there's a spot at the foot of my garage outside my house. i go there sometimes becasue, for some reason, it makes it really easy to think. this is quite the vacation, cause lately my mind has been one perpetually exploding cluster bomb of thoughts. the spot will give me the impression that ive become smaller, diminished, and, on a good night, insignificant. the past few times ive got to that spot, ive had an excellent view of the moon. after staring at it for some time, i realized how we so often look at that crater-encrusted rock and view it as no more than a poster on the wall in the corner of our room. this is not to say that we take it for granted, but that we simply dont acknowledge its majesty. i mean, under "normal" circumstances, it might as well serve the purpose of a poster. but at that moment, staring at it, seeing the maria on it's surface, i closed my eyes and began to meditate. almost instantly, i shot out from my priviate nook next to my garage, and experienced myself hovering around the moon. we are insignificant, in comparison to all else that exists. a lot of people will realize this and become depressed. i suppose i could see why, but the thinking should not stop there. go further, and realize: we are part of a whole, without we insignificants, all that is is not whole. those who practice meditation should try and begin a session while focusing on one's own "insignificance". it works wonders for feelings steming from lack or self worth, self-esteem, unimportence, etc.
i know what you mean, man. when i was beginning to study astronomy in my spare time, i began to realize how insignificant we are as human beings not only in this monstrous universe, but on this planet as well. it was an extremely humbling experience.
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea. - Introduction to the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
It's true, on a bigger scale we're nothing but a pube on the balls of the galaxy, but If you ask me the fact that we can realize and come into terms with that, is what makes us more significant than not.
Not me. The moon takes my breath away on a regular basis. It's my absolute favorite thing to look at.
Your only insignificant if you make yourself so. I understand what you mean, on a cosmic scale we might not be so important, but we dont really expierience life on the cosmic scale. 1 person can cause incredible change, was Martin Luther King Jr insignificant? Hitler? Jesus? Besides look at the universe within, as opposed to without, and youre of utmost significance. Its all a matter of perspective. Hempress ditto with the moon. The sun would be my favorite thing to look at, but they tell me its not too good for my eyes.
that's awesome you said that. i feel the same way. i love walking in the sun when you can barely even look up it's so bright. feeling how powerful the rays are is mind-boggling. it's gives me chills thinking about what the sun is and how it relates to us. that mother is way too hot though.
But all the change they made is insignificant. The entire planet is insignificant. Life has no purpose or significance. It all simply doesn't matter. If things do matter then the only purpose of the changes (made by the quoted people) was to affect human emotions. Sure it is, but why does any perspective, except one that is all encompassing (universal), matter?
Because your not god, and you dont expierience life on that scale. And because it will give your life meaning, and because it does matter. The lowliest ant is significant. Pessimists.... there exists nothing more significant than life, and all the beautiful things that go along with it.
Humor me and pretend god doesn't exist. What is the purpose of life? And if we have no purpose, how is anything we do significant in the big picture?
What does the big picture matter? Your significant in your own life. If you are so insignificant, then why dont you just kill yourself right here and now, in the big picture what is your life anyway right???
if you're gonna realise your insignificance, you fucking well better realise your significance as well. ... which is way more important.
Ladies and Gents I give you Eric Idle and "The Galaxy Song" Whenever I hear it I have an irrepressable smile http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JSR_6qfXTg Can someone PLEASE show me how to embed the damn video? lol I'm clueless
now, now stnoed, blonde i dont think is a pessimist, what he's saying sounds like pure existentialism, which is not a bad thing. any one who is pessimistic/optimistic IMO is living in a fantasy world. a realisitic outlook works for everybody (or it should). what i was saying from the begining was this. for only a brief second did i realize how "insignificant" i am. vicariously, through that thought, i realized how special, meaningful, and glorious i am if not for only my ability to inhale and sustain my existence. this whole thought process occured instantly. and you know what happend, i laughed to myself with joy, and could hardly stop smiling. idk, i see so many people nowadays and wish for them instead of . and if it takes a little to reach so be it.
I've thought about it everyday for 6 months straight for various reasons, including the lack of purpose in life. I still occasionally think about it when I am thinking how everything is insignificant but I'm not sure I have the balls right now to do it. Also, I'm having fun with life right now, so even if life has no purpose, at least it's fun (for the moment).
"The ultimate purpose of life is ultimately to live" mark twain Think of a labrat which is being used to develop a cure for Aids, and for this reason its being punctured and poked again and again, its whole life, do you then suppose it would ever grasp an ultimate meaning and purpose to its its suffering and existence? i think it would not, because it has limited intelligence and could'nt possibly grasp or enter our world, the only world in which the meaning of its life and existence would be understandable to it. Therefor what of us? what then is the ultimate purpose of our mundane existence? in the Bible says "be fruitful and multiply" but does it make any sense to advance the perpetuation of this meaninglessness through procreation? I believe that our search for meaning can only be discovered through Religion, that is our most meaningful facet of existance.( 'whether it be truth or a lie, give me a god!' Pliny the elder) see, even science is not really sure that our 3 dimensional human world is at a terminal point in the evolution of the cosmos, could it not be conceivable that there is still another dimension, a world beyond our own in which the question of an ultimate meaning of human life would find an answer?
I agree with blonde in more ways than one, on the physical frame we have no significance whatsoever. Relative to how old our galaxy is we are infant-like species on a young planet, I'm sure there's life out there that has been cultivating for millions maybe even billions of years. but one thing we do have is potential.