The meaning of life: what is it and does it really exist? What is the meaning of human life? The true meaning of human life

“The misfortune of modern man is great:

he lacks the main thing - the meaning of life"

I.A. Ilyin

None of us like meaningless work. For example, carrying bricks there and then back. Dig “from here until lunch.” If we are asked to do such work, we are inevitably disgusted. Disgust is followed by apathy, aggression, resentment, etc.

Life is also work. And then it becomes clear why a meaningless life (life without meaning) pushes us to the point that we are ready to give up everything that is most valuable, but run away from this lack of meaning. But, fortunately, there is a meaning to life.

And we will definitely find him. I would like you to read it carefully and to the end, despite the length of this article. Reading is also work, but not meaningless, but one that will pay off handsomely.

Why does a person need a meaning in life?

Why does a person need to know the meaning of life, is it possible to somehow live without it?

No animal needs this understanding. It is the desire to understand the purpose of one’s coming into this world that distinguishes man from animals. Man is the highest of living beings; it is not enough for him to just eat and reproduce. Limiting his needs only to physiology, he cannot be truly happy. Having meaning in life gives us a goal to which we can strive. The meaning of life is the measure of what is important and what is not, what is useful and what is harmful to achieving our main goal. It is a compass that shows us the direction of our lives.

In such a complex world in which we live, it is very difficult to do without a compass. Without it, we inevitably lose our way, end up in a labyrinth, and run into dead ends. This is exactly what I was talking about eminent philosopher antiquity Seneca: “He who lives without a goal ahead always wanders” .

Day after day, month after month, year after year we wander through dead ends, seeing no way out. Ultimately, this chaotic journey leads us to despair. And now, stuck in yet another dead end, we feel that we no longer have the strength or desire to move on. We understand that we are doomed to fall from one dead end to another throughout our lives. And then the thought of suicide arises. Indeed, why live if you can’t get out of this terrible labyrinth?

That is why it is so important to strive to resolve this question about the meaning of life.

How to evaluate how true a certain meaning in life is

We see a man doing something in the mechanism of his car. Does what he's doing make sense or not? Strange question, you say. If he fixes the car and takes his family to the dacha (or his neighbor to the clinic), then, of course, there is. And if he spends the whole day tinkering with his broken-down car, instead of devoting time to his family, helping his wife, reading good book, and doesn’t drive it anywhere, then, of course, there’s no point.

That's how it is with everything. The meaning of an activity is determined by its result.

The meaning of human life also needs to be assessed through the outcome. The result for a person is the moment of death. There is nothing more certain than the moment of death. If we are entangled in the labyrinth of life and cannot unwind this tangle from the beginning in order to find the meaning of life, let's unwind it from the other, obvious and precisely known end - death.

It was this approach that M.Yu. wrote about. Lermontov:

We drink from the cup of existence

with closed eyes,

golden edges wetted

with your own tears;

when before death out of sight

the string falls off

and everything that deceived us

falls with a string;

then we see that it is empty

there was a golden cup,

that there was a drink in it - a dream,

and that she is not ours!

ILLUSORY MEANINGS OF LIFE

The most primitive answers to the question about the meaning of life

Among the answers to the question about the meaning of life, there are three of the most primitive and stupid. Usually such answers are given by people who have not seriously thought about this issue. They are so primitive and devoid of logic that there is no point in dwelling on them in detail. Let's take a quick look at these answers, the real purpose of which is to justify our laziness and not working to find the meaning of life.

1. “Everyone lives like this without thinking, and I will live too”

Firstly, not everyone lives like this. Secondly, are you sure that these “everyone” are happy? And are you happy, living “like everyone else” without thinking? Thirdly, look at everyone, everyone has their own life, and everyone builds it themselves. And when something doesn’t work out, you won’t have to blame “everyone”, but yourself... Fourthly, sooner or later, the majority of “everyone”, finding themselves in some serious crisis, will still think about the meaning of their existence.

So maybe you shouldn’t focus on “everyone”? Seneca also warned: “When the question arises about the meaning of life, people never reason, but always believe others, and meanwhile, in vain it is dangerous to join those ahead.” Maybe we should listen to these words?

2. “The meaning of life is to understand this very meaning” (The meaning of life is in life itself)

Although these phrases are beautiful, pretentious, and may work in a group of children or low-intelligent people, they have no meaning. If you think about it, it is clear that the process of searching for meaning cannot at the same time be the meaning itself.

Any person understands that the meaning of sleep is not to sleep, but to restore the body’s systems. We understand that the meaning of breathing is not to breathe, but to allow oxidative processes to occur in cells, without which life is impossible. We understand that the point of work is not just to work, but to benefit yourself and the people at this job. So talk about how the meaning of life is to seek the meaning itself are childish excuses for those who do not want to think about it seriously. This is a convenient philosophy for those who do not want to admit that they have no meaning in life and do not want to look for it.

And putting off understanding the meaning of life until the end of this life is like wanting to get a ticket to a luxury resort on your deathbed. What's the point of something you can't use anymore?

