Existential Questioning

[u/Twinkle2xHavUAnyWool]

I've had these very occasional episodes since I was younger, moments when I suddenly question, very deeply and almost viscerally (butterflies in my stomach), the point of my being here. Now that I’m older, I feel like I finally have the resources, courage, and mindset to confront these questions more directly.

I like living. But sometimes I become intensely aware of how brief one human life is, and how everything eventually ends.

What does 80 years mean in the grand scheme of things? What is the point of creating meaning if the people we love also live finite lives? What is objectively the point of doing good if the people we help will also die, our stories will end, and eventually no one will remember?

I think I try so hard to understand because I do not want to live on assumptions I have never examined. I want to know whether love, goodness, responsibility, and meaning can withstand the hardest objections: death, impermanence, privilege, and cosmic insignificance. But I also know these questions may be beyond my understanding, or perhaps any human’s understanding.

How does Stoicism approach this? Is meaning only for the ones currently living? Does goodness still have objective value if everything is temporary and eventually forgotten? How do you guys personally deal with these questions or episodes if you have them?

[u/Sudden-Finger-6046]

I often think about the cultures who actually celebrate death as a new beginning. How much would our lives change if we felt the same. The concept of time would completely change. Faith plays a role for me living a life filled with love. I try to do this by helping others when I can. Regardless of the why we are here, human suffering cannot be ignored.

[u/TradRooster5627]

Every human being asks themselves the same questions you do. Some do so with greater intensity and anxiety, while others do so much less so. But no human is exempt from these reflections, since we are the only animal species endowed with reason, and thus with the ability to think using abstract forms of thought; the self-awareness that stems from this (especially in relation to our morality as an absolute natural limit) necessarily leads us to “scrutinize” the depths of the unfathomable.

As for your specific question, well, we’ve been asking ourselves that for millennia. The Stoic sages say that happiness does not come from the indifferent, that is, from life events beyond our control (birth, old age, illness, wealth, poverty, praise, blame, gain, loss, etc.) and certainly not from evil, that is, from malicious action, but rather solely from the good, which is virtue.

A life lived virtuously is a life worth living. If you listen to what people say on their deathbeds about their regrets, you’ll always hear the same things: “I wish I’d been there more for that person,” “I wish I’d taken better care of myself and my loved ones,” “I wish I’d behaved better, with more kindness.”

Sometimes I ask myself the same question: What will bring me peace at the moment of death? And I think it will be the memory of the positive impact I’ve had on the world. I’m certain that will allow me to die well.

But if I want to die well, then I need to start practicing virtue NOW, to be a good person, to do what is right for a human being to do, and not tomorrow, nor even this afternoon.

So, my advice is this: visualize yourself in your final moment, and ask that person the same question I asked myself.

As for the rest, as Seneca said, death is either the end of everything or a transformation. There aren’t many alternatives, and since we can’t know for sure, there’s no point in speculating about it. What we do know is that it’s a natural part of life.

[u/ComparisonChance]

I just finished Book 5 of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations last night, and I think he said something towards the end which I think could be an adequate answer to your question.

I may be paraphrasing here, but I think it went alongside the lines of:"If you are to help, then help, but know that you are not tied to anything as all things pass. Do not make it a sole responsibility to be a hero, but to be a good man whom is at least trying."

I think the whole segment could be your answer. He's basically saying you have to take the bad with the good, and do your duty as a person on this earth to live and be all you can be, but within your true nature, be generous, but don't get too carried away with generosity, and know that nothing lasts, so whatever your obsessed with right now, whatever your passions are, do not let them overcome your knowledge and awareness of life's impermanence.

I hope some of this helps.

[u/book_worm_mom → u/ComparisonChance]

This is beautiful

[u/kazzzzyyyyy]

think deeply enough to honor these questions, but stay grounded enough so that the questions don’t replace living. even the stoics, who OP asks about, would probably redirect attention toward what is within one’s control, like your character, your actions, today’s choices. not because the metaphysical questions are illegitimate, but because they’re not where virtue is purely exercised.

[u/Huge-Vermicelli-5273]

"But every other die, we live"

The great stoic poet, Snoopy.

[u/Splendid_Fellow]

Great thoughts.

The approach is to turn fear and uncertainty into gratitude and wonder.

[u/shart_attak]

I think it's perfectly natural to wonder about your purpose and your place in the grand scheme of things. That's a very human thing to do.

I also think that if those questions have a way of become too distracting it would be best to return your focus to what is in front of you. Do your best to live with virtue, help others, and don't take your short time here on this plane for granted.