How should I live if there are no objective values and the universe is purposeless?

69

Find your own damn purpose.

you could read this faq about the meaning of life

live fast and die young

tss...
live fast and live forever

Why don't you just go fuck yourself?

that FAQ is great!

You pretend.

I think I find "meaning," using the term in some very loose sense that I wouldn't want to try to define, in relationship to other people; in individual relationships, and in the larger social world of which I'm a part--but that's where some of the problem begins. I intermittently (when I'm paying any attention, really) don't feel very good about that larger world. I am asking myself: if that's such a large part of where I find meaning (maybe it isn't), why don't I throw myself into attempting to change the world? Mostly because I am selfish and mediocre, I suppose. I can find some sort of happiness and meaning in my own small sub-world, but if I think to much about the larger picture, the sense of meaning begins to crumble.

(I don't care about personal attacks on this thread.)

that FAQ is wrong.

You wage a terrible and endless battle with the Absurd and you refuse to give up bcz it's not the manly thing to do even though you cannot win.

Eat some incredibly good food. When it's gone down a bit take some drugs, jeez, it's all about the immediate.

kill yourself.

"When you meet reality, kiss it, smack in the face!" - 'Paul Stanley', Howard the Duck #11

remember, there's no point being a nihilist

(this is my best joke, its all i got, i'm leaving you now dont worry)

I like the nihilist joke.

Buddha teaches us that life is suffering. This is because life is desire for substance and content both within us and without us where there is no substance or content. That is; there is no 'meaning' or 'point'. Buddha teaches us that if, through contemplation (or whatever) we can come to understand that there is no substance within or without then we can realise the futility of desire for substance and eschew it, thus coming to an understanding of our relationship with 'the divine'. Which is that it doesn't exist and we're silly for wanting it.

I wanna rock.

Try to create as much pleasure for you AND everyone else, and try not to create pain/hardships for yourself and others. (the tricky part is when these two things conflict)

69
This is how Ayn Rand got started, you know.

I swear I meant to quote the title of this thread. God I'm going to have nightmares.

I think, had Ayn Rand had a little more of that 69 action, her life & work would have been ENTIRELY different.

This thread makes me miss 69ing something fierce. Man that's good shit.

Why is there an "if" in the thread's question?

Nick, that's the most discouraging thing posted to this thread. I think you are leaving out the teaching about no-self, which makes the whole thing seem a little crazy to me. Even if self is an illusion, why should "I" then be in any hurry to find out? Suffering without a subject seems to lose its urgency.

Also, what Buddha taught was based on a pre-existing Indian belief in reincarnation (not so easy to reconcile to the doctrine of anatman). It was a solution to a problem which I don't believe exists. (I recognize suffering, yes, but I don't believe in the wheel of karma and so forth.)

ugh, this is the reason i couldn't sleep last night

FWIW, I am very discouraged by what you wrote nickalicious. Wait, I think what you wrote just reminded me of my being discouraged.
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Carry on

hstencil, because I don't feel entirely certain that this is the case. But so far I have found nothing to convince me that there are.

(Oh also, I think that if the Buddha had thought death was really the end of suffering, then suicide would have been his solution.)

Because he was all about ending suffering.

I can't get with "There is no..." philosophies, because there is so.

clue us all in then

How do I deal?

You see, I don't see that kind of voidist buddhist message as disheartening at all; in fact quite the opposite. Much like existentialism, once you stop worrying about soul and god and fate and so on you can truly recognise who you are - just because I do not believe in an eternal soul or in a metaphysical spectre of myself that houses my personality does not mean I don't believe in myself. Quite the opposite, I view it as being immensely empowering because it allows you to take both responsibility and charge for and of your life; I get much less frustrated now with the world than I used to (today's war situation excepted). I take selectively from Heidegger's Dasein and authenticity, plus buddhism, taoism, humanism and 'trying not to be a bastard'.

Busy at work; will continue later this afternoon...

As far as leaving out the teaching of 'no self' goes, I left it out because it's something I disagree with. I admit now that it's many years since I came across it and I can't fully remember particulars of the idea, but I do remember thinking "ah, that's a nonsense", and as most buddhist teachings are pretty self-explanatory if you stop and think about what they're called (aha! stopping and thinking! and buddhism! it's like poetry!) and why, I can still posit myself opposite the idea. I'm a hunter-gatherer who believes fully in a holistic universe, and I see nothing wrong with grasping titbits of information and ideas to back-up/reinforce/illustrate my beliefs from wherever I may find them, much the same as I like to listen to all kidns of music, read all kinds of books (admittedly not enough, though), eat all kinds of food (except raisins and peas [save for mushy peas which are numnum]) and watch all kinds of films (just today I have been exclaiming to people that my fave films are Jaws, Grosse Point Blank, Amores Perros and Koyanisqaatsi, to which most people go "ugn, mentalist"). Therefore I see nowt wrong with taking one idea from Buddhism and leaving the rest, ditto Christianity or Marxism or Heidegger or anyone else (I still really like Columbia and Slide Away even though Heathen Chemistry is bollocks, and I'm always gonna like them and still never really posit myself as an Oasis fan, just someone who thinks they did some good stuff once); I'm not stating that "I am a buddhist" or "I am an existentialist", merely that "I am Nick and there are some bits of this that I think are great and equally some bits of that also"; again I'm not trying to convert anyone to one particular meta-narrative, because I don't adhere to any one meta-narrative myself (isn't that the potential gift of postmodernism, the fact that never again need we be enslaved to one over-arching system of thought/belief, because we're incredulous now, we've smashed all those old codes and rites and rituals and traditions that people just nod along with and say "yes, this is how it is because this is how it has always been", because we've been taught to think, to be skeptical, not to accept accept accept these old systems that screw our minds and repress our true characters and potentials; isn't that what postmodernism is about? Allowing us to take the best bits, the meaningful bits, the enjoyable bits, from EVERYWHERE and ANYWHERE? It isn't? Oh shit...).

Yes, quite.

Okay then. I did kind of jump to the conclusion that you were a Buddhist (that "you" "were" "a Buddhist"*). I do think there's something to the idea of a smaller self and a larger self (or a truer and falser self, or something like that). Sometimes when I am falling asleep I get a glimpse of my bullshit self dissolving.

*I'm just being silly.