Meaning

Definition

Meaning is the instinct that makes life possible. When it is abandoned, individuality loses its redeeming power. [1]  

Applications

Follow Your Moral Intuitions, Do What is Meaningful

Follow your moral intuitions. Stop doing the things that make you feel weak. I’m not talking about following a moral code, although that can come into it if you really don’t know what the hell you’re doing at all. Then following a moral code is a good idea because it’ll at least get the ball rolling. It’s a form of apprenticeship. So, you know, not doing the obviously bad things is a form of discipline. It isn’t the notion that I’m talking about now, this is a different thing. This is pay attention to what’s meaningful because you can see what that is. You may find you’re terrified of it because everybody’s got this little secret wish…’I really love doing…’ I don’t know what it is. It’s different things for different people, but they’re afraid to do it, because as soon as you do what you really love, then you expose your nakedness, right? You say this is what I really like. Instead you just shove that under the bed and do something you don’t care about at all and then if people judge you, it doesn’t matter. But the problem with that is there’s no life there. There’s no force. There’s no you. And without that the suffering will do you in and then you will become a bad person and that’s not a good thing. So you have to see what it is that you find meaningful, whatever that is. And then you have to fight for it. You have to fight against yourself, you have to fight against other people because what do they know about it? You have to fight against nature maybe even to stand up for what it is that sustains you. And that takes courage. It also takes honesty. Partly because if you’re not honest you can’t trust your own intuitions. And this is an important thing. Think about this and this is why virtue is a necessity. If you lie to yourself or to other people, then you corrupt the structure that you use to interact with being. You corrupt it. And if you corrupt it, then if you listen to it, it will guide you to the wrong way. Or maybe it’ll be so corrupted you can’t listen to it at all and then you’ll have to listen to somebody else. And that might not be a good thing, especially if you’re already corrupted. Because then you’ll listen to the person who tells you to do what you really want to do but won’t admit it to yourself.[1]

When meaning is denied, hatred for life and the wish for its destruction inevitably rules [2].

"Most people find deep meaning in their lives as a consequence of bearing responsibility." [3]

"You can't aim at something without privileging it over something else, and if you don't have anything to aim at, you don't have any purpose in your life, and that's a bloody catastrophe."[4]

Rules for Using Your Sense of Meaning to Calibrate Your Progress

You can use your sense of meaning to calibrate your progress through life, but there are rules. You have to aim at the highest possible good that you can conceive. Now, and that’s subject to update because what the hell do you know… but you know, START by aiming at the star you can see, rather than the dimmer one you can’t yet perceive. And then you decide you’re going to do that honestly, right, that’s a big decision. So, the first decision I think in some sense is a decision of love. You’re going to decide that being is worthwhile and that you’re going to work for its betterment, and that’s a decision that’s based on love. And the second decision is based on truth. Having made that decision, you’re going to play a STRAIGHT GAME. Having made those TWO decisions, I think that you can allow your sense of meaning to calibrate your pathway. [Citation Needed]  

Interpretations

The meaning of life is proportional to the amount of responsibility that you take.

If you're doing what you should do, it feels meaningful.

If you push out against life and confront it, in a process of continuous transformation, there you find the essential meaning of life

See Also

 

References

  1. ↑ Necessity of Virtue Transcript from memoirsofanamnesic.wordpress.com
  2. ↑ [Quote from Maps of Meaning Book]
  3. ↑ | Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
  4. ↑ Rubin Report
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