Mortality and the Meaning of Life - Research Paper Example

? Mortality and the Meaning of Life Humans are mortal beings; in fact all life on earth is mortal. Every living thing has to die one day. Every beginning has an end. We all believe in this reality in one way or another; even for reincarnation or resurrection your existing self has to die (Antony, 2007). Sometimes death seems like a very cruel and harsh reality; especially when it is perceived to have come before time. What mortals we humans are; working all our lives to reach our ultimate goal: death. It is always looming somewhere in the distance just out of sight. No one can calculate the exact time of when it will strike. Life has become a hectic burden for the common man. It has become a constant headache of keeping up with the payment of bills. That is all there is to life for most people on earth today. Relations have become secondary, values have become obsolete. The only thing that really matters is money. Money is the new god. But we have miserably faced to realize the most valuable commodity of all; time. There is extensive literature on the management of time. But the major part of it concerns with making the most monetary benefit out of it. We are living an illusion of life. The real essence of life has been buried deep beneath this disturbing rush on earth that we are a part of. Science says that a normal human being becomes aware of death normally around the age of 7 (Landau, 2011). But it is hard to tell when he becomes truly ‘aware’ of it. You don’t expect to die when going out for work in the morning or when coming to dining table for dinner, to be honest, the thought of dying hardly crosses our minds all day long, unless of course you love to listen to the news. You, me, we have all lost ourselves in the fast flow of time. It takes just a moment to stop and analyze whether we are passing through this life or is life passing us by. No one, sadly, has that moment to stop and procrastinate in today’s fast paced world. Mostly, we realize the mortality of our being when we come face to face with death ourselves or become a firsthand witness to someone else’s encounter with it. I will not try to come across as a very righteous person or act saintly by proclaiming that I have thought a lot about my end and the purpose of my existence. The topic of this essay forced me into a deeper contemplation of death than I have ever delved upon it previously. In my research over the topic, I read accounts of people who were diagnosed with fatal diseases and how the revelation changed and constructed their views about the meaning of life and its purpose (zoom, 2009). I learned that mortality plays the central role in giving our lives meaning. Almost all the people whose accounts I read had the same common realization, i.e. live completely in your today and for your today. They felt like that because they weren’t certain of whether they would live to see the next day or not. They wanted to live to their fullest in that very moment that they possessed, not being sure of even the next moment. That made me think; am I sure of my next moment? The answer is no. Life and death are the most unpredictable of all things we know. We witness people dying in their bedrooms and we also hear of people surviving fatal fires. So no, I don’t know if I even have any time left after I finish this essay. Should we turn pessimistic over this fact and start living in fear of the inevitable. Religions of the world will teach you to do so, to fear your day of judgment if you believe in one, or to fear the consequences of your action after death. But the concept of mortality made me realize that the only thing I have to be fearful of is my ‘now’, to be fearful of the consequences of my actions that I am undertaking right now. There is an inherent beauty to the unpredictability of death. Since you are not aware of when it might arrive, you feel like you can always amend your ways or make right any wrong you might have done. At the same time, you are aware that you have to accomplish whatever gives you the most satisfaction soon; you learn to live and enjoy your today. If I picture myself spending the rest of what time I have left on earth on the basis of this concept, I find that it gives something to my life that was missing before; a sense a meaning a code of life (Cottingham, 2005)! I will not hide my love for a loved one anymore as I would know this is the only moment I truly possess, I would not be mean or hurtful to anyone as I would have no long term vested interests in anything except for absorbing and reflecting the beauty of life that surrounds me, I would not hoard up my earnings for a better tomorrow but would instead spend a little more to make m today a bit more bright. Because at the end you realize that ‘now’ is the only moment in time that you have a semblance of control over, your past has gone and future yet to come. (Frankfurt, 1988) Many people contend that if a man has to die, what is the point in making any effort in life (Leo Tolstoy, 2000). Others say that the concept that soul is immortal and will be present on the Day of Judgment gives meaning to life, it means that immortality and not mortality gives life meaning. So, let us suppose humans were immortal. How would that give life any meaning? (Chappell, March 2009) Imagine living on forever! The mere imagination makes me feel purposeless, existing only for the sake of existing. I agree with Stephen Hicks who advocates the Gather ye rosebuds concept in his study of this topic (Hicks, 1992). His inspiration is Robert Herrick’s poem of the same name. In his study he has explained that mortality give man an incentive to make the best of his time, gather all the rosebuds of his life for neither will he be around for long nor will the rosebuds. To prove the point he carried out an experiment involving college and university students, offering them immortality as an alternative for mortality. The result of his study provided with more reasons to go for the gather your rosebuds idea. Life is beautiful beyond description. It is the most precious gift we have. Technology now helps us to freeze motion in time on the screen through special