Meaning of life.

[Higurashi]

Depends on what spectrum. The meaning of my life is to find out my full potential; to see what I can accomplish with my whole being.
I also have some smaller guidelines, such as fighting to keep the concept of love strong where I can, and trying to get others to be themselves as well as realise their own endless potential.

The meaning of humanity's life is the same. We will never stop expanding and evolving until we're extinct.

The meaning of the universe's existence seems to be to expand as well. That's what my observations so far can tell me anyway.

I have other feelings regarding this though, and since we can't get a lot of facts, they do seem relevant to me. I find that I can observe the universe as a whole; a single entity. As such, time doesn't really matter in my perception, and the history of the universe isn't so much the past as it is an integrated part of what we can perceive now. The "future" is only a word we use for what we don't know of, so there is no use speculating in what that is. Suffice to say, it's already a part of us.

I feel as if I can be in tune with the essence of existence at times; mostly when I'm in an equilibrious mood, and at those times I am one with everything, which is also just one wholeness. In this state of mind, there is no uncertainty, no confusion and no despair. Nothing worldly matters, and being one with the bonds that flow through everything and tying the universe together, I am both content and amazed. I believe anyone can find this place in themselves, and I believe Buddhists seek this state of mind.

It's a worthy meaning of life to find this state, as it grants us the insight to accomplish anything. What can we accomplish? We can only find out if we never stop trying.

[DrunkDestroyer]

The whole human race is an experiment in which we are trapped on a doomed planet, and generation after generation we must try to adapt and create so as to be able to escape or survive the eventual apocalypse, and have our next generations after generations live their lives normally.


Which effectively is meaningless in every case, since not every individual can help here at all, and then you begin to think about how much the lives were really different before and after the 'apocalypse scenario'.



These thoughts also occur in the same conversation which tends to occur after any group watching some sort of Zombie movie. "I'd just die, there isn't anything left man! Wait, unless I was with a girl. Or just a really cool guy, right? No worries, we can do whatever" - what point makes life 'worth living' once people are gone. Is it just people? Family? Sex?
If you take those things away in this world (non-zombie), is it still there for a reason?



I like cats. Sometimes, I watch cats. They are really amazing things, almost indifferent at times, and you never know what is going through their heads. They just live, instinctually. I personally doubt that most cats would ever feel the concepts of having had a bad life or a good life. A cat probably knows that it is being treated well, or badly, and it would like to be treated well more, and badly less. But at the end of the day, a cat wouldn't think "well, this day could have gone better", or "I wish I was that fat white cat on that balcony, eating... is that a whole chicken!!??"
Humans are pretty much the opposite. Which really sucks for us to be honest, I always overthink things, and compare my life to others. (This works two ways though, most people ehre can consider themselves fortunate, for having language/literacy skills and access to very first world equipment (internet) - but the trend is to compare ourselves to the other side)

And then, again, you can compare your own life (this is a trend in my idea here) to that of a Cat. They seem fufilled, you don't, despite being aware, and having some sort of concept of the meaning of life.



In the end, it looks like our only answer is to define it for ourselves - or not at all. We could wake up upon death as another tally in the massive chart of the aliens experiment, and knowing it was all a test, would it change any life of ours?

[Zeru]

As you probably saw, from the very beginning of my days on this forum, my personal text stated: "The meaning of life is to give life meaning." This is a short way of saying that the meaning of life is subjective. I think that the different answers given reflect this concept. I could tackle each and every answer.
Fun? While a life focused on fun is very satisfying for the user, it's probably one of the most meaningless way to spend a life. Achieving nothing, learning bare minimum, working at bare minimum to satisfy your material needs. No higher cause whatsoever, egoism.
Reproduction? It is true that if we stopped doing it, we would go extinct, but it in no way makes it the meaning. Simple parallel. The meaning of existence of a match is to start a fire. When a match starts a fire, it ceases to exist. Therefore, an action or lack of it, which results in self-destruction, does not deprive the action from being meaningful.
Meaningless? Sentient beings are capable of attributing meaning to everything. Why would life be an exception?

This brings be to the conclusion I had since before I entered this place. Life does not have to have an objective meaning. In fact, that objective meaning would be a violation of our free will. Instead, we, as sentient being are capable of choosing our own subjective meaning and acting accordingly.

