Anjali signed up for an online class on Existential Philosophy by Karim Benammar. So naturally I asked her what it's all about and she gave us a half hour talk on the points she made - and well, it was quite a class.
She started by the existential question on why are we alive - to live and to make a living. And how life is about the meaning we give it. How we are free to sculpt our life and how we have a responsibility to give shape to it, by becoming who we are. The way to live authentically is to create your life your way - that we must construct the answer to why you are alive and not discover it.
What holds us back from an authentic life is fear and laziness. But we must believe in our uniqueness. We must not decide out of fear or laziness. Focus on what you want, not what you don't want. To know if you were living authentically look to the Eternal Return experiment where the same life gets repeated over and over again - would you still want it?
We can decide what we want to spend our time on - look at the world from a scarcity view point or an abundant viewpoint. We must believe in abundance and expend our surplus with projects. And if life has no meaning, give it meaning and enjoy it. Be who you are. You are not alone - take help. Create your life as a work of art.
Albert Camus, Sartre, Foucalt, Viktor Frankyl. It was exhilarating stuff. I loved it. Good course to take and am glad Anjali took it. I knew nothing of this when I was her age.
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