is this it?

[skivi]

*this thread is inspired by wazzas*

im asking you all today, do you think this is it? is this the way life is suppost to be? or is this just the way we want life to be? is there heaven or hell and where are we destined to go?

i think life is what you make it and we as a race have made it into a pile of angry, violent shit. we are so smart and so advanced we live in such a beautiful world yet we chose to kill, extermintae, destroy, hate, terrorrise, supress and go to work everyday to fill our lifes with meaningless materials (excludes bikes :P). why cant we stop, think and change now before its too late??? and we go straight to hell.

*sorry to put such a dark shaddow over you life after reading this post but i think it must be done to make a change for the better.**

"open you're eyes for the first time, see the real world and make with it what you want"

can you eat you're money? cos thats all thats gonna be left.

nick

[ed the frog]

good thread! I think about this a fair bit. Even though we are so advanced I think we as humans on earth have lost site of the big picture. The fact that we are here on earth not to kill and destroy and control, but to enjoy, live in freedom and grow! I don't understand how some people can work an office job from 8am - 8pm 5 or 6 days a week. I guess some are forced to live that way but others choose to live out thier lives working for someone else, and where do you get time to do things you want to do?? I have just recently started an Apprenticship in Carpentry and its the best choice I've ever made!

life is indeed what you make it, I'm on a journey of self discovery and probably always will be! And that is a journey to discover as much about life and myself as possible.

"Today, beautiful people, open your eyes.
and when you do wont you tell me what you see..." - Trinity Roots

[exvitermini]

this pops in and out of my head everyday

and i have to aggree with you, but i dont see it changing any time soon...

so i will continue to think "why the hell am i still living?"...

[Mo]

i really wanna comment on this but i had so many life talks over the past year that i really dont wanna talk about it, especially not on the net...i'd probably end up writting a book.

anyway life is want you want to make it become.

[I-AM-TEH-FASTEST-11]

yeh, this IS life.
It doesnt get any better than this.

either way I want the money, the women, the fortune and fame. even if it means I end up in hell scorching in flames......

[olly1oo6]

even if it means I end up in hell scorching in flames......

what, there really is hell???





oh fuck

[exvitermini]

i really wanna comment on this but i had so many life talks over the past year that i really dont wanna talk about it, especially not on the net...i'd probably end up writting a book.

anyway life is want you want to make it become.


same here...

last few years have been really hard for me to say no to ending it..
but i don't think its something that should be talk about in a public forum

[nevot]

I find it interesting and worrying that from the responses so far, there has been a couple that are really doubting that they should be still here enjoying life for what it is.

The question of "What are we here for?" is something that in my mind we should always be asking, but with the understanding and acceptance that we are but a zit on the arse of the universe.

I preamble all of this with the fact that i have no beliefs, i only have feelings, and even when i feel like shit, the dominant feeling is that there is sooooo many things in the world that i have not seen and have not tried that if i get the opportunity maybe it will help me to see what there really is out there.

I could cause some trouble here, but a couple of comments that question your own existence on the planet, I think are mis-guided. I hope you guys are young and are just seeing the worst without the experience of what is absolutly fantastic about the world. I hope to hell that you are just rebelling against the pressures that you may be feeling at the moment - Fuck 10 years ago i felt the same, but experience has taught me the following.
The world is a nasty place if you are not awake to it
people can be really brutal -> see terrorism and war
We are greedy
We are not currently too concerned with the sustainability of life (Kinda)These things may be bad but it has also taught me this
Love cannot be beat
Life is all about experience - You need to have many experiences (not all will be good)
Life is to be shared with like minded people
Experience will enable you to see through all the shit that clouds to obvious
The norm should be challenged where possible.To end this little run, life is really a combination of the ups and downs of the experience of the individual. This process can be very daunting and peturbing to some, but it is the right of passage that will make you who you are in the future.

Why are we here????? To experience. To feel and to see. To live and love and to enjoy what we do.

[lotec]

well ive been going through a really really bad patch lately so im not gonna post anything on this topic because it will just go to hell :) ill definatly be sitting here reading it though, this could get interesting...

[jamsta]

we're already in hell! heaven is yet to come [no religious intention meant by that btw] and really, it aint that bad. Make it what you want it to be and hopefully it deals a hand in your favour. Stay positive as much as you can, and hopefully others will feed off that vibe.


NB: a lot of religious groups have disbanned HELL from their teachings, not all, but some.

