My manifesto for life: Version 1
2009-11-25
- Everything is interesting.
- I obtain enjoyment from interest.
- Interest leads to understanding.
- Understanding is my ultimate aim.
- Death is inevitable.
Conclusion: I should attempt to lead a life that includes the maximum amount of experiences possible.
But does enjoyment mean the same thing as happiness? Perhaps it’s no more than a temporary relief from sadness and depression that doesn’t change your base condition?
The key point here is really 1.2.1. My ultimate aim is to understand.
From my personal experience of the world, I have found that all my pursuits of happiness have not come to fruit. I just find myself falling further into this cycle of dissatisfaction.
Have you had a different experience?
With this in mind, I adopted the above world view which might just lead to something greater. I understand the unlikelihood of myself finding the worlds great truths, but if we don’t try, we don’t know. In the meantime it keeps me entertained and focussed.
As a believer of God, I hope you don’t mind if I ask whether this has lead to satisfaction with the life you are leading? Please don’t answer that if you don’t feel comfortable with it.
Many thanks,
Sam
I’m unhappy. I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s because of all my failures, or maybe it’s impatience. I know what my ideal is: getting married, having many kids, living in Israel, and serving my nation. None of that is going on right now, and I feel I’m making little progress towards my goals. OTOH, I feel better now and have undertaken new tasks and discovered new strengths in myself. It’s not like I’m happier now, but my life is fuller with things I find meaningful, and things I had trouble doing are no longer a bother. I guess you can say that as a means for realizing my dream, I am struggling to become the best me I can be. I smile more frequently and my smiles are more genuine than before, when I was a complete bum who did nothing of import all day, yet at the same time feel like tears are only a step away from flowing.
For me, intellectual pursuits, distractions, fun, and entertainment don’t bring happiness but are rather mere temporary reprieve from a general state of misery. The only path I see before me that can lead to something better is making my thoughts and action match what I intellectually know to be true, and those are the laws of God. If my misery stems from this duality, from acting against Gods decrees, then fixing it to the point that I no longer feel filthy from sin (which never gave me any real satisfaction to begin with) should allow me to feel happiness.
I have a pretty good idea what happiness should feel like, and what fun does feel like. In my mind sin is fun, while purity is happiness. Or something like that, since happiness is a state of mind rather than the result of an achievement.
Interesting. It would appear that ‘restless unhappiness’ is perhaps innate in all humans? I used to think that this was why people turned to God, to escape that internal turmoil – but if a firm believer still experiences that same feeling, how can we be sure it is possible to ever avoid it?
Have you ever researched Bhuddism? This is perhaps (IMO) one of the only true ways to happiness. The only place I really believe Bhuddism falls is when it talks of the afterlife.
I think, if God were to manifest himself to me I would want him to explain in what way I should
1) Live my life.
2) Praise him.
From a purely logistical point of view I think that to the uninformed new comer to the potential existence of God I am clueless as to how to praise him – or even if that is in order. This is due to the vast multitude of religions available. Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation or have you been a strong Jew since birth?
Sam
I don’t know a thing about Buddhism. As to me being a firm a believer, there is a great difference between knowing something and feeling it. So while I know there’s a God and what he wants from me, that knowledge is like something that is external to my reality. For the most part, I think and feel like an atheist, I just go through the motions because I know it’s what I should be doing. I see plenty of people around me who feel it, but I don’t.
As to those 2 questions, from the only 2 other religions I am at all familiar with, it would seem Christianity is a little vague on the first and maybe the second as well, while Islam seems to be pretty clear. Judaism is very clear on both when it comes to Jews, but I don’t know about the #2 when it comes to non-Jews.
Anyway, if you were saying the stuff about Buddhism because it’s supposed to be very spiritualistic, Judaism can also be very spiritualistic (for Jews, at least). It all depends on which aspects you focus on. I’m more of a practical and nationalistic person, so I focus on the government aspects.
And there’s no magic bullet. In Judaism you must always work hard to progress, lest you fall down. My analogy is going up an escalator that’s moving down: you must go fast to progress slowly, go slow to stay in place, and to go down you just have to stop struggling to move upwards.