#156: Ikigai, What We Want & Doorstop Philosophy
3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on the Purpose of Life
I. Ikigai
You’ve read about Tsundoku. But have you heard about Ikigai? Héctor Garcia and Francesc Miralles popularised this Japanese term in their book Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. In simple terms, Ikigai is…
[a] broad concept, it refers to that which brings value and joy to life: from people, such as one’s children or friends, to activities including work and hobbies.
In other words, Ikigai is your raison d’être, your Daseinsberechtigung, your life’s purpose. However, this is not just about professional achievements. It could be helping your children succeed in life, a passion for travelling or gardening or writing essays and newsletters about ideas and concepts such as Ikigai.
What’s your Ikigai?
II. What We Want
What do you want in life? Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Alan Watts, the legendary “spiritual entertainer”, knows why we often don’t know:
You see, there’s a beginning state of not knowing and there’s an ending state of not knowing.
In the beginning state you don’t know what you want because you haven’t thought about it. Or you only thought superficially. Then when somebody forces you to think about it and go through it and say, ‘Yeah, I think I like this, I think I like that, I think I’d like the other,’ there’s a middle stage. Then you get beyond that and say, ‘Is that what I really want?’ In the end you say, ‘No I don’t think that’s it. I might be satisfied by it for a while and I wouldn’t turn my nose up it. But it’s not really what I want.’
Why don’t you really know what you want? Two reasons that you don’t really know what you want: Number one, you have it. Number two, you don’t know your self. Because you never can. The godhead is never an object of its own knowledge. Just as a knife doesn’t cut itself. Fire doesn’t burn itself. Light doesn’t illuminate itself. It’s always an endless mystery to itself.
—Alan Watts
III. Doorstop Philosophy
I’ve written about the meaning of life before, exploring ideas from the Immortality Project to the Münchhausen Trilemma. Evolutionary psychologist Steve Stewart-Williams has a rather pragmatic theory. You don’t have to find meaning in propagating your genes, he writes:
[Y]ou might have other ideas about what to do with your brief time on this planet. But just as a toaster used as a doorstop is still a machine designed to toast bread, you — whatever you choose to do with your life — are still a machine designed to propagate your genes. All of us are. It’s what the priests, the sages and philosophers searched for in vain: the ultimate explanation for our existence.
―Steve Stewart-Williams, The Ape That Understood the Universe
🐘
Have a great week,
Chris
themindcollection.com