[INFJ] What is the meaning/purpose of your existence?

TheFool

TheFool

Community Member
MBTI
INFJ
This sounds like a self-growth cliché but once you ponder on it, it is quite an interesting way to become more aware of who you truly are.

We work, eat, sleep, some have family and kids, other don’t. On that level life seems rather meaningless circle of repetitive behavior just to get things done in order to sustain this sack of skin.

Then there are some who enjoy life and want to have all the myriad experiences there is to experience. It seems like bread and circus, in a modern way.

Since I do not get much out of these mundane things, I started to wonder what it is that actually give meaning to my life. I can only find one and that is to help / guide others in various ways. To be able to give something significant to someone makes me feel that there some sort of fundamental meaning in my life. Since that feels as the base of my purpose, I have gained a better view on how I want to spend my time on this flying rock.

I’m curious about how you guys find meaning in your lives since I can’t really find anything more fundamental than helping. It would be enriching to read about all the different kinds of versions of a meaningful life. :)

Ps. I am aware that this is going to be trolled but I guess some of us find their purpose in trolling. ;)
 
I could take this 2 ways. For some the two things could be the same. For me...kinda.

The first angle is how do I live in a way that feels meaningful.

I have identified these top 10 values in my life.

Curiosity
Intuition
Joy
Nature
Peace
Connection
Discovery
Compassion
Dignity
Grace

I identified these values because I gravitate towards these aspects of life. I now ground in them when I am feeling lost and purposeless. I could go many ways with my life under the umbrella of these values. I feel most vital when my choices align with them. I am grateful that I do a job that encompasses these values.

Then, a different angle on this question is why do I think I live. What's the point of my life?

I genuinely believe the purpose of my life - my life task? - is to understand being an individual and then to disintegrate and become one with everything. Which kinda still aligns with my values.
 
If you follow the logic all the way to the end, there's eventually some aspect of existence that can obliterate your "meaning" or even the axioms it is derived from. Who knows what will happen in 20 billion years but one of the prevailing theories is that the universe will evolve to a state of such perfect entropy that nothing else can be formed and it will simply exist as a still-frame for eternity (heat death).

Whatever the outcome, the point is, you, your life or your actions will not be consequential in the long run; you'll literally be reduced to pure energy distributed evenly across the galaxy 500 billions years from this moment. Your existential conundrum in 2019 doesn't matter.

For me at least, accepting that with as much humility as I could helped me surrender to "it" - whatever "it" is; whatever allows for any of this (or me) to exist at all. It also helped me realize the absurdity of everything. Given the sheer, incomprehensible nature of existence, "why not?" is literally as valid a question as "why?" because any supporting existential context is pure speculation. We're all ignorant. I told myself to accept it, make your best guess and shoot your shot at living. Getting my head around all that was a game changer.

Anyway, from that perspective, I find meaning in the daily exercise of that choice even more than what happens afterwards. I can't explain why -- that is where I currently am with all this. But my meaning is less about the specifics of life and more about the abstract idea of being deliberate in how I live ("why not"). I am here to become. So, you know, I choose to reach out to an old friend and tell him I love him and miss him because even if we're all fucked in the end, it matters now and I'm clearly not meant to understand any bigger picture (if there is one at all). It turns out, he needed help with something and I was able to provide that help. He can keep a significant portion of his business running for another 12 months now but that couldn't have happened if I'd been laying on my ass in bed being too overcome with malaise to fucking live.

What is really, really strange is that weird shit (but good shit) started happening in my life after I had this attitude adjustment.

I don't know if this answers the question.
 
I think my aim out of this life is to simply live it with honour and by upholding the values that I hold dear to me.

I know that sounds like a cliche, but I've stuffed up so many times, taken the path of least resistance and gone the wrong way that to attain that would be a cool thing. Life is about learning and adapting and accepting and being the best person you can be.

I sort of figure if there is an afterlife, reincarnation etc that at least I am giving the "next me" a head start to complete enlightenment. Quite frankly I think the "previous mes" must have f&*ked up terribly in previous lives. :tearsofjoy:
 
I appreciate the detailed answers! It is fascinating and educating to read how others perceive their own life purposes. This helps me to uncover things that already exists within me.

In my perspective I see life as some sort of a mirage. It seems to be here and it seems that everything we feel and experience exist. But just by focusing on the sense of feeling your skin or the taste something that you eat it becomes apparent that there is nothing tangible. Just fleeting sensations which we have learned to label as such and such.

If life is like a mirage then it could be possible, why not, that the thing we think as death and ending could turn out to be something very different. After experiencing different kind of states where my conscious mind was turned off and yet something remained aware, I started to look life more as an living picture. If some if you have experienced lucid dreaming and actually been aware the whole time while your consciousness witnesses the transition from this existence to the existence in dream state, you know how that existence just appears from no where. Yet it is as real when it comes to colors, sounds and so on. The only thing is that your body is not there but it can be created by your own will, nevertheless the body is not as solid as this one here in this waking state. It can be changed according to your own will.

The difference in dreaming and waking state is that all the colors and forms seem to be more real. Also your capacity to understand things is far more greater than during your waking state. After experiencing the dream state so vividly, I started to wonder with a hint of seriousness if the knowledge of our ancestors and foremost those of Buddhist lineage truly are talking about something that they really knew to be true.

This struck me quite hard and left me with the thought that only thing that is truly worth of pursuing is the truth. Truth being something of an enlightened state that is somehow the inevitable and ultimate destiny of every being, in a way or another. I have been buddhist for years but to realize the immeasurable scale of enlightenment have awakened a desire to know the truth despite of it scaring the shit out of me.

I can’t really entertain myself with anything other in this life to be worthy of being truly pursued since all is lost when I die. I know I need to sustain this body and my family but that is not my ultimate purpose here. It just creates the base so that the true purpose can be fulfilled.