3. “There is no meaning in life” .

The logic here is: “I didn’t find meaning, so it doesn’t exist.” The word “find” implies that a person took some action to search (for meaning). However, in truth, how many of those who claim that there is no meaning have actually looked for it? Wouldn’t it be more honest to say: “I haven’t tried to find the meaning of life, but I believe there is none.”

Do you like this saying? It hardly looks reasonable, rather it just sounds childish. To a wild Papuan, a calculator, skis, or a cigarette lighter in a car may seem completely unnecessary, meaningless. He just doesn't know what this item is for! To understand the benefits of these items, you need to study them from all sides, try to understand how to use them correctly.

Someone will object: “I was really looking for meaning.” Here the next question arises: were you looking for him there?

Self-realization as the meaning of life

Very often you can hear that the meaning of life is self-realization. Self-realization is the realization of one’s capabilities in order to achieve success. You can realize yourself in different areas of life: family, business, art, politics, etc.

This view is not new; Aristotle believed so. He said that the meaning of life is in a valiant life, success and achievements. And it is in this self-development that the majority now sees the meaning of life.

A person, of course, must realize himself. But making self-realization the main meaning of life is wrong.

Why? Let's think about this considering the inevitability of death. What difference does it make - a person self-realized and died, or did not self-realize, but also died. Death will make these two people equal. Successes in life cannot be taken to the next world!

We can say that the fruits of this very self-realization will remain on earth. But firstly, these fruits are not always of good quality, and secondly, even if they are of the best quality, then the person who left them is of no use. He cannot take advantage of the results of his successes. He is dead.

Imagine that you have managed to realize yourself - you are a famous politician, a great artist, writer, military leader or journalist. And here you are... at your own funeral. Cemetery. Autumn, it’s drizzling, leaves are flying to the ground. Or maybe it’s summer, the birds are enjoying the sun. Words of admiration for you sound over the open coffin: “How happy I am for the deceased!N did this and that very well. He embodied all those abilities that were given to him not just 100%, but 150%!”...

If you come to life for a second, will such speeches console you?..

Memory as the meaning of life

Another answer to the question about the meaning of life: “To leave my mark, to be remembered.” At the same time, it happens that a person does not even care whether he leaves a good memory or a not very good one about himself. The main thing is “to be remembered!” For this reason, many people strive in every possible way for fame, popularity, fame, to become a “famous person.”

Of course, a good memory has some value for eternity - it is the grateful memory of our descendants about us, who left them gardens, houses, books. But how long will this memory last? Do you have a grateful memory of your great-grandfathers? What about great-great-grandfathers?.. No one will be remembered forever.

In general, a person’s external achievements (that very realization) and the memory of others about these successes are correlated like a sandwich and the smell of a sandwich. If the sandwich itself is useless, then even more so - you won’t get enough of its smell.

What will we care about this memory when we die? We won't be there anymore. So is it worth dedicating your life to “making a mark” then? No one will be able to benefit from their fame when they leave this world. No one can estimate the degree of his fame in the grave.

Imagine yourself again at your own funeral. The one who is entrusted with the funeral speech is intensely thinking about what good things to say about you. “We are burying a difficult person! That's how many people came here to see him off on his last journey. Few receive such attention. But this is only a faint reflection of the glory thatN had during his lifetime. Many envied him. They wrote about him in the newspapers. On the house whereN lived, a memorial plaque will be fixed...”

Dead man, wake up for a second! Listen up! Will these words make you very happy?..

The meaning of life is to preserve beauty and health

Although ancient Greek philosopher Metrodorus argued that the meaning of life is in the strength of the body and in the firm hope that one can rely on it, but most people still understand that this cannot be the meaning.

It is difficult to find something more meaningless than living for the sake of maintaining one’s own health and appearance. If a person takes care of his health (plays sports, exercises, undergoes preventive medical examinations in a timely manner), then this can only be welcomed. We are talking about something else, about a situation where maintaining health, beauty, and longevity becomes the meaning of life. If a person, seeing the meaning only in this, gets involved in the struggle for the preservation and decoration of his body, he condemns himself to inevitable defeat. Death will still win this battle. All this beauty, all this imaginary health, all these pumped up muscles, all these experiments on rejuvenation, solariums, liposuction, silver threads, braces will leave nothing behind. The body will go underground and rot, as befits protein structures.

Now you are an old pop star who grew young until your last breath. There are many talkative people in show business who will always find something to say in any situation, including at a funeral: “Oh, what a beauty died! What a pity that she couldn’t please us for another 800 years. It seemed that death no longer had power overN! How unexpectedly this death snatched her from our ranks at the age of 79! She showed everyone how to overcome old age!”

Wake up, dead body! Would it make you happy to evaluate how you lived?

Consumption, pleasure as the meaning of life

“Acquiring things and consuming them cannot give meaning to our lives... The accumulation of material things cannot fill

the emptiness of life for those who lack confidence and purpose.”

(Millionaire merchant Savva Morozov)

The philosophy of consumption did not appear today. Another famous ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC), who believed that the meaning of life is to avoid troubles and suffering, receive pleasures from life, achieve peace and bliss. One could also call this philosophy the cult of pleasure.

This cult also reigns in modern society. But even Epicurus stipulated that one cannot live only for the sake of pleasure, while not being consistent with ethics. We have now reached the reign of hedonism (in other words, life only for the sake of pleasure), in which no one particularly agrees with ethics. We are tuned into this by advertising, articles in magazines, television talk shows, endless series, reality shows. This permeates our entire everyday life. Everywhere we hear, see, read calls to live for our own pleasure, to take everything from life, to seize the moment of luck, to “have a blast” to the fullest...

The cult of consumption is closely connected with the cult of pleasure. In order to have fun, we must buy, win, order something. Then consume it, and do it all over again: see an advertisement, buy it, use it for its intended purpose, enjoy it. It begins to seem to us that the meaning of life lies in using what is advertised everywhere, namely: certain goods, services, sensual pleasures (“sex”); enjoyable experiences (travel); real estate; various “readings” (glossy magazines, cheap detective stories, romance novels, books based on TV series), etc.

Thus, we (not without the help of the media, but of our own free will) turn ourselves into meaningless half-humans, half-animals, whose task is only to eat, drink, sleep, walk, drink, satisfy the sexual instinct, dress up... Man myself reduces himself to such a level, limiting the purpose of his life to the satisfaction of primitive needs.

Nevertheless, having tried all imaginable pleasures by a certain age, a person becomes satiated and feels that, despite various pleasures, his life is empty and something important is missing from it. What? Meaning. After all, there is no point in finding pleasure.

Pleasure cannot be the meaning of existence, if only because it passes and, therefore, ceases to be pleasure. Any need is satisfied only for a certain time, and then it manifests itself again and again, and with renewed vigor. In our pursuit of pleasure, we are like drug addicts: we get some pleasure, it soon passes, we need the next dose of pleasure - but it also passes... But we need this pleasure, our whole life is built on this. Moreover, the more pleasure we get, the more we want again, because... needs always grow in proportion to the degree of their satisfaction. All this is similar to the life of a drug addict, with the only difference being that the drug addict is chasing the drug, and we are chasing various other pleasures. It also resembles a donkey running after a carrot tied in front: we want to catch it, but we can’t catch up... It’s unlikely that any of us consciously want to be like such a donkey.

So, if you think seriously, it is obvious that pleasure cannot be the meaning of life. It is quite natural that a person who considers his goal in life to be pleasure, sooner or later comes to a serious mental crisis. For example, in the USA, about 45% of people take antidepressants, despite high level life.

We consume, consume, consume... and live as if we will consume forever. However, we have death ahead of us - and everyone knows this for certain.

Now over your coffin they can say this: “What a rich lifeN lived! We, his relatives, have not seen him for months. Today he is in Paris, tomorrow in Bombay. One could only envy such a life. How many different pleasures there were in his life! He was truly lucky, the darling of fate! How manyN changed cars and, sorry, wives! His house was and remains a full cup..."

Open one eye and look at the world you left behind. Do you think you lived your life as it should?

The meaning of life is the achievement of power

It's no secret that there are people who live to increase their power over others. This is exactly how Nietzsche tried to explain the meaning of life. He said that the meaning of human life is the desire for power. True, the very history of his life (madness, heavy death, poverty) began to refute this statement during his lifetime...

Power-hungry people see the point in proving to themselves and others that they can rise above others, achieve what others could not. So what's the point? Is it that a person can have an office, appoint and fire, take bribes, make important decisions? Is this the point? In order to gain and maintain power, they earn money, look for and maintain the necessary business connections and do much more, often overstepping their conscience...

In our opinion, in such a situation, power is also a kind of drug, from which a person receives unhealthy pleasure and without which he can no longer live, and which requires a constant increase in the “dose” of power.

Is it reasonable to see the meaning of your life in the exercise of power over people? On the threshold of life and death, looking back, a person will understand that he has lived his whole life in vain, what he lived for leaves him, and he is left with nothing. Hundreds of thousands had enormous, and sometimes even incredible power (remember Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Hitler). But at one point they lost her. And what?

The government has never made anyone immortal. After all, what happened to Lenin is far from immortality. How great is the joy in becoming, after death, a stuffed animal and an object of curiosity for the crowd, like a monkey in a zoo?

There are many armed guards at your funeral. Examining glances. They are afraid of a terrorist attack. Yes, you yourself did not die a natural death. The guests, dressed in immaculate black, look alike. The one who “ordered” you is also here, expressing condolences to the widow. In a well-trained voice, someone reads from a piece of paper: “...Life is always in sight, although constantly surrounded by guards. Many people envied him, he had many enemies. This is inevitable given the scale of leadership, the scale of power that he hadN... Such a person will be very difficult to replace, but we hope thatNN, appointed to this post, will continue everything he startedN..."

If you heard this, would you understand that your life was not in vain?

