meaning of life?

"What is the meaning of life?" is a question many people ask themselves at some point during their lives, most in the context "What is the purpose of life?" Here are some of the many potential answers to this perplexing question:

Survival and temporal success

* ...to accumulate wealth and increase social status
* ...to advance natural human evolution, or to contribute to the gene pool of the human race
* ...to advance technological evolution, or to actively develop the future human
* ...to compete or co-operate with others
* ...to destroy others who harm you, or to practice nonviolence and nonresistance
* ...to die having succeeded in your purpose
* ...to gain and exercise power
* ...to leave a legacy, such as a work of art or a book
* ...to live
* ...to produce offspring through sexual reproduction or asexual reproduction
* ...to protect one's family
* ...to pursue a dream, vision, or destiny
* ...to seek freedom, either physically, mentally or financially
* ...to seek happiness and flourish, experience pleasure or celebrate
* ...to survive, including the pursuit of immortality through scientific means (see life extension)

Wisdom and knowledge

* ...to be without question, or to keep asking questions
* ...to expand one's perception of the world
* ...to explore, to expand beyond our frontiers
* ...to learn from one's own and others' mistakes
* ...to seek truth, knowledge, understanding, or wisdom
* ...to try to discover and understand the meaning of life
* ...to understand creation

Ethical

* ...to achieve a supernatural connection within the natural context
* ...to achieve enlightenment and inner peace
* ...to achieve rebirth in the Pure Land
* ...to become like God, or God-like
* ...to be rewarded for your deeds
* ...to experience existence from an infinite number of perspectives in order to expand the consciousness of all there is (i.e. God)
* ...to express compassion
* ...to follow the "Golden Rule"
* ...to give and receive love
* ...to live in a way that you don't harm yourself and don't harm your environment
* ...to work for justice and freedom

Religious and spiritual

* ...to be a filter of creation between heaven and hell
* ...to die and become a martyr
* ...to live in peace with each other, and in harmony with our natural environment (see utopia)
* ...to produce useful structure in the universe over and above consumption (see net creativity)
* ...to protect humanity, or more generally the environment
* ...to reach Heaven in the afterlife
* ...to seek and acquire virtue, to live a virtuous life
* ...to serve others, or do good deeds
* ...to turn fear into joy at a constant rate achieving on literal and metaphorical levels: immortality, enlightenment and atonement
* ...to understand and follow the "Word of God"
* ...to worship, serve, or achieve union with God
* ...to disprove the existence of a or all all gods

Other

* ...to achieve self-actualisation
* ...to contribute to collective meaning ("we" or "us") without having individual meaning ("I" or "me")
* ...to find a purpose, a "reason" for living that hopefully raises the quality of one's experience of life, or even life in general
* ...to live, and enjoy the passage of time
* ...to have fun
* ...to participate in the inevitable increase in entropy of the universe
* ...to make the conformists' lives miserable (see non-conformism)
* ...to participate in the chain of events which has led from the creation of the universe until its possible end (either freely chosen or determined, this is a subject widely debated amongst philosophers)
* ...to relate, connect, or achieve unity with others
* ...to resolve all problems that one faces, or to ignore them and attempt to fully continue life without them, or to detach oneself from all problems faced (see Buddhism)
* ...to seek and find beauty
* ...as there is no intrinsic meaning to life, to each individual, the "meaning of life" is whatever he/she decides it is. In that sense, every point above is potentially valid.
* ...an answer to the question "What is the meaning of life?" is that it is just simply being able to ask the question, "What is the meaning of life?" (see Sri Sri Ravi Shankar below)
* ...a combination of any of the above.

No purpose, and therefore...

* ...to simply live until one dies (there is no universal or celestial purpose)
* ...just a series of events
* ...just nature taking its course
* ...the wheel of time keeps on turning
* ...the cycle of life
* ...whatever you see you see, as in "projection makes perception"
* ...there is no purpose or meaning whatsoever (see nihilism)
* ...who cares?

2006-10-11 13:03:43 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋

Rent the Movie, get the Search for the Holy Grail while your at it and you might as well check out The Life of Brian.

2006-10-10 06:48:43 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋

42

2006-10-10 06:47:36 · answer #3 · answered by trouthunter 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋

Meaning of life, i am still looking for my life's meaning...could it be my family's source of strenght but i am not strong. Could it be my friends source of joy but i am not happy. Could it be someone's elses source of love but i am not in love.

So yeah, i am still wondering what could my life's meaning be.

2006-10-10 07:39:35 · answer #4 · answered by firedragon_luver 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋

preparation for the next life

2006-10-10 06:51:56 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋

Brian.

2006-10-10 06:50:20 · answer #6 · answered by Brite Tiger 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋

The meaning of life is to live for the will of God, and thus prove yourself worthy for the kingdom of Heaven

http://www.freewebs.com/will_of_god

2006-10-10 06:49:02 · answer #7 · answered by king_of_crusade 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋

That's easy: try to be happy, try not to hurt anybody, and hope to fall in love.

2006-10-10 06:51:30 · answer #8 · answered by The One 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋

to live, love, and learn.
sounds simple doesn't it?
well i can tell you it is a lot harder than it sounds.

2006-10-10 06:54:50 · answer #9 · answered by bgdadyp 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋

propagation.

2006-10-10 06:47:49 · answer #10 · answered by eantaelor 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋

11 answers