But what is the purpose or reward of achieving that ultimate purpose or a state of beingness that cannot be transcended anymore? Well the only thing I can come up with is to share the knowledge with others and help them on their own paths towards that same fulfillment, in any creative way I can come up with. What else is there to be done once the ultimate state is achieved?

Not sure if you understand what I mean though... Just typing without a filter to clear out my Fe
 
JustPhil said:
I think my aim out of this life is to simply live it with honour and by upholding the values that I hold dear to me.

I know that sounds like a cliche, but I've stuffed up so many times, taken the path of least resistance and gone the wrong way that to attain that would be a cool thing. Life is about learning and adapting and accepting and being the best person you can be.

I sort of figure if there is an afterlife, reincarnation etc that at least I am giving the "next me" a head start to complete enlightenment. Quite frankly I think the "previous mes" must have f&*ked up terribly in previous lives. :tearsofjoy:
Click to expand...


What if there is no others and only Me in infinite different forms, every one of them experienced one at the time and having the same goal to become that Great Me? All your Me is doing, is been done to all the other Mes.
 
That is a part of me asking what is the point if having a purpose if everything is going to become perfectly balanced one day and then after that everything is perfect forever after. What is there to be done when everything can and has been done? I mean it is the striving that is the fun part.

Weird and amazing stuff happens once we follow our intuition and that silent kittle voice that gives us ideas to do random stuff.

Korg said:
If you follow the logic all the way to the end, there's eventually some aspect of existence that can obliterate your "meaning" or even the axioms it is derived from. Who knows what will happen in 20 billion years but one of the prevailing theories is that the universe will evolve to a state of such perfect entropy that nothing else can be formed and it will simply exist as a still-frame for eternity (heat death).

Whatever the outcome, the point is, you, your life or your actions will not be consequential in the long run; you'll literally be reduced to pure energy distributed evenly across the galaxy 500 billions years from this moment. Your existential conundrum in 2019 doesn't matter.

For me at least, accepting that with as much humility as I could helped me surrender to "it" - whatever "it" is; whatever allows for any of this (or me) to exist at all. It also helped me realize the absurdity of everything. Given the sheer, incomprehensible nature of existence, "why not?" is literally as valid a question as "why?" because any supporting existential context is pure speculation. We're all ignorant. I told myself to accept it, make your best guess and shoot your shot at living. Getting my head around all that was a game changer.

Anyway, from that perspective, I find meaning in the daily exercise of that choice even more than what happens afterwards. I can't explain why -- that is where I currently am with all this. But my meaning is less about the specifics of life and more about the abstract idea of being deliberate in how I live ("why not"). I am here to become. So, you know, I choose to reach out to an old friend and tell him I love him and miss him because even if we're all fucked in the end, it matters now and I'm clearly not meant to understand any bigger picture (if there is one at all). It turns out, he needed help with something and I was able to provide that help. He can keep a significant portion of his business running for another 12 months now but that couldn't have happened if I'd been laying on my ass in bed being too overcome with malaise to fucking live.

What is really, really strange is that weird shit (but good shit) started happening in my life after I had this attitude adjustment.

I don't know if this answers the question.
Click to expand...
 
Once you reach your goal and become one with everything, what happens then?

This is something that has to been done already. My guess is that once that someone reached the oneness and became everything, once again, life became too predictable. Where is the fun if you are already everything?

After immeasurable amount of time there has to come a point where being everything is no more fun. And then you want to forget it so that it could be fun to search for the oneness once again. :)

tovlo said:
I could take this 2 ways. For some the two things could be the same. For me...kinda.

The first angle is how do I live in a way that feels meaningful.

I have identified these top 10 values in my life.

Curiosity
Intuition
Joy
Nature
Peace
Connection
Discovery
Compassion
Dignity
Grace

I identified these values because I gravitate towards these aspects of life. I now ground in them when I am feeling lost and purposeless. I could go many ways with my life under the umbrella of these values. I feel most vital when my choices align with them. I am grateful that I do a job that encompasses these values.

Then, a different angle on this question is why do I think I live. What's the point of my life?

I genuinely believe the purpose of my life - my life task? - is to understand being an individual and then to disintegrate and become one with everything. Which kinda still aligns with my values.
Click to expand...
 
slant said:
Philosophically, I am an absurdist. Much better than nihilism and existenialism both of which I've tried
Click to expand...

Do you think absurdism is incompatible with existentialism?

What about Camus? :wink:
 
TheFool said:
Once you reach your goal and become one with everything, what happens then?
Click to expand...

I don't think I would call it a goal. I just think it's the nature of things.

Yet, you raise a good question. Then what?

Well, "I" will no longer exist and the dance of things individuating and disintegrating continues.

Why that dance? Don't know.

"I" will probably never know.

For "me" in this form, I think my tasks are as stated (very tentatively...and after decades of reflection to be further refined in future decades).

What happens next, I feel content to let be revealed in it's time, if needed.
 
slant said:
It's a subset of existenialism but it's not the same thing
Click to expand...

Definitely. In fact, I think that in authors like Beckett the absurdism becomes somewhat divorced from traditional existentialist themes.

slant said:
You know

I put it on like a hat. Walked around with it. See how it felt.

Then I was like ! Fuck this ! And threw them away.
Click to expand...

:tearsofjoy:
 
TheFool said:
What if there is no others and only Me in infinite different forms, every one of them experienced one at the time and having the same goal to become that Great Me? All your Me is doing, is been done to all the other Mes.
Click to expand...

If that is the case then I should be slappin' the other "me's" around the earhole because most of the "me's" I see around the place are idiots! I don't think they can be "me's" .. I couldn't possibly be that stupid .. could I? :tearsofjoy:
 
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