The meaning of life is to increase material wealth

The 19th century English philosopher John Mill saw the meaning of human life in achieving profit, benefit, and success. It must be said that Mill's philosophy was a target for ridicule by almost all of his contemporaries. Up until the 20th century, Mill's views were exotic views that were supported by virtually no one. And in the last century the situation has changed. Many people believed that meaning could be found in this illusion. Why in illusion?

Nowadays, many people think that a person lives to earn money. It is in the increase of wealth (and not in the pleasure of spending it, as we discussed above) that they see the meaning of their lives.

It is very strange. If everything that can be bought with money is not meaning - pleasure, memory, power, then how can money itself be meaning? After all, not a single penny or billions of dollars can be used after death.

A rich funeral will be little consolation. A dead body is no better off from the softness of the upholstery of an expensive coffin. Dead eyes are indifferent to the shine of an expensive hearse.

And again the cemetery. Place next to famous ones. The grave site is already paved with tiles. For the cost of the coffin, the poor young man could be educated at the university. A cloud of mutual hatred swirls over a group of relatives: not everyone is happy with the division of the inheritance. Even in admiring speeches, hidden gloating slips through: “N was the chosen man. A combination of luck, will and perseverance helped him achieve such success in business. I think if he had lived another 3 years, we would have seen his name on Forbes magazine's list of the world's largest billionaires. We, who knew him for many years, could only watch with admiration how high our friend had soared..."

If you were to break the silence of death for a moment, what would you say?

There will be something to remember in old age

Some say: “Yes, of course, when you are lying on your deathbed, everything loses its meaning. But at least there was something to remember! For example, many countries, fun parties, a good and satisfying life, etc.” Let's honestly examine this version of the meaning of life - to live only so that there is something to remember before death.

For example, we had a well-fed, full of impressions, rich and fun life. And at the last line we can remember the whole past. Will this bring joy? No, it won't. It won’t bring it because this good thing has already passed, and time cannot be stopped. Joy can only be obtained in the present from what was truly good for others. Because in this case, what you did lives on. The world remains to live with the good that you have done for it. But you won’t be able to feel the joy of what you enjoyed yourself with - going to resorts, throwing away money, having power, satisfying your vanity and self-esteem. It won’t work because you are mortal, and soon there will be no memories of this. All this will die.

What joy does a hungry man have in the fact that he once had the opportunity to overeat? There is no joy, but on the contrary, pain. After all, the contrast between the good “before” and the terribly bad and hungry “today” and absolutely no “tomorrow” is too clearly visible.

For example, an alcoholic cannot be happy because he drank a lot yesterday. This is exactly what makes him feel bad today. And he can’t remember yesterday’s vodka and thus gets a hangover. He needs her now. And real, not in memories.

During this temporary life, we can have many things that we think are good. But we cannot take anything with us from this life except our soul.

For example, we came to the bank. And we are given the opportunity to come to the bank vault and take any amount of money. We can hold as much money as we want in our hands, fill our pockets, fall into heaps of this money, throw it around, sprinkle ourselves with it, but... we cannot go beyond the bank vault with it. These are the conditions. Tell me, you were holding countless sums in your hands, but what will this give you when you leave the bank?

Separately, I would like to make an argument for people who want to commit suicide. The futility of good memories should be obvious to you, more than anyone else. And you had good moments in your life. But now, remembering them, you don’t feel better.

ONE OF THE OBJECTIVES OF LIFE, BUT NOT THE MEANING

The meaning of life is living for loved ones

Very often it seems to us that living for the sake of loved ones is precisely the main meaning. Many people see the meaning of their lives in a loved one, in a child, spouse, less often - a parent. They often say: “I live for him,” they live not their own, but his life.

Of course, loving your loved ones, sacrificing something for them, helping them go through life - this is necessary, natural and correct. Most people on earth want to live, enjoying their family, raising children, taking care of their parents and friends.

But can this be the main meaning of life?

No, idolize loved ones, see only meaning in them all life, all your affairs - this is a dead end path.

This can be understood using a simple metaphor. A person who sees the whole meaning of his life in a loved one is like a football (or other sports) fan. A fan is no longer just a fan, he is a person who lives for sports, lives for the successes and failures of the team of which he is a supporter. He says: “my team”, “we lost”, “we have prospects”... He identifies himself with the players on the field: it’s as if he himself is kicking a soccer ball, he rejoices at their victory as if it were his victory . They often say: “Your victory is my victory!” And on the contrary, he perceives the defeat of his favorites extremely painfully, as a personal failure. And if for some reason he is deprived of the opportunity to watch a match involving “his” club, he feels as if he has been deprived of oxygen, as if life itself is passing him by... From the outside, this fan looks ridiculous, his behavior and attitude to life seems inadequate and even simply stupid. But don’t we look the same when we see the meaning of our whole life in another person?

