November 29, 2007
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Featured Question #112: The Pursuit of Knowledge is Paramount
What is the meaning of life in your eyes?
The ideals which give my life meaning are tenets which other people I think take for granted. Some people want more money, and others want more material possessions; some people want to be admired and some want power. Did I miss something? When did the “seven deadly sins” become the driving force of modern society? Lust, greed, gluttony, sloth, wrath, envy, pride…. they have more power in our modern society than people might credit, but every one is easily seen in the way our world runs.
No, none of that holds any appeal for me unless you consider the pursuit of information lustful.
I want knowledge. I want to explore new ideas and grow intellectually and spiritually. Maybe I am a bit arrogant in thinking that other people would do well to adopt a similar raison d’etre. If the pursuit of knowledge was our only driving force, other less admirable pursuits would fall by the wayside. I am not ambitious; I do not pursue experiences and understanding as a way to lord it over others. I only seek to better myself, better my understanding of myself, others, and the world. Money, I only want enough to achieve my goals… food, shelter, and enough to continue my self-education. I don’t need power. As little as our leaders would like to admit it, with power comes responsibility. Power might allow me to better educate the ignorant masses, but I have no real desire to be responsible for other people.
Though I think people should take whatever opportunity presents itself to assist others in their pursuit of intellectual and spiritual excellence, ultimately everyone is responsible for their own exaltation. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. In the end, as happy as it would make me to be surrounded by people who share my desire for edification, attempting to lead them all by hand to that end would cripple my own pursuit of excellence. No one can be made to throw off the shackles of their ignorance. Dogma is the ruling meme of our modern culture. Dogma, conformity, ignorance, mediocrity, blind ambition, indifference, arrogance…. these are all symptoms of our way of life. We value nothing unless it brings with it some kind of fringe benefits.
Our current way of life has become stagnant. We do not strive in any way to better ourselves. We seek only to entertain ourselves or make our lot in life easier. The pursuit of excellence is not encouraged. People who seek knowledge for its own sake are looked at with confusion and scorn. Why spend your time in intellectual pursuits when you could watch television or work to make more money to buy more things to spend your “spare” time on. Our lives are finite, so any time spent on pursuits which do not allow us to entertain ourselves at some point must surely be a waste of time, right? How sad our world makes me.
I must admit that my spiritual beliefs do influence my views. I believe that whatever our life’s experiences, we take them back with us to enhance the quality of existence between lives. Even as we experience things which seem to damage us, how we transmute them in the course of our lives is what’s important. The experiences are powerful, but how we learn to deal with them is of the utmost importance. So the acquisition of new information and experience is not entirely the most important aspect of our lives; life is much more about how we transform our experiences into new forms. By the end of our lives, we become an amalgam of all our experiences, and the ultimate result is up to us.
If I died tomorrow, I’d have few real regrets. I would miss watching my nephew grow up, and I might wish that I had managed to get something published, but I am pleased with the person I have become in the course of my life. I have often been miserable and broken by adversity, but it has made me stronger too. Every event in life is an opportunity to learn something. Learning alters our perceptions, and how we perceive our world is very much who we are. Philosophers and scientists insist that the act of observing alters the object of our attention. I believe we are also altered by our understanding of those things which we choose to observe. If we view a puppy with love or a racial slur with loathing, if we allow ourselves to hate or choose instead to love…. our views shape us, so we must choose what we take away from our life’s experiences in the people we become through them.
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Comments (13)
Pretty much enjoyed that answer. Go you!
A most in-depth and sincere response to the question. We are, in many ways, kindred spirits.
The infantalization of the people in this country, especially, almost seems a calculation of sorts from a cunning power that sees clearly the lemming effect. There is no existence so stagnant as in the pursuit of fleeting self gratification. One has to rise above the Cartesian emptiness which so dictates our present culture, to even begin to strive for excellence and, as Sheldrake proposed, the vale of soul-making. But people get trapped and do not fully grasp their own suffering and it seems that within only a generation or two, the pursuit of excellence hides itself in mind and spirit numbing holograms.
To walk by call of the greater spirit of experience and in desire for the higher potential within and without, that is a Gift.
Blessings~
The world would be such a better place if people could let go of the endless striving for “more” and become a little more self-aware and self-directed. We seem to have reached a place where we have largely substituted “having” and “doing” for simply being.
Very well said!
i don’t know what life is suppose to be about… the pursuit anyway. i don’t think it is knowledge though. that changes from person to person so does truth. i think you did a good job with the question though. i like learning stuff. but i haven’t found my reason for living yet.
ryc: i get depressed tired and exhausted from “everything” and it takes a toll on my view of myself.
I hate to use the word “Ditto”, but I totally agree with what you and Madmorrigan said so perfectly. You both put into words what I struggle with (largely in my own head with) everyday.
“When did the 7 deadly sins become the driving force”…. when people quit connecting with themselves and became numb to what was really going on… So many people just numb themselves out and then they find their fixes to make up for it. Sad…but so true.
we see eye to eye heart to heart.
life and i tend to attempt to unravel lots of what has been ingrained…
to release, receive, reveal and transform….
Namaste
life to me is all about how eye die……not in how death finds me….yet also in how death finds me….hopefully death she will find me being content with the stony path….
eye must nod and agree with your view on the matter of the human energy….eye have always said life has no point but the one you give it…..it will not pierce the heart till it is willed with full knowledge….till then heartache or joy is just an impulse….not really a fluid motion…..
though eye will say that not all humans are this way….enough people remain on the side of benign seeking for me to have hope…..foolish yet inspiring is hope
maybe generation Z will see the flaws of XY
much love and care to you and yours
Deyja of the Omens
ryc: insecure is an understatement. plus he admitted that he has low self-esteem issues. this will be much like walking around in stilts around eggshells. hence, i vowed a while ago to treat him like a newborn baby. but sometimes, he must understand, i tend to have sarcastic mouth.
still…what can a gal do?
the meaning to life in my eyes?
to be true to yourself, to never accept the unacceptable, to be a rebel not because you cannot conform but because you know your Truth weighs more than any one else’s because this is Who You Really Are. It is to strive for Inner Happiness, Inner Peace. To love myself for I am Worth Being Loved. To know that Now is all I will ever have!
a couple of greens in the bank wouldn’t hurt, though.
I want to add something to this, but I don’t think I can really say what I want in the confines of a comment. Suffice to say that this was an excellent post, and I will probably be writing about the issues you raised fairly soon. If I ever learn to overcome my extreme lethargy, that is.
Dear Candace,
Another wonderfully astute and engrossing read. While you don’t really answer the question from a theological perspective, I like the tone and the tenor of your words, and you engage your readers in thought about what life’s meaning really is all about.
As an older person, I would agree that “our current way of life has become stagnant” but I hope that younger generations don’t feel this way. Stagnation breeds disease and decay.
I totally agree that “whatever our lives’ experiences, we take them back with us to to enhance the quality of existence between lives.
Your commenters, as usual are supportive and encouraging.
BTW, I weighed in on this topic for the Socrates Cafe blogring in Jan. 06 if you’re interested in my response.
Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool