“Why do I live?” is an invalid question because it’s thrown at us by mankind, that is, from outside us, making it in fact their question and not ours.
It’s our parents, our friends and family, our school — our society and culture — who incessantly ask us “what we are going to do with our lives.”
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Eventually, that constant, never-ending intrusion results in this one burning question: “Why do I live?” Or, “What for?” — which is basically the same question put otherwise.
Society’s questions and demands create inner questions and demands. Actually, we reflect, mirror that which is outside and make it inside. And with that — all our (psychological) problems start, and our unhappiness accordingly.
The interesting thing is that we, sooner or later, start to ask these questions to others too, thereby becoming intrinsic part of “the outer.” The circle is then closed, and it takes a Godsend miracle, so to say, to get out of the stranglehold of that.
We can object that those questions “start somewhere,” that somebody was the first to ask them, and I admit — that’s a valid objection indeed. It’s true that at some point in the evolution of the human species something went wrong.
We can only guess, but what seems to have happened is that the human intellect, his rationality — which is of a functional quality — proved to be a very efficient and effective tool in the “battle of existence.” Cultivating this tool and refining it, mankind became “the crown of evolution,” the “ruler and king of the world.”
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Man’s intellect, his logic, and rationality became his only God, and finally he came to ask the grand question: “What for — apart from survival?”
Yet, that question cannot be answered satisfactory with or within a “functional” approach, because “functionality,” “efficiency,” and “effectiveness” are only part of life, and not the whole of life.
The whole however, can seize the parts it’s made of. Hence, only by becoming “whole” again we will be able to understand “Why we live, and what for.”
Nonetheless, the paradox is that “wholeness” doesn’t allow any questions to be posed. Wholeness is not functional. In “wholeness” all questions subside necessarily. They simply do not arise.
Understanding life then becomes being life, as life. And life doesn’t ask any questions — it only gives us perfect answers.
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