It’s easier to be a fan than to play sports yourself: it’s easier to watch a match on TV, sitting on the couch with a bottle of beer, or at the stadium surrounded by noisy friends, than to run around the field after the ball yourself. Here you are cheering for “your own” - and it seems like you’ve already played football... A person becomes identified with those for whom he is rooting, and the person is happy with this: there is no need to train, waste time and effort, you can take a passive position and at the same time gain weight strong emotions, almost the same as if you were playing sports yourself. But there are no costs that are inevitable for the athlete himself.

We do the same if the meaning of our life is another person. We identify ourselves with him, we live not our lives, but his. We rejoice not in our own, but exclusively in his joys; sometimes we even forget about the most important needs of our soul for the sake of small everyday needs loved one. And we do this for the same reason: because it is easier. It’s easier to build someone else’s life and correct other people’s shortcomings than to engage with your soul and work on it. It’s easier to take the position of a fan, to “cheer” for a loved one, without working on yourself, simply giving up on your spiritual life, on the development of your soul.

However, any person is mortal, and if he has become the meaning of your life, then having lost him, you will almost inevitably lose the desire to live further. A serious crisis will come, from which you can only get out of it by finding a different meaning. You can, of course, “switch” to another person and now live for him. People often do this because... they are accustomed to such a symbiotic relationship and simply do not know how to live differently. Thus, a person is constantly in an unhealthy psychological dependence on another, and he cannot recover from it, because he does not understand that he is sick.

By transferring the meaning of our life onto the life of another person, we lose ourselves, completely dissolve in another - a mortal person like us. We sacrifice for the sake of this person, who also will not necessarily be gone someday. When we reach the last line, don't we ask ourselves: What did we live for? They wasted their whole soul on the temporary, on something that would swallow up death without a trace, they created an idol for themselves out of a loved one, in fact, they lived not their own destiny, but theirs... Is it worth dedicating your life to this?

Some live not someone else’s life, but their own life with the hope that they can leave their loved ones an inheritance, material values, status, etc. Only we know very well that this is not always good. Unearned values ​​can corrupt, descendants can remain ungrateful, something can happen to the descendants themselves and the thread can break. In this case, it turns out that by living only for others, the person himself lived his life without meaning.

The meaning of life is work, creativity

“The most precious thing for a person is life. And you need to live it in such a way that there is no excruciating pain for the years spent aimlessly, so that, when dying, you can say: all your life and all your strength were given to the most beautiful thing in the world - the struggle for the liberation of humanity.”

(Nikolai Ostrovsky)

Another common answer to the question about the meaning of life is work, creativity, some "life's work". Everyone knows the common formula for a “successful” life - give birth to a child, build a house, plant a tree. As for the child, we discussed this briefly above. What about "house and tree"?

If we see the meaning of our existence in any activity, even useful for society, in creativity, in work, then we, being thinking people, will sooner or later think about the question: “What will happen to all this when I die? And what use will all this be to me when I’m lying dying?” After all, we all understand perfectly well that neither a house nor a tree is eternal, they will not last even several hundred years... And those activities to which we devoted all our time, all our strength - if they did not bring benefit to our soul, then did they? do they make sense? We will not take with us any fruits of our labor to the grave - neither works of art, nor the gardens of trees we planted, nor our most ingenious scientific developments, nor our favorite books, nor power, nor the largest bank accounts...

Isn’t this what Solomon was talking about, looking back at the end of his life at all his great achievements that were the deeds of his life? “I, Ecclesiastes, was king over Israel in Jerusalem... I undertook great things: I built myself houses, planted myself vineyards, built myself gardens and groves, and planted all kinds of fruitful trees in them; made himself reservoirs to irrigate groves of trees from them; I acquired servants and maidservants, and I had household members; I also had more large and small livestock than all those who were in Jerusalem before me; collected for himself silver and gold and jewelry from kings and regions; He brought in singers and singers and the delights of the sons of men - various musical instruments. And I became great and rich more than all those who were in Jerusalem before me; and my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired, I did not refuse them, I did not forbid my heart any joy, because my heart rejoiced in all my labors, and this was my share from all my labors. And I looked back at all my works that my hands had done, and at the labor that I labored in doing them: and behold, everything is vanity and vexation of spirit, and there is no benefit from them under the sun!(Eccl. 1, 12; 2, 4-11).

“Life’s affairs” are different. For one, the work of life is serving culture, another is serving the people, a third is serving science, and a fourth is serving for the sake of the “bright future of descendants,” as he understands it.

The author of the epigraph, Nikolai Ostrovsky, selflessly served the “cause of life”, served “red” literature, the cause of Lenin and dreamed of communism. A courageous man, an efficient and talented writer, a convinced ideological warrior, he lived in the “struggle for the liberation of mankind,” and gave his life and all his strength to this struggle. Not many years have passed, and we do not see this liberated humanity. Again he was enslaved, the property of this free humanity was divided among the oligarchs. The dedication and ideological spirit extolled by Ostrovsky is now a target for ridicule by the masters of life. It turns out that he lived for a bright future, raised people to heroic deeds with his creativity, and now these feats are used by those who don’t care about Ostrovsky or the people. And this can happen with any “life’s work.” Even if it helps generations of other people (how many of us are capable of doing so much for humanity?), it still cannot help the person himself. After death this will not be a consolation for him.

