The North Star - Meaning

[Treasure Hunter]

There is only the narrow gate. There’s only one way. So many people don’t want to accept this. They don’t want to eliminate all other options as guiding stars. It’s too risky in their mind, so it’s resisted and avoided. As a result, they have no North Star and they go around in circles.

There is great dread when you realize I’m right about this, right about meaning. Why? It’s because you have to accept that the meaning in your life — which has been barely keeping your head above water — is insufficient. It’s because you know you have to shed the insufficient meaning in your life and sink down into the water of despair and meaninglessness.

It’s a strange irony how your life becomes meaningless and full of despair when you finally submit to becoming a servant of meaning. Still, it’s the price that must be paid to receive your North Star and pass through the narrow gate.

 

[Treasure Hunter]

The silver lining of accepting defeat and entering into this meaning nightmare is the chance to turn the meaningless suffering in your life into something meaningful. The acceptance of defeat allows you to identify with the one who has been oppressed and rejected, and this one knows how to transmute meaningless suffering into something meaningful.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

The silver lining of accepting defeat and entering into this meaning nightmare is the chance to turn the meaningless suffering in your life into something meaningful.

Alternatively, one can simply wait for your preaching to offer something meaningful.

 

[Treasure Hunter]

You have to back yourself into a corner and admit that a higher, more powerful meaning for your life is truth, and everything else is a form of lying. It’s a surrender to the reality which says life is not worth living at your current level of meaning.

 

[Ponder This]

There is only the narrow gate. There’s only one way. So many people don’t want to accept this. They don’t want to eliminate all other options as guiding stars. It’s too risky in their mind, so it’s resisted and avoided. As a result, they have no North Star and they go around in circles.

There is great dread when you realize I’m right about this, right about meaning. Why? It’s because you have to accept that the meaning in your life — which has been barely keeping your head above water — is insufficient. It’s because you know you have to shed the insufficient meaning in your life and sink down into the water of despair and meaninglessness.

It’s a strange irony how your life becomes meaningless and full of despair when you finally submit to becoming a servant of meaning. Still, it’s the price that must be paid to receive your North Star and pass through the narrow gate.

The North Star is what allows a person to distinguish one direction from another direction. Without a North Star, no matter what direction you go in, you don't know what direction you are going in. But in the presence of the North Star, you can actually see what direction you are going in, no matter what direction you are going in.

For example, if you are lost at sea, every direction you look you see ocean, and no direction appears to be any different from any other direction. But if you locate the North Star, then you know if are going East or West or North or South or whatever direction. And, because you know what direction you are going, you can continue going that direction without losing your way and ending up going in some other direction than the direction you had intended to go in. Moreover, some other star, does not give you this benefit, because other stars change the direction they sit in the sky.

Gates, on the other hand, are about gaining access to an area to which access is otherwise denied. You cannot simply go to the area you want to be, but rather you must pass through a gate to get there. Even if you have a North Star, it won't guarantee that you may pass through the gate. You might be able to find the gate, but gaining entry is another matter. Yes?

 

[Treasure Hunter]

The North Star is what allows a person to distinguish one direction from another direction. Without a North Star, no matter what direction you go in, you don't know what direction you are going in. But in the presence of the North Star, you can actually see what direction you are going in, no matter what direction you are going in.

For example, if you are lost at sea, every direction you look you see ocean, and no direction appears to be any different from any other direction. But if you locate the North Star, then you know if are going East or West or North or South or whatever direction. And, because you know what direction you are going, you can continue going that direction without losing your way and ending up going in some other direction than the direction you had intended to go in. Moreover, some other star, does not give you this benefit, because other stars change the direction they sit in the sky.

Gates, on the other hand, are about gaining access to an area to which access is otherwise denied. You cannot simply go to the area you want to be, but rather you must pass through a gate to get there. Even if you have a North Star, it won't guarantee that you may pass through the gate. You might be able to find the gate, but gaining entry is another matter. Yes?

Your instinct for meaning is what allows you to distinguish the right direction and meaning is the access point.

 

[Ponder This]

Your instinct for meaning is what allows you to distinguish the right direction and meaning is the access point.

The gate is narrow because of the difficulty in passing through it. The other gate is the one that is wide and easy.

For example, before a heavily burdened camel passes through a (narrow) gate into Jerusalem, it unloads its material goods.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

You have to back yourself into a corner and admit that a higher, more powerful meaning for your life is truth, and everything else is a form of lying. It’s a surrender to the reality which says life is not worth living at your current level of meaning.

My life is perfectly worth living, thank you very much! As a Humanist, I believe that, in the absence of an afterlife and any discernible external purpose to the universe, human beings can act to give their own lives meaning by seeking happiness in this life and helping others to do the same.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

The silver lining of accepting defeat and entering into this meaning nightmare is the chance to turn the meaningless suffering in your life into something meaningful. The acceptance of defeat allows you to identify with the one who has been oppressed and rejected, and this one knows how to transmute meaningless suffering into something meaningful.

Or you just quit being self righteous , pompous, uppity wanker who assumes everyone else's life sucks because they don't do what you expect.

There is great dread when you realize I’m right about this,

More like annoyance at you pretentious arrogance.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

The North Star is what allows a person to distinguish one direction from another direction. Without a North Star, no matter what direction you go in, you don't know what direction you are going in. But in the presence of the North Star, you can actually see what direction you are going in, no matter what direction you are going in.

You need Polaris? I can do it with the planets (and navigation at sea and in space requires way more than that to avoid trouble).

 

[Ponder This]

You need Polaris? I can do it with the planets (and navigation at sea and in space requires way more than that to avoid trouble).

I agree that knowing which way is "North" doesn't guarantee that you avoid trouble.