Volume 1 2009 Chapter 81 The Meaning of Life
Life is meaningless.
This is Yi Haoyan’s understanding of life.
Looking up at the starry sky, compared with the vast and boundless universe, the earth is so small and fragile.
Humans, who claim to be the most intelligent creatures and the rulers of the earth, often have a lifespan of no more than a hundred years. They disappear in the torrent of time in the blink of an eye.
Even the emperors and great men who shine brilliantly in a certain era are just a small ripple in the long river of human history.
Most people will not even leave anything behind. A hundred years will pass by like a flash, and soon no one will remember or care about them, as if they had never existed.
What is the meaning of such a life?
To some extent, Yi Haoyan's depression is inevitable. He sees life too thoroughly and too far ahead. He finds things that interest ordinary people boring. It would be strange if he was not depressed.
Another time when I was having psychotherapy with Professor Jin, he mentioned this issue.
After listening to Yi Haoyan's views on life, Professor Jin was silent for a while, took a sip of tea, and said to Yi Haoyan seriously: "You are right, life is meaningless, so we need to find meaning ourselves."
"Looking for meaning?" Yi Haoyan was a little confused.
"Yes, meaning is not something that exists in itself. It is a product given by humans. It is the view of things after humans combine their sensibility and rationality."
Professor Jin smiled and said, "Look, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west every day, plants wither and flourish every year, and animals are busy surviving and reproducing every day. These things will happen regardless of whether there are people or not. They themselves will not think about the significance of these things. Objective laws govern everything."
“Only humans can marvel at the greatness of life, the magnificence of mountains and rivers, and the infinity of the universe. All of these are subjective views of humans.”
"Why should we do such a meaningless thing?" Yi Haoyan was disdainful.
"Humans are not creatures that are completely controlled by their animal instincts. We still have humanity." Professor Jin explained with a smile: "Maslow's need theory divides human needs into five levels: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, respect needs and self-actualization needs. The lower the level of needs, the more basic they are and the more similar they are to animals; the higher the level of needs, the more unique they are to humans."
“I know this theory,” Yi Haoyan said, “but it doesn’t explain why we have these needs, nor why we need to find meaning?”
"Haha! Not everything can be explained by existing science. Psychology is also an evolving discipline. What we can do is to propose hypotheses, test them, and then summarize them. What works becomes theory to guide treatment. We currently only know that people have such needs, and if they are not met, various problems will arise."
"Humans are such troublesome creatures..."
"You are too rational. This is not good. No matter how developed our brains are, we still cannot transcend our animal nature and cannot avoid the influence of instinct."
"Remember the girl you told me about?"
"You mean, it's the instinct of reproduction in my inner animal nature that guides my behavior?"
"Haha!" Looking at Yi Haoyan's disgusted expression, Professor Jin smiled and said, "Don't be so repulsive. Isn't this a good feeling?"
"Be more emotional. Don't think that it's the genetic material in your genes that's at work, stimulating your inner animal instinct to reproduce, secreting hormones that influence your thinking and judgment, and thus dominate your behavior."
"You can't use rational logic to analyze emotional things. Don't think that your reaction at that time was an irrational behavior dominated by instinct."
"That's a normal reaction."
"Instinctive reactions are part of who you are as a human being. Don't use rational thinking to analyze the pros and cons. You always rejected approaches before, right?"
"Yes"
"Why?"
“I feel it’s meaningless and a waste of time, and there may not be any results.”
"Why do you care about the result? It's just meeting someone. You think too much. Be emotional. That girl is beautiful, isn't she?"
Yi Haoyan held his chin and recalled the scene of that day. Rabbit's uneasy expression appeared in front of him again: "It is very beautiful."
"You don't hate it, do you?"
“I think it’s not good to judge people by appearance.”
"I didn't ask you to evaluate her. Don't use rational logic or various social standards to measure her. Just feel it. Feel it with your instinct and experience it with your heart. Does she give you a good first impression?"
"Uh... yes."
"Does this mean anything? According to your thinking? It just feels good?"
"Well, I don't think it makes any sense. It's just not annoying. No, to be honest, it makes people feel happy."
“Making yourself happy is a kind of meaning.”
"If you continue to develop your relationship, love is also meaningful. In fact, being approached by girls is a very meaningful thing! It's just that you didn't realize it. I wasn't so popular when I was young!"
Seeing this old professor with a head full of white hair teasing him seriously, Yi Haoyan was also infected by his emotions and couldn't help but smile.
"Don't be too rational, be more emotional, pay more attention to good feelings, and follow your feelings. It's not necessarily a bad thing."
"I said the same thing again. You are too rational. This will isolate you from your true feelings. The world is not always cold and icy."
“Analyze less, feel more, and follow your heart.”
After saying goodbye to the professor and returning to Sister Enxi's "mansion", it was not yet time to prepare dinner, so Yi Haoyan had time to sort out his feelings.
And think about how to find the meaning of life.
After arriving in Korea, my life has been quite simple apart from my medical treatment .
It’s just because of Eun-hee that I got a little exposure to the idol circle.
The reason why we know Bae Joo-hyun, Kang Seul-gi, Girls' Generation, Victoria Song, Chae-kyung, and Ji-ho is because of Eun-hee's push behind them.
When I think about it, it seems that the only one who took the initiative to contact me was Rabbit.
This may seem a bit self-enclosed, but objectively speaking it is also because I just arrived in Korea and don't speak the language.
As I thought about it, I started analyzing again unconsciously . It's really hard to change this strong thinking habit of mine!
Yi Haoyan lay helplessly on the sofa, complaining about his own way of thinking. It seemed that it was not an easy task for Professor Jin to ask him to change his way of thinking. He still had a long way to go!
Just as I was daydreaming, I heard the sound of the door opening. It was Bae Joo-hyun who finished a day's practice and went home on time to cook.