IS LIFE A TRAIN TO NOWHERE?

Here is an excerpt from Yulia Ivanova’s wonderful book “Dense Doors”. In this book, a young man, the darling of fate, Ganya, living in the godless times of the USSR, having a good education, successful parents, prospects thinking about the meaning of life: “Ganya was surprised to discover that modern humanity does not think much about this. Naturally, no one wants global disasters, nuclear or environmental, but in general we go and go... Some still believe in progress, although with the development of civilization the likelihood of falling down a nuclear, environmental or other slope increases greatly. Others would gladly turn the locomotive back and make all sorts of rosy plans about it, but the majority simply travels in an unknown direction, knowing only one thing - sooner or later you will be thrown out of the train. Forever. And he will rush on, a train of suicide bombers. A death sentence hangs over everyone, hundreds of generations have already replaced each other, and there is no escape or hiding. The verdict is final and cannot be appealed. And passengers try to act as if they have to travel forever. They make themselves comfortable in the compartment, change the rugs and curtains, make acquaintances, give birth to children - so that the offspring will occupy your compartment when they throw you out. A kind of illusion of immortality! Children, in turn, will be replaced by grandchildren, grandchildren - great-grandchildren... Poor humanity! The train of life that became the train of death. The dead who have already descended are hundreds of times more numerous than the living. And they, the living ones, are condemned. Here are the conductor's steps - they came for someone. Isn't it after you? Feast in Time of Plague. They eat, drink, have fun, play cards, chess, collect match labels, fill their suitcases, although they are required to leave without their belongings. And others make touching plans for the reconstruction of a compartment, their carriage, or even the entire train. Or carriage goes to war against carriage, compartment against compartment, shelf against shelf in the name of the happiness of future passengers. Millions of lives are derailed ahead of schedule, and the train rushes on. And these craziest passengers merrily kill a goat on the suitcases of beautiful-hearted dreamers.”

This is the gloomy picture that opened up to young Ghana after much thought about the meaning of life. It turned out that every life goal turns into the greatest injustice and nonsense. Assert yourself and disappear.

Spend your life to benefit future passengers and make room for them? Beautiful! But they are also mortal, these future passengers. All humanity consists of mortals, which means your life is dedicated to death. And if one of the people achieves immortality, is immortality on the bones of millions really fair?

Okay, let's take the consumer society. The most ideal option is to give according to your abilities and receive according to your needs. There may, of course, be the most terrible needs, and abilities too... To live in order to live. Eat, drink, have fun, give birth, go to the theater or go to the races... Leave behind a mountain of empty bottles, worn-out shoes, dirty glasses, sheets burned by cigarettes...

Well, if we put aside the extremes... Get on the train, sit in your seat, behave decently, do what you want, just don’t disturb other passengers, give up the lower bunks to ladies and old people, don’t smoke in the carriage. Before leaving for good, hand over your bed linen to the conductor and turn off the lights.

Everything ends in zero anyway. The meaning of life is not found. The train is going nowhere...

As you understand, as soon as we begin to look at the meaning of life from the point of view of its finitude, our illusions begin to rapidly disappear. We begin to understand that what seemed to us the meaning at some stages of life cannot become the meaning of the existence of our entire life.

But is there really no point? No, he is. And it has long been known thanks to Bishop Augustine. It was Blessed Augustine who made greatest revolution in philosophy, explained, proved and substantiated the existence of the meaning that we seek in life.

Let us quote the International Philosophical Journal: “Thanks to the philosophical views of Bl. Augustine, Christian religious teachings allow us to make logical and complete formations to find the meaning of human existence. In Christian philosophy, the question of faith in God is the main condition for the existence of meaning in life. At the same time, in materialistic philosophy, where human life is finite and there is nothing beyond its threshold, the very existence of a condition for resolving this issue becomes impossible and in full height Unsolvable problems arise"

Let us also try to find the meaning of life on a different plane. Try to understand what is written below. We do not aim to impose our point of view on you, but only provide information that can answer many of your questions.

THE MEANING OF LIFE: WHERE IT IS

“He who knows his meaning also sees his purpose.

The purpose of man is to be a vessel and instrument of the Divine.”

(Ignatiy Brianchaninov )

Was the meaning of life known before us?

If you look for the meaning of life among the above, then it is impossible to find it. And it is not surprising that, trying to find it there, a person despairs and comes to the conclusion that there is no point. But in reality he's just I was looking in the wrong place...

Metaphorically, the search for meaning can be depicted as follows. A person looking for meaning and not finding it is like to a lost traveler, finding himself in a ravine and looking for the right road. He wanders among the thick, thorny, tall bushes growing in the ravine, and there tries to find a way out to the road from which he has lost his way, to the path that will lead him to his goal.

