Silk Road forums
Discussion => Philosophy, Economics and Justice => Topic started by: ZenAndTheArt on October 29, 2012, 08:10 pm
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In one word, what motivates you in life?
What is the driving force that makes you who you are? That gets you up in the morning. That gives purpose to your day, to your whole existence. The one overall thing, that gives the most meaning to your life. And without it you wouldn't quiet be the same person.
(One word if possible, but more if needed. Funny answering are more than welcome too. :) )
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Mathematics, and Love
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Experience.
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Money and power.
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Dedication.
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today :)
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In one word, what motivates you in life?
What is the driving force that makes you who you are? That gets you up in the morning. That gives purpose to your day, to your whole existence. The one overall thing, that gives the most meaning to your life. And without it you wouldn't quiet be the same person.
(One word if possible, but more if needed. Funny answering are more than welcome too. :) )
Retirement.....
Want to retire early and wealthy. Flying high just praying my wings don't melt before I bail.
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Emotion.
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Hope
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<removed>
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SYNERGY
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The meaning of life is 42.
And the meaning of life is sexual reproduction and death. Nothing more. The adaptation and the continuation of species, through natural and artificial selection. Life is formed by proteins and amino acids in a continuously evolving experiment. As Carl Sagan says, "we are all star stuff".
You are the sperm that made it. Think about how many potential children a.k.a sperm you've "wasted" on the backs of ladies or socks. As Monty Python said in their movie The Meaning of Life, "every sperm is sacred, every sperm is great, if a sperm gets wasted, god gets quite irate."
But there is no god though.
That is all.
Yes, but what brings meaning to your life?
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there is NO meaning of life.. it is just wht it is..memory's of the past..to keep u going forward..
.and every thing begins s with an ending..just remember wht u can and take it with u..life is a trick just to keep everyone bizzy..
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My family, my higher power, fat stacks of cash
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Pursuing happiness.
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For me, it has always been about friendship.
Don;t worry i am not pulling off some star trek emotional bullshit.
Making people happy genuinely makes you friends and i seem to be pretty good at in rl. It makes me personally happy to make others happy, albeit to laugh and share.
As for the one who said there is no god, i think that is an unfair statement to make.
Some people need religion in their lives in order to move on. It is not neccessarily their choice either, but their upbringing. So i would hate on that too much.
Having said that, i do despise cults. Because 9 times out of ten they are run by self obsessed nutters who just want to manipulate people for their own ends.
And before anyone says thats the same as religion in general, have a good think before you make that statement. 8)
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Death
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What a great way to put a downer on a conversation.
You could have elaborated a bit more, however saying just one word in that way makes me think you might be wanting to kill yourself sometime soon.
Please dont though!.
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To be fair he asked for one word. But don't worry suicide is for depressed people and I'm not depressed. I just think life is meaningless.
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Hard to encapsulate such an answer in a word. After living a good portion of my life, and experiencing much of what being alive is, (being born, being a child, growing up, being a man, having a family, losing friends, losing family, enduring injury, poverty, ill health, and on and on..) I have learned a few lessons, but the most important of these is to be compassionate. After losing friends and family, you see the things that are lost and you see the things that endure. How you treat your children, your wife, your friends echoes long into the future. Even how you treat the clerks at your grocery store, the idiot who rear-ended your car, your dog, your garden, your tools seems to endure.
So, the one word.
Compassion
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One cant know the meaning of live because you are not done experiencing it yet.
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Truth, through scientific discovery. That's what keeps me wanting to live. I love reading about things on the quantum-level and all the theories about the various dimensions / multiverse stuff.
I don't believe in any of the afterlives proposed by any religion, but I do hope there is some form of existence after we're done experiencing these four dimensions（counting time as one）.
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Truth, through scientific discovery. That's what keeps me wanting to live. I love reading about things on the quantum-level and all the theories about the various dimensions / multiverse stuff.
I don't believe in any of the afterlives proposed by any religion, but I do hope there is some form of existence after we're done experiencing these four dimensions（counting time as one）.
One day, if it hasnt happened already, when someone does find the "truth" either three things will happen.
Their life will change so dramatically that it will be impossible to live with the truth, i.e suicide.
The "truth" will be so benign and underwhelming that you will question your life and that of humanity.
Learning the truth, will put you on a complete high for the rest of your life.
Which one do you think is more likely to happen here??.
You can either spend your life as the man above said as an experience, or you can waste it searching for truths that are probably altogether meaningless.
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$,power & love.
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One day, if it hasnt happened already, when someone does find the "truth" either three things will happen.
Their life will change so dramatically that it will be impossible to live with the truth, i.e suicide.
The "truth" will be so benign and underwhelming that you will question your life and that of humanity.
Learning the truth, will put you on a complete high for the rest of your life.
Which one do you think is more likely to happen here??.
You can either spend your life as the man above said as an experience, or you can waste it searching for truths that are probably altogether meaningless.
I'm not catching your meaning, and I have a feeling you didn't understand my post.
I enjoy repeatable, verifiable, peer-reviewed scientific discovery. Topics such as quantum entanglement and experiments involving the like are what fascinate me. When I say "truth", I don't mean some subjective answers or beliefs, I mean true learning about the nature of our existence.
There is no single "truth" that I expect to be found, so your three scenarios are not applicable to what I was saying - or attempting to say.