*great thread skivi ;)

[zen_rider]

Yeah this is it. Sometimes I am quite disappointed with the state of mankind. For example, last night I was watching '4 corners' and heard about the global warming censorship going on at CSIRO - quite disappointing indeed.

There's a quote by Einstein that seems relevent to this thread:

"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it."

Aung San Suu Kyi goes further and says all this bad shit happens because of a war inside our heads for inner peace. Unless this problem is addressed, we will keep on doing mean shit to each other.

"The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nation's development. A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance and fear"

There has to be a change in the mental processes of man before any lasting positive change will occur. Otherwise we will be just mitigating (at best) or shifting our problems around.

So although the world may be fucked up, it's no reason to be pissed off about. Being pissed off doesn't really help and just contributes to the bullshit that goes on.

[Atomizer]

I often ponder a picture of the world 5 years after the discovery of a cure for greed. The more you think about what wouldn't exist, what would no longer be headlines, what would flourish rather than decline and, essentially, how easier each new day would be to face if greed was not the cancer that it is, the better the whole picture becomes.

Sadly, the more you think about it the sadder the reality becomes that greed is poisoning us all, directly or indirectly.

So...Fight greed in all it's forms brothers and sisters. ;)

[scblack]

im asking you all today, do you think this is it? is this the way life is suppost to be? or is this just the way we want life to be? is there heaven or hell and where are we destined to go?

i think life is what you make it and we as a race have made it into a pile of angry, violent shit. we are so smart and so advanced we live in such a beautiful world yet we chose to kill, extermintae, destroy, hate, terrorrise, supress and go to work everyday to fill our lifes with meaningless materials (excludes bikes :P). why cant we stop, think and change now before its too late??? and we go straight to hell.

*sorry to put such a dark shaddow over you life after reading this post but i think it must be done to make a change for the better.**

That's your OPINION. My opinion is different. I think life is great. I really do have a great life, great family, great friends, a job I enjoy enough. You can focus on the negatives you perceive, if you want.

Life is what you make of it, and I choose to have a happy life.


can you eat you're money? cos thats all thats gonna be left.

I'll be making as much money as I can, tough luck if you have a problem with that. Having money makes life easier, and adds various pleasures to life.

[NCR600]

Y'know, I think SC black is right about money being the most important thing for a happy life.

Money=happiness=freedom from want.

The older I get, the more I believe this to be true!

Puruit of the dollar won't bring happiness, in fact mindless pursuit of money will do the opposite. Having money, particularly money you don't have to earn will make you happy.

Look at Paris Hilton... I mean she's stupid, vacuous, looks like a Greyhound walking on it's hind legs, pisses herself in taxis, f*cks everything that moves and sh*t, but you can bet she's happy! She's never done a day's work in her life, and never will have to. She's born rich, and therefore does what the f*ck she likes. Being able to do what I like would make me immensely happy!

Money can't buy love they say, but it can buy an illusion of love. I love my girl, and I TRUST she loves me, but I don't KNOW. You can never KNOW for sure that someone loves you. Who cares if they love you for your money as long as you THINK, and they ACT like they love you for real.

[Atomizer]

Having money, particularly money you don't have to earn will make you happy.

Whilst I fully agree with both yourself and scblack that money is important in the pursuit of happiness, just as is friendship, health and family, I reckon it is the money that you have to earn that makes you happier as you have been rewarded for the effort that went into making it.
Being satisfied in life and in what you do is also a component of what makes you happy. Earning money from your skills, your effort and your time is the satisifaction and reward we get from having to work. Money recieved without effort has less value than that you've worked for which is why, I guess, so many lottery/competition winners end up broke, drug or alcohol dependent, imprisoned or alone.

As for Paris Hilton; is she truely happy? I really don't care I bet you she's not.

[scblack]

Y'know, I think SC black is right about money being the most important thing for a happy life.

Basically agree with you NCR, but you slightly misquote me. Money is important, but I don't say it is THE MOST important thing for a happy life.

Money eases problems, and makes life easier, it does not create happiness on it's own I don't think. But it bloody well helps.:)

[RCOH]

I am just an atom in an ectoplasmic sea without direction or a reason to exist. The anechoic nebula rotating in my brain is pursuading me, contritely, to persist.

