way WAAAAY OT: meaning of life

Well, what better place to discuss this than good old Piano World?

I've recently figured it out. Gonna tell my kid when he stops making farting noises and can fully understand and appreciate.

Let's hear it, if you care...
Serious and joking posts accepted.



And, if no posts, I'll know it's too difficult a topic.
Or everyone is too busy playing piano!

http://www.orderofthewhitelion.com/astrology@/Manuniverse.htm

?

Well I know what it ISNT- bills, bills, unemployment, greedy banks.

hmmmm GREED (one of the beasts 7 heads?)

Deep Thought: 42

Kurt Vonnegut: We're all here to fart around. Don't let anyone tell you any different!

Agent Smith: The purpose of life is to end.

Nihilist: there is no objective meaning of life

Taoist: the simple answer is here within ourselves

Paul Gaugin:


C. Allan Gilbert.

title:Life, death, and meaning of existence are intertwined.

And of course the music

opus: life is live


monty python: Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations


offspring: There's no right and wrong way




and I almost forgot
Metallica: Nothing else matters

Life is meant to be part of a balanced breakfast.

I don't know, but my piano teacher said last week that music is the only thing in life that makes any sense. I was quite pleased with this statement, because it's true, only I've been a bit late realising it.

wouter79, love it!

To win, of course. Though even if you win Life, you're still just a person behind the times playing a board game.

It is a possibility that there is no meaning to life except for the meaning that you personally ascribe to it, and, therefore everyones will differ albeit slightly in some cases.

As life is so fleeting and folk can and are taken away so suddenly and unexpectedly, it is of prime importance to treat not just loved ones but everyone as though this will be the last time you interact with them, as it could be, so be loving.

Warmth when it is cold ( you cant beat a woodburning stove) good food shared with folk, your fav tipple or other intoxicant, good music and a safe place to sleep are all you really need.

Possessions and material accuisitions dont count for anything in the final tally.

Ignore the media, dont buy newspapers or watch the tv, its much better to NOT be told what you should be doing, what you should be wearing, what you should be buying and what you should be desiring..... without the media propaganda you will feel free.

Keep your loved ones close.

yes! Last year I quit watching the news, cancelled my newspapers and don't read it on the Internet. I watch weather and a couple of other 'no news' programs. Plus 2 internet forums.

It's amazing, I get along fine without it. My life seems SO much more serene now, I should have done it years ago.

Life's too short to get all worked up about things I can't control.

Works for me.

Improve the world? Make somebody happy?

Ugh... my kids love "Life" and always want me to play. It's basically "Candy Land" dressed up with more bells and whistles and the spectre of the kids potentially asking where babies really come from, hanging over the proceedings like the Sword of Damocles.

I'll miss it when they are teenagers... or not.

I'm not Biblical myself but greed is perhaps the biggest problem in this world. Not enough sharing so we have poverty.

Indeed yes! I couldn't live without music and my Piano.
The Master said of music:

When I open my eyes I must sigh, for what I see is contrary to my religion, and I must despise the world which does not know that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.




Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. It is the wine of a new procreation, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunk


I once had a dream that the Universe is a symphony.

Good post Rossy! I'd love an open fire. Oh to live in a period house with an open fire!
Totally agree about media propaganda- one should ignore it!

But you shouldn't have been pleased - you should have questioned this - if the statement is true then that rules out the possibility of your piano teacher making sense (since your teacher is not music)...and so you can safely disregard anything he/she says about life and/or music...

Greed can be either bad or good - it depends.

If you get the things you desire, no matter how much, by earning them (which means deserving them) then that is good - but if you get them even though you didn't earn them (and thus did not deserve them) then that is bad...

And poverty is not caused by "not enough sharing" - it's caused by too much forced sharing, aka legalized theft...

Not sure I'd call that greed.



Legalised theft- indeed yes. I've been using that term for years!

Absolutely! There is also that quote by Nietzsche, one of the best quotes about music:
Without music life would be a mistake.

It would yes! Even nature makes music!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qESQa8UHCTw

While quickly scrolling down, the last picture really looked like a skull.

Life is like a box of chocolates. Sometimes the chocolates taste yummy, and sometimes they tastes like crap. Just depends on which ones you choose.

Life has the meaning I ascribe to it, it's meaning is imbued, with no objective or inherent value.

I have chosen to not ascribe meaning to life. No meaning, no morality, no God, no soul. I have no direction, no purpose, nothing, yet I am happy and kind.

I have carefully considered this and decided that the statement still indeed makes lots of sense. My piano teacher does actually talk quite a lot of sense about life and music (at least to a crazy person like me, not sure how anyone 'normal' would feel about it all), so perhaps we can modify the statement slightly to "music and my piano teacher are the only things in my life that make sense" Work certainly doesn't make any sense, and nor do most of the people I know.

Logical contradictions abound here...

You say you have chosen not to ascribe meaning to (your) life - but by the act of so choosing to have no meaning that is precisely the meaning you have given to your life (my meaning is to have no meaning)...

And thus, your direction is chosen to be directionless; and your purpose is chosen to be purposeless...

If you are happy and kind - and if you are truely happy about that - then there is certainly some meaning in that for you - by choice.

Here a few more

Madonna: life is a mystery (can't find the clip?!)

Existentialism: life's what you make it



But IMHO the heart of the matter is this:

Rhythm Of Snow: I Think Therefore I Am Confused (1999)

Wouter pmsl , again , it helps if you know the title of the song you are looking for...
which in this case is not "life is a mystery" that is just part of the lyrics!

here you go.....maddonna and "like a prayer"

Ah thanks Rostosky! Yes I only remember lyrics but no singers and no titles... In fact I also don't remember lyrics but only the 'phonemics', that is I know the sounds they make but not what it actually means (until I start listening in a different way to focus on the text). Sometimes I'm way off the real text :-D

“Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.”

