When will this ever end?!?

Question

For a decade now. Why is reality incongruent with any kind of paradigm I think of, find, understand, adopt. Hell! Effort, no effort, all the same - they don't fit it. God d.amn! why is it so difficult.

That made no sense, huh. I was writing as if to myself, that's why it was so obscure. But, I'm 24. For ten years now, at least, I tried to understand even basic things about the world, and can't. I seem to go through it, I schools, colleges, grad schools, but still, even the basics don't make sense. No matter my effort or "wu wei" to let it flow naturally. Do I love? Do I hate? Are any ideals real to enough people for me to adopt them, for them to have any meaning? Does anything even god-da.mn matter what I do in life, whether I'm rich, or poor, or dead, or get what I want, or.. IDK.. Maybe I think too damn much. I don't want drugs, they suspend me but reality stays the same when I come down. But what do I do, if I don't understand the basics about life, even after ten years of wanting to... I feel at a dead end. I don't know where to go, or what to do with myself.

I never bought the argument of "you're young, give it time, I'm older and I don't get it." Hell, and if I'm in grad school and Raj in India is working call center and will never be sh.it in life, should I be happy? No. I measure myself by those better than me, and there're many people who are. I want to reach where they are and can't. I want to at least relate to them. I can, even. I don't think they can, or care to, relate to me. And it can even seem to work but I keep being reminded of something that reaffirms the paradigm of "it'll never happen." I don't think it's pessimism. I put in genuine effort, down to worldview-shift, paradigm-shift, but still, no lasting results. Why can't I do it, given all the things that I seem to have; what's the reason for it, I don't know. I want to find it and fix it.

49yr old poster: that has easy answers. Why some are rich and others poor and the rest of it, that has a reasonable answer. But when you're looking at a contradiction and for ten years can't find which god-da.mn premise is wrong, THAT is a problem. Especially when it's with your own life; when it drains you so much that you see no reason to move on for failing with the very basics, even as you can succeed with things that are not.

Sindi, the last poster so far, let me just tell you, you, love, are retarded. I read your post and you honestly are.

Answer 1

to do any of what u suggest requires an unshifting foundation upon which to build...are you seeking a philosophy, or are you judging the world according to an unrecognised philosophy you already adhere to? much depends on that deceptively simple issue. if one tries to fit the world into the box of one's philosophy, then the one had better have a big enough box.
i have dealt with the same issue myself, and i can sympathize. it is a sticky wicket indeed.
c.s. lewis said "if we seek truth without the will to alter our philosophy according to what we find, then we are not seeking truth at all. we are rather seeking confirmation of our preconceived notions".
i have often wrestled with the question of whether or not anything is knowable at all, but ultimately, it does not matter. we are here, whether we like it or not...empirical data is all we have to go on, so we must assess our existence accordingly.i can say all day that i don't believe in boiling water, but the boiling water will burn me irregardless of my philosophical stance. therefore i am forced to make my way in the world with the knowlege that boiling water will scald me, and therefore i should avoid dangling any loose appendages in it.
frances shaffer offered this thought... the rightness of any worldview is determined by the ability to actually live by it, and with it. one must follow a belief out to its logical conclusion. if in the end it is impossible to live accordingly, then the philosophy is flawed, and should be reevaluated.
i understand what u are dealing with - it is deeply troubling to seek answers, and only find more questions. i do believe there is an answer out there if we have the courage to seek it out.
feel free to email me and discuss this further.

Answer 2

You are 24 and cannot understand life ..Well, welcome to the club young one.. I am 49 and still can't figure it out. Sometimes the whole thing makes sense and then it comes crashing down and I start to question the whole nature of existence all over again. Why are we all even here, what purpose do our measly lives serve? Why are some people dying of hungar and others filling their bellies so full of food that they are huge? Why do some rotten people never get sick a day in their rotten lives and the good ones get horrible diseases and die and leave their loved ones behind?Why is there so much uncontrolled corruption in the country and the world and everyone gets away with it? Why do the rich get rich and no matter how hard the poor work, they get poorer? So many questions and only 80-90 years in a humans lifespan on this lousy planet to figure it out..God I hope there is life after death..Or else we are all just wasting our time.

Answer 3

I totally relate to what your saying, cause i feel pretty much the same way. There is just somethings i don't understand and can't seem to find the answers. Everybody just tells me that's life when things go as i planned. That irritates the crap out of me. But they have a point. Either you can keep fretting, and let it make your life miserable, or you can accept the fact that you can't change it and move on. All the best for the future...

Answer 4

Try meditating - if you relax your body and mind, and just focus on one problem, you will eventually get the answer. It seems that you have a lot of questions that you are seeking answers to. I think the thing that is stressing you out is that your mind is over-worked trying to figure it out all at once. You should try to take smaller steps and meditate on one problem at a time.
It doesn't take long at all to meditate (maybe just 10 to 15 minutes) and it relaxes you and makes your thoughts more clear.

Well, I don't know everything. But if you give me some of the specific questions you have, I might be able to shed some light on them.
[e-mail]

Answer 5

You're NORMAL!
You just don't know how to cover it up enough.


Most "intelligent people" are like this.
You see more than most people do... which just confuses you.
Normal people just go through life not observing much.

If you're too analytical, think laterraly, see things differently then you'd find it hard to understand Other People and Stuff.

Just power through, meditating helps though.

EDIT: When there's too much on your head, start a blog, or write things down. Scribble if you must, just vent your brain.. drain it.

Answer 6

do you want it to end? or are you just apethetic? why adopt someone else's philosophy? that's their opinion put into idealistic words, i don't believe in organized religion, i see the bible as the equivalent of Aesop's fables, a book of morals and lessons, but is it fact? or fiction? true history? if you want to know what will happen? read history, what comes around goes around, again and again. that might take some of the fun out of it, knowing the consequences in advance. but it's still a gamble as technology increases the odds of danger.

the basic of life are more basic than you're allowing for, eat. sleep, **** and do it again tomorrow. the cliche of "friends are what make the world go round", is probably the only variable.

try some new stuff, new friends, sounds like you're looking for some risks to make your life more exciting, the basics are boring you, not confusing you, you're looking for more.

Answer 7

When people get out of school at 16 and die at 59 there is just not much time to deal with it all.

But for this generation, people get out of school at 24 and stick around until 90, we all have to stretch a little more than previously planned.

Answer 8

That's just life, dear. No matter how you dream of a perfect way to explain a situation, there's always one more problem you didn't know or think about... Life is what happens while you're making other plans...

Answer 9

you seek the answer to the question of why and it annoys you that the answer you seek evades you. the answer is in you... don't search for it, feel it. accept it, don't ignore it. it has been in you. the beauty of life is to understand what it has to be. to learn wisdom on all things.. not to reason for it's existence or of becoming. it's definition is so intricate, that sometimes a hint of what is, slips thru your hands and your mind. the philosophy of life is life itself. redeem it, focus on it, let it have its own way and your mind would show you the path.

Answer 10

life is unlimited, your paradigms are limited - dont try to fit life into your mind, life is too big - its like trying to stuff a beanbag into a sock - dont rattle around in your mind, you are not supposed to be in your mind, be in life

dont try to function your mind, let your mind function - your mind is your interface with finite reality

but you are your interface with infinite reality - simply be, and you will find yourself being plugged into infinity - if you dont struggle and twist and turn and thus pull out the plugs