like a Jewish usurer, sucking all the juice out of the debtor, but credits from Love to us.
(Psychologist Mikhail Khasminsky, Olga Pokalyukhina)
How to find the meaning of life? ( Alfried Lenglet)
Is there any point in a soap opera? ( Hieromonk Macarius (Markish))
good choice ( Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov)
The meaning of life: To multiply talents or develop abilities? ( Archpriest Alexy Uminsky)
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 are all moving 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 set of legs and arms, a brain, a bunch of personal qualities, some kind of crappy character, a number of basic skills, and, well, 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 be able to produce something brilliant from the first minutes of life without much difficulty, 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 all look 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 separates a 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.. A detailed debriefing on the need to share has already taken place 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 this 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 general 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 a desire arises in you 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 the realization of 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 will 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.
“Always dream and strive for more than you know you can achieve. Don't bother to be better than your predecessors or contemporaries. Try to be better than yourself."
William Faulkner
What is the sense of life? One of the eternal rhetorical questions to which there cannot be a single answer for everyone. Since the meaning in life is individual for everyone: someone sees it in creating a strong large family, someone is ready to put their life on the altar of a career, someone does not see the meaning of their existence without art ... Such a list can be continued endlessly. However, perhaps there is something in which every person could see the meaning of further existence, something that will be relevant at all times and, if not for everyone, then at least for most people? Maybe the true meaning of life is self-development? That is, the meaning is not in achieving the ultimate goal, but in the constant process of improving the personality? This article will just tell you about life with meaning - what is the secret?
What makes a person move on? What makes it better and helps to reach the highest level in any areas? In the modern world, a lot of attention is paid to self-development, by doing which an individual can achieve success, both in personal relationships, and in work or mastering any kind of art. So maybe, really, the meaning of life is self-development?
Or is it just a tool in achieving your life goals? One thing is for sure - the importance of self-development is not overestimated, because only by developing you can achieve the most beautiful feeling in the world - absolute harmony, with yourself, with loved ones, with the world around you.
FUNCTIONALITY OF SELF-DEVELOPMENT
“A person is somewhat like an airplane. An airplane can also travel on the ground, but in order to prove that it is an airplane, it must take off into the air. So are we: if we do not rise above ourselves, no one will guess that we can fly.
Viktor Frankl
It has long been known that a person does not use all the potential capabilities of his brain. Some of them, perhaps, humanity does not even know. It is even difficult to imagine what new discoveries humanity would make if all intellectual resources were used. Perhaps a 100% effective cure for cancer would be found, poverty and hunger would be eradicated ... Utopia? May be. Or maybe - a projection of the world's future in the case when most people stop ignoring self-development and understand the global nature of its need.
After all, if every person makes every effort to unlock their potential and improve knowledge and skills, then the world will be enriched with new great professionals and experts in all fields.
Many people believe that all the necessary information is given in schools and universities, so self-development is a useless and inappropriate process. Therefore, the thesis “the meaning of life is self-development” is absolutely incomprehensible and unacceptable for such people.
Such a statement is fundamentally wrong for at least three reasons:
- Self-development is necessary to engage in to keep up with the times. Any sphere of life does not stand still, otherwise we would still wear the skins of dead animals and cook food on an open fire. The modern world is developing very quickly, new discoveries are being made in any field, innovations and changes are being introduced that contribute to the development and positive changes in the world.
- Self-development is necessary to engage in to achieve success in life. A successful person is, first of all, a modern person, quickly grasping everything on the fly, able to adapt to various life situations. Success is not only a six-figure bank account or a country villa. A successful person is engaged in his favorite business, which brings him not only profit, but also pleasure, lives in coziness and comfort and is completely satisfied with his life.
- Self-development is necessary to engage in to be a diversified person. As Molière wrote, “How nice it is to know that you have learned something!”. New knowledge is a life-giving source of energy and excellent food for the mind of any person. After all, an intellectually savvy, erudite and pleasant person in all respects cannot be alone, people around him are always drawn to him.
