It is the journey that matters
It’s not the end
Not the kingdom come
It is the journey that matters
– Wanderlust by Nightwishes
I think I know why I’ve been happy recently – I found the meaning of life.
And the funny thing is that I found the meaning of life without actually realizing I found it. The trigger to my realization was a video called Music and Life (by Alan Watts) (it’s short enough, I promise).
Zen … does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
Alan Watts – The Way of Zen, pt. 2, ch. 2 (1957)
I think I’m starting to like this Zen thingy.
As it’s the journey that matters, and not the end, being an inquisitive type, I of course started thinking about the end of the journey. And I found out I’m not really scared. When I’m dead, there will simply be void. The same one there was before I was born (or, before I was conscious (btw, this post is not big enough to contain a discussion about abortion)). It’s actually quite consoling… no matter how bad I fuck up, the worst there can be at the end is void.
The only people who have a reason to be afraid of death are followers of various religions that believe in afterlife. Also, life itself is not the ultimate fun for them, as the eternal afterlife is far more important. Oh well, I just couldn’t do without a little trolling, could I? 
Posted on 2008-04-04 at 11:09 pm, filed under random thoughts, religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
22 Responses to “It is the journey that matters”
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do you know a song by jon lenon called imagine
imagine there is no haven
no hell below us
imagine all the pepole living for today
youre idea is fun but to me its sad
ok then you are just what you are
nothing more
the world is just the world and nothing more
then there is no meaning ?
no reson to live?
no reson to keep on going?
becuse it will all just end in a void
you will just stop to be
you know a few years ago i was thiking about the same thing
the meaning of life is the search for meaning
i realy dont like the idea of an end
we humens create riligan becuse we belive that man has some thing
more
a consciousness
so when you think about you not existing you think about simply
youre consciousness in an empty world
and that idea is just wrong from its core
if you dont exist there is no void
there is nothing youre mind can understand or talk about at all
one if the basic ideas of beliving in some thing is that you belive in some thing you cant understand
and cant ever realise truly
saying that after life is over there is nothing and all is meaningless
is just like saying there is an afterlife you cant understand
i prefere looking in life and phisics and saying look at all the meaning i see before me
how i am just a part of every thing else and every thing is just a part of me
Yes, I know that song…
Life will just end once, but why does that have to mean that there is no reason to live? I think that the fact that life will end once is precisely the reason to try, because I only have one chance to live through my life.
And I don’t think the meaning of life is the search for meaning, the meaning of life is living (yes, it is kind of recursive, but recursion is fun).
When I think about me not existing, I do not think about my consciousness in an empty world. My consciousness will cease to exist, I will have nor negative nor positive feelings. Just very simple void. It makes me feel strangely calm.
When about a void you give it a difencion
the problam is that non existens has no rolls that is the meaning on not existing
you belive that the meaning is to live now not only that saying has no meaning it lucs the reson to keep living and meaning of death
then il try asking some thing else
what is life then?
what is good and what is bad?
you keep saying to try life
to make good out of it
then what is good?
what are you trying?
vi veri viniversem vivus vici (just learnd this qute and fell in love with it i while living have cocqerd the univers)
I had serious problems parsing most of your message.
What is good and what is bad… Well, this is highly subjective. But I’d say that whatever makes you happy is good.
but tasuki just imagine how ironic would it be for you if there would really be an afterlife
Laura: I guess I’d just take it as a freebie
But now that I think about it, eternity actually freaks me out more than death (I have no idea what it would feel like, could I play go, for example?)
Guys do you really think that people would write such things about their personal life? Don’t lie to yourself!
coolcat: huh?
Just to elaborate on that question:
What is your point? Who wrote “such things about their personal life”? (which things?). Who lies to oneself?
Ha ha, a post on Zen and death and immediately there appear comments filled with gibberish…
Oh and I find the question to the “meaning” (wtf is that anyway?) of life to be incomprehensible as well.. As I can make up from you post, your lack of fear of death is what constitutes this “meaning” for you?
sorry i have a realy bad writing problem
if goos i what makes you happy
then why some things make you happy and some dont?
i think you are not understanding what living just ones might realy mean
you say there is no reson to live or to keep going
it will all be over
and all good things will end
most of all if life is just this then where do the ruls of life come from
what is the world
what is life
why every thing changes all the time
and how can you find what makes you happy if you dont know what happyness is?
where did it come from
you see, a meaning of life is some thing that has so many imlecations
if you just live to live
then why do you live this why
and shold you do every thing that makes you happy this one time you live?
have no control?
ignus: Well, the meaning is in the journey. In everyday life. The meaning is to not look forward to distant things too much but to (try to) enjoy whatever you currently happen to be doing (for me, at least).
And it’s not good for one’s overall happiness to be too afraid of death, That was really just a side note, definitely not the main point of my post.
miceal kris
> sorry i have a realy bad writing problem
Well then maybe try to use a spellchecker, or get someone to read it after you, or just try to learn spelling.
