The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

by Robert Pantano

He would make his first significant mark on the public with controversial lectures, in which he suggested the value of separating from commonly held religious ideas and traditions, and in their place, argued for introducing new independent, forward thinking that relied on the self for divine experience and understanding.

if all we can know and experience is our self, how can any life be lived fully if one denies themselves before even trying?

If we hide or hinder ourselves out of the fear of rejection from others, are we not, in essence, rejecting our own self first; the only person we truly and inescapably have to live with?

It can help us attempt to live in the spirit of individuality, to raise the sail of one’s own ship and use the unknowable force of the wind, always moving forward, finding beauty in the vastness that surrounds us, and creating our self anew.

referred to in psychology as hedonic adaption or the hedonic treadmill. Because of this baseline, sometimes things will happen to us that make us feel extra happy. And sometimes things will happen that will make us feel extra miserable. But as time passes, in both cases, regardless of any life event, most of us will return to feeling the same as we did before. Some of us have higher thresholds of happiness and positivity, but those some of us appear to be the least common among us. Even still, for those with higher thresholds, the discouraging nature of being ceaselessly destined to return to the same baseline state no matter what they do, remains enough to destroy the spirit

what allows for the development of purpose, success, and creativity in general.

Bukowski constantly returned to writing throughout his life, never reducing or modifying his voice for the sake of something else. He never let the rejection or the suffering throughout the process ultimately take writing away from him. It’s not that Bukowski didn’t try, it’s that he didn’t try to be something that he wasn’t. He tried to be a writer, but he didn’t try to want to try to be a writer, nor did he try to write how he wanted to write. He just did it. And kept on doing it. In the same letter to Packard, Bukowski went on to say, “We work too hard. We try too hard. Don’t try. Don’t work. It’s there. Looking right at us, aching to kick out of the closed womb.” In this, Bukowski alludes to the idea that if you have to try to try, if you have try to care about something, or have to try to want something, perhaps you don’t care about it. And perhaps you don’t want it. Perhaps it isn’t your favorite color.

And it’s not as if writing, or filmmaking, or painting, or making music, or business, or whatever else must come easy to a writer or film maker or painter or musician or businessman in order for it to be the right thing or for them to be great at it. But it is likely, however, that if the pain and endurance of working through the process does not feel worth it, and you are not compelled to do it even in the face of rejection, hardship, or sacrifice, it is here where Bukowski might say don’t try. But if it does, if the thought of not doing the thing hurts more than the thought of potentially suffering through the process of it, if the thought of a life without it or never having tried it at all terrifies you, if it comes to you, through you, out of you, almost as if you’re not trying, perhaps Bukowski might say try, and “if you’re going to try, go all the way.”

The loss of our early, youthful innocence marks the death of sanity.