Joseph Campbell

Without music the meaning of life would Bb.

What...beccaBb? so if i switch the stereo off, the only meaning left is becca?

This is an unusual developement, have you told her yet?

Does the correct guesser win a prize? I'm awaiting PianoJoy's revelation

LMAO no no I don't want to be flattened by the stereo! what kind of meaning of life is this??

Life, it's too important to take seriously!

Life is cruel...

Well, Mikey likes it! He'll try anything!!

LOL Mikey is cute...HE EATS ANYTHING HA HA!!

You guys are way too deep for me. Life is finite. As time passes we have less. Hopefully I can get to play all the pieces I want to play. I hope I have enough time. I guess one thing working for me is that I am not quite angelic. They say He takes those who He loves most. I try to do a little bad thing or think about something mischievous whenever I do something nice. You know what I mean.

Isn't it just a vehicle for gene reproduction?

Without volition it would have to be. Obviously this doesn't apply to people. =/ For people, the meaning of life is what they make it—make, of course, is what separates us. It requires choice.

There can't be a meaning of life in the broadest sense. Meaning is a tiny part of life. If life itself had a meaning, that life and meaning would have to be tiny parts of something much bigger. But that would mean that "life" wasn't defined widely enough to start with.

Any relation to John Nash?

Learning and Realisation

As others here have said that you can make choices. I define life is that when you die, you can only take with you what you can put through a pin hole in a piece of paper which is effectively only memories. Everything else money, pianos must be left behind for others to enjoy.

If you are 21 and you live to 65 (65 is when most people retire and the actuaries calculate that the average person dies within 2 years of retirement) So that is 44 years or 2,000 weeknds in your life. Now this is not to depress anyone, but is a wakeup call to make every moment of your life count and do in your lifetime the things you want to do like playing the piano or whatever. $2,000 dollars is not a lot of money sitting on a table that represent your life in weekends.

Not bad, Wayne.....


I still can't believe no one has said THE word. Hmmmm.
(Wayne, ssssshhhh!)

According to actuarial tables, you will live another 20 years after retirement at age 65. Females maybe a year or two longer, men a bit shorter.

When Social Security was instituted waaaaay back when, the two year number was fairly close.

So--it ain't over yet.

My spouse and I saw the movie "Life of Pi," once last week and again today (we liked it that much). That movie made me think more about things like the meaning of life than any movie I've ever seen before. The cinematography is outstanding, as well.

The meaning of life? Well, 42 of course!

Seriously, I think life has the meaning you give to it. The problem is, once you realize it, it's hard to believe that some things are absolutely more important than others. I mean, one can "waste their life" doing things that we find irrelevant and still have a great life, while we can strive to build great things and end up empty-handed. Let's be honest; life usually doesn't end very well, with aging, sickness and death. This thought shouldn't be depressing, but stimulating: we really need to enjoy life while we can (easier said than done). Some will spend their life saving lives, others will idle about all their life. It's all good as long as they are content.

Whew! so glad you cleared that up, I was beginning to think I should not retire until over age 80 !

Life is short.
Life is precious.
Life is about the Moment.
If you know Music, you know the Moment.
i'm trying to expand this outside of music, into everything.

LOVE.
We are to love. As much as possible.
As often as possible.
At the end of the day, LOVE.


the Beatles had it right,
" love is all there is "......

Nice day to resurrect this thread

But, there's also ice cream...which is, if not the meaning, then the purpose of life...

And the Beatles also sang: "Money can't buy me love, and it can't buy me happiness, but it sure can make our misery a little more toerable..." (at least I think it was them...)

The meaning of life is simple. We were meant to evolve. To discover love that is greater than selfish, self serving love. When we do that...
We live lives like caterpillars who were meant to become butterflies. The cocoon is our heart.
If we live building our cocoon in unselfish love. We live forever. This is like the butterfly, who is not restricted by gravity like the caterpillar. Gravity is time.
If we live for our caterpillar lives and ignore our cocoon. We die and never experience the next life. We die imprisoned by our own selfish, self serving wickedness...forever.

Ice cream and butterflies mmmmm

I like ! thanks...

Hi there...

The meaning of life?......

You came alone and once you will go alone.......
Between those two points...there is consciousness........consciousness is in your brain. Before this consciousnes there was nothing......do you remember something? And during your life you are still alone in your consciousness.......but you meet others......so make fun, love and music, enjoy life.

When you stops,.......the brain stops and the light will go down for ever, there is no consciousness anymore.

Religious thoughts? I was raised very strict christian.... God saw everything and it was not alowed to bike or drive car on sunday.....life was an earthly vale of sorrow....real life was after death.....brrr......I left these thoughts.....
If there is a God.....he will be fine and will have a place for me after life....but temporary I am too old for fairy tales.....

I believe in life before death......I believe in this moment and my consciousness at this moment......and I enjoy life, love and music...

Best regards,
Johan B

It's all about love

I couldn't Disagree more..............

Was slowly reaching for the stop button on "We must assume ..." then saw David Icke and sped up and killed it.

ok...ok! I could have chose a better video, but you get the jist

P.S, you misquoted me

If only life was as sweet as this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCXZaLZe7m4

Enchanting!!

Looks like PJ was right! Love

The teachings of Paramahnsa Yogananda have answered these questions for me more than I ever thought possible

more reading for me then lol

Try Autobiography of a Yogi first)You'll thank me..