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  1. TopTop #1
    Valley Oak's Avatar
    Valley Oak
     

    The Meaning of Life

    Hunter S. Thompson’s Monumental Letter on How to Find Meaning and Purpose in Life

    “But a man who procrastinates in his CHOOSING will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.”
    — Hunter S. Thompson


    Hunter S. Thompson


    In April of 1958, when asked by a friend for advice, 22-year-old Hunter S. Thompson penned a letter on how to find meaning and purpose in life.

    Despite his young age, Thompson’s words contain a certain earnestness, force, and clarity that make them particularly urgent and deeply moving. I’d go as far as to say that this is one of the most powerful distillations of a single man’s philosophy I’ve ever come across.

    What makes this letter all the more uncanny and profound is that at the time, no one knew Thompson would go on to become one of the most ground-breaking, influential, and famous writers of the 20th century. He was essentially an unknown, spelling out the as-yet-unproven philosophy that would result in his becoming a cultural icon and literary anti-hero.

    In short, these are extraordinary words that deserve your careful attention. Read them slowly, striving to understand each sentence in its entirety. They might just alter the course of your life. Hunter S. Thompson’s Monumental Letter:

    April 22, 1958
    57 Perry Street
    New York City
    Dear Hume,

    You ask advice: ah, what a very human and very dangerous thing to do! For to give advice to a man who asks what to do with his life implies something very close to egomania. To presume to point a man to the right and ultimate goal — to point with a trembling finger in the RIGHT direction is something only a fool would take upon himself.

    I am not a fool, but I respect your sincerity in asking my advice. I ask you though, in listening to what I say, to remember that all advice can only be a product of the man who gives it. What is truth to one may be disaster to another. I do not see life through your eyes, nor you through mine. If I were to attempt to give you specific advice, it would be too much like the blind leading the blind.

    “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles … ” (Shakespeare)

    And indeed, that IS the question: whether to float with the tide, or to swim for a goal. It is a choice we must all make consciously or unconsciously at one time in our lives. So few people understand this! Think of any decision you’ve ever made which had a bearing on your future: I may be wrong, but I don’t see how it could have been anything but a choice however indirect — between the two things I’ve mentioned: the floating or the swimming.

    But why not float if you have no goal? That is another question. It is unquestionably better to enjoy the floating than to swim in uncertainty. So how does a man find a goal? Not a castle in the stars, but a real and tangible thing. How can a man be sure he’s not after the “big rock candy mountain,” the enticing sugar-candy goal that has little taste and no substance?

    The answer — and, in a sense, the tragedy of life — is that we seek to understand the goal and not the man. We set up a goal which demands of us certain things: and we do these things. We adjust to the demands of a concept which CANNOT be valid. When you were young, let us say that you wanted to be a fireman. I feel reasonably safe in saying that you no longer want to be a fireman. Why? Because your perspective has changed. It’s not the fireman who has changed, but you. Every man is the sum total of his reactions to experience. As your experiences differ and multiply, you become a different man, and hence your perspective changes. This goes on and on. Every reaction is a learning process; every significant experience alters your perspective.

    So it would seem foolish, would it not, to adjust our lives to the demands of a goal we see from a different angle every day? How could we ever hope to accomplish anything other than galloping neurosis?

    The answer, then, must not deal with goals at all, or not with tangible goals, anyway. It would take reams of paper to develop this subject to fulfillment. God only knows how many books have been written on “the meaning of man” and that sort of thing, and god only knows how many people have pondered the subject. (I use the term “god only knows” purely as an expression.) There’s very little sense in my trying to give it up to you in the proverbial nutshell, because I’m the first to admit my absolute lack of qualifications for reducing the meaning of life to one or two paragraphs.

    Continues here
    Last edited by Barry; 04-21-2017 at 12:51 PM.
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  3. TopTop #2
    Star Man's Avatar
    Star Man
     

    Re: The Meaning of Life

    Life has no inherent meaning. The only meaning it has is what we give it. I choose to believe that the meaning of my life is to optimally manifest the gifts that I was born with. At the end of my life I will reflect on what I have done and how well I manifested my gifts, such as they are. I wonder what Hunter S. Thompson felt and thought at the end of his life as he was pulling the trigger.
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  5. TopTop #3
    Valley Oak's Avatar
    Valley Oak
     

    Re: The Meaning of Life

    If I remember correctly, Thompson was suffering from a terribly debilitating disease and he was going to lose the use of his body and his mind. I would have shot myself in the head just like he did.

    Quote Posted in reply to the post by Star Man: View Post
    Life has no inherent meaning. The only meaning it has is what we give it. I choose to believe that the meaning of my life is to optimally manifest the gifts that I was born with. At the end of my life I will reflect on what I have done and how well I manifested my gifts, such as they are. I wonder what Hunter S. Thompson felt and thought at the end of his life as he was pulling the trigger.
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  7. TopTop #4
    joybird's Avatar
    joybird
     

    Re: The Meaning of Life

    Didn't he do it while on the phone with his wife ? That seems horrifying. Shoot yourself if you must , please don't traumatize those around you like that. Now you can chose to die with the drugs from the state. I know of 2 people who have done that- it was a peaceful way to go and healing for the loved ones to be there and hold them as they died.