But it is impossible to find the right path this way. You must first climb out of the ravine, climb the mountain - and from there, from above, you can see the right path. Likewise, we, who are looking for the meaning of life, need to first change our point of view, because we cannot see anything from the hole of a hedonistic worldview. Without making certain efforts, we will never get out of this hole, and we will certainly never find the right path to understanding life.

So, you can understand the true, deep meaning of life only by working hard, only by acquiring some necessary knowledge. And this knowledge, what is most surprising, is available to each of us. We just don’t pay attention to these treasure troves of knowledge, we pass by them without noticing or contemptuously brushing them aside. But the question of the meaning of life has been raised by humanity at all times. All people of previous generations faced exactly the same problems that we face. There has always been betrayal, envy, emptiness of the soul, despair, deception, betrayal, troubles, disasters and illnesses. And people knew how to rethink and cope with it. And we can use the colossal experience that previous generations have accumulated. It is not necessary to reinvent the wheel - in fact, it was already invented a long time ago. All we have to do is learn how to ride it. Still, we can’t come up with anything better or more ingenious.

Why do we, when it comes to scientific developments, medical advances, useful inventions that make our life easier, a variety of practical knowledge in one or another professional field and so on. - we widely use the experience and discoveries of our ancestors, and in matters as important as the meaning of life, the existence and immortality of the soul - we consider ourselves smarter than all previous generations, and with pride (often with contempt) we reject their knowledge, their experience, and more often do we reject everything in advance, without even studying or trying to understand? Is this reasonable?

Doesn’t it seem more reasonable to do the following: study the experience and achievements of our ancestors, or at least get acquainted with them, reflect, and only then draw a conclusion for ourselves whether previous generations were right or not, whether their experience can be useful to us, whether it is worth should we learn from their wisdom? Why do we reject their knowledge without even trying to understand it? Is it because it's the easiest?

Indeed, it doesn’t take much intelligence to say that our ancestors thought primitively, and we are much smarter and more progressive than them. It is very easy to assert unfoundedly. But studying the wisdom of previous generations will not be possible without difficulty. You must first get acquainted with their experience, their knowledge, let their philosophy of life pass through you, try to live in accordance with it for at least a few days, and then evaluate what this approach to life brings In fact- joy or melancholy, hope or despair, peace of mind or confusion, light or darkness. And then a person will be able to rightfully judge whether the meaning that his ancestors saw in their lives was correct.

Life is like a school

What, exactly, did our ancestors see as the meaning of life? After all, this question has been raised by humanity for centuries.

The answer has always been in self-development, in a person’s education of himself, his eternal soul, and in bringing her closer to God. Christians, Buddhists, and Muslims thought this way. Everyone recognized the existence of the immortality of the soul. And then the conclusion seemed quite logical: if the soul is immortal and the body is mortal, then it is unreasonable (and even simply stupid) to devote one’s short life to serving the body and its pleasures. Because the body will die, it means putting all your strength into satisfying its needs is pointless. (Which, in fact, is confirmed these days by desperate materialists who have come to the point of suicide.)

So, the meaning of life, our ancestors believed, should be sought in the good not for the body, but for the soul. After all, she is immortal, and will be able to enjoy the acquired benefit forever. Who wouldn't want eternal pleasure?

However, in order for the soul to be able to enjoy not only here on earth, it is necessary to teach it, educate it, elevate it, otherwise it will not be able to accommodate the boundless joy that is destined for it.

That's why life is possible, in particular, imagine it as a school. This simple metaphor helps us get closer to understanding life. Life is a school where a person comes to educate his soul. This is the main purpose of going to school. Yes, at school there is a lot of other things besides lessons: recess, communication with classmates, football after school, extracurricular activities - visits to theaters, hikes, holidays... However, all this is secondary. Yes, perhaps it would be more pleasant if we came to school only to run around, chat, walk in the school yard... But then we would not learn anything, would not receive a certificate, would not be able to receive further education, nor work.

So we come to school to study. But studying for the sake of studying itself is also meaningless. We study to gain knowledge, skills and get a certificate, and then go to work and live. If we assume that after graduation there will be NOTHING else, then, of course, there is no point in attending school. And no one argues with this. But in reality, life continues after school, and school is just one of its stages. And the “quality” of our subsequent life largely depends on how responsibly we treated our education at school. A person who leaves school, believing that he does not need the knowledge taught there, will remain illiterate and uneducated, and this will bother him throughout his entire life.

A person who, upon coming to school, immediately rejects all the knowledge accumulated before him, without even familiarizing himself with it, acts just as stupidly, to his own detriment; claims that he does not believe them, that all the discoveries made before him are nonsense. The comicality and absurdity of such a self-confident rejection of all accumulated knowledge is obvious to everyone.

But, unfortunately, not everyone is aware of the even greater absurdity of a similar rejection in a situation when it comes to understanding the deep foundations of life. But ours earthly life is also a school - school for the soul. It is given to us in order to form our soul, teach it to truly love, teach it to see good in the world around us, to create it.

