Readings

I’ve been feeling quite alone in my pursuit for truth or the meaning of life. Older people told me to stop pondering and focus my energy elsewhere, peers seem to be equally lost in their pursuit and some are happy with ignorance (which I greatly envy, honestly). That is about the time when illness struck me and I am reduced to me, myself, my bed and my books… and I found great comfort in my books.

“…In Princeton, early in December 1950, Einstein received a long handwritten letter from a nineteen-year-old student at Rutgers University who said “My problem is this, sir, ‘What is the purpose of man on earth?’” Dismissing such possible answers as to make money, to achieve fame, and to help others, the student said “Frankly, sir, I don’t even know why I’m going to college and studying engineering.” He felt that man is here “for no purpose at all” and went on to quote from Blaise Pascal’s Pensees the following words, which he said aptly summed up his own feelings: “I know not who put me into the world, nor what the world is, nor what I myself am. I am in terrible ignorance of everything. I know not what my body is, nor my senses, nor my soul, not even that part of me which thinks what I say, which reflects on all and on itself, and knows itself no more than the rest. I see those frightful spaces of the universe which surround me, and I find myself tied to one corner of this vast expanse, without knowing why I am put in this place rather than another, nor why this short time which is given me to live is assigned to me at this point rather than at another of the whole eternity which was before me or which shall come after me. I see nothing but infinities on all sides, which surround me as an atom, and as a shadow which endures only for an instant and returns no more. All I know is that I must die, but what I know least is this very death which I cannot escape.“

To this Einstein didn't give any inspirational reply. But I agree mostly with his last sentence.

“… we all feel that it is indeed very reasonable and important to ask ourselves how we should try to conduct our lives. The answer is, in my opinion: satisfaction of the desires and needs of all, as far as this can be achieved, and the achievement of harmony and beauty in the human relationships. This presupposes a good deal of conscious thought and of self-education. It is undeniable that the enlightened Greek and the old Oriental sages had achieved a higher level in this all important field than what is alive in our schools and universities.”

Hmmm, maybe my next reading should be the Bible?