What do we get as a result? Self-development is necessary for a person in order to live a successful, full and happy life, moving up the career ladder and rotating in a society of worthy people. You also need to develop your potential to achieve peace of mind, because the person who can realize all his plans and translate spiritual impulses into reality is happy. Therefore, to a certain extent, it would be quite reasonable to assert that self-development plays an important role in the search for the meaning of life. The statement that the meaning of life is self-development requires a little adjustment. Rather, the final results of self-development can collectively be the meaning of an individual's life.
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE
“The meaning of life is not a star or a chemical element: it cannot be discovered in finished form - we create it ourselves, and it is impossible for another judge to consider it sufficient or insufficiently substantiated, apart from our subjective feeling.”
Alexander Melekhov
The meaning of life is the purpose of all human existence. Life is a road, and like every path, it must have an end point. A person comes into this world with a purpose. But, unfortunately, many cannot give their life any meaning, so they live it aimlessly, in empty consumerism, without giving anything to humanity in return. An effective and efficient method to find the meaning of life is self-development. After all, in order to know the world around you and your destiny, you first need to know yourself.
An individual who knows what he lives for, meets each new day with enthusiasm, because he knows the goal that needs to be achieved. Simply put, these people have something to live for.
Awareness of one's life purpose has a beneficial effect on the mental and mental health of a person, gives strength in overcoming difficult life situations and a motive for solving seemingly even the most unsolvable problems. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote about this: “If a person has a “why” to live, then he can withstand any “how”.
An excellent example of a modern person who definitely knows what to live for can be called Angelina Jolie. Mother, actress, ambassador of peace - this woman sees her mission in bringing as much benefit as possible to those who need it, her life cannot be called aimless and useless.
As she says about herself:
“Every day I live my life. I wake up like a mother - this is who I am, this is my center. And then I am a citizen of the world, and I want to contribute to be useful to society. And, very distantly, the third part of me is an artist who is very lucky to have a successful career, which I consider creative.
THE PROBLEM OF SEARCHING THE MEANING OF LIFE
But for many it turns out to be a big problem - to find their life purpose. The journey in search of the meaning of life can be so long that it becomes the length of life itself.
The main problem of the search for the meaning of life is that sometimes an individual does not even see the need to give his life some meaning, to equip it with some real purpose. In the case when a person realizes the futility of his existence and does not see the ultimate goal of being, then there is a desire to fill the void in the soul with alcohol, drugs, casual sex and other deviant manifestations. The lack of further life aspirations can lead to prolonged depression, an apathetic state. Gamers or people who are prone to addictions in the form of alcohol or drug addiction, most often have not decided on their life goals, their existence has not found meaning, therefore, subconsciously, such subjects seek self-destruction and burning through the allotted time.
If an individual does not feel happy, then he has not yet realized his life purpose, has not known himself. After all, happiness is not a successful career or a profitable marriage.
Happiness is the road leading to the knowledge of one's personality. And in order to reveal your individuality, your inner potential, you need to engage in the constant development of your personal qualities. Self-development is the meaning of life for people striving for agreement with their inner “I”.
A person spends quite a lot of time in search of the meaning of life. How to make sure that these many hours are not wasted and the search is ultimately successful? In fact, the search for the meaning of life is much easier than it seems.
It is enough to adhere to some rules and not get hung up on the fact that the realization of one’s destiny does not come in any way:
- Do what you love. Try to turn every day into a series of pleasant moments. When a person does what he really loves, he is happy. But it is precisely this feeling that many people aspire to, the desire of most people is just to be happy. “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that the most important thing in life is to be happy. When I went to school, they asked me what I want to be when I grow up. I wrote happy. They told me: "You did not understand the task." I answered: "You have not understood life."
John Lennon - Love what you do. It is difficult to devote yourself entirely to a task, the performance of which does not bring any satisfaction. Therefore, it is necessary to try to give each of your activities a positive color.