kind of photography, and the outcomes of the beauty and immenseness of the changes going around us are flabbergasting. To me, mortality provides the foundation of right and wrong and the basis for their differentiation. The awareness of death is a motivation for not wasting time, for making the best of our gift and for avoiding the wrong and consuming our time in the effort to do the right. Some people like me want their posterity to remember them in good words, to proudly use their names with their own names, and the more religious of us would perhaps also like their children to pray for them after they are gone. A child who was given little time by his parent just because of their so-called busy routines is very unlikely to remember his parents for long enough after they have gone and become a part of the basic elements they initially came out of. Imagine if I were to die a few days from now would I still consume 15 hours of my day with work. No, I will keep a balance in which I work so much as would get me through my remaining time comfortably, but the best things in life are for free, I would take advantage of this discount available for a limited time only and go out with my family, play with my kids in the park, give a loving kiss to my wife and soak in the refreshing sunshine and sleep with a contended mind and heart in a contended body. Research has also proved that the people who value life more have more death related thoughts and conversely the people who thought of death more valued life more (Heflick, 2011). The research was carried out by Laura King, a psychology professor in the University of Missouri. Many of the monks throughout history held the same view that the heightened sense of mortality gives more meaning to life, they went as far as to keep skulls on their shelves to keep themselves mindful of the finite nature of life. The meaning of life can be taken in cosmic and terrestrial sense, cosmic means in the universal meaning, the purpose behind creation; it can be in the theological sense or the scientific, while the terrestrial sense is the meaning and purpose of our individual existence (Levine, 1987). The cosmic purpose does not affect us directly, thus, our main area of concentration is the terrestrial meaning. That meaning is based on the knowledge that we are here for a limited amount of time. Whether or not people belief that life is ultimately meaningful, people who are confused should at least acknowledge that the most worthwhile and beautiful things like happiness and love depend on the meaning of life in its relation to mortality (Audi, 2005). Every one of us carves their own destiny in life; life holds different meanings for us all. But there is no denying the fact that it is a gift that we just can’t afford to pass. Philosophers think that the meaning of life is not something that we can wrap up and walk away with (Adams, April 2002). I am not a philosopher, not even a pseudo-philosopher, but to search for the meaning of life, I need not be one. I know that people around me keep saving for the rainy day, living their lives with a presumption that they are going to live to see the next decade or so. I do not say that it is wrong; we should always keep the hope alive in us that there will indeed be a tomorrow and a better one at that. But sacrificing our today is not an option. I think the solution to most of the problems of humanity come from their forgetfulness of that everything they are fighting for, money and power etc., will remain but they won’t. The only thing that really holds any worthwhile value is peace of mind. My life should be about complete peace, i.e. peace with both my inner self and the outer self. The outer self includes my natural and unnatural surroundings. Since death is inevitable, so why not leave in a fashion that the moment I close my eyes for the last time, I have the image of my loved ones and my friends surrounding me, voicing their goodbyes in soft tones and in mournful yet loving words. An end like that is only possible for a person who works towards it. I intend to work for it and hope that the world also shares my sentiments. In simple words, mine is a mortal life, and in light of this knowledge, I have worked out the meaning of my life be; to live to the fullest, every day and every moment, to work like there is no tomorrow and set achievable goals, to keep my morality in check as if it’s the choice between life and death and leave my future to take care of itself, to love till the end of time and to forgive quickly, to keep no remorse and regret in my heart, to let go of my inhibitions and insecurities, and to live in a way that people look at me and say, “that guy is really ALIVE!” Bibliography: Adams, E. M. (April 2002). “The Meaning of Life.”. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 51, 71-81. Antony, L. (2007). Philosophers Without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Audi, R. (2005). Intrinsic Value and Meaningful Life. Philosophical Papers 34, 331-55. Chappell, T. (March 2009). “Infinity Goes Up On Trial: Must Immortality Be Meaningless?” . European Journal of Philosophy 17 , 30-44. Cottingham, J. (2005). The Spiritual Dimension: Religion, Philosophy and Human Value. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Frankfurt, H. (1988). The Importance of What We Care About. New York: Cambridge University Press. Heflick, N. (2011). Does Death Awareness Heighten the Meaning of Life? In N. Heflick, The Big Questions. Hicks, S. R. (1992). Would Immortality Be Worth It? In Objectivity 1:4 (pp. 81-96). Illinois. Landau, E. (2011, October 28). TEDMED: Mortality gives life meaning. Retrieved from http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/28/tedmed-mortality-gives-life-meaning/ Leo Tolstoy, M. C. (2000). Death and the Meaning of Life: Selected Writings of Leo Tolstoy. Nova Publishers. Levine, M. P. (1987). What Does Death Have to Do with the Meaning of Life? In Religious Studies Vol. 23, No. 4 (pp. pp. 457-465). Cambridge University Press. zoom. (2009, July 8). The Meaning of Life (or mortality, part III). Retrieved from http://www.knitnut.net: http://www.knitnut.net/2009/07/the-meaning-of-life-or-mortality-part-iii/ Read More