Смисъла на живота
Представете си, че можете да свържете мозъка си за машина, която да ви дава преживявания, които бихте искали да имате. Как ще се чувствате? Ще останете ли задълго щастливи? Може би, не. Част от нашата природа е да искаме да действаме и да направим нещо, което не е само обикновено преживяване. Ние искаме също да станем някой, който е известен и с благородни стремежи. Но това не е възможно, ако сме прикрепени за машината на преживяванията. Желанието да бъдем някой, да правим нещо смислено и да водим смислен живот е нормално за човек, който е готов да премине през трудности и страдания. Не искаме да кажем, че страданието е задължително, но понякога то е неизбежно. От една страна ние страдаме, когато от директни опитности или преживявания сме разбрали своите грешки, а от друга страна, за да ги избегнем поне за в бъдеще също е нужно да направим усилия за това - най-често ако искаме да се отделим от средата, която ни е подтикнала към страданието.
Много хора мислят, че живота им няма смисъл. Живота им се вижда празен. По-долу ще разгледаме откъс от книгата на американския писател Дж. Селинджър" Спасителят в ръжта"
Life seems empty and just a boring routine - getting up, eating breakfast,going to work, eating lunch, working, coming home, eating dinner, watching television, going to bed... they feel like the Greek character Sisyphus who was condemned to each day push a rock to the top of a hill, only to see it roll down again each night. What is the point of it all?. there is something tragic about a person who has lived a busy life,working for the sake of his family and children and after retirement begins to feel his meaningless life. Inside them remains a void that needs to be fulfilled.
The meaning of life
Different people see life differenetly, and each of us has to find his own pathway to meaing. The meaining of life is not something abstract, but it should help us to live our own unique life to the fullest. Here is a selections of different views of the meaining of life.
Life is a drama: - All the world ' stage, and all the men and women merely players".
- William Shakespeare,16th century English playwright
Life is happiness: " Life is a gift, life is happiness, every minute could be a century of happiness."
- Fyodor Dostoevski, 19th century Russian writer
Life is always new: "Human life should always be like this river that is in front of me: all the time one and the same bed, but every moment there is fresh water in it."
- Henry Davir Thareau, 19th century American thinker
Life is work: "Work liberating us from three great evil: boredom, vice, and poverty."
- Voltaire, 18 th century French philosopher
Life is a path to death: "All men are brothers, and the same end waits them all - death."
- Albert Camus, 20th century French existencialist.
Life is creativity : "There is hardly and bigger joy than the joy of creating."
- Nicolai Gogol, 19th century Russian writer
Why search for meaning?
As human beings we are conscious of ourselves, and we strive to understand the meaning of our own lives and what is happening around us.
Viktor Frankl, a psychologist who spent several years in a Nazi concentartion camp, recognized the importance of a meaningful life He was struck by the fact that those inmates for whom there was no meaning in life soon became depressed at their situation, lost hope and died. The only people who survived were those for whom life was meaningful, even in the camp.
It means that that we can gain self-confidence and peace of mind if we bring to light such "eternal question." If we start to think about it while we are young , we will be prepared in the future to find the deeper dimension of meaning in our life's path. It will help us to withstand the blows of fate, to overcome our challenges and difficulties with dignity.
Time for reflection:
The following passage from J.Salinger 's novel , "The Catcher in the Rye" shows how
Holden Caulfield is looking for a higher meaning in life:
" Allie's dead - You always say that! if somebody' s dead and everything, and in Heaven, then it isn't really -"
"I know he's dead! Don't you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can't I? Just
because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God's sake - especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that're always alive and all."
Old Phoebe didn't say anything. when she can't think of anything to say a goddam word.
"Anyway, I like it now," I said, "I mean right now. Sitting here with you and just chewing
the fact and horsing -"
"That isn't anything really!"
"It is so something really! Certainly it is! Why the hell isn't it? People never think anything is anything really. I am getting goddam sick of it."
"Stop swearing. All right,name something else. Name something you'd like to be. Like a scientist or a lawyer or something."
" I couldn't be a scientist. I am no good in science."
"Well, a lawyer - like Daddy and all."
"Lawyers are all right, I guess - but it doesn't appeal to me.", I said. "Imean they're all right if they go around saving innocent guys' lives all the time, and like that, but you don't do that kind of stuff if you're a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot. And besides. Even if you did go around saving guys' lives and all, how would you know if you did it because you really wanted to save guy's lives, or because you did it because what what you really wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer, with everybody slapping you on the back and congratulating you in court...
when the goddam trial was over, the reporters and everybody, the way it is in the dirty movies?
How would you know you weren't being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn't "
"I'm not too sure". old Phoebe knew what the hell I was talking about. I mean she's only a little child and all. But she was listening at least. If somebody at least listens, it's not too bad.
"Daddy's going to kill you. He's going to k i l l you. ",she said.
I wasn't listening, though. I was thinking something else - something crazy. "You know what I'd like to be?" I said "you know what I'd like to to be? I mean if I had my godam choice?"
"What? Stop swearing!"
"you know that song. "If a body catch a body comin' through the rye? I'd like --"
" It's "If a body meet a body coming through the rye!". old Phoebe said. "It's a poem. By Robert Burns."
" I know it's a poem by Robert Burns."
She was right, though. It is. "If a body meet a body coming through the rye."
I didn't know it then, though.
" I thought it was. "If a body catch a body," I said.
"Anyway, I keep picturing alll these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all.
Thousands of little kids and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they' re running and don't look where they 're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. that's all I'd like to do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy."
Old Phoene didn't say anything for a long time. Then, when she said something, all she said was, "Daddy's going to kill you."
" I don't give a damn if he does," I said. I got up from the bed then, because what I wanted to do, I wanted to phone up this guy that was my English teacher at Elkton Hills, Mr. Antolini. He lived in New York now. He quit Elkton Hills. He took this job teaching English at N.Y. U.
" I have to make a phone call, " I told Phoebe. " I'll be right back. Don't go to sleep."
I didn't want her to go to sleep while I was in the living room. I knew she wouldn't , but I said it anyway, just to make sure.
While I was walking toward the door, old Phoebe said,
" Holden!" and I turned around. she was sitting ..............in bed. She looked so pretty.
" I'm taking belching lessons from this girl, Phyllis Marguiles,"she said, " Listen."
I listened and I heard something but it wasn't much.
" Good, " I said. Then I went out in the living room and called up this teacher I had, Mr. Antolini.
Questions for discussion:
1. Why does Holden feel pain when speaks of children playing in the rye?
2. Knowing that he is about to be expelled from school, Holden decides to spend four days before winter holidays in a wild splurge in New York City. His adventures are a bleak summery of the standard methods of purchasing a "good time" : visiting a night club, getting drunk at a bar, trying to pick up a girl at a dance hall, it is all dust and ashes and in his desparation, Holden cries that he's "lonesome as hell. No kidding." He is lost, frightened and there is no one whose advice he can trust. Why does he remember his teacher in English, even though he shares his heart with his sister Phoebe?
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