- Learn to understand your feelings. Listen to yourself to understand what is the meaning of life for you - self-development, family, career or religion.
- Accept yourself for who you really are, with all your negative qualities and bad habits.
“From childhood, we are hammered into our heads with some ideals that for some reason we “should” correspond to. If we are born in a Christian family, we must become like Christ; in a Buddhist family, the child must become a Buddha. We are born into an imperfect society, where people who have been brought up in the same way, and who themselves have not been able to accept themselves, permeate our minds with the vicious idea that we should become someone else, thereby distracting us from our own essence.
Osho
Output
It must be understood that there is no general and unified meaning of life. Every person who dreams of understanding his destiny should not look for a ready-made and accessible meaning, but create his own goals, independently choose what to live for. Whatever the meaning of life you choose - self-development or philanthropy, creation of works of art or the birth or upbringing of children - do your best to realize it, because nothing increases self-esteem, brings us closer to psycho-emotional balance, like the feeling of a job well done and achievement the set goal.
Remember that you can choose not one life path, but several. If you decide that the meaning of life is self-development, then know that this endless process can help you find other life purposes, realize why you should live on and where to get the strength to move forward.
Love yourself, love life and appreciate every day you live, remembering it with joy and gratitude, motivate yourself to achieve your goals - and you will certainly be happy. Achieving unconditional happiness is a goal worthy of becoming the meaning of life for any person.
“The meaning of life lies in life itself, and not in the conclusions drawn from it. He is in the experience of the very flow of life. Therefore, life should be treated as a continuously perceived experience, and not as a solution to a problem, coinciding or not coinciding with the answer at the end of the textbook.
Mikhail Dronov
The meaning of human life- this is everything for which he lives on earth. But not everyone really knows what makes him live. Every thinking person has a moment when he faces the question: what is the meaning of human life, what goals, dreams, desires make people live, overcome all life's trials, go through the school of good and evil, learn from mistakes, make new ones, and so on. Various sages, outstanding minds of different times and eras tried to find the answer to the question: “what is the meaning of human life?”, but no one, in fact, came to a single definition. The answer is individual for each person, that is, what one individual sees his meaning of existence in, may not be of interest to another at all, due to the difference in individual characterological features.
The meaning of a person's life consists in the value he realizes, to which he subordinates his life, for the sake of which he sets life goals and implements them. This is such a component of the spiritual meaning of existence, which is formed independently of social values and constitutes an individual human value system. The discovery of this meaning of life and the creation of a value hierarchy occurs in each individual in his reflections, based on personal experience.
The purpose and meaning of human life sees fully realized, only in the case of the necessary conditions of society: freedom, humanism, morality, economic, cultural. Social conditions should be such that a person can realize his goals and develop, and not become an obstacle in his path.
Social science also sees the purpose and meaning of human life as inseparable from social phenomena, therefore it can know what its purpose is, but society may not share it and in every possible way interfere with its implementation. In some cases, this is good when it comes to the goals that the criminal or sociopath wants to achieve. But when a private small business entrepreneur wants to develop, and socio-economic conditions hinder him, and he is not allowed to express his opinion, this, of course, does not contribute to the development of the individual and the realization of his plans.
The meaning of human life philosophy
The actual question in philosophy is the meaning of human life and the problem of being. Even ancient philosophers said that a person can philosophize, knowing himself, the whole mystery of the existence of a person lies in herself. Man is the subject of epistemology (knowledge) and at the same time, he is able to know. When a person has comprehended his essence, the meaning of life, he has already solved many issues in his life.
The meaning of human life philosophy briefly. The meaning of life is the main idea that determines the purpose of any object, object or phenomenon. Although the true meaning may not be fully comprehended, it may lie in such deep structures of the human soul that a person has only a superficial idea of \u200b\u200bthat meaning. He can cognize it by looking inside himself, or by certain signs, symbols, but the full meaning never comes to the surface, only enlightened minds can comprehend it.
