Questions.

[Willoughbyva]

What is important in life? What is happiness and how does a person achieve it? What is the meaning of life? I am here. What am I here for? I have had both good and bad in life. I have been a blessing and a burdon to people. What do I do next? Does assigning fault and blame do any good? What and why are questions, how do I provide the answers. Is answers the right word? Something I don't know what. I wish I felt great. I tend not to look for answers or ask questions when things are great.

Perry


P.S. Sorry I was just thinking about this and thought I would ask here since there are some pretty smart folks here.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

You'd probably be better off asking this in Off Topic.

 

[Willoughbyva]

I don't know my posts over there like this don't seem to get many responses. I just thought I would ask here since I think some of you P&N guys don't go into off topic very often. Plus I wanted to see what you guys thought.

 

[jackschmittusa]

All anyone wants in life is to be happy, but some settle for satisfied. Happiness is self defined, unique in some fashion to each person, though commonalities exist.

You are here by happenstance, though some derive pleasure seeking a more definite purpose.

The next step is always on the path to present and future happiness i.e. fame, fortune, family, power, etc..

Finding fault or blame is only useful if it leads to improvement; used as a tool, and then set aside. Never keep a tally of fault or blame in yourself or others. Keeping such a score will lead to using it to make poor judgements.

We do not look for answers when all is great because all is as we perceive it should be. When things are less than what we desire, we question. We ask: why, is that all that there is, is this as good as it gets? Finding positive answers keeps us from getting depressed. Wishing for a better tomorrow is without value if we cannot see the path to it.

Some of the most successful people reflect on how to make tomorrow better even when today is pretty damn good.

All in all, I think it is good to ask the questions, and the "answers" are often not simple words and phrases, but a direction, defined goals, understanding that they are acheivable, and developing the drive to get there.

 

[engineereeyore]

The purpose of life if based upon your beliefs. There are "religious" ideals of the purpose of life, if you're interested. I'm not sure how to answer that in a non-religious way, but I don't what to offend if you're not religious.

You should expect in life to have good and bad, to be blessing and to be a burden. Just think about it, if one didn't exist, would the other? How can you know what pleasure feels like if you've never felt pain? How do you know life is good if life has never been bad? Otherwise, it's just always been life.

I agree with jackschmittusa, we typically don't question life unless things are going in a direction we don't like.

There are answers, but it's up to each of us whether we accept them.

 

[jackschmittusa]

engineereeyore

You should expect in life to have good and bad, to be blessing and to be a burden. Just think about it, if one didn't exist, would the other? How can you know what pleasure feels like if you've never felt pain? How do you know life is good if life has never been bad? Otherwise, it's just always been life.

I have to disagree. Pain and pleasure and good and bad are not opposite sides of the same coin. Each can exist independently. I can know that my life is good simply by observing how bad someone else's is compared to my own. No need to have a bad run in life to know what "bad" is. I can know that a kiss is pleasurable without having first taken a punch in the mouth to know pain.

The human mind is quite adept at observing, comparing, and qualifying.

 

[GroundedSailor]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
All anyone wants in life is to be happy, but some settle for satisfied. Happiness is self defined, unique in some fashion to each person, though commonalities exist.

You are here by happenstance, though some derive pleasure seeking a more definite purpose.

The next step is always on the path to present and future happiness i.e. fame, fortune, family, power, etc..

Finding fault or blame is only useful if it leads to improvement; used as a tool, and then set aside. Never keep a tally of fault or blame in yourself or others. Keeping such a score will lead to using it to make poor judgements.

We do not look for answers when all is great because all is as we perceive it should be. When things are less than what we desire, we question. We ask: why, is that all that there is, is this as good as it gets? Finding positive answers keeps us from getting depressed. Wishing for a better tomorrow is without value if we cannot see the path to it.

Some of the most successful people reflect on how to make tomorrow better even when today is pretty damn good.

All in all, I think it is good to ask the questions, and the "answers" are often not simple words and phrases, but a direction, defined goals, understanding that they are acheivable, and developing the drive to get there.

Have you been spending time with Moonbeam lately?

 

[Moonbeam]

I sought truth and found nothing but my own illusions.

I sought happiness and found utter hopelessness and despair.

I sought meaning and found only total meaninglessness.

Feeling these these realities and surrendering slowly to their utter reality I chanced upon a Zen master who smilingly said, "Not a tile above or a place below to place my foot"

You bastard I said, how is this man saying with equanimity what is killing me?

Deep deep deep in contemplation of this question my mind turned over and something inside me died. Of course of course, everything is meaningless including this question. The question of meaning is meaningless. The need for happiness is an empty need. There is no truth, there is only original being. I lost everything that can be taken and was striped down to what I am. I am an animal that fills by emptying. All the love I was searching for out there, everything I longed for with all my being, is all there inside of me in the giving. Oh my Beloved, wherever I look it appears to be Thou. Oh my Beloved you are me.

 

[Willoughbyva]

I don't know moonbeam. There is sometimes joy in giving. And I think the other part of your answer has to do with not contemplating life and happiness, but to just be. So it seem that you are saying to just be and to give of yourself. There is probably some truth in that, but I like thinking about things sometimes, though to be honest I have dulled my brain and don't think like I used to. Perhaps happiness and meaning is all imaginary after all, but that doesn't mean that I can't still think of what might be or to question my question of what might be that will make a difference in my life. I find that when I am not contemplating then I am usually asleep. Perhaps that being asleep is truly liveing. For nothing is quite like drifting off to a peaceful sleep. For a long time I wasn't able to have peaceful sleep, but I am on medication that makes it more posible. I also see that there is more peace in living in the now and not the past or future. For at this point in my life I have a somewhat satisfactory life. Even though I don't feel great I am OK for now.

