The big picture of life.
- Magical Mindful Living
- Sep 5
- 3 min read
The other day we had a discussion about life. Religion, Atheism and Cults. On the round table with some educated intelligent group of people. And the believes of this group were markedly varied. Everyone had their own expectations about life. However I noticed there are two sub groups. One group believed in searching the meaning of life despite all the chaos. The other group were not interested in searching anything other than what is pleasurable. Leaving everything for the universe. So let's look at it more closely.
What did you do since you work up today. I am sure you were busy with scheduled and unscheduled tasks. Which may or may not be pleasurable. But obviously some of them were to avoid pain rather than pleasure itself. Consider brushing your teeth. You do this because you know the consequences of not brushing will lead you to pain in future with dental caries. Infact in the heart of brushing the teeth there is hedonism. As we expect a better experience in future, although the act itself is not hedonistic.
Let's say you are a math professor. And you are entangled in solving a millennial mathematical question. It's hard and painful process. But you are willing to endure the lengthy process of thinking this problem you will have a reward. You might get it as financial benefit or as a social recognition. The same things a natural hedonist would look for in life. As subtle it may seem everything we do from morning till we are sleep are to avoid physical and mental pain and maximise the pleasure. Infact these are not two different things. The latter is just another way of avoiding the pain of boredom.
Imagine you decided to go to a party. What you expect from here is to entertain yourself with a novel experience of music food and socialising. So you follow the path of a hedonist for the night. It doesn't matter when you come back home you feel like a hollow. But consider the opposite. You decide to not to go to the party. Write a poem, meditate or even spend time with family. I see no fundemental difference in these two choices. As experience Is subjective you have chosen what is better experience for you at that time. Driven by same selfish reasons of a hedonist. But the subtle nature of the latter might even hide the selfish reasons behind your choices and make you feel like you are better at self control than a party animal. Is it true?
The big picture of life
So do we have another definition for life, When we look at the big picture?
Life is a constant struggle to do things to avoid the pain of not doing it.
Just name anything you do. I can show you the component of pain of not doing in it. Money, relationships, medicine wine, anything and everything you search today will serve this purpose. Everything you try to avoid will serve the same purpose too. So we have fundamentally two ways to solve this problem, or attempt at solving.
One is to get material success. You can do it just by following the rules of the society without chasing any meaning of life. It is like treating a disease symptomatically. Yet as the root cause is the diseased mind you will never be able to come out of medicine. Have you seen such people? A billion dollars is not enough for them. A one good vacation is not enough. Winning a one football game is not enough. A happy meal is not enough. Being able to walk is not enough. So what is the opposite? Being content with what you have?
Being content is good enough as long as you understand the true reasons behind this. If it is to avoid the pain of working hard towards a goal I think it's a wrong reason as still your mind is in hedonist framework. But if you understand life and your mind chose to be content as you see no meaning after a thorough search that would be a good reason to be content. More than a choice it looks like the natural conclusion of mind when it understands life. And this is why the searching for the meaning of life matters. As coming to a conclusion and giving up too early might close the door for you to achieve peace before natural death.
Yes.. I think hedonic is just another name for the far right of the spectrum of pleasure. Far left of this might be the pleasure of meditation or peace. Its just a thought
I often see the phrase “the meaning of life.” Which, to me, signifyies going on a philosophical thought journey.
However, perhaps, more often than not, people are instead striving to live a life with meaning. Also laudable.
Sometimes the reason for attending a party is to not for the hedonistic experiences of the party, but to not hurt the feelings of the inviter.
Although maybe that actually is hedonistic. Maybe the real reason for attending the party is to not feel bad for declining the inviter’s invitation.