What did I subjectively chosen as the purpose of my existence? From early age, I had a strong, internal motivation to understand. It took a long time before I could conceptualize that desire into words. However, "I want to understand everything and everyone to the best degree possible" has become the ideal I strive for. I am well aware that this goal is unobtainable, and after my death, most of my knowledge unwritten in books will be gone, and yet, each small step towards this hopeless task makes me more "complete". Similarly to Higurashi, I want to release my untapped potential., but I don't seem to care about the benefits of achieving that state or the feeling of Nirvana she is describing, but instead, I want to see my fully released potential simply out of curiosity. If I ever stood in front of my greatest achievement and thought: "this is it, my masterpiece, my life will not produce anything greater than this", it would end my never-ending process of learning. It would be like a final dot in your book.

[YawnChainHow]

vvv

Having fun

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You can hide but in the end death will come and take you.

^^^

Your signature really dissuades me . . 

[ralouf]

My signature is just to say that I'm supporting team death for the war, don't missunderstand this.

[OldTrees]

Truth:
The meaning of life is not choosing what one ought not choose.* Beyond that we make our own meaning.

*This phrasing should cover a majority of ethical theories.

Belief:
The meaning of life includes following a duty to learn how to not choose what one ought not choose

[The_Mormegil]

Sentient beings are capable of attributing meaning to everything. Why would life be an exception?

This stirred a question in me. What do you think is a "meaning"? The majority of people posting in this thread seems to believe it is either a moral code to abide to or a final purpose... actually both, as the final purpose will shed new light upon what you do, thus acting in a way as a moral code of sorts, and you can always define the final purpose of your existance based on an absolute moral code (that purpose being the event or events of which the moral code aims to maximize the probability).

However, I believe the word "meaning" refers directly to semantics and language: a meaning is a description of properties (positive or negative ones) of a linguistic object.

Besides, you can't really think of a "meaning" without using a language to describe it in: what is a meaning without a description of the meaning itself? A sensation? It might be: something like what Higurashi described doesn't need words to exist. Apparently. However, how can you distinguish it from something else (like a headache or dehydratation or lack of sugars)? Well, you need to describe why it is not the same thing - therefore, language is needed.

Some think that "the only true meaning is the one you can't describe with words" - Taoists for instance - but I always found that idea somewhat lacking of sense: how do you know it is the meaning of [insert name here] (in this case, life, but I heard "the universe" or even "god" before)? Of course your brain must process the information regarding this "wordless sensation" you have (whatever it actually is) and find similarities or connections with the subject your are trying to describe (life) thus effectively comparing the two. To skip this step you would need to have a "wordless sensation" that confirms itself ("this sensation is life's meaning because it is life's meaning") which is circular reasoning and therefore pretty much useless ("I am your king so you must obey me and you will believe this because I am your king and therefore you must obey me" is not a valid argument, sorry). To compare something, though, you need categorization, and to have categorization you need a form of language (simple as you may wish, but a language nonetheless). Therefore, having a wordless sensation that needs language to be actually "used" for its purpose (this wordless sensation is not linked to language but to understand it is the meaning of life you need language) is like having a description of life in a language! It's difficult to avoid using a language when what you want is to actually describe the world, even in your own brain.

[Zeru]

This stirred a question in me. What do you think is a "meaning"?

Meaning - the end, purpose, or significance of something.

The word meaning refers to semantics as well, but not in this case. When I ask what is a match meant to do, I want to know it's purpose, not it's translation to Polish. And it's purpose remains the same regardless of the language used. As I said, we are the givers of meaning, it does not exist outside the realm of our minds. Language is only necessary to conceptualize the purpose of the object. Language is necessary to form thoughts. At that point its role ends. If you can think, any language will do the trick.

Also, why would meaning of life have to be based on emotion rather than rationality? How is "The meaning of my life is X, because my body tells me, that it's good." better than "The meaning of my life is X, because I think that I need to this."? Whether you act on strong inner motivation or on a purely cold calculation, both work, as long as they define your values and goals that you want to achieve in your life.

[Silenia]

I don't think life simply has meaning. It rather has meaningS. As the every singly person probably would prefer different way to give their life a meaning. I think we could assume that lack of meaning can be a kind of meaning too. It's subjective, as Zeru said. what have you exactly expected from us as answer, Zeru? Do you really thought someone would be able to give you an universal answer to your question? I think you'll live your life and however you probably will find your own meqaning of life, you'll die not getting to know if even there is an universal one. [Yup, I know you're away for a bit, but I'll wait patiently for your return and your reply, if you'd like to post one, of course ].

I know it is not the precise answer for your question, but in my opinion there are few things we should do to give life a meaning:
 + to get to understand [or at least trying to]
 + to forgive
 + not to forget
Simply.
Sil.