Defining The Meaning Of Life From Different Perspectives

There are many cultural beliefs on how lives should be lived by following certain religious or traditional practices. These beliefs and practices could be referred to as “meanings of life” and can differ based on racial or religious beliefs. I believe there is an underlying mindset that constructs these beliefs to relate to each other or simply just to be similar in a way. Depending on the race, religion, location, and beliefs, some of these “meanings of life” are different and do not have any compatibility whatsoever. However, there are stories based on the “meanings of life” that could help individual people find fulfillment. There are also stories that help people understand their own “meanings of life” by giving them specific rules or instructions so they can receive and fulfill their own purpose.

For example, the story of “Confucianism”, as discussed in “Classical Chinese Philosophy”, Confucius believes that purpose in life is based upon how humans should live, and certain ways of living humans should act upon. Not only do these books (that are mention so far) help find his or her fulfillment and purpose in life, these stories have also been carried out through generations by the community. For example, the community strongly agrees with these beliefs and passes them down through teachings and traditional practices by writings, building school of thoughts from each specific beliefs and practices. Another source that also has its own belief on “meaning of life” is in the book, The Republic. The Republic provides personal thoughts on the ways of life and how life should be lived. The republic is about a BCE philosopher named Plato during the 5th century who also had wrote a philosophy of life based on how he personally perceived it. I believe there is an underlying mindset between these books and leaders with their ways of beliefs that are structured to relate to each other.

I believe the book of Ecclesiastes was written to help individuals understand their life fulfillment. Sometimes I think people drift through life because they do not know their purpose. Ecclesiastes tells us that when we seek God, we will soon find purpose in life. That could simply be your purpose in life, just to worship God and help others who are lost to seek God. “If God exists, then we have a purpose” and “If no God exist, then the universe does not have a creator, and no final cause, no purpose”, according to the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes explains how people may know God but still won’t have a purpose in life. Ecclesiastes refers to “Chasing after the wind” as basically the urge of material objects, such as money or whatever newest thing everyone is possessing.

Doing this could disturb his or her peace of mind and sometimes drive people to get a little crazy with the “I need to have it” attitude. In addition, the Bible references chasing after materialistic values and making it a priority. That if this is all we do is to strive for materialism then this is all we will ever get out of life. Ecclesiastes states that, “everything under the sun”, including human life does not last forever. This is an impermanent world and people could get a false outlook by being blinded by material things on earth because material things do not last forever. So therefore, if a person only finds purpose in material things then they really wouldn’t have a purpose worth living spiritually. Ecclesiastes also examines how the non-escaping event of death can give humans a purpose in life. From my point of view, death is time and time is death. Also, l think people sometimes are troubled with the thought of dying. No one wants to die, including myself.

Death is going to happen no matter what, “when God created birth, He created death”, according to Ecclesiastes. Some people find it hard to understand that God created birth and God created death, as a result they spend their life hiding and living in fear because they do not want to die. God and fear do not occupy the same atmosphere so if one is living in fear he is lost spiritually or that person is not close to God. So, the fear of death could deflect his or her own fulfilment and purpose in life. Ecclesiastes says that we are all going to die anyway, and this is why it is all the more reason to live! It is within a matter of time before death occurs and we shouldn’t waste our time sheltering ourselves and living in fear of it. Before death happens go out and do the most we can with our lives, achieve the most as we can, and smile as much as we can. Sitting around thinking about death is only going to make death worse both physically and mentally. In a way death gives us a purpose to live and gives us a purpose to smile. It can also give us a purpose to be successful and to be happy. Reading the book of Ecclesiastes helped me better understand what the meaning and purpose of life is from a Christian view.

I happen to find Confucianism very interesting. Confucius’s real full name is Kong Qui. I partially agree with how Confucius looked at life and its sudden events. Confucius had a mission to teach people to understand and accept all things that happen whether good or bad and to look at those things as how life was meant to be. Confucius believed that a higher power control the world and believed everything that happens to anyone was meant to be. He believed it is the higher powers will what happens, whether living or dying, being rich or poor, and being healthy or being sick. To me, Confucius relates to Ecclesiastes because Confucius recognizes that everyone may not understand their purpose in life and if they didn’t understand life then they do not have the slightest clue about dying. However, Confucius was not very influential with the spiritual view because he was more focused on the present and believed that it was complicated to work on things that are vague and unknown, such as life after death.

