“He who has a why can overcome any how” – Friedrich Nietzsche
I wish I had a purpose. To have a purpose is a great thing. It alone can make one overcome all obstacles of life. It transforms a person. It gives him incredible strength. It can make him detached from all his weaknesses. He becomes a yogi. A man with a goal. It gives fulfillment, it gives life a satisfying occupation. It is everything one can ever hope for.
I wish I had a purpose. Without a purpose, all that is left to oneself is oneself. Then I just focus on myself and my feelings. And feelings are untrustworthy friends. They belong to nobody. You just can’t build a house on them. They are our animalistic instincts firing randomly. They are not worthy to live my life on. But without a purpose, they’re all that are left to me. I just focus on them, and how to satisfy them or how to feel good instead of bad. And there are entire modern treaties and researches written for the last line, … but it amounts to nothing. It means nothing. I know the more I try to feel good the more I feel sick and pathetic. That’s just how it always is, no matter what trick or knowledge I apply; that’s the tao of my life.
Truth-seeking is also a form of validation-seeking. We seek truth so that we can act based on that.
I wish I had a purpose. It has to be something intrinsic, something born out of my very depth & being, something natural, so that no duality can arise. It has to be my choice, which is actually not a choice but resultant of being. Science, Buddha, Present Moment – these are all ideas I gathered from outside. They can take one only so far. I can’t escape/overcome myself using them. Tod aasmanon ko, foonk de jahanon ko, khud ko chipa na payga tu (Break the skys, burn the worlds: hiding yourself you won’t be able to do.)
Without a purpose, I have nothing else but to fall back to my animal instincts, to fulfill sensual pleasures/feelings. But what does it do? It makes me want to break my head. Good for those who like them, but to me, these temporary pleasures are worse than no pleasure, these temporary fulfillments are worse than no fulfillment. They look like mockery of human existence. All these thoughts, feelings, emotions, they make me sick. Rotting random useless bumps. But mind without a direction has no option but to fall back to them.
5 comments
Great Nietzsche quote, something I’ve lived by. There is no greater purpose, no higher meaning, nothing beyond what is in front of you. We create our own purpose in life and actually there are a great many things to do in life.
Happiness/good emotions are something to live for-when you’ve experienced pain, sadness, suffering, loneliness, jealousy, hate, etc then you will understand why a contented/blissful life is more desirable and a reasonable goal to achieve.
While humanity has made a great deal of progress, we are still very backwards and barbaric in many ways. Take suicide for example-it should be available to anyone for the asking and for any reason as this life was forced upon us and we should have the right to end it if we choose.
Yet this right is denied to us-so making it available for all is something worthwhile to fight for. I think a minimum age of say 10-12 should be required when kids are better able to reason-though exceptions should be allowed in cases of extreme suffering. It would benefit society also as one could donate healthy organs for those who need them, should one decide.
This is only scratching the surface-there are a million other ways that we could help humanity as a whole if one wanted to dedicate themselves to such a purpose. There are also intellectual pursuits, either in science, medicine or other fields.
You could support the space industry to help find new planets to colonize-so there is no shortage of ways one could find a purpose. But if there is nothing you want to live for at all and you prefer to be dead, that is within reach also.
As for the religious who claim to give you a purpose by serving an imaginary god to get to ‘heaven’, their only purpose is to enslave you and enrich themselves from taking advantage of the gullible.
you are looking for ” something born out of my very depth & being, something natural” yet, you think “feelings are untrustworthy friends”
where is this purpose supposed to arise from
That is what is to be seen. Feelings aren’t me. They arise from unknown origins.
I have plenty of purpose, and it hasn’t helped me a bit. It certainly hasn’t made me overcome all the obstacles in life. I’ve failed to achieve my purpose, and I’m pretty sure I’ll never succeed. I think I’d be happier if I had no purpose at all.
The purpose I’m looking for and talking about is not inspired by outside forces. It has to be MINE. That is, when I look towards it I don’t feel it as alien. It’s very existence, presence fulfills me (not as feeling but as occupation). It has to be part of my very vision/attention/awareness/immediate consciousness.