This is my view on Buddhism.
As a normal being living in this world we all ask the question what is the point of living? We search for the answer from another to verify ourselves of existence. So what is the meaning of life?
I will assume that we are all afraid of death at one point in our lifetime, and I will assume that we all try to bury our emptiness with excess pleasure at one point in our lifetime.
Because we search for this empty pleasure, we are disciplined for no reason, for action which all primitive beings do, the scientific method; we experiment with things, trial and error, call it whatever you want, but I am only concerned to state we desire to search what satisfies us.
If we are to be disciplined to stray away from scientific knowledge what is the point of living? Why live if the only answer people tell you is “because I said so.” Why grip on to life if peoples search is to be ridiculed by some authoritarian.
This is my journey to ask why grip on to life, the very short version.
Everybody starts at the bottom where the rest of the world is trying to disconnect children from their mother. I can honestly tell you if you achieve a kid to be disconnected from their mother; you got yourself an anti-social kid, or a child soldier or a prostitute. If we cannot learn from our mother how to intimidate, we will learn from the abuser how. If I do not get my ass kicked he thinks I am a sissy, or if I do not get abused he does not live me. Does a person like this sound familiar?
A life like the one I state sounds miserable, but I am only going to concern myself with the fact we all suck at life with the desire to bury our emptiness. Fair enough?
So we search ourselves traveling the land of misery. Who would be the best person to ask about the wisdom about life? Well if I am miserable and I am afraid of dying, and I want to know the meaning of life from one person? Why not ask a person without a home, a homeless.
He has nothing, living in miserable condition, and the most surprising thing is that he is still gripping on to life!
Let us say I am 5 years old and walk up to the bum because to learn we must have a fresh identity, a fresh mind, the tablua rasa of a child.
I ask the bum, “What is the point of gripping on to life when there is nothing?”
The bum replies, “Got to appreciate what you got rain or shine”, he lift both his arm up as if he was lifting the world, or he clearly just did not know.
But as a 5 year old he was pointing out to appreciate the world rain or shine, just look around and just appreciate it. That is good enough.
I will skip the teaching of Buddhist emptiness and go straight to the finish.
Meditation is a voluntary incarceration. It is to understand you are not special, you are empty, and you suck.
20 years later…
With that said I will say what the bum has said came in handy. Only thing to appreciate in life is the wind racing against your face, the water that flows downstream, and the life that surrounds us, the fire that burns, and the sky that we all share.
The search to bury the empty desire from absolute nothing will manifest the appreciation of what we all got.
My opinion on how the pre-Socratic developed.