The Meaning of Life Part 4


The Meaning of Life Part 4 - Musing From Ecclesiastes


Isn't the Meaning of Life is to Find Happiness and To Do What Brings You Pleasure?

  • Is doing what makes you happy the secret to the meaning of life?  Is the ultimate goal in life to be happy? In America the mantra is the pursuit of happiness.  Bhutan, a very small nation was named the happiest place on earth (or at least in Asia).  It measures a Gross National Happiness Index as a productive output rather than the normal national economic index of a GDP.  Its previous king espouses that the ultimate goal in life is to be happy (See "The Happiest Place on Earth"). Interestingly he constructed happiness as a key performance indicator of his government’s reforms.
  • Solomon also wanted to know if happiness and engaging in every sort of pleasure brings meaning to life.  He experienced wisdom, so now he was determine to experience every pleasure he can. After all he is philosopher who appreciates the scientific method.  Therefore he must test and experience all hypotheses for himself, including all types of pleasure, high and low.  It is a tough job.

    [Eccl 2:1-6] “2:1 I thought in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good." But that also proved to be meaningless. 2 "Laughter," I said, "is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?" 3 I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly-my mind still guiding me with wisdom.”

    Oh boy, that did not start very well.  What else Solo?  

    [Eccl 2:10-11] “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.  11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”

    All the orgies, frat parties, clubs, debauchery (like what takes place in the Olympic village ), having 1000 wives, a private wine collection, doing whatever you want, having whatever pleasure you desire on a moment’s command, should have done it for you Solomon.  What went wrong?  In a short word – Boredom.  We get tired of it after a while.  It encounters the vanity of “It is Never Enough, It Does not Permanently Satisfy, There is always the desire for More”.  Pointless.  Meaningless.
  • But isn’t it good to be happy?  Don’t we tell someone when they look for a job that they need to find one that makes you happy, even above one that pays you well?  Don’t we tell someone who wants to know what to do in college, to do what makes you happy and forget about whether it will pay the big bucks in the end?

    (Note: That is the running debate I encounter. The cynic in me says it is the rich elite talking heads on tv who want all of us to be consumers, not producers.  So they tell us to only do degrees that we will be happy with in the end even though it may only be worth a salary of 35k at the end of the day.  Why would someone go to a high end private college to do a degree requiring a loan of over 100k, but will take 20 years to pay it back?  Somebody would have to convince me.  In the meantime all the potential higher earning degrees like engineering, science etc. are being done by non-americans.  We have been baited and switched especially on liberal arts. My "Solomonic" cynicism is alive and well on this one.  If you want to do a liberal arts agree do so.  If you want to do a science degree do so.  But make sure that you are smart about it, indeed happy with it and have been realistic and calculated the costs and gains on life after college. But I digress…).
  • So I ask you O Wise Solo, isn’t it worthwhile to be happy and to do what makes you happy, even though you say at the end it is meaningless?  Please convince me.  Suppose we are not on the orgy scene. What if we make a decent life and enjoy the simple pleasures and be content. Doesn’t that work?  It seems that Solomon agrees. No less than three times he mentions, it is better to eat, drink, be merry and be satisfied with the work of your hands -

    [Eccl. 2:24-25] “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?”.  Also

    [Eccl. 3:12-13] “12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil-this is the gift of God “.

    Finally [Eccl. 9:7-10] “7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun- all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.“ 
  • So this has to be the meaning of life right Solomon?  This does not sound too bad.  Just pursue clean happiness that would not make you board right? So again, why did you conclude that it is meaningless and pointless in the end?  Well let’s look at what you have to do to be happy, the clean way, he bemuses.

    The pursuit of happiness sometimes takes work and hopefully honest work.

    [Eccl. 2:3-6] “I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives. 4 I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5 I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.”

    This is what Solomon did so that he can be happy in it.  No more partying. He poured himself into work, meaningful work.  If someone feels that they are useful and doing good, won’t they be happy? Maybe so, but at the end of the day [Eccl 2:22-26] “22 What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? 23 All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.”

    Nothing we do lasts forever.  However we get a hint that everything God does last forever and nothing can be added to it or taken away from it [Eccl. 3:14].  Hmmm… Let’s hold that thought.

    So happiness from doing meaningful work or feeling useful, or doing what you enjoy still has its benefits.  Yet at the end of the day, even with all this happiness, man shares the same fate with animals, who don’t even care about being happy it seems.  The Teacher concludes [Eccl 3:18-22] “18 I also thought, "As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth? 22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him? “
  • What else?  We have tried to pursue happiness via pleasure hoarding and via meaningful work.  We have concluded that they can bring short term pleasure and a sense of worth and accomplishment, but in the long run it is like chasing the wind.

    Let’s say though that you have truly achieved a happy life.  Congrats - You are truly happy.  But once you burp from your happy stupor, and if you have a mind and a heart to rise about your myopic view to look around at your fellow man, you observe

    [Eccl 4:1-6] “4:1 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed- and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors- and they have no comforter.  2 And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive. 3 But better than both is he who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun. 4 And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.  5 The fool folds his hands and ruins himself.  6 Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. “

    Oh boy. Here is another problem.  You have achieved happiness, and then you have to deal with your fellow man and they make you unhappy.  Or you just observe the mess that the world is in, the oppression in Syria, the travesty of the sex trade, the ravishing in Dafur, and you realize how pitiful it is to just pursue happiness for yourself as the goal in life when others are heavily oppressed.  (To be honest that is how I feel working in Babylon on a 9 to 5 job wasting 60% - 80% of my waking life, while there are many others who are oppressed.  I feel you Solo). From this, you are tempted to conclude that the meaning of life is to serve your fellow man, but we will deal with that in a subsequent post.
  • It seems that even if you have achieved happiness, there is always the vanity of the unbroken cycle of time, of chance, of evil, of the unexpected emergency waiting to spoil and derails this.  We still feel trapped.  [Eccl. 9:11- 12] “11 I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. 12 Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.” 
  • Just pursuing singular happiness is nice but that would not cut it in the long run as the meaning of life, at least not unless we can overcome the vanities which prevent everybody else from becoming happy and content.  Once again, those vanities of Death as a certainty, Time as a cycle of endless repetition, Activity that amount to Nothing really in the Long Term, There is Nothing that really satisfies (we always need more), Everything always feel the Same (in the Long Term We are not making a difference), Nothing Really Lasts Forever, and the Problem of Evil/ Oppression derails another candidate of the title of “The Meaning of Life”
  • Yet we have some clues that expose some cracks in Vanity’s Armor.  Whatever work God does last forever [Eccl. 3:14].  It is from the hand of God to eat, drink and find satisfaction in your work.  To the man who pleases God He gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness and overrides the cyclical system by causing the sinner to be trapped in the meaningless chase after happiness and wealth to only hand it over to the one who pleases God [Eccl. 2:24-26]. Ah, so somehow, God can buck the cycle of meaninglessness or use it for his own benefit and the benefit of the one who pleases Him.  We need to hold that thought.
  • The conclusion? Being happy is nice.  Pursuing what pleases you can be good, however be careful of not doing it at the expense of others, and always remember that there is ONE who is looking that could buck the system and bring meaning/ accountability/ judgment to the meaningless pursuit of happiness.

    [Eccl 11:7-10] “Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.  8 However many years a man may live, let him enjoy them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is meaningless. 9 Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment. 10 So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless. “
  • Next stop?  Forget about wisdom, happiness and pleasure.  Money and power is where it is at.  Cash is King. Show me the money baby!!

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