You also didn't answer the OP. What say you?
Edit: I also have to ask - if searching for truth is meaningless, why then do you care so much about it here: http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=55992.msg559455#msg559455
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Happiness and success
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care about it were?here as in SR.??cuz its like life.just some thing to do..till there is something else..meaning less..
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Maybe:
Experience
to learn
compassion
Maybe not.
:D
There is nothing more powerful than THIS current moment NOW, witch is ever changing.
Most likely I exist and I mean because I do not know.
Will I ever know, I doubt.
Not NOW.
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I'm not catching your meaning, and I have a feeling you didn't understand my post.
I enjoy repeatable, verifiable, peer-reviewed scientific discovery. Topics such as quantum entanglement and experiments involving the like are what fascinate me. When I say "truth", I don't mean some subjective answers or beliefs, I mean true learning about the nature of our existence.
There is no single "truth" that I expect to be found, so your three scenarios are not applicable to what I was saying - or attempting to say.
You also didn't answer the OP. What say you?
Edit: I also have to ask - if searching for truth is meaningless, why then do you care so much about it here: http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=55992.msg559455#msg559455
If you read it again i did infact answer the OR what, say you part.
As for the searching of truth i was implying it as a general statement meaning that some people can spend their whole lives searching for it without results, it had nothing to do with my personal beliefs, i was just generalizing, sorry if i didnt explain myself properly. I often have trouble doing it in a single rant like that, i'll try harder next time.
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probably shouldn't post this but wtf. used to think that ending poverty and social injustice was meaningful. then perhaps raising a famlly would give reason to get put of bed in the morning. To reach the stars is another. Be a long time til the first people being as they are and even so - means nothing in this infinite multiverse. No kids for me as my partner had some and was sterilised before we met and then when trying to do that elsewhere i got a different present instead. The third is not in my lifetime and amyway is a crock of shit - see #1. Getting by through Buddhist ideas sort of works best as far as i can see - travelling to new places distracts for a while.
day to day I get out of bed to work so i don't get homeless and hungry. Days like today and yesterday are meaningless. Guess what: Ive had no H today ( Monday ) or yesterday - don't want a physical habit. Saturday was a meaningful day.
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The meaning of life? The One experiencing Itself as the many in multifarious consciousness and infinite forms. What motivates me? The unceasing wonder and unconditional love of the One; to have oneness, love and compassion for all, especially those who come into your life as family, friends and partners.
simulacra
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Subjective, as long as you don't infringe on others subjective experience of this illusion we call reality.
Objectively, I haven't done enough mushrooms to tell you. Ha.
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42.
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Exploration.
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Knowledge, and the pursuit of.
Only thing left when we die is what we've taught someone and a bit of a mess to clean :)
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Knowledge, and the pursuit of.
Wow, this post made me think again. +1 bro. 8)
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You define your meaning. Find your own purpose and the good things which makes you really happy in life. We are here to experience. To learn. It's a gift to live. If someone doesn't wanna live anymore he just can suicide and move on. We have this option. Otherwise we were immortals. Death is the end of this life but every end is a new begging in eternity.
Personally, my driving force is Music. I love music since I was a child, and I'll make music till the day I die. Creation :) If I become deaf, my life won't have a purpose anymore and I'll just commit suicide...
Peace
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money
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@ BPM Yer, music is fundamental to my enjoyment of life (even more so than drugs). It's part of my day to day life and I couldn't live without it.
I'll never understand someone who has little or no interest in music... ???
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@ BPM Yer, music is fundamental to my enjoyment of life (even more so than drugs). It's part of my day to day life and I could live without it.
I'll never understand someone who has little or no interest in music... ???
Naah, ???, No chance that there are people living without music... How boring and colorless could their lives be?
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novelty
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@ BPM Yer, music is fundamental to my enjoyment of life (even more so than drugs). It's part of my day to day life and I could live without it.
I'll never understand someone who has little or no interest in music... ???
Naah, ???, No chance that there are people living without music... How boring and colorless could their lives be?
Believe it or not, there are also people who don't take drugs. Sometimes it's hard to believe we're all part of the same species... :D ;)
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Those who spend their lives looking for some grand meaning never truly live.
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Which is why you find your personal grand meaning as fast as you can, then spend the rest of your life running with it, as though with a kite in a thunderstorm.
[/quote]
You seem like a cool person.
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Which is why you find your personal grand meaning as fast as you can, then spend the rest of your life running with it, as though with a kite in a thunderstorm.
I am myself an atheist, and this quote, for me, means living life in the moment and not having to worry about what happens in the afterlife.
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No meaning, but pleasure in all it's various forms.
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Fear of death.
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The thread said that i should describe my meaning of life with one word. For me it would be : Knowledge
I've been a staff of a hacking forum for a long time and that's kinda the reason what keeps me getting up in the morning and motivates me because i've seen that there are so few people who has knowledge on that and are sharing it and i like feel that's my responsibility to share what i know. I'm learning as much as i can and will share it with others who would like to learn. Actually i'm even in this forum to acquire new knowledge, but that's more like my personal interest. I'm kinda interested in the deep web and always have been, never just had time for it. :)
Some people are discussing about religion. In my forum i don't mention any word about religion because no matter what you're going to say, there's still some people who disagree with it. When people are asking ; "Are you an Atheist?", i'll just answer ; " Atheist is an person who doesn't belive in existence of god and is claiming that god isn't real, i'm not claiming that god isn't real. They might be real, but they've never gave me any reason to belive in them.".Luckily i don't have to talk about religion often. :)
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Fear of death.
