Meaning of Life

Understanding the nature of the world has become the primary concern in rationality of human beings. The quest has given birth to a wide array of field of study- biology, physics, psychology, philosophy, chemistry among others. In so far that finding the nature of the world is concerned, there has been a rigorous assessment in different fields of studies which has led to mind-boggling inventions and discoveries in the world. An equally important quest has been to find the meaning of life.

A beginner into this inquiry, would want to know outlining or shortcut answers to the philosophical question of our life, especially that of the meaning of our life. However, the different schools of thought- both in religion and philosophy- in response to this question have only provided different obscure and contradictory concepts, let alone a unanimous one.

Before delving into the subject matter, let us first make the assessment of this paper clear. Trying to decipher the “meaning” is to understand the purpose and role an individual holds in the cosmos and the course of actions s/he is supposed to take. “Life”, for the purpose of the paper means a duration between the birth of a human being and the death of his/her material body and rational ability. It will be in the scope of this paper to understand the evolution of human beings, the beliefs they had in the process and the meanings they assigned to their life. In doing so, I will try to elucidate abstract concepts of different philosophers and religions and try to examine these philosophies. Our first aim is to understand the significance of the question and the motive for knowing the answer in our human mind.

Setting the Stage: Who and Why ask the meaning of life?

Let us begin with the first fundamental question- who seeks the meaning of life? Philosophers, Aristotle, for example, propose that human beings are different than other creatures in for their ability to think (Jhonson, 2014)  , and it is this ability that has enabled the human being to make unprecedented progress culminating to industrialized era. Philosophers claim that the propensity to assess the intricate meaning of life, however, is not innate in all human beings and that it is an indication of “sickness” in human beings. Sigmund Freud explicitly remarks that the person who asks about the meaning of life is sick- the reason of which, he thinks, is “unsatisfied libido” (Jones, 1957, p. 3:465). In Freud’s response, Plato, very long before Freud, would have consented him in that Plato also thought unfulfilled appetite as a cause of spiritual sickness in the soul (Young, 2003, p. 14) although he was of the thought that life should be spent in the pursuit of knowledge of the forms (Ibid, p.16).  Einstein also separates the rational ability to think about the world from sickly questioning to find the meaning of life. He said that a man with no longing for knowledge of the universe is as good as dead (Einstein, Living Philosophies, 1931, p. 6), but he blatantly also asserts that a man is seeking religion for self-help in trying to answer the question about the meaning of life (Einstein, Opinions by Albert Einstein : Quoted in On the Meaning of Life by Jhon Cottingham, 1934, p. 11). Irving Singer in his book- Meaning in Life- validates these thoughts to mention that the intention of a healthy person is not to think about the meaning of life (Singer, 1992, p. 2). It is evident from these philosophers that there is a fine border between a sickly inquiry of life and a “normal” interpretation of life.  Perhaps not if we are to accept Fredrick Nietzsche’s definition that man is, by default, a sick animal (Ibid, p. 3). It is to mean that we will be forced to contemplate the meaning of life one time or another as “sickness” is an inevitable phenomenon in human beings.

Tackling the big questions

Stoics in our textbook invite us to live according to the nature of the cosmos, and our lives are dimmed meaningful, according to them, when our actions are concurrent with the demand of the nature. As such, it is essential to understand the nature of cosmos first. There is a pessimism from earlier philosophers when they define the underlying principles of the universe.  Thomas Hobbes (1651) said that the human life in the universe is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. These ideas are backed by Schopenhauer who claims that the guiding tenet in the world is dynamic, brutal, non-purposive and directionless. These ideas are again validated by Nietzsche, who claims that the universe is vicious and that it causes more suffering than happiness in so much that he gave a philosophical assertion that god is dead (Singer, 1992).

Despite the pessimistic view of the nature, philosophers see longing for knowledge, beauty and our own extension in the world as the primary motives behind the life. There is no human who does not want to have his desires fulfilled, who does not want to be validated and who does not want to feel happy, content or understood. Oprah Winfrey, a famous interviewer, in this regards in Harvard Commencement Speech of 2013 said:
“I have to say that the single most important lesson I learned in 25 years talking every single day to people, was that there is a common denominator in our human experience. Most of us, I tell you we don’t want to be divided. What we want, the common denominator that I found in every single interview, is we want to  be validated and understood” (Winfrey, Harvard Gazette, 2013).

