Most Important Lesson You Have Learned

[stormcrow]

Generic thread. Title is self explanatory. What is the most important lesson you have learned in life? Go.

[DeletePlease]

Life's just a circle. No clue what that means, but it seemed pretty damn important when it hit me. It's been a while, but maybe if I get high again I'll figure out whatever the hell that meant. Aside from that, I learned to think for myself.

[Arra]

I don't know because it's hard to identify realizations when they tend to be so gradual. Maybe that logic is so important, since it's the basis for other life-changing discoveries. Life's just a circle. No clue what that means, but it seemed pretty damn important when it hit me. It's been a while, but maybe if I get high again I'll figure out whatever the hell that meant. Aside from that, I learned to think for myself. It seems more like a slinky to me. Like a circle but every loop is a bit different. Certain aspects of life anyway.

[DeletePlease]

It seems more like a slinky to me. Like a circle but every loop is a bit different. Certain aspects of life anyway. mind = blown

[melanieb]

I find it hard to decide between two important lessons...I'll let you decide. 1. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just shut your mouth and walk away. 2. It's okay to say "no."

[DeeryTheDeer]

I don't know about the most important one EVER, but these lyrics from Rush (Limelight) keep coming back to my head once in a while and pushing me back in the right direction, when I get bitter or distracted by negative things in life that I shouldn't be focusing on. Those who wish to be must put aside the alienation get on with the fascination the real relation the underlying theme

[tempusername]

I don't know because it's hard to identify realizations when they tend to be so gradual. Maybe that logic is so important, since it's the basis for other life-changing discoveries. It seems more like a slinky to me. Like a circle but every loop is a bit different. Certain aspects of life anyway.

[Linkzelda]

I think the most important lesson I've learned is that going through those occasional thoughts of suicide and all sorts of negative things I rather not talk about, trying to make people happy, trying to make others happy, motivating myself to give it my all, etc., I've made a conviction that worrying about people's opinions will only waste more time that I can put in to develop myself emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually. tl; dr version: Move forward, be strict on yourself, forgiving of others, always seek to evolve yourself everyday, be happy doing so, and when things get rough, take a breather, and do things one step at a time, anxiety is just a perception that only becomes a reality if you do nothing to stop it. It's so hard boiling those down into one idea. >.< Sorry. D:

[Original Poster]

The most important lesson I've learned is that I decide what's important and if something isn't aiding my happiness it's my choice whether or not to give it value.

[Gorillaz]

Money doesn't buy happiness but i wouldn't mind being depressed in mansion with my millions.

[Arra]

The most important lesson I've learned is that I decide what's important and if something isn't aiding my happiness it's my choice whether or not to give it value. That's one of my main ones too, and something most people don't seem to understand.

[tempusername]

The most important lesson I've learned is that I decide what's important and if something isn't aiding my happiness it's my choice whether or not to give it value. That's one of my main ones too, and something most people don't seem to understand. Either of you read any Wittgenstein? Might like him

[Original Poster]

Of course. I would consider Hume, Camus, Satre and Watts to be most influential on this conclusion, though.

[Arra]