Culture was the seed of proliferation but it's gotten melded
Into an inharmonic whole.
Consciousness has plagued us and we cannot shake it
Though we think we're in control.
Questions that besiege us in life are testament of our helplessness.
There's no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.
When we all disintegrate it will all happen again.
Time is so rock solid in the minds of the hordes but they can't
Explain why it should slip away.
History and future are the comforts of our curiosity but here we are
Rooted in the present day.
Questions that besiege us in life are testament of our helplessness.
There's no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.
When we all disintegrate it will all happen again, yeah.
If you came to conquer, you'll be king for a day,
But you too will deteriorate and quickly fade away.
And believe these words you hear when you think your path is clear...
We have no control, we do not understand.
You have no control, you are not in command.
You have no control. We have no control.

[S.]

Basically agree with you NCR, but you slightly misquote me. Money is important, but I don't say it is THE MOST important thing for a happy life.

Money eases problems, and makes life easier, it does not create happiness on it's own I don't think. But it bloody well helps.:)

Money can't buy happiness, but lack of money sure as hell can cause unhappiness.

[NCR600]

Basically agree with you NCR, but you slightly misquote me. Money is important, but I don't say it is THE MOST important thing for a happy life.

Money eases problems, and makes life easier, it does not create happiness on it's own I don't think. But it bloody well helps.:)

Unfortunately it is true, and I'm about as left leaning as you get.

Money brings about the freedom from want. What it can't do is prevent jealousy, and wanting more than other people. That's where it screws up.

I read an article once (here I go again quoting sources I can't reference) that said that hapiness was all about having more than your neighbours and social circle. Hence the richest man in the poorest area was likely to be happier than someone earning more, but say living in Bellvue Hill or Toorak.

Mindless pursuit of money for it's own sake is likely to bring headaches though.

[Atomizer]

Mindless pursuit of money for it's own sake is likely to bring headaches though.

It all comes back to greed.

There is a fine line between being comfortable with and being controlled by what money can provide. The more you have doesn't mean the happier you are as a result. However, the less you have often means the unhappier you are and unfortunately too many are caught there without the resources needed to climb up and out.

But, then again, money means shit to some and those I know with this outlook are happier than a lot of us.

[cokeonspecialtwodollars]

Oh so much to say so little thread space.

First point. If you think life is not worth living than you need to just look a little harder for the things that do make it worth living after all there are a lot more people out there who think it is worth sticking around than those who dont. Suicide is a cop out (just my non professional opinon by the way) and from my personal experience you get the easy straw and dont really give a fuck about the people around you left to pick up the pieces.

Second point. If you dont want to work 9 to 5 than dont. Just be prepared to harvest all your own food and kill your own stock so you dont starve. If you talk to a farmer it would be safe to say they put in shit loads more effort than I do in my 9 to 5.

Third point. Man creates time... Time then controls man. So if you need more time then just remember who invented it and make some so get out and ride, make yourself get out and ride no excuses you'll feel better trust me there is always time.

Fourth point. Why do we need a reason to be here. There doesn't have to be a reason just accept it, deal with it, then do what you want with it. Choice is yours but I suggest enjoy it.

[ed the frog]

Fourth point. Why do we need a reason to be here. There doesn't have to be a reason just accept it, deal with it, then do what you want with it. Choice is yours but I suggest enjoy it.

hmmmm yeah good point, but still leaves alot of questions!

[RuDeZ]

Reading through all these was extremely interesting and eye opening. And though i don't think it's been pointed out yet, it is very closely related to why i ride and why so many people ride.

To me riding is an escape from everything, a pursuit of purpose. To excell in something is an awsome feeling, and i ride to better myself, to reach a goal.
When i do something new, something i have been attempting for a while, i don't care about why i'm here, or what i'm supposed to do, i'm just glad i'm here doing it.

Money can buy happiness, but depending on how its used determines whether that happiness is true or false.

Thanks for the wake up call fellas.

[S.]

Oh so much to say so little thread space.

First point. If you think life is not worth living than you need to just look a little harder for the things that do make it worth living after all there are a lot more people out there who think it is worth sticking around than those who dont. Suicide is a cop out (just my non professional opinon by the way) and from my personal experience you get the easy straw and dont really give a fuck about the people around you left to pick up the pieces.

Second point. If you dont want to work 9 to 5 than dont. Just be prepared to harvest all your own food and kill your own stock so you dont starve. If you talk to a farmer it would be safe to say they put in shit loads more effort than I do in my 9 to 5.