This
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The Alan Watts quote "You are the Universe experiencing itself" really resonates with me. To me, the meaning is to gain as much experience as you can while in this life. That is one of the reasons I enjoy experimenting with psychedelics and other consciousness altering substances. I think that there is so much wonder that it would be a shame to have wasted the opportunity to have these experiences. Buy the ticket, take the ride. Be excellent to each other. Live an authentic life and I think you'll be heading down the right path.
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The meaning of life for me is love. What is love? The force that unites all.
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"Because I, personally, have no fear of death. Now sure I may have appropriate degrees of fear for events leading to death, as they're usually unpleasant, but I have no fear of dying at all. I know I'm not the only one."
I believe you do but simply do not realize it, most people do not until they really examine the topic, I know I didn't. And I don't mean to offend or say you a wrong here, that's just an opinion I hold albeit I believe an educated one.
Most of our anxiety about death is unconscious, especially if it's a subject you have not looked into before, by looking into some of it comes into consciousness. Though the vast majority will never see the light of day in most as it would and can send you insane. If we did not have mental blocks and shields against it you would be constantly scared out of your wits, a healthy person develops healthy ways to invest themselves in mental constructs in order to stay sane until the time we do die.
What really made me notice it was reading Becker. Becker gives concrete examples of methods that we use to avoid being aware of our own mortality that you can really see throughout your own life and across society at large. His argument is that all humans have it and it is the motivator for a great deal of our behaviour. He expounds on the topic much better than I could from my limited studies.
For me at least his theory made me aware of how death anxiety operates in my day to day life. I see it everywhere for these past few years and it's been trying at times: Books from the great authors (many of whom do understand this), on the television (think of how people like to seperate themselves from other animals and how they are rarely open about death, it offends out ears), in new age groups, religious groups, cults, sects, shamans and tribes (as Becker points out one particular tribal device was to wear butt plugs in order to deny the uglier features of our living organism), in art and the great structures and so on, if humans were involved you name it, it's there in my humble opinion.
The Buddha, if we can say he existed, perhaps I should say the collection of words attributed to the Buddha recognized this too. Telling eager disciples looking for enlightenment that they be better off watching corpses burn that sticking around a monastery and meditating. As did many other famous Zen masters and other authors, they recognized we wanted permanence, the continuity of thought and ego. That the great pyramids erected by the blood and sweat of thousands of slaves to entomb one single organism was simply devoted to that project. That culture was one large sinking raft we cling to like so many poor souls thrown to sea by a capsized ship, designed at every level from family orientation to TV game shows and lotteries where the big win is right around the corner to keep that though of continuity alive.
Of course they also saw their own attempts to seek and find happiness and ultimate enlightenment, the ultimate pleasure, like that eternal ever lasting please that you sink in at the moment of orgasm where time and space flys from the window and keep that going at all times, all things lined and in their proper place; that this feverish and constant seeking and hunger was fraught with and created by a basic desire for permanence.
Since Becker and Otto Rank a group inspired by his works has sprung up and developed a theory they call Terror Management Theory. This group has run many studies highlighting that humans start to respond differently to questionnaires when confronted with their own mortality. In one study conducted by them it was shown that judges would give harsher sentences when confronted with it.
If you are interested either read Becker, look into TMT, or if you are not a bookish or research oriented kind of guy there is also a documentary named "Flight From Death" that covers a reasonable amount on the topic.
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Curiosity.
(to be fair, I'm also curious about death, but I like my tickets round trip)
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Love.
There is no strict "meaning of life", but there is a "meaning of YOUR life"... which is what the OP said anyway.
But for me; yep, it's love.
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“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, couldn't of put it better myself!!
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The meaning of life is to live continue living and not to stop.
/thread
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The meaning of life is to die. It's the one thing (besides birth) which we all have in common.
Problem solved. Next question, what's the meaning of death?
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The meaning of life is to die. It's the one thing (besides birth) which we all have in common.
Problem solved. Next question, what's the meaning of death?
That's like saying the meaning of the journey is the end. You see, one other thing we all have in common is the time between birth and death (or first thought and death).
I'd agree with you, if the title of the thread would be called "the meaning of your life".
The time between birth and death, in the greater scheme of things, is insignificant really. If you look at the cosmos as a whole, our lives mean nothing, nothing at all to be precise. It only matters on a personal level during the journey. What comes after that is subject to a million theories, which have been discussed a trillion times and still no conclusion has been found. And tbh, I don't think we'll find the answer after death (just another theory).
In short, the search for THE meaning of life is pointless, has also been chewed through a gazillion times and still nobody has an answer. Maybe those who believe in one of those imaginary gods/religions think they have an answer to it all but believing equals not knowing, hence the term believing (assuming).
This doesn't mean one can not have/give a meaning to HIS/HER life but again, that's all on a personal level and will not matter or change anything. The cosmic soup will keep flowing anyway, with or without human life.
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Der Übermensch ist der Sinn der Erde.
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life has no inherent meaning which is great, because it means we can ascribe meaning to what we want! 'you dont 'find' yourself you create yourself' - ..happiness, staying grateful and never being complacent are probably my top 3 8)
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I'd agree with you, if the title of the thread would be called "the meaning of your life".