Not I. I came to that conclusion with my own thinking. But I should probably look into that and other actual philosophy. I've barely read any books on the subject since taking a few college Phil courses - a fact I'm deeply ashamed of. -------- If I ask myself why I'm performing some action, it will always be because I'm trying to sustain or cause some emotional state within myself. For example, if I exercise, it might be because I'm trying to cause myself to lose weight. And in my mind: Weigh less --> gives people higher opinions of me --> makes me feel loved --> makes me happy. Perhaps not that exact chain, but it would be one in which the end result is some emotion. That's the main point - that the base reason I perform any action is always because I'm trying to achieve some emotional state within myself. I'm not necessarily trying to feel 'happy' every time; the emotional state might be more nuanced. I might want to feed starving people because, in the end, doing so removes my negative feelings resulting from knowing that others are suffering. There is no exception to this rule at all, no action that could ever be performed in which achieving some emotional state is not the goal. A value is anything that is always going to cause, or will likely cause, one or more of those emotional states. Anyone who doubts this can consider anything that they value and ask themselves what positive emotions the persistence of that thing will make them feel. Imagine that none of these things were true, and you would no longer value that thing. One conclusion that can be drawn from this is that there is no objective 'right' nor 'wrong'. Murder is only considered wrong to most people because a) we feel sympathy toward people who are murdered b) we don't want to have to worry about people murdering us so we all agree not to murder one another in a society, so when someone breaks that rule they are labeled as 'bad'. But really, if we didn't feel sympathy for others, and somehow didn't need to worry about being murdered ourselves, it wouldn't phase us. We only value lives because our sympathy makes us feel bad when other people die. Another conclusion is that the purpose of life can only ever be to achieve positive mental states. It might sound terrible and selfish, but there is really no escape from it. And feeling good because someone else does really shouldn't be considered 'selfish'. We also might gain a better understanding of people, of their actions, while keeping this in mind. Unless you think a person is mistaken about some fact, you cannot tell him or her that they are wrong for holding a certain value. Everyone's actions are justified to themselves. Everyone is always doing the 'right' thing from their own perspectives.

[Original Poster]

You essentially summarized Stoicism. Though I believe you must come to understand most of philosophy through your own thinking, otherwise you're just repeating someone else's ideas and have not really learned them. For example if someone says you should read Atlas Shrugged and you ask what the philosophy of the book is and they say you have to read it to understand, they are little more than an objectionist partisan. If someone can actually explain objectionism rather than cite Ayn Rand, I might take them more seriously. It's the same with existentialism or stoicism. But that's why I appreciate Camus, because he narrates a story about the ideas rather than explaining them, a lot of the time, so that you can actually consider his works and draw conclusions instead of having them given to you.

[DeeryTheDeer]

Another conclusion is that the purpose of life can only ever be to achieve positive mental states. It might sound terrible and selfish, but there is really no escape from it. And feeling good because someone else does really shouldn't be considered 'selfish'. And positive mental states are our brain's reward method to motivate us to survive and procreate, so yeah, it makes sense.

[tommo]

Atoms, sub-atomic particles etc. This lead me to realise that there are no "things" just a mash of stuff and it is an illusion to see objects as separate. Pretty much lead me to Zen Buddhism which changed the way I view the world entirely, so that's why it's most important to me.

[MasterMind]

Everything is connected and everything is one. Look up the Flower of life. Stop seeing duality and see unity. We are God and God is us. Continue spreading the meaning of Inlakesh! We percieve unity from time to time, but other times we forget. Look at your own body for example. You may say that you are one life, but have you ever thought about all the organisms within your body that together makes your body? Now look at yourself and ask what you build up

[Xei]

I learned that I have inherent biases. We all do, they come from our development and, to a surprising extent, from our genes. It's only once you recognise these biases that you can control them. You realise that many issues don't actually have a single reasonable answer; it depends on what you accept as basic truths, and especially when it comes to things like morality, these can ultimately be baseless, or highly malleable. At the very least, you realise that different people can sincerely come to different conclusions. In a word, you learn tolerance for all people. Almost all, anyway. I still have zero tolerance for liars; people who do not come to their world view sincerely, but rather by a process of lying to themselves for whatever reason, and to maintain the facade they lie to you, too.

[tommo]

That's a good one. BTW, I came up with a way to explain that chaos thing I was talking about a few months ago, if you remember. Gonna PM you about it.

[saltyseedog]

Take my own advice.....

[Wayfaerer]

Indiscriminate skepticism

[Warheit]

Lessons? Bitch please, experiences.

[Karloky]

The most important lesson that I learnt in my life is that you can never stop learning and developing your personality....and also that everything can change

[Spenner]

Learning how to listen, instead of speak. In more than the auditory sense. Mostly with my bodily processes and desires, and of others, and it's spread empathy into a lot of the things I do.