“TO BE OR NOT TO BE” that is the question?

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? By Paul Gauguin

 

By Elizabeth H. Elys

THE MEANING OF LIFE: 
Life is beautiful but not always easy, it has difficulties, and sometimes a lot of issues and the challenge lie in facing them with courage, happiness, sorrow, victory, defeat. The life is full of moments of joy, pleasure, success and comfort punctuated by misery, failure and struggles.

“To be or not to be” meaning: Is better to live or die? It is the best - known line from all drama or literature. William Shakespeare: play Hamlet {1602}, Hamlet is asking if he should live or die. Mind is Centre of everything. It controls your thoughts and beliefs. Life is challenge, and for anyone to succeed in life, he must be ready to show the stuff he is made of. To some people, life is hard, cruel and merciless. These people see life as punishment throughout their entire lives. But there are those who see life a challenge, a channel of discovery and innovation, a prospect for success and a gateway to wealth. No matter the situation these people find themselves, they keep pressing on, believing in a cause, a cause to succeed and get the most out of life. 

The meaning of life is derived from our philosophical and religious contemplation of, and scientific inquiries about existence, social ties, consciousness and happiness. Many major historical figures in philosophy have provided an answer to the question of what, if anything makes life meaningful. Meaning of life has been a human concern from the beginning. Plato a greatest philosopher lived in Athens 2400 years ago, he devoted his life to one goal: helping people to reach a state of what he termed: Eudaimonia, Greek word is little hard to translate: it means Happiness or Fulfilment is more compatible with periods of great pain and suffering, which seem to be an unavoidable part of a good life. 

Plato proposed that our lives go wrong in large part because we almost never give ourselves time to think carefully and logically enough about our plans. And so we end up with the wrong values, careers and relationships. Plato wanted to bring order and clarity to our minds. He observed how many of our ideas are derived from the crowd thinks, from Greek “doxa “, common sense. Popular ideas about love, fame, money or goodness simply do not stand up to reason. He also noticed how people were about being led by their instincts or passion (jumping into decisions on the basis of nothing more than how they felt. 

To live good life, Plato believed passionately in education, but wanted to refocus the curriculum. The primary things we need to learn is not just math or spelling, but how to be good: to learn about courage, self- control, reasonableness, independence and calm. Plato’s ideas remain deeply provocative and fascinating. What unite them are their ambition and their idealism. He wanted philosophy to be a tool to help us change the world.

Early in 19th century writers began to write directly about “the meaning of life “The most significant writers were: Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Tolstoy. Schopenhauer ended up saying that the meaning of life is to deny it, Kierkegaard, that meaning of life is to obey God passionately, Nietzsche that meaning of life is the will to power. 

Tolstoy lays a kind of irrational knowledge called “Faith“. In the 20th century, in the Continental tradition, Heidegger held that the meaning of life is to live authentically to be a guardian of the earth. Camus also thought that life is absurd and meaningless. The best way to cope with passion is using everything up, and with an attitude of revolt, defiance, or scorn. B. Russel argued that to live a meaningful life one must abandon private and petty interests and instead cultivate an interest in the eternal.

Leo Tolstoy a Great Russian novelist was occupied with the question, what is the meaning of life? In his book Confession we can find this question: Why do I Live? Is there any meaning in my life? Why do I exist? How go on living? What will come of what I am doing today or shall do tomorrow? What will come of my whole life? What for? What is it for.? 

Be or Not to Be? Life is an adventure. Dare it. Life is a love. Enjoy it. Life is a tragedy. Face it. Life is a struggle. Fight it. Life is a promise. Fulfil it.