    Quote Posted in reply to the post by Edward Mendoza: View Post
    If I remember correctly, Thompson was suffering from a terribly debilitating disease and he was going to lose the use of his body and his mind. I would have shot myself in the head just like he did.
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  9. TopTop #5
    occihoff's Avatar
    occihoff
     

    Re: The Meaning of Life

    I'm afraid I found Thompson's essay excessively verbose and not all that incisive. For me the term "meaning" of life is meaningless. "Meaning" is something we look for in the world of human intentions and verbal understandings. It's a basically intellectual thing. But life is beyond that. What does it "mean" that you suddenly came out of nothing into this amazing world of body and consciousness when you were born?

    For me the most important thing is a passionate feeling of wonder and amazement--the feeling you would get on suddenly beholding a miracle. For what is our coming into being out of nothing when we were born but a colossal miracle? And the world of color and sound and scent and touch and thought and feeling and existence in human form that we were born into and are reborn into every morning is a miracle! In comparison to that fundamental miracle the conscious and unconscious decisions we make each moment and every day about what is important to us--the meaning of our actions--is important but secondary.

    Sadly, it is our lot as we gradually grow up out of childhood and struggle with the everyday challenges of life to become jaded and take it all for granted. The feeling of wonder and delight that should be at the core of our experience of life becomes dimmer and hard to rekindle. Psychedelics can help, but that expansive energy and spiritual vision is up against a lot of emotional clogging.

    This is why for me body psychotherapy has become for decades now the core of my personal yoga or spiritual opening practice. It's a matter of doing the best I can to soften the physical and emotional armor laid down in me from childhood on, so that I can feel life more fully. It's hard work and there's plenty of resistance. But the more I soften the armor and release the layers of anger, grief, and fear, the more I can feel the wonder and magic of this world.
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  11. TopTop #6
    Star Man's Avatar
    Star Man
     

    Re: The Meaning of Life

    What provides meaning for me is the spiritual experience of the sweat lodge. Years ago when I first entered the sacred space of the lodge, I experienced a feeling of "home" for the first time in my life. After 26 years of sweating with other medicine men and leading lodges myself, I continue to be amazed and enlightened and transformed by the sacred experience of union with Mystery that happens for me in the lodge. Emerging from the lodge this Sunday morning after sweating Saturday evening for four rounds and four more on Sunday I realized that all my defenses -- perceptual, experiential, psychological -- all were sweated out and washed away. I could see every leaf on every tree, I could see an appreciate the hawks and owls and crows and hummingbirds and woodpeckers who visited us. This is the meaning of life for this man, to fully experience and join in the Mystery of each moment.

    Quote Posted in reply to the post by occihoff: View Post
    I'm afraid I found Thompson's essay excessively verbose and not all that incisive. For me ...
    Last edited by Barry; 04-25-2017 at 03:37 PM.
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  13. TopTop #7
    occihoff's Avatar
    occihoff
     

    Re: The Meaning of Life

    Wow! This is so hard for me to imagine, because my constitution is such that whenever I am even in hot, humid weather (fortunately rare in California) I feel like the life energy is just draining out of me. Do you experience this when you first enter the lodge but it feels better as you stay on, or does it feel great right away?

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    What provides meaning for me is the spiritual experience of the sweat lodge. Years ago ...
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  14. TopTop #8
    Star Man's Avatar
    Star Man
     

    Re: The Meaning of Life

    The sweat lodge is not for everybody. It is a demanding spiritual practice. I never felt the life force draining out of me. It has been difficult at times, many years ago, but now I feel energized and enlivened. I feel spiritually uplifted. It took about a dozen sweats 25 years ago to get the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual toxins out of me body. The lodge does require that I be fully present in the moment. If I drift off into wondering when the flap will open, then I am in the future and the lodge feels hot and that brings me back into acceptance.

    Star Man

    Quote Posted in reply to the post by occihoff: View Post
    Wow! This is so hard for me to imagine,...
    Last edited by Barry; 04-25-2017 at 10:30 PM.
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  16. TopTop #9
    joybird's Avatar
    joybird
     

    Re: The Meaning of Life

    It's about the context. You are there to pray and we are reminded that all we really have to give is our bodies. Praying /sweating is a giving back to Spirit.
    The lodges I have been in don't start hot- you have time to acclimate.The heat comes as the hot rocks ,the Eldest of us all, are brought in . Water and sacred herbs are placed on the stones with prayer.
    Also , what can feel like a very hot lodge to me ,can feel gentle to you depending on what you need. You can always lay down if it's too hot and in some lodges you can ask for the flap to be opened if you have to.

    Joy
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