{"id":2530,"date":"2010-07-19T19:24:13","date_gmt":"2010-07-20T02:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/?p=2530"},"modified":"2010-07-19T19:24:13","modified_gmt":"2010-07-20T02:24:13","slug":"i-found-how-to-live-in-a-meaningless-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2010\/personal\/i-found-how-to-live-in-a-meaningless-universe.html\/","title":{"rendered":"I found how to live in a meaningless universe!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three weeks ago, I had finally figured out the universe was meaningless<\/a>. Depression came over me as I realized everything was going to just end – the stars, galaxies, and even black holes would all be gone. Nothing would be left except for space filled with random photons.<\/p>\n

How can I live with this knowledge? I love my life and everything I see. I’m thrilled to see light in the Universe and the thought that a time would come when there would be no more light for all eternity was horrifying. No one says this better than Goethe in Faust<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n
The Devil:<\/div>\n

\n<\/em><\/div>\n
A modest truth do I declare.<\/em><\/div>\n
A man, the microcosmic fool, down in his soul<\/em><\/div>\n
Is wont to think himself a whole,<\/em><\/div>\n

\n<\/em><\/div>\n
But I’m part of the Part which at the first was all,<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
Part of the Darkness that gave birth to Light,<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
The haughty Light that now with Mother Night<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
Disputes her ancient rank and space withal,<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n

\n<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
And yet ’twill not succeed, since, strive as strive it may,<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
Fettered to bodies will Light stay.<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
It streams from bodies, it makes bodies fair,<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
A body hinders it upon its way,<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
And so, I hope, it has not long to stay<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
And will with bodies their destruction share<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It’s my habit to stay awake for some time before going to sleep – just thinking. And for many days I kept turning this over – how could I find a way to be happy when everything I loved was going to end and never even be remembered?<\/p>\n

Finally, I recalled something I always knew. My life, the earth, and the present universe exist because of the laws of physics. The very same laws in fact<\/em> that will kill it. So there are two options. Either I have things as they are now and the knowledge of all coming to an end, or…nothing! Which would I choose? When I thought of it like that<\/em>, it was a no brainer. It’s better to live and die, than not live at all.<\/p>\n

The problem was in my thinking it was somehow wrong<\/em> for everything to end. It’s not. That eventual end is what’s keeping me alive now!<\/strong> Instead of railing against it, I should thank my stars for being able to exist and take a look around before I sink into oblivion. Opposites which depend on each other to exist. Yin and Yang.<\/p>\n

So nothing’s changed. The facts are the same. The conclusion is the same. We’re all going to die and there is no ultimate meaning in anything we do. It’s only my perception that has changed. I now view my life and this pretty universe as a lucky chance that has no business claiming immortality. It’s enough that we came, we saw, and went. More than that is just greed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How I came to live with the knowledge that everything is meaningless<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"yoast_head":"\nI found how to live in a meaningless universe!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How I came to live with the knowledge that everything is meaningless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2010\/personal\/i-found-how-to-live-in-a-meaningless-universe.html\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I found how to live in a meaningless universe!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How I came to live with the knowledge that everything is meaningless\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2010\/personal\/i-found-how-to-live-in-a-meaningless-universe.html\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Expressions - 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