My main problem at the moment is "the meaning of life": I often feel as though humans are simply a species of animal, whose intuitions, instincts, emotions and so on are simply a product of evolution, driving us towards reproduction, the continuation of the species, etc. Negative emotions and behaviours have been explained in this way: greed, jealousy, desire for money etc seem fairly clearly to be related to our more animalistic evolutionary past, propelling us to protect our territory and ensure the survival of our genes.
However, even positive emotions and mental states are arguably useful for the same purposes: a compassionate act, for example, in the form that most humans experience and act upon it, gets us into another person's good books, and they are likely to repay us with some act of kindness at a later date. Society and community seem equally indispensable to the survival of the species. These things have been investigated and shown in psychological studies. I have yet to meet a human being displaying qualities of "pure" compassion, i.e. not wanting or expecting, somewhere, unconsciously, a repayment of kindness in some way.
What I'm trying to ask, is are we really anything more than complicated animals with over-developed brains capable of perceiving our existence and our death, caught in a kind of absurd, but not untrue, perception of existence, striving for some kind of meaning when in fact there either may not be any? Or if there is some reason for our being, it is unknowable.
I feel very confused and, please excuse the pretentious-sounding term, existentially depressed, about the whole issue of.... well, life...!!
Zen and Buddhism have been the "schools of thought" / teachings that, for me, have come closest to an answer, but I have such very severe doubts about meditation practice and whether it really can bring us any answers, or whether it's just a particularly relaxing form of auto-suggestion.
1 day ago
