Why Do We Live? – A Wrong Question to Ask
posted: 24-Jan-2025 & updated: 24-Feb-2025
… the right question to ask is "Do I want meaning of my life?"
The meaning of life isn't an inherent truth waiting to be discovered.
… it's something we actively create through our will and intention.
Like most people (I believe … or guess), I have often pondered why we live and, more specifically, why I live or should live. Throughout different stages of my life, I’ve found various answers, including the possibility that there is no answer at all.
Before developing sufficient capacity for philosophical thinking and logical reasoning, my thoughts wandered aimlessly. As the child of non-religious parents, I didn’t rely on divine beings to find meaning. During high school, I explored Christianity but found its answers unsatisfactory, as the Bible failed to convincingly demonstrate God’s existence, hence for example, making the “Christian type” of purpose-driven life arguments unconvincing. — Please don’t get me wrong. I know this cannot disprove anything.
A turning point came when I read the two-volume biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein, subtitled “Duties of a Genius” (this and this). As soon as I saw the subtitle, it triggered something inside me. — It was a turning point viewed in hindsight meaning that I did not understand why I was struck by that subtitle then. — Without clearly knowing what, how, and why it triggered, I interpreted it like this (after reading those books): Wittgenstein recognized his exceptional intellect, acknowledging he had no equal among his contemporaries. He knew he surpassed even his advisor Bertrand Russell in many ways, particularly in philosophy, and this awareness of his rare gift led him to feel obligated to contribute to humanity (because he was received the rare gift whether or not he wanted). This line of thoughts struck me deeply (now I think), compelling me to search for my own purpose, even though I didn’t consider myself his intellectual equal that time.
This idea persisted until at least 2017, as I recall mentioning it during a phone conversation with my brother. It happened that, since 2015, I had become deeply interested in Buddha’s teachings; not the Buddhism as a religion, but his original teachings he taught to help people overcome the (inevitable) suffering. As I explored concepts of mercy, compassion, nirvāna, enlightenment, and Anātman, these teachings transformed my life and eventually led me to nirvāna. During this period, influenced by Buddha’s teachings, I concluded that life had no inherent meaning. I clearly understood and accepted the randomness of my existence. — After all, I resulted from the chance meeting of an egg with a random sperm. — But that was my misinterpretation. Well, misinterpretation or not, what mattered is what I have realized now regardless of his original teachings (below).
While this element of chance is undeniable, I’ve recently come to understand that the meaning of life still exists. Few people (throughout human history) could, can, and will be able to understand this argument, but the conclusion that life has no inherent meaning is right, but at the same time wrong. To be more precise, it’s not not-right, nor not-wrong for the reasons that I will lay down in my arguments in the below paragraph. – It transcends the binary of right and wrong for reasons that defy verbal and logical articulation - here we encounter the limits of language to capture certain fundamental truths (as Wittgenstein pointed out).
The fundamental error that I, and virtually everyone on the earth and throughout the human history, have made is asking “What is the meaning of my life?”, “Why do I live?”, or “Why should I live?” whereas the right question to ask is “Do I want meaning of my life?”
The meaning of life isn’t an inherent truth waiting to be discovered. It isn’t universally accessible or predetermined. Rather, it’s something we actively create through our will and intention. The meaning of life is what we create as active and autonomous agents, not something bestowed by others, even by some absolute being endorsed by holy scriptures.