Most often, the meaning of a person’s life is the meaning of objects and phenomena that he endows them himself, depending on his individual perception, understanding and the degree of importance of these objects directly for this person. Therefore, the same objects can have many meanings, depending on the people with whom they interact. Suppose some thing can be completely nondescript, and one person from it is of no use at all. But for another person, this same thing can mean a lot, it is filled with a special meaning. She may be associated with him with certain events, a person, she may be dear to him not in material terms, but in spiritual terms. A common example of this is the exchange of gifts. In a gift, a person puts his soul, despite its price. Most importantly, he wants to be remembered. In this case, the most ordinary object can acquire an unprecedented meaning, it is filled with love, wishes, charged with the energy of the giver.
Just like the value of objects, there is also the value of the actions of the individual. Each act of a person is charged with meaning when he makes a certain important decision for him. This meaning means that certain actions carry a value, depending on the decision made and its value for a person and those around him. It also lies in the feelings, states, emotions and insights that arise in the individual.
The meaning of human life as a philosophical problem is also studied in religion.
The meaning of human life in religion- means contemplation, and the personification of the divine principle in the soul, its orientation towards the superhuman shrine and attachment to the highest good and spiritual truth. But the spiritual essence is interested not only in the truth that describes the object, is its essential meaning, but the very meaning of this object for a person and the satisfaction of needs.
In this sense, a person also gives meaning and assessment to the facts, cases and episodes from his life that were significant for him and, through the prism of this, realizes his value attitude to the world around him. The peculiarity of the relationship of the individual with the world occurs due to the value attitude.
The meaning and value of human life, correlate as follows - the value of a person determines how everything that has significance for him, carries meaning, is native, dear and sacred.
The meaning of human life is philosophy briefly, as a problem. In the twentieth century, philosophers were especially interested in the problems of the value of human life and put forward various theories and concepts. Value theories were also theories of the meaning of life. That is, the meaning and value of human life, as concepts, were identified, since the meaning of one passed into another.
Value is defined in almost the same way in all philosophical currents, and the lack of value is also explained by the fact that a person is indifferent and is not interested in any differences in life between the categories of good and evil, truth and falsehood. When a person cannot determine the value, or does not know which of them to be guided by in his own life, it means that he has lost himself, his essence, the meaning of life.
The most important among the personal forms of the individual's psyche are the value - will, determination, and. The most important value orientations of the individual is - faith, as the positive aspirations of a person. It is thanks to faith that a person feels himself, is alive, he believes in a better future, he believes that he will achieve his life goal and that his life has meaning, without faith, a person is an empty vessel.
The problem of the meaning of human life began to develop especially in the nineteenth century. Also formed a philosophical direction - existentialism. Existential questions are the problems of a person living everyday life and experiencing depressive emotions and states. Such a person experiences a state of boredom, and the desire to free himself.
The famous psychologist and philosopher Viktor Frankl created his own theory and school, where his followers studied. The object of his teachings was man in search of the meaning of life. Frankl said that finding his destiny, a person mentally heals. In his most famous book, which is called: "Man's search for the meaning of life," the psychologist describes three ways to comprehend life. The first way involves the performance of labor actions, the second - experiences and feelings associated with a particular person or object, the third way describes life situations that actually give a person all his suffering and unpleasant experiences. It turns out that in order to gain meaning, a person must fill his life with work, or some kind of main occupation, caring for a loved one, and learn to cope with problem situations, extracting experience from them.
The problem of the meaning of a person's life, the study of his life path, trials, severity and problems is the subject of a direction in existentialism - logotherapy. In the center of it stands a person, as a creature that does not know its purpose, and is looking for peace of mind. It is precisely the fact that a person poses the question of the meaning of life and being that determines his essence. At the center of logotherapy is the process of finding meaning in life, during which a person will either purposefully seek the meaning of his being, think about this question and try to do something, or he will be disappointed in the search and stop taking any further steps to determine his existence.
