Meaning vs Experience

[dauer]

"I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive."

J. Campbell

Is he correct? Are most people searching more for the experience of living than for the meaning of life? Is the experience of living the meaning of life?

Dauer

 

[ISFP]

hey dauer-

that's very much what i feel to be true about the 'meaning of life'.

what i've always felt is that meaning must be inherent to life- it is our task to find the meaning inherent in the things we do, in our own lives and in life in general. experience must be meaningful to the individual if they are to experience meaning.

 

[iBrian]

Interesting point - and open to different interpretations. After all, "the experience of being alive" somehow seems to overlook stress, pain, and misery of symptoms of being alive (ask the Buddhists about that one. ).

 

[Sacredstar]

While people have goals they appear to have purpose in living the experience, but once the goals are met the meaning of life, hopes and dreams leave them, this is often when people begin to seek the true meaning of life.

Also with life threatening diseases, people tend to wake up very quickly to the futile life they are leading, and so start the search for meaning. There was a case earlier this year when a lady was bullied , she lost faith, hope and the whole purpose of her life for awhile. She felt her whole reason for being had been swept away, to the point that she did not know who she was anymore.

So the experience of life with many different phases, experiences and reasons for being.

I love that question when people ask you 'have you worked out the meaning of life?' because it means that the person asking as got it sussed!

So yes daur, J. Campbell is correct in a majority of cases.


Love beyond measure

Sacredstar