The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

Michel de Montaigne wrote, “My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.

We live in a culture that makes idealism its goal and a world that makes idealism impossible.

In truth, no matter what we think we know, we are probably wrong, and no matter what anyone else thinks they know, they are probably wrong. No one knows what’s going on in any fundamental sense.

In the dirt of life, it is up to us to plant the seeds, watch the flowers grow, and enjoy their beauty, even in spite of the fact that we know that they will die.

In other words, the experience and effects of concrete knowledge can be fleeting, but the wonder found in the spirit of the unknown can be constant and enduring.

Despite the chaos, uncertainties, and hardships, we want to go on, we want to endure, we want to see what we can do, overcome, and experience in the face of it all. In this, we find the hopeful spirit and strength of humankind. We find the optimism in the pessimism.

In truth, no matter what we think we know, we are probably wrong, and no matter what anyone else thinks they know, they are probably wrong. No one knows what’s going on in any fundamental sense. Nothing about this life is simple or clear, and from the perspective of the stars, nothing down here on earth—including us—matters all that much to anything beyond itself. Paradoxically, in this, we find great opportunity for wisdom, humility, exploration, and profound experience in our lives. “Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough,” said renowned theoretical physicist Richard Feynman. In even the most common and mundane things, there is complexity and strangeness. We don’t even know why we sleep or dream. We don’t know how most of our brain works or what consciousness is. We don’t know if time is real in any physical sense. We don’t know what gravity is or why it is. We don’t know if there are infinite other universes or dimensions around us. We don’t know why energy or matter even came to be in the first place—or why it was followed by a perfect sequence of colliding, combining, exploding, and emerging, all to put us here, right now, able to ask why. At the base of almost everything, the resulting truth is this: we don’t know. When we disregard this unknowingness, we can easily become disinterested, uninspired, and worn out of this life. We can put great stress on things that perhaps don’t matter all that much and neglect experiences and things that do. We can feel the pressure and anxiety of chasing perfection and certainty, which do not exist. We should look to the universe often, not solely for answers but for perspective; for a helpful adjustment and an aerial consideration of our daily life. With this practice, the little things in life become more striking, the mistakes and the annoyances become less significant, the calm comes more easily, and the everyday activities of our lives that we so often view as wasteful and tedious reveal themselves to be wonderfully strange and curious parts of our existence that we should make effort to ponder and appreciate as often as we can. As if to say, I’d love to marvel at and enjoy this work of art I’ve created, the universe gave itself humanity. “Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence,” said twentieth-century American-British philosopher Alan Watts. What a shame it would be to waste this experience by failing to appreciate the glory and magnificence found in the unknown. We must try to remember as often as we can that the unknown permeates everything. Its wonder is always above us, below us, around us, and inside us, whenever we need

Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly

As if to say, I’d love to marvel at and enjoy this work of art I’ve created, the universe gave itself humanity. “Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence,” said twentieth-century American-British philosopher Alan Watts. What a shame it would be to waste this experience by failing to appreciate the glory and magnificence found in the unknown.

Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness,” wrote Blaise Pascal.

My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to commune with the spirit of the universe, to be intoxicated with the fumes, call it, of that divine nectar, to bear my head through atmospheres and over heights unknown to my feet, is perennial and constant.

In truth, no matter what we think we know, we are probably wrong, and no matter what anyone else thinks they know, they are probably wrong. No one knows what’s going on in any fundamental sense. Nothing about this life is simple or clear, and from the perspective of the stars, nothing down here on earth—including us—matters all that much to anything beyond itself.

We must try to remember as often as we can that the unknown permeates everything. Its wonder is always above us, below us, around us, and inside us, whenever we need it.

We recognize that affecting a small thing in the past can dramatically change the present, but yet, we rarely think about the way in which affecting a small thing in the present can dramatically change the future. Right

Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence,” said twentieth-century American-British philosopher Alan Watts.

We should look to the universe often, not solely for answers but for perspective; for a helpful adjustment and an aerial consideration of our daily life.

Despite his good intentions, Socrates’ efforts were often poorly received by the public. After pushing his luck too far, he was put on trial for religious impiety and corrupting the youth. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. In 399 BC, he would be given a cup of poison hemlock to drink, which would slowly move through his body until reaching his heart and taking from Socrates his last breath—one of history’s greatest minds shut down for asking too many questions about a world that was not yet ready to admit it was still at the starting line. Although his mission would be cut short, it would be far from unsuccessful.

What makes the sad song that I listen to when I’m in my worst of moods work is that it validates my feelings and transmutes them rather than denies them. I have found that this process of admitting and validating rather than denying is fundamental to the process of philosophy, meaning, and truth.

To give up on life entirely would be like refusing to play a game because we lose sometimes, as if the game would even be worth playing if we knew we were going to win every time we played. There is courage in facing the realities of pessimism and there is strength to be formed in its name.

Although it can, and at times almost certainly should be, compassion need not be synonymous with what might generally be considered agreeableness. Rather, the compassion being referred to here suggests a sympathetic understanding of others’ lack of agreeableness—an awareness serving to help calibrate our easily incited impatience, anger, finger-pointing, or disdain toward others over mostly nothing, or things that we don’t really know or understand.

We each have our little flickers of time here. No one else will ever know much, if anything, of what it’s like to be who we are. And for the most part, no one will ever really care. Our life is ultimately our life, and so long as we are not harming others in the process, we must create a life of our own meaning, determining our own objects of importance, committing to their pursuit, and reaping the significance and wonder of life along the way.

the general story of the Buddha arguably always remains the same at its core: it is a story of us all. It is the story of growing up, becoming curious and tempted, seeking to move out and beyond the borders of the sheltered reality maintained by our parents, society, and our underdeveloped psyche, beginning to discover life’s contaminated horrors for the first time, and the extreme lengths we often go to in order to try to understand, overcome, and escape them.

The great cosmologist Carl Sagan said, “The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us—there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height.

The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us—there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height.

Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence

When someone asked you for the first time what your favorite color was and you decided that it was blue or red or whatever else, perhaps it felt like a choice. But it wasn’t really. No one chooses how colors make them feel and why some seem to paint onto the brain with better feelings than others. We can describe the reasons why we like the color we like, but we can’t choose the reasons that affect us. The color sort of chooses us.

Central to Taoism is the idea that everything is in a continual state of flux, ceaselessly changing and adapting. Thus, no single idea or thing is to be attached to. Nothing is to be forced in or out of place. All is to be permitted to run its natural course, subject to the one, constant, unchanging truth: everything changes.

During this later, philosophically-focused part of his life, Socrates spent most of his time wandering around Athens, asking lots of questions, and challenging lots of men who the public believed to be wise. He would soon become very skeptical of the so-called wisdom of the time, finding that most men who claimed wisdom and were held to be wise were essentially just arrogant.

Each of us will change the course of everything forever.

we must live not as if we are one of the ones who will live into old age, but rather, one of the ones who might not.