Third point. Man creates time... Time then controls man. So if you need more time then just remember who invented it and make some so get out and ride, make yourself get out and ride no excuses you'll feel better trust me there is always time.

Fourth point. Why do we need a reason to be here. There doesn't have to be a reason just accept it, deal with it, then do what you want with it. Choice is yours but I suggest enjoy it.

That was one of the best posts I've ever seen. Well done.

[wtr]

Food for thought, nice one Skivi.;)

LIFE, sigh, still the four alphabets that remind me of burdens I have yet to bear(pay this, mortgage this, pay that, mortgage that..). Just recently signed up to the army reserve, undertaking uni, jobs, lady luck... A sense of achievement is all I need before I start drooling in a nursing home. Wallowing in the past is fruitless. Chin up, although at times the eye of the storm might have you tricked and agitate you even more, but it's nothing a man(under construction) can't face!


"Meet me at the cross road so that I can have someone to walk into the light with.." - Crack pipes, by Sage Francis.
I would set this song on repeat when I'm on my long drive home at night, such short little song, yet packed plenty for you to masticate on. Ah...I'm sounding like a sissy.:o

[exvitermini]

just thought i would throw in a link to a thread i started last year meaning of life (http://forums.farkin.net/showthread.php?t=32007&highlight=meaning+life)..
im still lost as to why im here and why to pick life over death..but things are easing up and im learning to take things day by day

[johnny]

I once stood and watched the midnight sun in the Arctic Circle. I said to myself "When times get this good, you have to remember to remember that when times get bad, times can be this good".

I once heard a sportsmen say "The harder I try, the luckier I get". I think this goes the same for happiness. The harder I work to find it, the more chance I have of finding it.

Fill your life with happiness and you have reason to live and reason to laugh. Exvitermini, I suggest you try helpng those worse off than you. I think you'll be amazed as to the changes it can make to your own life. Give it a try, what could you lose?

[exvitermini]

Fill your life with happiness and you have reason to live and reason to laugh. Exvitermini, I suggest you try helpng those worse off than you. I think you'll be amazed as to the changes it can make to your own life. Give it a try, what could you lose?

i have thought of helping children/teens that are going though the same kinda things i went/going though and am going to do it sometime

everythings is still pretty intense for me and i believe things are still a little while away from being stable enough for me to be of any help..but i will give it ago..

[johnny]

Ok, try helping out those much better off than you, could prove to be lucrative :D

[marklar]

Disclaimer: barely reformed psychology student posting. you have been warned.

I don't post on here much and when I do it's usually shit or me too-ing but this is a topic that's close to my heart so i'm going to have my go (and if you don't like it, scroll down...)

There really seem to be two concurrent issues expressed in the question "is this it", at least in the way I ask it. Basically it boils down to saying "is it just me, or is the whole world/society farked?" And really, as i see it the answer is: both. I ask this question because a) I'm a mopey, gloomy little vegemite who may or may not suffer from disthymia (mild depression) but also b) because it's obvious that there is a lot wrong with the world.

There is, however, a lot that's really right with the world, as some people have already mentioned. The fact that I have a negative outlook, though, means I give more importance to the negative aspects of this mortal coil than to the positive and pretty soon i'm staring down the barrel of, to misquote Fight Club, working a job I hate to buy shit I don't need. None of which will allow me relief from the negative slant with which I see everything: ther'll be up-sides and good times, but I'll still concentrate on the bad.

I think that people who don't suffer from some form of depression, who are perpetually perky and optimistic probably never ask "is this it". Sure, they might know kiddies in Africa are starving of AIDS on their TB and their hepatitis has ebola while a few fat pricks in western countries wage wars over the resources to prop up consumerism and poison the air the sea and land. But that doesn't make them wonder if there shouldn't be "more to life" in some sort of nebulous, vaguely deterministic way. They don't, generally, have long discussions about whether or not humanity as a species maybe made a catastrophic wrong turn at some point and suddenly finds itsself mired in a nightmare world from which there seems no escape. For them the ills of the rest of the world, the long hours they have to work, the compounding health effects of living "in the machine" fade into the background as soon as they buy a porsche or whatever. They enjoy the good times and forget about the bad.

We grumpy pumpkins on the other hand might still want a porsche or whatever (who'd turn down a porsche?) but we know it won't make us happy; parts are expensive, you can't fit bikes in em (unless it's a cayenne) and think of how long you'd have to work at some soul destroying grind to just pay the insurance. We can't forget the bad, so our enjoyment of the good never lasts.