The time between birth and death, in the greater scheme of things, is insignificant really. If you look at the cosmos as a whole, our lives mean nothing, nothing at all to be precise. It only matters on a personal level during the journey. What comes after that is subject to a million theories, which have been discussed a trillion times and still no conclusion has been found. And tbh, I don't think we'll find the answer after death (just another theory).
This doesn't mean one can not have/give a meaning to HIS/HER life but again, that's all on a personal level and will not matter or change anything. The cosmic soup will keep flowing anyway, with or without human life.
The cosmic soup would be affected by the loss of humanity. If you look at the whole of the universe, you can't just look at it from the outside. To see the whole of it you have to see it through the eyes of every consciousness and from the higher perspective besides, which means our individual meaning is inextricably interwoven with the meaning of life in general.
I think you (and many others) overrate humanity by a long shot. Humans only exist a very short time compared to how long our planet exists. And even earth does not exist for very long compared to other planets. Among other things, countless planets (with or without live on them), have stopped to exist but the cosmic soup is still flowing. Do you honestly think we humans are so important that without us it would not continue? All humans alive are not even a dust corn (actually many trillion times less than that in size) when looking at only our universe (which is also tiny when looking at the cosmos). So I wonder what makes you think that we are so important? To be frank, we don't matter and I think it's one of the biggest problems that so many humans think we do. Of course, if one believes in god or some other invented creature, one does think very differently. But as I said before, they are only believing.
Nice talking to you anyways, I'm gonna drop out of this now, having had this type of discussion plenty of times before and the conclusion is always gonna be the same, we'll have to agree to disagree.
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I'd agree with you, if the title of the thread would be called "the meaning of your life".
Yer, I should have called the thread "The meaning of your life?".
Just to clarify, this is my original post;
In one word, what motivates you in life?
What is the driving force that makes you who you are? That gets you up in the morning. That gives purpose to your day, to your whole existence. The one overall thing, that gives the most meaning to your life. And without it you wouldn't quiet be the same person.
(One word if possible, but more if needed. Funny answering are more than welcome too. :) )
Either way there have been some really interesting answers.
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I know this may sound silly and corny but, it had recently occured to me, that the meaning of life IS to live.
You have probably heard it in every single movie out there, but if you actually think about it, what more of a simpler answer could you hope to have, than to live THAT moment in your life as if it were your last?
The trouble is, media has a good way of making us believe that we need to live this way, or, we need to do things that way.
Just live your life anyway you fucking please!.
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At risk of sounding like a hippy the meaning of life for me is "love, truth and happiness". When we try and reverse the hedonic adaptation that we all inevitably develop we can start to experience wonder again for the simple things in life and learn to love living again and enjoy true happiness. The happier we all are the better decisions we all make the happier we all become. The only way to get on the right road is to truly learn to know yourself, good and bad, and strive to grow the good parts and work on the bad parts.
I like the way the late Bill Hicks looked at life:
"Its just a ride, and we can change it any time we want, its only a choice, no effort, no work no job, no savings of money, a choice right now between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, and buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world right now to a better ride; Take all that money we spend on weapons and defence each year and instead spend it on feeding clothing and educating the poor of the world which it would many times over, not one human being excluded and we can explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace."
A must see stand up routine.
LT
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Never found a reason other than blind ignorance to get up out of bed every morning. I never truly had a reason to be, that's until I found my soulmate and had an offspring. Nothing gets me out of bed more than getting to see those two people everyday. Sadly I believe I grew up too fast and fell into my path entirely too early. I wished to explore the unknown for years before I laid my oats. But life works in mysterious was, so I'm chugging away waiting for my calling. Calling something a career makes me sick, I rather learn all trades than just a single one.
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Calling something a career makes me sick, I rather learn all trades than just a single one.
Couldn't agree more. There no more cringy a moment than when you get trapped in a "So what do you do?" conversation at a party or bar..
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"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life" Albert Camus.
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Calling something a career makes me sick, I rather learn all trades than just a single one.
Couldn't agree more. There no more cringy a moment than when you get trapped in a "So what do you do?" conversation at a party or bar..
I hate it when people judge you by what you do. It fucking annoys me. Dont people realise that sometimes in life you just have to have a job to pay the bills. I am a warehouse person, and when you mention it to an office bod you immediately feel the tension and just simple uneasiness.
It reminds of an early episode in Red Dwarf where Rimmer says to Lister "you ARE your job", pointing out the fact that all he did was repair chicken soup machines.
Bullshit i say. Be judged and judge others on their manners and kindness, not their fucking 9-5 hours that some people just have to do without choice.
If you live in the uk then you know how hard it is to get a job here.
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All I can keep saying is ignorance is what fuels our country. If people actually did what they wanted, nobody would be working the way society portrays it. More people would stick to their hobby if it made them money than going into a 9-5 everyday. It's fun to talk to people about jobs and careers, I can be anything I want, but I just to live easy and provide what I can for my family. If I didn't need money why would I work? Everything around you influences you to do the opposite of what your innerself truly wants.