The purpose and meaning of human life
A person should think carefully about what his purpose is, what he wants to achieve at the moment. Because during the course of life, its goals may change, depending on external circumstances and internal metamorphoses of the individual, her desires and intentions. The change in life goals can be traced on a simple life example. Let's say a girl graduating from high school wants to pass her exams with excellent marks, enter a prestigious university, she raves about her career and postpones her wedding with her boyfriend until an indefinite time. Time passes, she acquires capital for her business, develops it and becomes a successful business woman. As a result, the original goal was achieved. Now she is ready to make a wedding, she wants children and sees in them her future meaning of life. In this example, two very strong goals were put forward, and regardless of their sequence, they were both achieved. When a person knows exactly what he wants, nothing will stop him, the main thing is that these goals and the algorithm of actions to achieve them are correctly formulated.
On the way to achieving the main life goal, a person goes through certain stages, between which there are also so-called intermediate goals. For example, first a person studies in order to acquire knowledge. But it is not the knowledge itself that is important, but its practical applicability. Then, getting an honors degree can help you get a prestigious job, and the correct performance of your duties helps to increase your career ladder. Here you can feel the transition of important goals and the introduction of intermediate ones, without which the overall result is not achieved.
Purpose and meaning of human life. It happens that two people with the same resources live their life path in completely different ways. One can achieve one goal and put up with the fact that he does not feel the need to go further, while the other, more purposeful, all the time sets himself new goals, achieving which he feels happy.
Almost all people are united by one life goal - creating a family, procreation, raising children. Thus, children are the meaning of life for many people. Because, with the birth of a child, all the general attention of parents focuses on him. Parents want to provide the child with everything necessary and work for this, trying as best as possible. Then they work to educate. But, most importantly, every parent dreams of raising their child in the right way so that he grows up as a kind, fair and reasonable person. Then the children, having received all the necessary resources from their parents, in their old age, can thank them and make it their goal to take care of them.
The meaning of human existence is the desire to keep a trace on the earth. But not everyone is limited to the desire to procreate, some have more requests. They manifest themselves, trying to stand out from the gray mass in various areas of life: sports, music, art, science and other fields of activity, it depends on the talents of each person. Achieving some result can be the goal of a person, like a bar that he jumped over. But when a person's goal is realized by an achievement and he understands that he has brought benefit to people, he feels much more satisfaction from what he has done. But it may take years to achieve and fully realize such a great goal. Many outstanding people were never recognized for their lives, but understood the meaning of their worth when they were no longer alive. Many people die at a young age, when they have reached a certain goal, and no longer see the meaning in life, having completed it. Among such people are mostly creative personalities (poets, musicians, actors), and the loss of the meaning of life for them is a creative crisis.
Such a problem gives rise to thoughts about extending human life, and it can be a scientific goal, but you need to clearly understand what this is for. If you look from the position of humanism, then life has the highest value. Therefore, its extension would be a progressive step in relation to society, and also to individuals specifically. If this problem is considered from the point of view of biology, then it can be argued that there are already some successes in this area, for example, organ transplantation, and the treatment of diseases that were once considered incurable. A lot is said about the elixir of youth, as a source for maintaining an eternally young body, but this is still at the level of fantasy. Even if you delay old age, adhering to a healthy and proper lifestyle, it will inevitably come, along with all its manifestations, psychological and biological. This means that the goal of medicine should also be some way so that aged people do not feel physical discomfort and do not complain about reason, memory, attention, thinking, so that they maintain mental and physical performance. But not only science should be engaged in life extension, but society itself should create the necessary conditions for the development of human talents, ensure inclusion in public life.