The part that I agreed on with Confucius is the “5 Relationships”. He believes in being righteous to our beloved ones and that each of us has a purpose in life with specific ways on how we should treat and act upon others. Confucius believed that the only way to have a virtuous death was by living a moral life with good moral behavior and living righteously. This reminds me of my Native American culture and our beliefs about dying with honor. We are taught that our ancestors lived to die with honor, and they were not afraid to die. This might sound like they had pride in dying but not so much proud to die but proud that they did the best that they could by treating their family and community with the best intent while living their lives. To the Native American, life and death both have meaning and significance. This also reminds me of Ecclesiastes, by living life and doing what is right, not worrying about death could make death easier. Also, Confucius refers to having a good death. Confucius believed life was about having morals and created principles for having good proper actions and behavior in a high respectable class. The principles are about being good to yourself and to others. He wrote the “5 Relationships” and this is based on how he believed we should treat others. It is called the “Social Harmony”, these are the ways Confucius believed to have harmony with ourselves and with others. He wrote the “Social Harmony” because he believed that life and human nature is sour. Humans can be mean, also get into deadly conflicts by chasing after their personal desires. For Confucius, life’s meaning is to be good moraly because if we follow these ways Confucius created, we will have harmony and things will flow smoothly and we will have a good life and a good death.

Plato in my opinion and from my understanding relates to Ecclesiasts and Confucianism. Ecclesiastes talks about how people chase after materialistic things and doing that could lead us astray from being focused on what’s right and finding purpose in life. Plato takes no interest in materialistic things such as money and objects. No interest in things that could bring temporary pleasure. Plato relates to Confucius by believing in being righteous and doing what’s right. Plato does not believe in lying, stealing, or bragging about himself, because these behaviors are not righteous and are considered to be immoral. To me this is a partial mindset on how Confucius thinks. Don’t do to others that you don’t want done to you, follow Confucianism and treat people right, this will harmonize life. Plato believes that having a controllable drive for materialistic things is fine to a certain extent. Just like how Ecclesiastes explains that these things can make people a little crazy and sometimes chasing after our personal desires causes conflict with each other and it could be deadly. In book 6 of Plato, it seems to talk about how being good can be a form of having knowledge.

Also being good is having harmony. Plato explains more about how being good to people and certain things could simply be the harmony. I feel this relates to Confucians the more and more I read and try to understand this. The difference is Confucian only believes in harmony amongst the people in a social way. Plato seems to believe there is harmony in almost all things including humans, and materialistic things. Plato believed that if a person comes to an understanding of maintaining a mindset on being good then soon this person will have the ability on pinpointing the understanding of life on this earth. Once achieved, then a person can be interconnected with knowledge. If we as humans were to give up our desires to materialistic things such as money, start focusing and striving on what’s good and seeking truth for the good of society then harmony would follow. If we would do this then we would be considered processing the same attitudes which Plato thought.

In conclusion, what is life’s meaning? For answering this question, I discussed how cultures examined life’s meaning through purpose, fulfillment and community and how it all relates together. In my opinion, different cultures investigated life’s meaning by living then conjuring up their own reason as they lived. Everyone goes through trials; it seems like they looked at those trials and tribulations as blessings and lessons. I think this because Confucius had been through a rough life as a young man, for example, his teacher married more than one woman and he didn’t respect that or like it, so he ended up leaving his sanctuary and lived on his own for a while. While he was living out on his own, he began questioning and answering his own questions about life. This made him want to become someone who understood why things happen and how we should act to avoid certain things such as war plus destructions of human existence. Ecclesiastes is immersed on ideas with death. Then had issues with God questioning, “why?” King Solomon’s trials helped him understand life’s meaning which enabled him to write his story.

Plato was a philosopher so therefore he studied life and how individuals would think. Plato’s way as a philosopher was gaining then retaining knowledge. Life’s meaning is life itself bringing significant and moral values. Helping him or her to understand that life is more than just living. Life is more about treating people with kindness and respect and following a natural order. Having kindness and respect for other people falls under a harmony that can flow like actionless water such as a river. Life is about focusing on the right things and not chasing after this world because this world in not permanent. We are not permanent, so therefore life is meant to be lived by being righteous. Having knowledge that we must receive from going through trials in life. These trials can make us or break us, and I believe that the people who wrote these philosophies about life help us understand furthermore on why things must happen to us whether good or bad. Simply put, it helps us to understand how we must act both as an individual and as being part of a community, how we must live and treat each other. This gives us a purpose in life by understanding death and that there is no refuge from death. So why waste our time worrying and being afraid? In my opinion, we should all do our absolute best to live life and to enjoy it!