When people stop having the want and desire to seek knowledge is when I say they have lost the game of life and are now just a drone to society. If you realize that nothing should be a career and if you didn't have money to worry about your entire life you would be left trying to find that happiness. If everyone left to find happiness, who would make the roads, build the towers, make the resources we rely on daily? Noone, but the ones who have the desire to truly help people. While the rest are standing there asking what do I do? If people really wanted change, they would stop doing what they've been doing for generations and wake up to the reality that our jobs are so measly and tiny. I find it easier to call jobs, steps, and challenges. The meaning of life is what you make it, you can manipulate your environment anytime you want, you can drastically change yourself in anyway possible, it's all in the belief and reason behind it.
Life will never be explained better than, why worry about what happens next, when you still don't know what happened before....
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Life will never be explained better than, why worry about what happens next, when you still don't know what happened before....
I couldnt agree more. I remember in my teens a girl had an epiphany of sorts in a drunken discussion, basically saying that we cannot remember before we were born, even when we are being given birth to.
Since that day i had something of a hatred for religion. Religion makes you spend your whole life preparing for the hereafter, as islam would call it.
But what I would say, is, life life in the moment and fuck worrying about life after death.
As for becoming drones to society, thank the modern evil that is capitalism for that. You can find more about that rant on another thread of mine.
But basically we have become mindless machines, and for those who seek "true freedom", the only other option appears to be, guess what, fucking religion!.
It wouldnt surprise me at all if there were some conspiracy where the two got together one day and said, hey look, this is how the fuck we are going to rule the world, big business in one hand, religion in the other.
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Memories
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Damn straight, that's why I say any belief system worth believing in is one which inherently says "Live your life to the fullest every day and you won't have anything to worry about regarding any afterlife."
One other thing i would like to say, all wars in the middle east are caused by two things, oil, religion.
Religion being the in-fighting between middle eastern countries, and oil being the cause of fighting by us :P
But nevertheless, religion causes asian parents to kill their children just because they disprove of their relationship with the local white boy.
Makes me fucking sick to my stomach
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Unfortunately the truth is too much to handle for 99%
The 99% works for the 1% without realizing
The 99% cannot and will not rise against the 1%
The 1% become the 1% because they understand how everything including life works.
Watch the Lion King if you still do not understand
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Perhaps some of the people on the Silk Road would disagree, but the incessant condemnation of religion that this thread has come to espouse is immensely problematic. Certainly, a great deal of strife has been yielded by religious conflicts over the years and people who dogmatically follow the ideology of science are certainly quick to recall this. Such "intellectuals" as Richard Dawkins would even go so far as to say that "Jesus Christ must have been an Atheist, because he was, no doubt, an intelligent man". Of course this is simply a ridiculous thing to say. No one would be able to argue that Soren Kierkegaard, Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, or whoever were unintelligent simply because they had beliefs that are, by today's standards, unscientific. Science is, of course, clearly demarcated from non-science, right? This question is the fundamental question which has plagued serious philosophers of science since its beginning.
My view is that science is an ideological myth. Myth in this context shouldn't be understood as "something which someone has made up", but rather as a Weltanschauung, or a lens of understanding, through which the individual understands everything to come to be. Religion is also an ideological myth. If we hold them to similar standards, we swiftly realize that the scientific rationality is a tradition in its own right, all method has a horizon of possibility, etc, etc, etc. That's not my point. My point is that, as far as establishing a meaningful relation to being in the world goes, scientific understandings of being the world and religious understandings of being in the world are interchangeable. Regardless of their specific content, both are intrinsically meaningful to the individual because they provide systems of values and methods of understanding the world around us. Ancient men saw a plethora of phenomena in the world and developed a notion of what it means to be in the world which was existentially meaningful, and practical for existence as a result. If one thinks they are in the position to make an absolute value judgment where one is illuminating of truth and the other is not, fair enough. Otherwise we needn't condemn the religious individual on the basis of being wrong, there is plenty more to condemn in the pious soul; whether he be religious or ein Krieger der Wissenchaft.
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Watch the Lion King if you still do not understand
Great, another newbie who thinks he can be both philosophical and treat people like children.
Just got a minus from me, "bro".
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Memories
Seconded. Also, life more meaningful when you engage in creative activities. When you make things there is a tangible product in the world that you are responsible for, a product that may even outlast you.
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Science is not a religion or even an ideology. Science is (to quote my dictionary) "a branch of knowledge requiring systematic study and method, especially one of those dealing with substances, animal and vegetable life, and natural laws".
Religion is a set of beliefs, requiring a level of faith. Science is a system for acquiring knowledge based on empirical studies, using the scientific process as the method of establishing facts. Although science has theoretical elements within it, these are arrived at using logic and reason, not blind faith.
Also, to believe science and religion are diametrically opposed is just not true. Science does not devalue ones religious beliefs, the two don't have to be mutually exclusive. Many people are both strongly religious and scientifically curious about the world. Some respected scientists see intelligent design and the miraculous, through their scientific study of the world.
I'm not religious, and as long as religious people don't try to tell me what to believe, or what I can do (or who), then we'll get on fine. :)
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I would certainly never say they are diametrically opposed, which was precisely the point. I dont know if it is as simple as positing a Positivists perspective in arguing that all scientific knowledge is a. achieved by way of scientific, Enlightenment rationality. b. that science builds on itself in a linear fashion (that discoveries lead to further discoveries) c. that science is dependent upon reductionism (that everything be broken down to the simplest empirical element).