Notice that my examples dealt with porsches. The starving ebolAIDSerculosis kids in Africa don't give a shit about porsches. they don't give a shit about whether or not "this is it" they mostly, at least until right before the end, just want like hell to do one thing. Survive. They would wish they had the luxury of wondering if they should bother to go on living.

I think that people generally start to wonder about the fruitlessness of life, whether or not there shouldn't be something more etc. only after their primary needs (food, shelter etc.) have not only been met, but are taken to be so secure they are permanent. You generally have to work pretty hard to starve to death in a western country out of sheer want. We all know that, hell even if we don't have a job, live on the street etc. we will (barring intervention/accident) go on living by default. The question then is: is that it?

We as a species seem programmed to live our lives in relation to adversity. First challenge: air. No problem for most of us, breathe in, breathe out, provided you're not under water it works pretty well almost anywhere. Next: water/food. little bit trickier but still well within reach (especially if you just have to go to the fridge!) You can see where I'm going with this. There comes a point on the adversity/resolution timescale where you can either see more challenges to overcome (get me that porsche etc.) or you can't (why do i need more money? so i can pay more bills, allowing me to keep working my job, to keep earning money, but why?). There is also that rare breed who can see another challenge, but is overwhelmed by its hugeness: fix society's ills. stop the war-waging earth poisoning pricks, cure AIDS, get the kids in Africa some food etc. compared to this, slaving away at Video Ezy to buy a slightly better camera phone just doesn't seem worth doing.

Basically I think western society has progressed to the point where it's just too damn easy. Worse still it's so easy for us because it's so hard for someone else, which is to most people's morality a Bad Thing but it's a bit much to try and do something about that when you've got a lot of damn powerful people invested in keeping things that way (become a relief aid worker and toe the line or get shot by a private security firm!).

But ultimately, and here I am, after waaay too much amble, slowly making my point, the only reason this makes any of us wonder if this strange sexually transmitted and ultimately fatal disease called "life" is worth bothering with any longer is because we're just that little bit depressive, and always look on the grim side of life (or at least do so for periods of time).

I sort of don't want to type anymore cos this has gone on waay too long but basically what i'm getting at is: solving either the negative world view (depression) problem or the lack of challenges to overcome problem will, in relation to your own experience of the world, probably solve the worlds problems. I'll save the rest for an other time, sorry about the blah all...

[wtr]

I think that people generally start to wonder about the fruitlessness of life, whether or not there shouldn't be something more etc. only after their primary needs (food, shelter etc.) have not only been met, but are taken to be so secure they are permanent.
Couldn't agree with you more.

[exvitermini]

marklar very well thought out post!

i agrees with you on alot of things you said except this
I think that people generally start to wonder about the fruitlessness of life, whether or not there shouldn't be something more etc. only after their primary needs (food, shelter etc.) have not only been met, but are taken to be so secure they are permanent. You generally have to work pretty hard to starve to death in a western country out of sheer want. We all know that, hell even if we don't have a job, live on the street etc. we will (barring intervention/accident) go on living by default. The question then is: is that it?


last year i was pretty much on the streets if it wasn't for some friends of mine taking turns in allowing me crash with them..
but i ask myself alot of questions like why am i here?,why should i choose to live over die?.
and i continue to ask them even now that i have somewhere to live thats a little more stable.

[skivi]

wowzers

i started this thread because my mind if filled with questions day in day out and has been for years. im amazed to see the quality of the responses.

i don't know sooooo many things, im so young and there so much of the world im yet to see and experience.
i dont know why we are here and wheather this is heaven, hell or somewhere in between.
i dont know if our species evolution is this palnets worst ever natural disater.
i dont know what is after death.
...we lets just say theres a shit load i dont know :P

I do however believe: life is what you make it. The world has soo much beauty that is not seen by so many. it also has soo so much bad in it, i think we should try harder to see this beauty and eliminate the bad, i mean when you have the chance to make heaven why not take it ??? lets work together for our combined good rather than individual greed.

lets keep this thread going. although i find it hard to respond too because it's a difficult topic and im not the most articulate kid on the block but
i am who i am.
nobody else.
me.
nick.

[skivi]

quote American Beauty (at the end after Lester is shot):

Lester: "I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me … but it's hard to say mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst … and then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupd little life … You have no idea what I am talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry … You will someday."

one of my favourite movies.