 Similarly, when explaining absurdity, Albert Camus is of the perspective that happiness and reason are the greatest longing of human beings, although these longings are only ephemeral (Singer, 1992, p. 32). Meanwhile, Hegel thought the impulse of reason is the desire instigated to understand oneself (Young, 2003, p. 62).  John Cottingham in his book On the Meaning of Life, in a clear manner, encapsulates the nature of the cosmos, which he thinks, is to produce human beings who seek truth, embrace aesthetics, and fulfill their life with mutual love and affections (Cottingham, 2003).

However, Singer (1992) quotes Aristotle to cite that although contentment, happiness and joy are essential, no man can be happy perpetually. Everything in the world is short lived and there is nothing which can last forever- happiness quickly fades and is hard to recapture, and contentment turns into boredom. Life is not a marathon where an individual who have travelled fastest and furthest can feel that they are closer to some absolute and all resolving goal.  It is true that we are guided by ideals of love, beauty, creativity, freedom, happiness and self-improvement, but there is no end goal – there is no finish line of learning or loving. The universe, economy, population or knowledge is expanding, but -to what limit or end- nobody seems to concur.   By defining “sickness” in people seeking the meaning of life, philosophers were correctly referring to unfulfilled appetite in complexity as its cause. This elusive nature of the world led Blaise Pascal- a seventeenth century philosopher- to comment in this way:
 "I see these frightening expanses of the universe that shut me in, and I find myself stuck in one corner of this vast emptiness, without knowing why I am placed here  rather than elsewhere… All I know is that I must soon die, but my ignorance is  darkest concerning this very death that I cannot avoid” (Cottingham, 2003, p. 32).

Religious Perspective

Inability to reach a decisive conclusion about the meaning of life and the absence of clear end goal paved the way for emergence of different religious tenets- backed by the idea of the God – within different civilization. Their dialectics are different, but all of their motive is to bind the human being into a moral and ethical standard so as to provide a unitary purpose.   Hindu Religion- of which I can speak and have knowledge- open a way for our lives to have a meaning in a strong sense that would move our life beyond a mere ephemeral satisfaction (Ibid, pp. 62-104) towards the liberation of the soul.

Hindu religion divides our actions into the concepts of Kama, Artha, Dharma, and Mokshya. Kama means lust, Artha is economic gain, Dharma is a selfless act and Mokshya or Nirvana is a supreme act of liberation of the soul. Hindus regard Mokshya or Nirvana as the end goal of human being ,and the religion claims that Nirvana can be  achieved through “work, dedication to work, knowledge and devotion to Hindu teachings” (Payne & Nassar, 2012, pp. 46-48). The religious interpretation of reality is tested and severely rejected by the evolutionary perspective of Charles Darwin, who hints towards the denial of an omnipotent creator or the God. Similarly, many great philosophers’ notion that “ultimate being or highest good” provide objective ends is also put in question through this idea.

Evolutionary Perspective

If we were to compress 14 billion years after the big bang into 14 years for simplicity, earth would have existed only for past five years, entire recorded history of human would remain for only last three minutes and modern industrial civilization would last for only six seconds (National Geography, 2014).

This information entails that our current human form is an outcome of continuous evolution in many generations through mutations and natural selections, and that none of the character of human beings, of other creatures or of the earth are a part of the grand design of the Supreme God.   According to the natural selection theory of Darwin, there is no purpose or selection whatsoever in the natural working of evolution, but it is an entirely arbitrary process whereby certain favorable traits are passed on to the next generation (Cottingham, 2003).

Preservation and Continuation as the sole goal

That we are complex beings for our rational ability makes understanding of our purpose very difficult. We can fabricate reasons for our benefit,. Thus, if we are to understand the purpose of our life, we need to observe other animals which do not put a veil of complexities but exhibit observable purpose. Just as Leo Tolstoy achieved his own salvation by understanding the life of peasants (Singer, 1992), observing the animals – which differ from us only in our ability to think- is one of the ways to understand the intricate purpose of human beings. Animals long for food, shelter and reproduction and try to avoid danger through their own means. These four factors, I believe, are the core purpose of the human being as well, but the only difference is that our means of achieving those fundamentals of living is rationality.  The rest, whatever we may claim, is secondary and unimportant.