I prefer to distinguish between realism regarding theoretical entities (like electrons) and realism regarding theories. If the judgement of a theory's validity is based on its ontological proximity to truth, then we can hardly make any firm claims about the truth of a theory because theories shape our approach to empirical data. Our ontological enframing, which is historically embedded, places empirical data within a certain scope of understanding. Dante, for example, was not simple mistaken in believing the Earth was in the center of the universe and that the celestial bodies that rotated around him were embedded in crystalline spheres- obviously his theoretical understanding was influenced by Aristotle and Ptolemy. However he didn't merely believe the universe to be this way, when he looked up at the heavens he saw them appearing this way. Another example is Priestley and Lavoisier, faced with what we now understand as oxygen Priestley called it dephlogisted air, phlogiston being the "fire molecule" that people believed left a substance when it burned. For him it was the saturation of air with phlogiston which snuffed out a candle under a glass dome. You can see this is almost the exact opposite of how we understand oxidization to occur. Here Priestley's place within a theoretical paradigm enframed his approach to empirical evidence.
Realism about entities, which I advocate over realism about theories, is more concerned with judging the existence of theoretical entities (like electrons) on the basis of manipulative success. This is not to say electrons as we understand them exist, rather the concept acts as a placeholder where we cant attest to the truth regarding their existence- even though we presume an entity, which we describe as an electron, exist based on our ability to effect our reality. An example here would be the acetylation of morphine into diamorphine: we perceive and experience morphine; when one causes it to interact with acetic anhydride we can experience and perceive the bi-product, so we can claim that entities x, y, and z can be understood as real insofar as they can be manipulated consistently. Though this doesn't do anything to validate particular claims about the specific theoretical nature of their interaction, qualities of these entities, etc.
I am not religious and I believe science has tremendous practical applications. However, I do believe that science as a lens of enframing is just that. Its not as though man is probing after Truth by way of the "universal method of enlightened rationality", as if people were merely so fortunate as to be endowed with a methodology with allows for metaphysical certainty.
But this is just all my opinion.
Everyone is certainly entitled to theirs.
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A dream in a dream.
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(Although I will grant that strong psychedelic experiences greatly inform the topic.)
We will never know the meaning of life; therefore, the meaning of life is to continue seeking it.
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Has anyone seen the movie Fallen with Denzel Washington??
There is a scene where his partner played by John Goodman says something like, i think once we figure out the true meaning of it all, thats when we get "promoted".
I think you can figure out what that means, but when you are feeling a bit religious watch that movie, it is awesome.
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Life has no meaning.
Life is to be lived!~
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Do what you want while you still can.
and ultimatly, be happy.
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Life has no meaning.
Life is to be lived!~
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Do what you want while you still can.
and ultimatly, be happy.
So true brother. I was reading my post and was like WTF why did i type that.
Come to think of it, it would be a tragic waste of energies if our lives were simply here because of some other entity, or to worship said entity.
You know what, fuck that shit, we should just be here for each other. End of.
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Just changed the title of this thread to more accurately reflect the original question.
:)
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I feel that more meaning is brought to my life when I am able to help others in some way,
I couldnt agree more. I cant stand seeing anyone struggle.
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Love. that is the only thing i got. and an urge to reproduce ;D genetic programs, commands.
i dont really think life has a meaning. Anyone can define what life is? a Self-replicating machine?
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Family, Friends, new experiences and helping others :D
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dont really think life has a meaning. Anyone can define what life is? a Self-replicating machine?
I think there is a difference between LIFE and EXISTENCE.
A tree is alive, but it doesnt share the same experiences as us, socially, physically or mentally.
Life does have meaning, all life is there to benefit everything else.
BUT existence, thats what we debate on and how we decide should happen.
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love!
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The ability to feel, and the coolness of being aware. :) I'm just kind of floating along, waiting to see what happens next, and what humans will come up with next.
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DRUGS
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thats the question i asking myself now for over 2 years, since i lost mine ...
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What brings meaning to my life- not knowing the meaning OF life. We all don't know anything compared to all there is to know.
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Money, bitches and bling bling.
If I had meaning in my life I wouldn't be here.
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thats the question i asking myself now for over 2 years, since i lost mine ...
Bro, what happened???? Pm me if you want.
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Love - of my devoted wife - generosity to those less fortunate, and writing books. Reading, good (usually European cinema) - any art form or conversation that reminds me I am not alone in feeling like capitalism is inhumane and the world a madhouse.
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Love - of my devoted wife - generosity to those less fortunate, and writing books. Reading, good (usually European cinema) - any art form or conversation that reminds me I am not alone in feeling like capitalism is inhumane and the world a madhouse.
I feel you bro. We lived in a fucked up place full of ignorant, brainwashed, frightened idiots. But not everybody is like that. As a matter of fact, I bet SR has a fairly high concentration of real, intelligent people who see life with their eyes open. One must look for hope in this world.
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Nothing. I've been drowning in nihilism over the last few years.
I don't have much interest in anything, no dreams or passions. I just go to my shitty 9 to 5, read blogs and come on here and then go home and get stoned every night. Without weed to smoke at the end of the day life is terribly dull.
I'm basically just looking to experiment with drugs now I've got used to SR. There isn't really any reason to get out of bed and often on weekends I don't until early evening.