 

[Moonbeam]

I don't know moonbeam. There is sometimes joy in giving.

M: Giving is meaningless if it is giving. To give with hope is of the ego, the part of oneself that needs to die, the part that hopes and needs meaning. There is no giving except out of the joy of being, out of the cornucopia of monkey life, the animal self that loves life.

And I think the other part of your answer has to do with not contemplating life and happiness, but to just be. So it seem that you are saying to just be and to give of yourself. There is probably some truth in that, but I like thinking about things sometimes, though to be honest I have dulled my brain and don't think like I used to.

M: Thought arises out of language and is always of the past. Thought is dead. Thought is a fragment of the self proclaiming itself the whole as if thought could see itself. Can the eye see itself. No. Thought is fear. Thought is the enemy. Thought is an illusion that thought can think itself free. When thought comes to the end of its rope one is free. There is no hope or answer in thought. Thought is separation from being. Thought is empty of heart and in heart is the joy of being.

Perhaps happiness and meaning is all imaginary after all, but that doesn't mean that I can't still think of what might be or to question my question of what might be that will make a difference in my life.

M: You are clinging to hope. There is no hope. The heart needs no reason to be. It is what you are when all hope is taken away. You always and ever were perfect as you are. Suffering is an illusion created by the separation of thought. You are the universe; you are ONE.

I find that when I am not contemplating then I am usually asleep. Perhaps that being asleep is truly liveing. For nothing is quite like drifting off to a peaceful sleep. For a long time I wasn't able to have peaceful sleep, but I am on medication that makes it more posible. I also see that there is more peace in living in the now and not the past or future.

M: Thought is sleep. Thought is how you avoid how you feel. Thought is the fear of feeling. Thought is hiding the feeling that you are dead. We are dead to our feelings and it is thought that keeps us that way. You fear to die because you are dead. But you are not dead, you just don't let yourself feel. The feeling that you are dead is a lie. This is why you have to die to live. Phoenix from the ash......

For at this point in my life I have a somewhat satisfactory life. Even though I don't feel great I am OK for now.

M: So you have nothing to fear. You have always been OK. At the ground of your being is joy. You are just a puppy dog or a monkey swinging by his tail. We are all animal joy. but thought took that away.

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: Willoughbyva
What is important in life? What is happiness and how does a person achieve it? What is the meaning of life?...

The answer is 42.

The Ultimate Answer

According to the Hitchhiker's Guide, researchers from a pan-dimensional, hyper-intelligent race of beings, construct Deep Thought, the second greatest computer of all time and space, to calculate the Ultimate Answer. After seven and a half million years of pondering the question, Deep Thought provides the answer: "forty-two."

• "Forty-two!" yelled Loonquawl. "Is that all you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?"
  "I checked it very thoroughly," said the computer, "and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is."

The search for the Ultimate Question

Deep Thought informs the researchers that it will design a second and greater computer, incorporating living beings as part of its computational matrix, to tell them what the question is. That computer was called Earth and was so big that it was often mistaken for a planet. The researchers themselves take the form of mice, to run the program. The question was lost five minutes before it was due to be produced, due to the Vogons' demolition of the Earth, supposedly to build a hyperspace bypass. Later in the series, it is revealed that the Vogons had been hired to destroy the Earth by a consortium of philosophers and psychiatrists who feared for the loss of their jobs when the meaning of life became common knowledge.

Lacking a real question, the mice proposed to use "How many roads must a man walk down?" (the first line of Bob Dylan's famous civil rights song Blowin' In The Wind) as the question for talk shows, after considering and rejecting the question, "What's yellow and dangerous?"?actually a riddle whose answer, not given by Adams, is "shark-infested custard."

At the end of Mostly Harmless, which is the last of the series of novels, there is a final reference to the number 42. As Arthur and Ford are dropped off at club Beta (owned by Stavro Mueller), Ford shouts at the cabby to stop "just there, number forty-two ? Right here!" The entire Earth (in all dimensions, not just those in which it was demolished by the Vogons), is destroyed immediately after this final reference.

:beer:

 

[engineereeyore]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
engineereeyore

You should expect in life to have good and bad, to be blessing and to be a burden. Just think about it, if one didn't exist, would the other? How can you know what pleasure feels like if you've never felt pain? How do you know life is good if life has never been bad? Otherwise, it's just always been life.

I have to disagree. Pain and pleasure and good and bad are not opposite sides of the same coin. Each can exist independently. I can know that my life is good simply by observing how bad someone else's is compared to my own. No need to have a bad run in life to know what "bad" is. I can know that a kiss is pleasurable without having first taken a punch in the mouth to know pain.

The human mind is quite adept at observing, comparing, and qualifying.

Exactly. You can know GOOD in your life by observing BAD in another persons life. Whether the experiences are in your life or someone else doesn't matter. The fact is, you obvserved them. Everything has its opposite, and you can't know one without knowing the other, whether through experience, or just through understanding.

 

[Moonbeam]

Good and evil arise out of the duality of thought. They are illusion. There is nothing to know because there are no questions. Questions arise from illusions.