In similar ways that the role of the rose is to be red in color and to provide wonderful smell, and that of dog is to bark and to be loyal to its master, our role is to think, to create and to be rational. Since we have the ability to think, our role in the world is to be creative and improve the world as we see it, and our purpose, just like everybody else’s, is  -just as Fernando Savaster in his book Questions of Life describes- the “preservation, regulation and reproduction” of our life (Savater, 2002).

 Meaningful life in an individual level

Thus far, we have tried to understand the meaning of life at a macroscopic level. We have pointed out that our role in the universe is to be rational human beings and that our sole purpose is the preservation and continuation of ourselves. Now, let us analyze on a microscopic level what we ought to do as a rational, and moral being seeking for happiness and continuation of ourselves in a right milieu.

 (Griffin, 2012) in her book Where We Belong mentions that the purpose of the life should be the life of purpose thorough self-actualization. A step further, Simon Sinek, in one of his TED talk suggests that our purpose should be contemplated in question “why rather than in what” (Sinek, 2009). Similarly, Oprah Winfrey says that it is important in life to develop an “internal moral, emotional GPS” that can tell us which path to take (Winfrey, You Tube, 2014). Herman Hesse in Novel Siddhartha describes most people as falling leaves that drift and turn in the air, flutter and fall in the ground and few as the stars which travel one defined path where no wind reaches and which have within themselves their guide and path (Hesse, 1998, p. 58).

The bottom line of all these thoughts is that we need to be contemplative and live a meaningful life. The problem, however, is the lack of a single unified and meaningful criterion that sets the standards for a meaningful life. I have subscribed one criterion for living a meaningful life set by Michio Kaku, who encodes the appeal that the purpose of human beings is to make the world better that that we entered in. We would also be in parallel with the Aristotelian definition of the good life which he said is a “rational dedication to some goal that structure one’s entire being” (Singer, 1992, p. 107) in fulfilling the claim of Kaku. We have explained earlier in the paper that the nature of such structure as defined by Aristotle is evolution, and improvement in the world is, to its core, an evolutionary process. Therefore, this can be said about our life that it needs to have a mutual characteristics of validation, happiness, meaningfulness and elements of improvisation.

Happiness, Meaning in Life and Morality

Happiness in life and meaningful life are not the same, and meaning or happiness in life is not a product of a moral life. An individual who has to struggle against an unwelcoming environment might nevertheless have lived a meaningful life and vice versa.  Galileo Galilei may not have lived a happy life, for his speculation about the nature of the universe was ill-treated by the fundamentalist, but he lived a meaningful life because he devoted his life to find the truth. Similarly, a politician who accumulates illegal wealth so as to raise a happy family and who lobbies political agenda in favor of few elitist people at an expense of benefit of millions of people may find himself happy in his family and meaningful to those politicians, but he is immoral and he is not living a life that is desirable.  What ought we to do then? We answer this question in the closing remarks.

A life can have significance only when it increases the meaning and happiness on number of similar lives “regardless of any effect upon ones desire both through relative or objective standards” (Ibid, 131-148). The meaning of the life can be measured by the positive impact it makes on the numbers of people. That is to say the greater the number and quality of lives one can transmute, greater the significance of one’s life.  In this respect, Bill Gates- who has made this writing possible through his product and have provided a lot of aid in helping people in Africa- have lived a more meaningful life than a hypothetical person, who may earn as much as Bill in an illicit manner but does nothing but waste money on drugs and gambling.   

Conclusion

The common theme in all of the accepted claims of this paper is that human beings fear death as a loss of their existence and that inherent human tendency is propagation like that of all other creatures. Rational ability makes us complex, but it is our means, similar to a red color and the good smell of a rose, to fulfill our purpose in the world. The direction the world is heading is not foreseeable, but on an individual level, the true meaning of life can be achieved by doing most good for most people -ourselves included- and thus by being an agent of evolutionary process of improvement.

 References

Cottingham, J. (2003). On the Meaning of Life. London and New York : Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group.

Dormael, J. V. (Director). (2009). Mr. Nobody [Motion Picture].

Einstein, A. (1931). Living Philosophies. New York : Simon And Schuster.

Einstein, A. (1934). Opinions by Albert Einstein : Quoted in On the Meaning of Life by Jhon Cottingham. New York : Crown Publishers .

Griffin, E. (2012). Where We Belong. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Hesse, H. (1998). Siddhartha. Dover Publication.