At the risk of sounding sexist I don't think women contribute anything of value to a mans life so dating and marriage is usually just a scam, you'll be ripped off and left heartbroken it holds no interest for me. I don't see why anyone would want kids, it's such hard work and holds back all other areas of your life. Most careers are bullshit and you have to kill yourself to 'do well' which usually mean a bit more money for a lot more stress and at my age, 30, all my friends are getting married and just becoming boring old people so there is no social scene left.
I'm not writing this for sympathy and I realise I may sound lazy or like a moaning sod but I was wondering if anyone else feels/has felt the same way or been through anything similar? I really don't know what the future holds for me besides more of the same forgettable shit interspersed with trying new drugs from SR.
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Nothing. I've been drowning in nihilism over the last few years.
I don't have much interest in anything, no dreams or passions. I just go to my shitty 9 to 5, read blogs and come on here and then go home and get stoned every night. Without weed to smoke at the end of the day life is terribly dull.
I'm basically just looking to experiment with drugs now I've got used to SR. There isn't really any reason to get out of bed and often on weekends I don't until early evening.
At the risk of sounding sexist I don't think women contribute anything of value to a mans life so dating and marriage is usually just a scam, you'll be ripped off and left heartbroken it holds no interest for me. I don't see why anyone would want kids, it's such hard work and holds back all other areas of your life. Most careers are bullshit and you have to kill yourself to 'do well' which usually mean a bit more money for a lot more stress and at my age, 30, all my friends are getting married and just becoming boring old people so there is no social scene left.
I'm not writing this for sympathy and I realise I may sound lazy or like a moaning sod but I was wondering if anyone else feels/has felt the same way or been through anything similar? I really don't know what the future holds for me besides more of the same forgettable shit interspersed with trying new drugs from SR.
I used to feel the same as you. The future looked utterly worthless, I saw no value in relationships with those around me and the rest of the world seemed a cold, harsh, unforgiving place. I basically went through a couple of years of depression, the symptoms were classic: always wearing black or grey, feelings of worthlessness, boredom, feelings of hopelessness about the future, social interactions gave me no pleasure, I had no energy or 'get up and go'.
As soon as I stopped smoking weed my confidence started coming back, I began enjoying life more, having fun with my friends, going out and meeting new people. My whole life turned around. The most scary thing about that whole episode is you could've told me 'till you were blue in the face that my feelings were symptoms of depression, brought about by my weed smoking. But I never would've believed you. I thought all my problems came from inside, my own inadequacies, and that life was and always would be shit. I saw weed as one of the only positive things in my life! But when I did stop it was like a cloud lifting from my mind, I could think clearly and feel the whole range of emotions again. I didn't realize how much weed had changed me because it was such a slow process, bit by bit it had been draining my energy for life.
I will say that only a percentage of people are effected by cannabis in this way. By no means is everyone the same, and I'm not saying that this fate awaits every daily user of cannabis. It my not even be the cause of the way your feeling KazushiS58, but I do believe your are suffering from depression in some form or other. I do implore you to please go to your doctor (or whoever) and just talk to them about how your feeling, and get the opinion of someone else. By far the worst thing you can do is to reject any possibility you maybe suffering from depression (this is very common and can have disastrous consequences).
Peace :)
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One word... Family. I wouldn't know what I would do without the undying support of my family. Friends come and go, they back stab and betray you, but family; family is connected by the soul. You only have one family, love them unconditionally, and you will, no doubt, be fulfilled.
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I used to feel the same as you. The future looked utterly worthless, I saw no value in relationships with those around me and the rest of the world seemed a cold, harsh, unforgiving place. I basically went through a couple of years of depression, the symptoms were classic: always wearing black or grey, feelings of worthlessness, boredom, feelings of hopelessness about the future, social interactions gave me no pleasure, I had no energy or 'get up and go'.
As soon as I stopped smoking weed my confidence started coming back, I began enjoying life more, having fun with my friends, going out and meeting new people. My whole life turned around. The most scary thing about that whole episode is you could've told me 'till you were blue in the face that my feelings were symptoms of depression, brought about by my weed smoking. But I never would've believed you. I thought all my problems came from inside, my own inadequacies, and that life was and always would be shit. I saw weed as one of the only positive things in my life! But when I did stop it was like a cloud lifting from my mind, I could think clearly and feel the whole range of emotions again. I didn't realize how much weed had changed me because it was such a slow process, bit by bit it had been draining my energy for life.
I will say that only a percentage of people are effected by cannabis in this way. By no means is everyone the same, and I'm not saying that this fate awaits every daily user of cannabis. It my not even be the cause of the way your feeling KazushiS58, but I do believe your are suffering from depression in some form or other. I do implore you to please go to your doctor (or whoever) and just talk to them about how your feeling, and get the opinion of someone else. By far the worst thing you can do is to reject any possibility you maybe suffering from depression (this is very common and can have disastrous consequences).
Peace :)
Thanks for your reply Zen.
I have actually spoken to a doctor about being depressed on more than one occasion but they don't really offer any useful solutions. In fact they often act like you'd expect an average person to, awkward, indifferent, not how you'd expect a medical professional to respond.
Unfortunately I have had long periods where I've been 'clean' and not touched anything but a bit of booze on the weekends and it doesn't seem to change much for me but I do appreciate your response and it's always good to know I'm not the only person who feels/has felt this way.
