"Points" and purposes, goals and meanings, are chosen, not imposed. The point is up to you. And me.
What else could be the case? How else could it be?
I still find that this observation ... the observation that's it's up to each of us ... makes purpose ... life ... more grounded and meaningful, not less so.
If deciding your purpose seems subjective, or arbitrary, how is it less so if some external force imposes it?
Between "I've decided what my life means, what it is, what it's for", versus "God decided" or "the Universe decided" or "Society decided" or "the State decided", it's all of the latter assertions that I find arbitrary.
[My friend mentions their chosen career, about which they're very passionate and have been quite successful...] "... but it is not the reason I was born. It is not why I came into existence."
That's true. There is no reason I came into existence, above and beyond the actual reasons it happened ... I was conceived (in the usual manner), and I was born.
That's it.
"We should want to know why 'existence exists.'"
This may be the crux of the matter ... if you feel that there can/must be a transcendent super-existence "out there", a cause or reason beyond existence itself.
A something beyond everything, that is responsible for everything.
That something ... "God" or the Demi-urge ... would then be Something Else ... which of course leads to all of the contradictions of First Cause arguments, e.g. what created the creator?
(If we can imagine a creator-less Creator ... a creator-less anything ... then a creator-less Universe is the simpler answer, preferable by Occam's Razor. And that answer has the virtue of limiting us to things we actually know.)
"If the universe was created by an evil God, or we are part of a simulation, or any number of other mystic possibilities ... then why bother with this existence business?"
"Why bother?" is a great question, and should be applied to ANY worldview. Even if we lived in Voltaire's Best Of All Possible Worlds, even if the Earth was created with us in mind, and we're imbued with a Higher Purpose, even if we were assigned Our Raison D'être ...
... the question "why bother?" would remain.
Even if our ends were designed, and assigned, we'd still have to decide whether or not to pursue those ends.
We'd still have to answer the question, "why bother?"
Whatever the form, nature, and origins of the Universe, it still comes down to us. To the decision, in each and every moment, to carry on. To make the effort to live.
"If there is no reason for me to have come into existence, and no reason for the universe to exist, then any reason I come up with ... still seems hollow."
I know that feeling ... I went through that for years.
But someone/something else telling me, "here, I've decided your reason for being," is not less hollow; it's more so.
To the extent that that there IS meaning, and beauty, and joy, and purpose, and passion, those things (and all of the other values I experience) are a function of me, of my mind and body, of my soul and spirit, of the life I've lived and the life I'm living right now.
To the extent a person still yearns for something external to everything, or a purpose defined and imposed by someone/something else's higher purposes, there is no answer. There is no "external to everything".
In the end, it's akin to asking "who created everything?" and realizing the question isn't just unanswerable; the question makes no sense.
It's not just that we don't know what's beyond everything. Everything is everything. Everything is all there is.
And that's why I find that everything is enough.
Because all of life's "enoughs" ... all of the reasons of living, and doing, and being, and creating, and striving, and loving, and celebrating ... are within everything.
Superb!
A friend asks, "What is the point of existing?"
"Points" and purposes, goals and meanings, are chosen, not imposed. The point is up to you. And me.
What else could be the case? How else could it be?
I still find that this observation ... the observation that's it's up to each of us ... makes purpose ... life ... more grounded and meaningful, not less so.
If deciding your purpose seems subjective, or arbitrary, how is it less so if some external force imposes it?
Between "I've decided what my life means, what it is, what it's for", versus "God decided" or "the Universe decided" or "Society decided" or "the State decided", it's all of the latter assertions that I find arbitrary.
[My friend mentions their chosen career, about which they're very passionate and have been quite successful...] "... but it is not the reason I was born. It is not why I came into existence."
That's true. There is no reason I came into existence, above and beyond the actual reasons it happened ... I was conceived (in the usual manner), and I was born.
That's it.
"We should want to know why 'existence exists.'"
This may be the crux of the matter ... if you feel that there can/must be a transcendent super-existence "out there", a cause or reason beyond existence itself.
A something beyond everything, that is responsible for everything.
That something ... "God" or the Demi-urge ... would then be Something Else ... which of course leads to all of the contradictions of First Cause arguments, e.g. what created the creator?
(If we can imagine a creator-less Creator ... a creator-less anything ... then a creator-less Universe is the simpler answer, preferable by Occam's Razor. And that answer has the virtue of limiting us to things we actually know.)
"If the universe was created by an evil God, or we are part of a simulation, or any number of other mystic possibilities ... then why bother with this existence business?"
"Why bother?" is a great question, and should be applied to ANY worldview. Even if we lived in Voltaire's Best Of All Possible Worlds, even if the Earth was created with us in mind, and we're imbued with a Higher Purpose, even if we were assigned Our Raison D'être ...
... the question "why bother?" would remain.
Even if our ends were designed, and assigned, we'd still have to decide whether or not to pursue those ends.
We'd still have to answer the question, "why bother?"
Whatever the form, nature, and origins of the Universe, it still comes down to us. To the decision, in each and every moment, to carry on. To make the effort to live.
"If there is no reason for me to have come into existence, and no reason for the universe to exist, then any reason I come up with ... still seems hollow."
I know that feeling ... I went through that for years.
But someone/something else telling me, "here, I've decided your reason for being," is not less hollow; it's more so.
To the extent that that there IS meaning, and beauty, and joy, and purpose, and passion, those things (and all of the other values I experience) are a function of me, of my mind and body, of my soul and spirit, of the life I've lived and the life I'm living right now.
To the extent a person still yearns for something external to everything, or a purpose defined and imposed by someone/something else's higher purposes, there is no answer. There is no "external to everything".
In the end, it's akin to asking "who created everything?" and realizing the question isn't just unanswerable; the question makes no sense.
It's not just that we don't know what's beyond everything. Everything is everything. Everything is all there is.
And that's why I find that everything is enough.
Because all of life's "enoughs" ... all of the reasons of living, and doing, and being, and creating, and striving, and loving, and celebrating ... are within everything.
Within existence.
Within you and I.
Thanks for the blanket permission, Robert.
Here's the first one. You mentioned it on today's live:
https://pabloalvestegui.substack.com/publish/post/159711537