#2 Philosophy

#2: What does it mean to live a good life? What factors contribute to a fulfilling and meaningful existence?

I think living a good life involves with finding happiness, meaning and contentment. However, I wrote a poem once about the paradox of trying to find contentment. I think all of our final goals should be to settle down and be fulfilled and content with what we have and not try to wish or pursue for more. However, when we get contentment, we lose the meaning to life. I guess it is debatable what is the meaning of life. To me, I think that our lives has meaning because we are always pursuing after a bigger goal or a passion. But think about it... What happens when we actually achieved our goal? Do we find another goal to pursue after? In my poem, I wrote that, the unending loop of chasing goals but contentment remains forever elusive. But then when we try to break out of the loop, the once raging fire to live, dies down instead. Is there a way for both contentment and ambition to coexist? As always, if you disagree with anything, please do share! Onto the next part!

I want to share something about Chinese philosophy. Yin and Yang are fundamental concepts that represent the dualistic nature of existence. The main idea is "dynamic balance". Yin is associated with passivity, darkness and the moon. Whilst, Yang is associated with activity, light and the sun. We can connect these with coexistence of contentment and ambition. Yin representing contentment and Yang representing ambition. This is just theoretically speaking and not practically done by me so... Anyways, the meaning of dynamic balance is that the two sides are not static and rather in a cyclical motion, like the sun and moon! So here's the idea, we as humans can have a cycle of setting and achieving goals, finding contentment, reassessing oneself and setting new aspirations. Keep our lives in motion so that both contentment and ambition can coexist!

Anyways, sorry for rambling for so long. Do tell me what you think about the theory though and what does it mean to live a good life for you? Thanks! <3