The life of a modern person is very fast, and he has to expend a lot of energy and strength in order to comply with the norms of society and keep up with progress. When a person is in such a rhythm, he does not have time to stop, stop doing everyday activities and movements that have been memorized, worked out to automatism and think about why all this is done and how expensive it is, to deeply comprehend life and develop the spiritual sphere life.
The meaning of modern life- this is the pursuit of mirages, imaginary success and happiness, implanted patterns in the heads, a false culture of modern consumption. The life of such a person does not carry spiritual value, it is expressed in constant consumption, squeezing out all the juices from oneself. The result of this lifestyle is nervousness, fatigue. People want to snatch a big piece for themselves, to take a place in the sun, regardless of the needs of others. If you look from this perspective, it seems that life is sinking, and soon people will become like robots, inhuman, heartless. Fortunately, the likelihood of such a course of events is very small. This idea is very extreme, and, in fact, only applies to those who have really shouldered the burden of a career and all the difficulties associated with it. But modern man can also be viewed in a different context.
The meaning of the life of a modern person is the birth and upbringing of children who can be proud of, and the improvement of the world. Every modern person is the creator of the future world, and every human labor activity is an investment in the development of society. Realizing his value, a person understands that his life has meaning, and he wants to give himself even more, invest in the future generation, and do good deeds for the good of society. Participation in the achievements of mankind gives people an understanding of their own significance, they feel like the bearers of a progressive future, because they were lucky enough to live in such a time.
The meaning of the life of a modern person is in self-improvement, advanced training, obtaining a diploma, new knowledge, thanks to which you can generate new ideas, create new objects. Such a person, of course, is valued as a good specialist, especially when he likes what he does and considers it his meaning of life.
When smart parents, then the children, respectively, should be like that. Therefore, parents strive to develop and educate their children so that they become worthy members of society.
The meaning of life and the purpose of man
To answer the question: “what is the meaning of human life?”, you must first explain all the constituent terms. "Life" is understood as a category of finding a person in space and time. "Meaning" does not have such a definite designation, since the concept is found in scientific works, and also in everyday communication. If you disassemble the word itself, then it turns out “with a thought”, that is, an understanding of some object or an impact with it, with certain thoughts.
Meaning manifests itself in three categories - ontological, phenomenological and personal. Behind the ontological view, all objects, phenomena and events of life have meaning, depending on their influence on his life. The phenomenological approach says that in the mind there is an image of the world, which includes a personal meaning, which gives an assessment of objects for a person personally, indicates the value of a given phenomenon or event. The third category is the semantic constructs of a person that provide self-regulation. All three structures provide a person with an understanding of his life and the disclosure of the true meaning of life.
The problem of the meaning of human life is closely intertwined with its purpose in this world. For example, if a person is sure that his meaning of life is to bring goodness and God's grace into this world, then his destiny is to be a priest.
Purpose is a way of being a person, it determines his meaning of existence from birth. When a person clearly sees his goal, knows what to do, he completely devotes himself to this with his whole body and soul. This is the purpose, if a person does not fulfill it, he loses the meaning of life.
When a person thinks about his purpose in life, he approaches the idea of the immortality of the human spirit, his actions, their significance now and in the future, what remains after them. Man is mortal by nature, but since he has been given life, he must understand that everything connected with him in this short period of his life is limited only by the date of his birth and death. If a person wants to fulfill his destiny, he will do things that will be socially important. If a person does not believe in the immortality of the soul, his existence will be unthinkable and irresponsible.
The meaning of life and the purpose of a person is a vital decision. Each person chooses how to perceive himself as a person, body and soul, and then think about where to go and what to do. When a person has found a true destiny, he becomes more confident in the value of his life, he can clearly build his life goals and treat the world with kindness and gratitude for the gift of life. Destiny is like a river along which a person swims, and if he himself does not know which pier to swim to, not a single wind will be favorable to him. Religion sees its purpose in serving God, psychologists see it as serving people, someone in the family, someone about preserving nature. And you can’t blame someone for the path he has chosen, everyone does as he wants, as he feels.