> you say there is no reson to live or to keep going
I never said that and I do not think so. Maybe you have a reading problem too. The point of life is not in its end, it is the journey that matters (have you even read the title?).
> it will all be over and all good things will end
Yes, and the bad ones, too. Anyway, I see no reason to concern myself with that too much at the moment.
I am skipping the rest of your post, because what you say just makes no sense. Whenever I manage to decode what you are writing, I discover that you suppose things that are false, and to top it off, you make completely wrong implications from them.
Btw, if this is some kind of april fools joke, I’m gonna totally kick your ass.
you said you found the meaning
the meaning of life is the reason for all things
even for its end
you cant just say
well i think i should just live the moment without thinking about what is to happen
meaning is to say what a thing is and why it is so
how about choosing between what to do
or what happiness to find
they are all a part of the meaning
i think the reason you don’t like the idea of afterlife is the same reason we are all afraid of death
you don’t know what it is really so you put it in a simple frame you do know
a void
“I never said that and I do not think so. Maybe you have a reading problem too. The point of life is not in its end, it is the journey that matters (have you even read the title?).”
ok then you say there is a reason to keep going
then what is it?
just to keep the journey going?
but the journey will end we all know that
what is a good journey then?
what makes it good?
this is where the look for meaning start
ok you say its in the journey
i agree
life is a journey and in it you find many things and many ideas
but this is not a meaning the meaning maybe to find new things and learn so you can become better and help make this a better world
then what is a better world
what sort of good are you looking for and why that good and not another
Well, I didn’t find the reason for all things (not quite yet).
> ok then you say there is a reason to keep going
> then what is it?
> just to keep the journey going?
> but the journey will end we all know that
That’s like not watching movies because they will end, or not doing anything else that will sooner or later end.
> what is a good journey then?
> what makes it good?
This is up for everyone to decide for themselves. But for me, it is the joy of everyday life, the joy of simple seemingly unimportant things. Maybe you should see the movie Amelie.
As for how I can change the world to be the better place… I don’t know how much I can do, but I’m (at least sometimes
) trying.
ahoo no
belive me you can change the world
we all can and we are changing it all the time
wather to make it better well that is youre choise
by the way i did see that movie some time ago
but you know some thing there are so many wonderfull things in thiss world and so much pain too
i think that the art of self change and learning
the art of looking at the parts and thinking of the whole is my way in this world
well good luck then
and mabe we can play go some day too
Ah, I didn’t read closely enough. As a general life-style such a perspective is quite good (I do, however, totally hate the sweety-cutie-happy movie “Amelie”
).
My more philosophical point is that the question: “What is the meaning of life?” makes no sense to me. I don’t know what exactly is meant by “meaning”.
hehehe
so you dont know the meaning of meaning
miceal kris:
I think I can finally agree with you
ignus:
Amelie is a very nice movie, because it’s not only “sweety-cutie-happy” but also very sad at the same time.
> I don’t know what exactly is meant by “meaning”.
What exactly is meant by “meant”? (damn those philosophers)
I’m not squabbling about the definitions of words. The point is that it makes no sense to ask about the meaning of a thing such as life.
The term “meaning” refers to a use, purpose, or intention of something. This means that it only applies to things which are designed by someone (because only then there is a intention or purpose behind it). Life is not such a thing, therefore asking about the “meaning” of it is nonsense. It’s like asking about the “meaning” of a triangle.
There is also the definition of meaning which applies to the “meaning of words”. But this just refers to linguistic content. Scientists may talk about the “meaning” of their results, but by this they mean what their results imply. “Life” cannot “imply” anything in this sense.
You may say that by “meaning” you refer to what can give you a sense of fulfillment in life, how you should life your life, what constitutes a good life etc. etc. But then you have to say this, and not talk about “meaning”.
In any case such a question needs to be clarified; on its own it is not clear what is meant by it. A philosophical dictum says that you understand a question only when you know what possible answers it can have.
Ok, I think there are two possibly different “meanings of life”:
Objective and subjective.
As for objective meaning of life, I don’t know, and I can’t know. As for subjective meaning of life - that’s what I was talking about.
PS: People who consider their subjective meaning of life to be objective meaning of life are dangerous.
why are you so sure that life cant be designed by someone?
and yes the triangle has a meaning
a triangle is an idea and as an idea in basic phlosophy its meaning is in its use it was created as an idea to replace the basic shapes you see in nuters with perfect ideas a humen mind can use and understand
il ask you some thing about a very basic idea
i am sure you know the number pi
3.14…..
what is the meaning of pi
why is that number there
what makes that logic work that way
and is logic some thing that is a part of our world or not
now you can define meanig without looking to difine what logic is and why is it there
psychologist often like to ask nonsensical questions.
Meaning of life?
You’re in cell with your twin brother, there are 2 levers, 5 buttons and a pink elephant. If you slept with your sister, you’re dead. What do you do?
Personally I think it’s mostly rubbish. Although such a statement does say sth about psyche of person who says it naturally. Which is prolly the only mediocre result one can get from this kind of question…