Jhonson, M. (2014, August 4). Philosophy: Aristotle on the Purpose of Life. Retrieved from You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQk6t-9mQjE

Jones, E. (1957). The Life and Work of Sigmound Freud- Letter to Marie Bonaparte : Quoted in Meaning in Life . New York: Basic Books.

National Geography. (2014, May 19). Documentary | History of The World In Two Hours - History Documentary. Retrieved from You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0RwiUUj01o

Payne, R., & Nassar, J. R. (2012). Politics and Culture in Developing Areas. Pearson Education .

Savater, F. (2002). The Questions of Life: An Invitation to Philosophy. Polity.

Sinek, S. (2009). Retrieved from TED Talks: http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en

Singer, I. (1992). The Meaning in Life . New York: The Free Press.

Winfrey, O. (2013, May 31). Retrieved from Harvard Gazette: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/05/winfreys-commencement-address/

Winfrey, O. (2014, February 7). Retrieved from You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSz4djCNSXA

Young, J. (2003). The Death of God and the Meaning of Life. New York : Routledge.

The Philosophy of Life

                                                                  

Wavering layer of water glimmered golden by the diminishing shafts of sunlight as the sun paced to hide behind the lake. Ephemeral rays of light shone on my eyes, just as the floodlight focuses the protagonist of a featured drama, and these waves of light swept the banks of Lake Pontchartrain leaving traces of darkness behind. The sun looked like a semi-circle dipping behind the lake as the color of the sky changed from orange to red to blue, and the sun soon disappeared from mauve sky like a deflating balloon. The sun has rose and set exactly for twenty years since my birth, but today it has invited me to contemplate fundamental question of purpose of my life which still hovers over the horizon. 

Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia

Mark Twain quotes that the two most important days in our life are the day we were born and the day we find out why. However, finding the purpose is not one time eureka moment; thus, it needs a thorough and continuous introspection. Emily Griffin in her book Where We Belong iterates that the purpose of the life should be the life of purpose thorough self-actualization. A step further, as Simon Sinek in one of his TED talk suggests that our purpose should be contemplated in question “why” rather than “what”, here I am, at the banks of Lake Pontchartrain, reflecting on my eclectic life.

My current state of life is the result of series of events and coincidences, and my present day beliefs are amalgamation of the beliefs of people I have come across on real or virtual front. From the high hills to the sea level and below, and from conservative Sanopakha to liberal-lewd Bourbon Street, I have seen destitute and affluence of many aspects comparable. In having lofty dreams and in being sunk to smell the dust with bitter disappointment, I have become both a freak and have tried to become a sage, or that is, at least, what I reckon. I have lost people close to me from life and have lived in isolation for a considerable time. The family for me has become what Matt King describes in film The Descendant: “All part of the same whole, but always separate and alone and drifting apart like an archipelago.” These experiences have treated me to form two basic realization in which, I think, I need to base my purpose. 

The first realization is that happiness is an essence to living and that our happiness comes through validation and through happiness of people whom we care. The second realization I have made is that our life is a message, and that it is not the destination but the journey that is more important. I have figured that riding Mercedes in 200 km/h in I-20 lane will not give me happiness, when my relatives have to struggle to buy a pair of slippers with a daily average income of less than $2.00 a day. Getting good GPA, having good connections and finding a job with a steady income is not a perpetual source of happiness, when students of the same academic aptitude have to toil in Middle Eastern countries for living. It is easier said than done, but “an attempt”, I emphasize “an attempt”, to change the lives of around thirty millions people every day can be a greater source of happiness than a paycheck of some thousand dollars which may give no validation to my life.  I am aware that life is not lived in rhetoric and that it is not idealistic, but there is a so much in our system that needs an improvement, and my inner conscience seems to lead me to fixation of same.

'
Mahatma Gandhi said that the only tyrant we have to accept in this world is the “still small voice” within us even though we may be in a prospect of a hopeless minority. Similarly, Herman Hesse in Novel Siddhartha describes most people as falling leafs that drift and turn in the air, flutter and fall in the ground  and few as the stars which travel one defined path where no wind reaches  and which have within themselves their guide and path. I am not sure if I am a leaf drifting on the wind, carried away by an impulsive thought, or the star on its own path, what I know for sure is that I have the “still small voice” budding inside me. It may take few more walks to Lake Pontchartrain to validate the voice, but I am patient and hopeful, not only patient in the “still small voice” gaining the shape, but also patience in waiting for my purpose to become vivid. And I am hopeful because, as the theme of Shawshank Redemption depicts, fear holds us a prisoner and only hope can set us free –beyond this horizon into new beginning.

