Is life worth living at all?
To be, or not to be: that is the question. Also, if to be, how to be?
Albert Camus, the french philosopher famously said, “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest — whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories — comes afterwards. ”
What he said over half a century ago, couldn’t be more relevant than today.
Today, when more people are dying of suicide than all acts of human violence combined, including terrorism.
Yes, you read that right. For statistics on that and amazing insights on ‘what does the world die from?’ please read our world in data here .
So why do the world’s most rich & famous as well as penniless farmers in throes of abject human misery subject themselves alike to these violent ends?
Suffering.
Life is suffering.
The good kind.
Some superficial interpretations of Buddha’s “life is suffering’ lead us to a nihilistic and cynical view when what he intended was the exact opposite.
The wound is the place where the light enters you
-Rumi
So what is the cause of suffering? Is there even a single cause?
At the root of all suffering is impermanence. Nothing will satisfy permanently ever. Because, nothing in this world is same as it was a second before. Whether I invoke quantum physics, vibrating pulses of energy or religious scriptures. It wouldn’t matter till we internalize this on our own. The ‘you’ 10 years ago wasn’t the same — both in body and mind. The ‘you’ 10 minutes ago before reading these words wasn’t the same. The ‘you’ after eating that apple wouldn’t be the same. And while the definitions of what is ‘you’ or the sense of self is beyond the scope of our discussion here, it is worth noting that impermanence changes even ‘you’ leave alone your relationship with reality.
It is this ever changing nature of reality that in the face of non acceptance births a constant struggle. It’s a bit like panting and heaving on an upward incline on a fast treadmill. If only, we could lift off our feet for a minute and just observe the ever changing ground beneath us that in the first place is the source of our perceived struggle. And, then once we touch down again, we do so with a new found understanding that completely changes our goalposts and purpose of our endeavor called life.
Purpose, that’s another loaded word that I do not take lightly. I have spent significant amount thinking and writing about meaning and purpose. One that I like is here if it offers any solace to those wrestling with similar questions.
The purpose of this writing is to inspire the reader to delve into their own reality/struggle/suffering and dissect their relationship with it. We are lucky that we suffer. For anything that is real can only suffer. Rest are only stories we create. Money can’t suffer, poor farmer can. The biggest multinational company can’t suffer but its CEO can. A country can’t suffer but its citizens can. What’s needed is to change our relationship to what we view as our ‘reality’ or stories to alleviate our suffering, and a bit of patient observation. Because, given enough time, even carbon & hydrogen can turn into people!
