Giving purpose to your life

My workplace had an iftar gathering at a huge restaurant, five says ago. Our table was previously supplied by the waiter at the restaurant. At that time, our firm manager paid for all the meals we would have. When the Maghrib call to prayer hasn't heard, all of my co-workers appear busy speaking with each other, except for the manager and myself. The manager's face seemed unhappy and bewildered, so I attempted to ask him how he was feeling.

Then, the manager informed him about his personal troubles. My boss is 43 years old, he doesn't have a wife and kids yet. Suddenly an idea entered his head concerning the meaning of his existence. He informed me that he had a lot of fortune which he had obtained at the age of 25. He has worked hard and earned success in his profession. But his perplexity surfaced when he was at his height. "Hey Daffa, what does all this riches mean once I die?" Ask him to me.

I grin when I hear a query like this. Maybe my boss is not the only one asking questions like this, it may be that my readers have questioned the same questions like “What am I living for? What am I working for now? What are all my present successes and achievements for if later I shall also die?”. When you question all such things, then you are in the question of the philosophy of Nihilism.

Let me explain a bit about this school of thinking. So, Nihilism is a discipline of philosophy that thinks that everything in the cosmos has no purpose. Even human life does not fulfill a single goal for the Nihilists. Even if everything is meaningless, the adherents of the concept of Nihilism construct their meanings for their existence.

For many individuals, being born into the world as a human is a privilege. We are given brains and minds so that we who are born as humans are smarter than other species. But we as intellectual people will end up the same as other organisms in the planet, which will confront death. All the things we have attained will end with time.

An analogue between the philosophy of nihilism and absurdism was also written by a philosopher called Albert Camus. He authored a book called "The Myth of Sisyphus". The contents of the book speak about a king called Sisyphus who was condemned by Zeus to push a giant boulder up a hill, then the rock rolled down when it reached the top of the hill. Sisyphus pushed him again from the bottom to the top of the hill, then rolled down again when he was on the hill. And so on for a lifetime.

From the novel published by Albert Camus, the life we ​​live now is virtually the same as the comparison of King Sisyphus. We have a cycle that repeats itself every day of the week. Maybe some individuals would feel melancholy come Monday since the weekend has past. But on Tuesday you might be delighted due of a wage raise or job. It might be that now we are pleased because we just got a girl/boyfriend, but tomorrow we can be upset because a girl/boyfriend cheated on us.

So, the core of the nihilistic worldview is "Nothing truly matters in life", from time to time, life encounters a repetitive cycle. Sometimes you feel pleased then feel sad again. If in the opinion of nihilism there is nothing significant in this world, then we must provide meaning to the life we live. We are still permitted to work, therefore we must do the best for our lives so that we may offer a positive meaning to ourselves and life. Although in the end, we shall die, at least what we have done throughout our lives may help many things, including people, animals, and plants.