Looking for Meaning
Many bright people live in a world devoid of meaning. By avoiding the devoid, they even get more and more in a strut. How to get out?
This is an important text to me…
and to you, dear reader, for one plain reason: without meaning, there is no meaning… of anything.
Meaning is related to depth.
Meaning is related to the subconceptual.
At the purely conceptual level
there is no meaning possible. If one says: the meaning of concept Y lies in concept X, what is then the meaning of concept X? One keeps looking for meaning as in a look-up table. That would be meaningful if one would, for instance, end up at concept A which would be truly meaningful.
But then I would ask: why?
– “Because I say it’s meaningful.”
Why do you?
There is no way
of getting beyond concepts in purely conceptual thinking. And ‘meaning’-as-a-concept is just not about the conceptual, at least not as I’m using this term and as you might have guessed.
This meaning is being lost in many scientific domains because that’s a world prone to concept-ualize everything.
Conceptualizing is OK where it’s OK.
Conceptualizing may have bad consequences where it’s not OK. [see: “Other Consequences”]
So, how to get out?
Perhaps by using scientist’s schemes: conceptualizing the subconceptual.
Well, I’m trying to do so as much as I can. Still, I encounter scientists who are ‘resistant’ to anything that could open their house of concepts. Outside of that house, they feel very uncomfortable to the point of – almost – losing rationality itself.
So, how does one find deeper meaning?
By finding it, of course. Which is: by experiencing it. Eventually, one is the other.
Experiencing is a here-and-now event. It’s about poetry, about art, being in nature, being in relationships, etc.
Hm. For instance, physicians see lots of patients but what many of them really see too much are diseases, prognoses, etc.
No depth. No warmth. No meaning in the job. Burnout.
Meditation
is according to me a nice way to reach deeper layers of meaning.
A lot of different stuff is being called ‘meditation’. One of them – my take on it – is centered on deeper contact with oneself. That’s also the goal of the 1000+ AURELIS health meditations.
It is my attempt to bring some meaning.
Related Posts
Inner Friend or Foe?
One can treat one’s inner being as a friend or enemy. It’s good to make this an explicit choice. It’s too important to let it be a choice imposed upon you. People are not conscious of their non-conscious mental processing Yet, the science in this is unequivocal. The inner, non-conscious mental life of a person Read the full article…
Growing out of Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance is notoriously hard to overcome. An alternative is not to try to do so but to go with the flow and see which way out of it spontaneously emerges. Cognitive dissonance: the discomfort experienced by an individual holding two contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time or being confronted with new Read the full article…
The Zen Master and the Samurai
A story from ancient Japan. A samurai approaches a Zen master with the question: “Your honor, people say that you are amongst the most enlightened masters currently alive. I came to you, especially from the other side of the country. Could you, please, give me some clarification about a question that has kept nagging me Read the full article…