As I've taken this post off-topic slightly I'll make a suggestion as to what brings meaning to life.
Purpose.
Doesn't matter what it is but the difference between successful, happy people and the others is that they often have a goal, vocation or passion that they can direct all of their energy towards. Without a main purpose your energy and time ends up all over the place, most people end up in their job because they didn't know what else to do and how many of us frequently throw ourselves and our energy into new hobbies or projects that we quickly grow tired of?
A clear purpose is like a tarmac road in the wilderness of life.
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A clear purpose is like a tarmac road in the wilderness of life.
Nice.:)
+1
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I used to feel the same as you. The future looked utterly worthless, I saw no value in relationships with those around me and the rest of the world seemed a cold, harsh, unforgiving place. I basically went through a couple of years of depression, the symptoms were classic: always wearing black or grey, feelings of worthlessness, boredom, feelings of hopelessness about the future, social interactions gave me no pleasure, I had no energy or 'get up and go'.
As soon as I stopped smoking weed my confidence started coming back, I began enjoying life more, having fun with my friends, going out and meeting new people. My whole life turned around. The most scary thing about that whole episode is you could've told me 'till you were blue in the face that my feelings were symptoms of depression, brought about by my weed smoking. But I never would've believed you. I thought all my problems came from inside, my own inadequacies, and that life was and always would be shit. I saw weed as one of the only positive things in my life! But when I did stop it was like a cloud lifting from my mind, I could think clearly and feel the whole range of emotions again. I didn't realize how much weed had changed me because it was such a slow process, bit by bit it had been draining my energy for life.
I will say that only a percentage of people are effected by cannabis in this way. By no means is everyone the same, and I'm not saying that this fate awaits every daily user of cannabis. It my not even be the cause of the way your feeling KazushiS58, but I do believe your are suffering from depression in some form or other. I do implore you to please go to your doctor (or whoever) and just talk to them about how your feeling, and get the opinion of someone else. By far the worst thing you can do is to reject any possibility you maybe suffering from depression (this is very common and can have disastrous consequences).
Peace :)
Thanks for your reply Zen.
I have actually spoken to a doctor about being depressed on more than one occasion but they don't really offer any useful solutions. In fact they often act like you'd expect an average person to, awkward, indifferent, not how you'd expect a medical professional to respond.
Unfortunately I have had long periods where I've been 'clean' and not touched anything but a bit of booze on the weekends and it doesn't seem to change much for me but I do appreciate your response and it's always good to know I'm not the only person who feels/has felt this way.
As I've taken this post off-topic slightly I'll make a suggestion as to what brings meaning to life.
Purpose.
Doesn't matter what it is but the difference between successful, happy people and the others is that they often have a goal, vocation or passion that they can direct all of their energy towards. Without a main purpose your energy and time ends up all over the place, most people end up in their job because they didn't know what else to do and how many of us frequently throw ourselves and our energy into new hobbies or projects that we quickly grow tired of?
A clear purpose is like a tarmac road in the wilderness of life.
I suffer from depression and I have to admit weed makes it worse.
I go through phases where I smoke only occasionally on weekend, not even every weekend to phases where Im stoned every night for weeks. Eventually I have to make a conscious decision to cut down.
Regular exercise helps a lot with depression.
Join a gym or get a bike and go cycling a few times a week.
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A clear purpose is like a tarmac road in the wilderness of life.
Nice.:)
+1
Thanks Zen, I was worried that sounded a bit pretentious but I was about to leave work and couldn't think of a better way of putting it :)
I suffer from depression and I have to admit weed makes it worse.
I go through phases where I smoke only occasionally on weekend, not even every weekend to phases where Im stoned every night for weeks. Eventually I have to make a conscious decision to cut down.
Regular exercise helps a lot with depression.
Join a gym or get a bike and go cycling a few times a week.
Yeah I need to exercise more, I tend to start well for a week or two and then it slips. Christmas is a bad time though, here in the UK it's dark and cold pretty much all the time and the amount of crap food you eat over christmas doesn't help. I suppose sorting my diet and getting some exercise are my main priorities for now.
Cheers guys.
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A clear purpose is like a tarmac road in the wilderness of life.
Nice.:)
+1
Thanks Zen, I was worried that sounded a bit pretentious but I was about to leave work and couldn't think of a better way of putting it :)
You made that up! Your a poet my friend. Very concise and emotive imagery. 8)
Oh, and you have to leave for work at 5.15pm (here in the UK)! :o :( Oh well, I guess we can't complain to be in work these days I suppose?
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The ability to be in the moment; to be fully immersed and joyful in a single moment, however fleeting, and the ability to move on the next one.
And it's about love for me. It can romantic, familial, or any form of love. But love brings meaning to my life.
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The ability to be in the moment; to be fully immersed and joyful in a single moment, however fleeting, and the ability to move on the next one.
I often enjoy this experience with dreaming. I often have dreams that are SO livid and SO real that every second seems to last a life time. And those dreams are often the ones where you can solve real life problems, get yourself to chill the fuck out or just explore an alternate state of reality.
Dreaming, is a big part of the answer to life i think.
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The ability to be in the moment; to be fully immersed and joyful in a single moment, however fleeting, and the ability to move on the next one.
And it's about love for me. It can romantic, familial, or any form of love. But love brings meaning to my life.
that's called zen. :)