On the path of self-development and self-education, we will inevitably encounter difficulties, just as studying at school cannot always be easy. Each of us understands perfectly well that any more or less responsible business is associated with various kinds of difficulties, and it would be strange to expect that such a serious matter as the education and upbringing of the soul will be easy. But these problems and trials are also needed for something - they in themselves are a very important factor in the development of the soul. And if we do not teach our soul to love, to strive for light and goodness while we are still living on earth, then it will not be able to receive endless pleasure in eternity, simply because it incapable will perceive goodness and love.

Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets said wonderfully: “This century is not for living it happily, but for passing exams and moving on to another life. Therefore, we must have the following goal: to prepare ourselves so that, when God calls us, we can leave with a clear conscience, soar to Christ and be with Him always.”

Life as preparation for birth into a new reality

One more metaphor can be cited in this context. During pregnancy, the unborn baby's body grows from one cell to a fully formed human being. And the main task of the intrauterine period is to ensure that the child’s development proceeds correctly and to the end, so that by the time of birth the child takes the correct position and can be born in new life.

A nine-month stay in the womb is also, in a sense, a whole life. The child is born there, develops, he feels good there in his own way - food arrives on time, the temperature is constant, he is reliably protected from external factors... However, at a certain time the child needs to be born; no matter how good it may seem to him in his mother’s belly, such joys, such events await him in his new life that are simply incomparable with the seeming convenience of intrauterine existence. And in order to get into this life, the baby goes through severe stress (such as childbirth), experiences unprecedented pain... But the joy of meeting his mother and the new world is stronger than this pain, and life in the world is a million times more interesting and pleasant , more diverse than existence in the womb.

Our life on earth is similar - it can be likened to the period of intrauterine existence. The purpose of this life is the development of the soul, the preparation of the soul for birth into a new, incomparably more beautiful life in eternity. And just as in the case of a newborn baby, the “quality” of the new life in which we find ourselves directly depends on how correctly we developed in the “past” life. And the sorrows that we encounter life path, can be likened to the stress experienced by a baby during childbirth: they are temporary, although they sometimes seem endless; they are inevitable, and everyone goes through them; they are insignificant compared to the joy and pleasure of a new life.

Or another example: the task of a caterpillar is to develop to such an extent that it can then become a beautiful butterfly. To do this, certain laws must be followed. The caterpillar cannot imagine that it will fly and how it will fly. This is birth into a new life. And this life is fundamentally different from the life of a down-to-earth caterpillar.

Life as a business project

Another metaphor that explains the meaning of life is the following:

Let's imagine that a kind person gave you an interest-free loan so that you could implement your own business project and with its help you could earn money for your future life. The loan term is equal to the duration of your earthly life. The better you invest this money, the richer and more comfortable your life will be at the end of the project.

One will invest a loan in a business, and the other will begin to eat this money, organize drinking parties, partying, but just not work on increasing this amount. In order not to think and not to work, he will find a bunch of reasons and excuses - “no one loves me”, “I’m weak”, “why earn for a future life if you don’t know what will happen there, it’s better to live now, and then we’ll see” and .etc. Naturally, friends immediately appear who want to spend this loan with the person (it’s not for them to answer later). They convince him that there is no need to repay the debt, that the One who gave the loan does not exist (or that the fate of the debtor is indifferent to Him). They convince that if there is a loan, then it should be spent on a good and cheerful present life, and not on the future. If a person agrees with them, then the party begins. As a result, a person comes to bankruptcy. The deadline to repay the loan is approaching, but it has been spent and nothing has been earned.

Now, God gives us this credit. The loan itself is our talents, mental and physical abilities, spiritual qualities, health, favorable circumstances, external assistance.

Look, aren't we like gambling addicts, wasting money on momentary passion? Have we played too much? Do our “games” cause us suffering and fear? And who are those “friends” who are so actively pushing us to skip this loan? And these are our enemies - demons. They themselves used their talents, their angelic qualities in the worst possible way. And they wish the same for us. The most desirable scenario for them is if a person doesn’t just skip this loan with them and then suffer for it, or if the person just gives them this loan. We know many examples when, manipulating weak people, bandits deprived them of housing, money, inheritance, and left them homeless. The same thing happens to those who waste their lives.

Is this horror worth continuing? Isn't it time to think about what we have earned and how much time we have left to complete our project?

Often suicidal people scold God because they don’t get what they want, that life is difficult, that there is no understanding, etc.

Don’t you think that we cannot blame God for the fact that we simply do not know how to earn money, to properly invest what He has given, that we do not know the laws by which we must live in order to prosper?

Agree that it is quite stupid to continue to skip what is given, and even blame the creditor. Maybe it's better to think about how to fix the situation? And our Lender will always help us with this. He does not act like a Jewish moneylender, sucking all the juice out of the debtor, but lends out of Love for us.

(Psychologist Mikhail Khasminsky, Olga Pokalyukhina)
How to find the meaning of life? ( Alfried Langle)
Is there any point in a soap opera? ( Hieromonk Macarius (Markish))
The choice of good ( Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov)
The meaning of life: To increase talents or develop abilities? ( Archpriest Alexy Uminsky)