Happy Birthday, Birthday Boy!

A Season of Flights

With the class of 2018 set to fly to the USA, here are my preliminary suggestions, thoughts and contemplation on college application and college experience in the USA. My thoughts are garnered from nine month of experience in a medium sized public university in the southern state of Louisiana.

1) Network with right people

The biggest perk of attending college is connections with people with similar interests. It is said that we are an average of five people we most interact with. Therefore, be prudent to "methodically place yourself in the company of the most mature, benevolent, and competent people you can identify". When you do so ,you may be seated next to future governor of the state, roomed with future Nobel laureate, share the workspace with future General Secretariat of UN or turn out to be one of those person yourself.

           

2) Do not get complacent.

Let nobody tell you that quality of college, student body and faculty does not matter. It matters big time. However, what is more important than a college placement is your take away from your college experience in next four years. There are students who have done miserable in their college life, and there are students who have dropped out of the college even after making to good colleges. The college placement does not matter if you cannot make most out of it. College placement is just a start of your life, not an end of it.  

On a same token, you will be surprised by the wide range of opportunities and resources available in the campus. Make best use of the available resources and opportunities which may interest you.

3) Invest

A) In yourself. Money is secondary at this point of time.
This is where, I think, many people miss the trick. Do not be misled in the direction of earning extravagant money at this time. If you invest your time in the right things, you will make a hundredfold of the money and/or  fame in a long run than that you are tempted to earn now.

B) Back to Nepal 
You all are privileged in one way or another to make to this point. By a virtue of birth or by sheer hard work, you are able to get best education and come to the USA for further studies. During your travel to the USA, many of you may have your transit in Doha, Abu Dhabi or Kuala Lumpur. You will realize that very few of you make it to the next flight to the USA, while vast majority of the passengers will have to toil hard in those countries. Please, put your life and privileges into perspective, and invest back to Nepal either economically or intellectually. For instance, it only takes an hour of work in the USA to make a child literate in Nepal. The average cost to make a child literate in Nepal is  Rs. 847*, which is approximately an hour of minimum wage in the USA.

 South Korea after 1950, India during the 1960s, and other the then developing countries like Israel, Taiwan, Singapore and Philippines, among others had made a significant improvement in their economy and policy on the leverage of western educated leaders and scholars. With around 9,000** Nepalese students in the USA alone, Nepal can be another country in the list,and you all can be next Mahabir Pun, Anil Keshari Shah, Upendra Mahato or Jiba Lamichhane. 

4) Understand your personal calling and follow your passion
I would like to borrow Oprah Winfrey’s words from Harvard commencement speech of 2013. She says, “The key to life is to develop an internal moral emotional GPS that can tell you which way to go…The challenge of life is to build a resume that does not tell you a story about what you want to be, but why you want to be.” Be reflective, bold and courageous to follow your passion; do not be misguided by a dogma of being others.  

5) Comfort is not happiness

You may be ecstatic going through successful college and visa application process. You will be more so for first few months of your college life in the USA. Excellent system, diverse group of people, curriculum, location and language will overwhelm you for sure. However, these moments are not  perpetual. There will be times when you will miss your family, friends and country. Do not be mistaken that comforts will buy you happiness ,but be prepared for random emotional swings, nostalgic moments and an eternal search of happiness.

6) If things did not go well, do not despair.

Most of other students may be disappointed with their college decisions. Thousands of students apply ,but around thirty students go to top notch colleges with an excellent aid every year. It has always been the same case, and the competition has become ever so fierce with commercialization of education in last few years. Therefore, do not undermine yourself for the rejections you may have received. Cliché as it may sound: they rejected your application, not you as a person. It is a sad reality that some applicants get the benefit of doubt, while others do not. Bad luck is nothing you can do anything about.

Remember, it’s not how far you fall, it’s how high you bounce. Look at some people who have accomplished a lot and see where they started. Hari Bansha Acharya passed SLC the third time, Binod Chaudhary failed an entrance for Chartered Accountancy, JK Rowling was a single mother living off a welfare when she began writing Harry Porter, Winston Churchill was so slow a learner that teachers used to write to his mother to drop him off the school, Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because the editor thought Walt lacked creativity and good imagination, and the list can only go farther. Life is a long run, bounce back!

This article was later edited and published in The Kathmandu Post on December 1, 2014.