Meaning of Life
This post will not be concluded ever.
It will be extended and written over time when life reveals itself in finer details.
By no means it’s going to be easily comprehensible.
May be after few years things will start to make sense and this can be redrafted into simpler ways.
Let’s go back to point of origin.
What brings us to this pertinent question?
Is it meaningless to even think about it?
Isn't it pure waste of time if an ant sits all day long without collecting grains it need for livelihood and instead keep pondering about what's the meaning of being an ant and living a life of an ant?
What’s the difference between an ant’s life and a human?
It’s all about chemicals. The chemical composition of brain, giving way to electrical pulses inside the cranial cavity, which urges human race to go beyond obvious and pushes them to make links between experiences.
It will get more incomprehensible now. It’s all going down to neural networks. Biological neural networks. Even the brightest minds on Earth cannot artificially replicate 0.00001% of it’s huge potential.
It’s not as simple as it appears on surface.
At times it will feel like this post is veering off from the main topic but sometimes its necessary to cover the information surrounding a topic to make it inclusive.
Lets make links of information in simplest forms.
Sun->SolarSystem->Earth->water->lifeforms->humans->reproduction->species
Universe->Galaxies->habitable planets->order
Universe->galaxies->dark matter->singularities->chaos
Humans->emotions->actions->reactions->cycle of life->death
Humans->hunters->wanderers->survival of the fittest
Birth->a clean slate->experiences->coding the biological neural networks begin-> learning from surroundings->A functioning lifeform.
Death-> wipes everything clean-> end of a one lifeform.
I don't believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution, neither did I believe in concepts of theism.
“The lifeforms on Earth is a gift of Universe, a comet or asteroid that planted seeds of life on Earth”
We owe a lot to this universe. Its difficult to see the insides of body when the eyes are outward. But if we get the eyes that can go along with blood cells, a whole new universe will appear in front of us widening our knowledge of unknown.
Now the most complicated question. Even I have not gone any further thinking about this.
Before 1,01,94,77,501 seconds (or 32.3 years) I was a clean slate. Since that time, till today when I'm typing these letters on my macbook…. a little while ago before that time, neither did I existed nor the macbook and not even a single experience that I writing down today.
So what changed in these 1,01,94,77,501 seconds?
A Lot.
My generation has seen the growth of technology, changing psychological behaviours, easily wandering around the globe.
Stop at this moment and rewind and recollect every little thing.
If I wasn't born, would this all have not happened? Do I contribute to these things? The answer is YES. I’m an ant who is as insignificant as a single ant, but as much responsible as part of thousands of ants building the ant hill.
So I may be taken out of the system at any time but not my species. If the species goes off, the balance of ecosystem will be gone.
So coming back to the birth. It’s the beginning of life. Everything starts with birth and ends with death. This not quite true, it starts with birth but it doesn't end with death. You are part of this network, you leave a lasting impression on this network and you contribute to the overall learning of this network which will be carried forward by your surrounding species and your generations.
Our behaviour (what we learn from the network) goes back into the same network as input (feedback control system).
We derive our life goals from this learning. Now we are coming close to the topic “Meaning of Life”.
Most of us believe in "achieving goals of life" as "fulfilling meaning of life”, but that is not true;
In the most primal and truest sense, as species our first and foremost responsibility is to survive, reproduce and keep the continuation of genes. It’s not very different from the life of an ant. Remember this life is gift and gifting this opportunity to another lifeform is what Universe wants from you.
We think a lot. So what if we have fulfilled this duty to reproduce. What next? Was that the only purpose I was brought into this world?
Here we begin to ponder beyond our limitations, into the grey area and this is what makes us different from ants.
First of all let’s discuss about PERCEPTIONS.
What is perception?
perception
pəˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/
noun
- the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.
"the normal limits to human perception"
-
the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted.
When we were born we were gifted with sense organs, thats the beginning of all.
The way we have perceived this world has a huge impact on our thinking and living. The sense organs rules life's decisions.
Pleasure and pain derived from experiences (companionship, sexual pleasure, childbirth, injuries, diseases, deep meditation) teaches us about how valuable this life is. Most of times the meaning of life comes from one of these.
But perception is an individual thing. Varying greatly from one lifeform to another and from one person to another.
In the microcosm of Earth, in our perceived knowledge we derive our own meaning of life. For some it could be very outgoing, for others it could be to go totally unnoticed.
Having seen the way of life in three different continents, I believe the basic human necessities are almost same everywhere.
Update: 25 Aug 2015
Take a deep look at this picture.
All talks about purpose & meaning of life, problem and emotions, happiness and illusions; exist below that stratosphere.
Does Universe care?
-No. It doesnt.
Then why it enabled you to come out of stratophere?
-So that you be wise enough to look beyong trivial madness and work towards greater good.
Are we doing it?
-No, How much time we will take to fully understand the purpose of life, is to rise beyong pettiness of human character and nourish the values that lift us (humans) up.
Being in the problem domain, your vision is blurred, you cant effectively solve a problem untill you separate yourself from it.
This untethered spacewalk is manifestation of human will to solve problems beyond comprehension of those who are caught in thousands of tethers down there on Earth.
In our limited senses, we have made our own definitions of happiness and grief and the whole life oscillates between these two. There's a third kind of feeling, awakening. It lets you know that "Universe doesnt care", it tell you to do the same in moments of happiness and grief. It doesnt mean you should not laugh or cry... It means even though you do, have a strong belief deep down that this is transient phase. This isnt going to last for lifetime.
To Be Continued...
