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I was curious what you think is the purpose of your life given your faith crisis? Has it changed? What is it? I honestly don’t know and I honestly don’t know that there is a purpose of life. I’ve given up trying to figure it out. If I were to answer with my TBM hat on, I’d say this life is the time to prepare to meet God. I don’t wear that hat anymore, it doesn’t fit.
Alan Watts wrote:
“The existence of the physical universe is basically playful. There is no necessity for it whatsoever. It isn’t going anywhere. That is to say, it doesn’t have some destination that it ought to arrive at.But that it is best understood by the analogy with music. Because music, as an art form is essentially playful. We say, “You play the piano” You don’t “work the piano”. Why? Music differs from say, travel. When you travel you are trying to get somewhere. In music, though, one doesn’t make the end of a composition. The point of the composition. If that were so, the best conductors would be those who played fastest. And there would be composers who only wrote finales. People would go to a concert just to hear one crackling chord… Because that’s the end!
Same way with dancing. You don’t aim at a particular spot in the room because that’s where you will arrive. The whole point of the dancing is the dance…
We thought of life by analogy with a journey, with a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at that end, and the thing was to get to that thing at that end. Success, or whatever it is, or maybe heaven after you’re dead. But we missed the point the whole way along.It was a musical thing, and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played.”
I don’t believe life has any inherent meaning or purpose but itself. Which, if you think about it, allows you the opportunity to give it meaning and purpose. My purpose is to take care of my wife and daughter, the best that I am able. It’s to create software that will help people to be happy. It’s to paint and to play. It’s to philosophize, to think, to learn, and to grow. It’s to help others, and cheer others as far as I am able. It’s to roast marshmallows to make smores, and then take a nap in a hammock.
Dan Harmon wrote:“The knowledge that nothing matters, while accurate, gets us nowhere. The planet is dying, the sun is exploding, the universe is cooling, nothing is going to matter. The further back you pull, the more that truth will endure. But, when you zoom in on earth, when you zoom in on a family, or when you zoom into a human brain or a childhood experience, you see all of these things that matter. We have this fleeting chance to participate in an illusion called “I love my girlfriend” or “I love my dog”. How is that not better? Knowing the truth, which is that nothing matters, can actually save you in those moments. Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody is going to die.
Once you get through that terrifying threshold of accepting that, then every place is the center of the universe, every moment is the most important moment, and everything is the meaning of life.“ To love myself and others. To enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime accident of being alive. In my view, we didn’t exist before birth and we won’t exist after death. Life has plenty of hardships, but also amazing moments of joy. There is a lot of bad news out there, but there is much more good which never makes the news. There are a lot of bad people, but most people are good. Being alive is the purpose of life in general. Enjoying being alive is my purpose in life.
To achieve a state of relatively permanent happiness. Happiness that is not subject to mood swings or down swings when things happen that we don’t like. I took this portion of our Mormon theology and I find it is very good. It does require me to reject things that Mormons say are the foundation of happiness, but I have noticed a big uptick in my happiness since I got on my own clock.
For me, a certain amount of happiness comes from serving other people, so it’s not a kind of debauched happiness. And it means doing unpleasant things sometimes because of the outcome desired. It also means saying “no” to endless callings that don’t produce happiness over even the short or long term.
It sometimes means accepting unhappiness (like not being in the temple with my daughter when she got married) but sometimes different ideals conflict. And you have to pick the one the produces the greatest happiness, while considering the happiness of the people around you. That is part of it…
To live a good life. To help others along the way. :thumbup: I used to believe that there was a specific purpose to life. Now I believe that life has whatever meaning you give it. It changed from a test among a Divine journey to follow rules and prove worth and sacrifice to obey and mold my will to the Divine will in efforts to invest now for an eternity of blessings… …to a much simpler purpose to experience life to its fullest.
Also…I don’t think my purpose changed…just my views and understanding on what was always there.
This is a very intriguing question. For each of us it can be different. This is my 2 cents. 1. to learn & grow. (experience life, make mistakes & overcome)
2. to experience this life & connect with other humans in a positive way. (marriage, family & friends)
3. to grow spiritually. (Jesus & service)
This will probably change tomorrow.
This is a good question that I think can be taken multiple ways. 1) Purpose of life = what brings meaning?- Identifying and successfully following an internal code of ethics.
- Communicating Effectively with and Connecting with Others
- Enjoying Nature
- Meaningful Service to Others
- Education – for personal enjoyment
- Community
2) Purpose of life = where do I spend my time?
– my job has some meaning because it pays the bills, and I get to help people resolve their software issues and calm their angst about the software.
– There is a lot of teamwork with my spouse regarding how we parent, thought into what is important to attempt to instill in our children, and how to help them help themselves cope with frustrating life situations (a.ka. learning to manage anxiety with the 8 year old, and teaching the 2 year old how to use silverware…
– This one got its own billing because it is that important. My relationship with my husband needs care and tending in order to last past when the children are grown up and so forth.
– completing my classes
– I am starting this in a limited way. I plan to switch from a computer background with digital media and grants management software to the health care industry when I get my degree in 2 years. I am working on a B.S. in Business – Healthcare Administration to do so, and have started volunteering at a no-insurance medical clinic a couple of times a month.
– I spend some time on social media following communities I care about. While this is where I spend some time, I make sure to monitor how much time I devote to it.
– I am a defacto nursery leader and Achievement Day board member. I do what I can to pass on physical items that I no longer need to community members who do need them (even if they aren’t community members we see at church)
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