“At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.” – Italian Proverb
As in chess, so in life.
We are born, we grow up, we live, we die. The endless cycle of physical existence and all its stages, spares no one. Even if we extend our lives well beyond our normal lifespans, for thousand of years, either through genetic therapies or cybernetics, we still die eventually. Heck, the entire Universe will die eventually. A recurring question posed by all existentialist philosophers is then: “what gives purpose in our life?”
The answer is multi-layered and complex. The complete answer it entirely would take an entire book and it is not the point of this article.
However, i do want to touch two layers of meaning. The first one tackles the semantic meaning of purpose at a cosmic scale, the raison d’etre of any living entity.
Suffice to say that life does have meaning and for me, experiences and the gathering of knowledge itself is a meaningful purpose in itself, even at the cosmic scale. I derive this from the idealist myth of creation: The unified Mind at large, the all encompassing consciousness created the Universe for the sole purpose of attaining individual psyches as a mean to know itself through self-awareness.
The second kind of answers refers to the meaning of one’s individual life. As derived from the first answer, any one’s life would have meaning through his/her’s own experiences, like a karmic luggage loaded in the endless cycle of Samsara. But that is akin to floating downstream, subjected to eddies, currents and the shape of your own boat.
Only when awake one can choose what kind of experiences he/she wants to experience and take away back into the fold, as a sliver of knowledge in the endless ocean of wisdom that is the Mind of God.
Here, the king can choose another role than the pawn. We can consciously choose what role our life to have in the greater design of the universe, like a cogwheel in a huge mechanism.
We make this choice according to our values and we strive towards them based on our willpower. Our values choose what dreams we aim for and our willpower grants us the strength to meet them, like small Creators in our corner of the Universe.
My values are knowledge, altruism, caring, love and the search of meaning and wisdom.
As an expression of my values, I chose to devote my life to sustainable development, research & development, freedom of mind and education:
I wish to pave the road to knowledge to our descendants – by providing them a greener future, unbiased education and the backbone of unparalleled technology on which they can build a future to carry the humankind to the stars and beyond, in the endless quest for knowledge and ultimate truths.
In a practical sense, I wish i could help humankind climb one more step on Kardashev’s cosmic scale, by promoting the widespread integration of renewable energy sources and investing in nuclear fusion research.
I also wish to promote unbiased science and education, fighting against narrow minded materialism through idealist education (books, conferences, classes).
Energy and education. This will be my endgame on the chessboard of life.
After I make my mastermind move… I will happily go back into the box. And become the music of an alpenglow.
It is your move now.
Midnightwind's Weblog 