Billings Spiritual Philosophers - Life's Meaning

**I will post this flyer (pictured) at our table for identification.** **Agenda is to discuss the meaning of life! Wide open, but here are some ideas:** **Spiritual background – favorite thinkers, books, movies, art?** **What gives life meaning to you?** **The nature of existence – creator or manifest nature itself?** **-Is love as manifest as gravity?** **Love as the nature of existence – what does it mean to be in harmony with it?** **-Personal outlook, way of life, compassionate, loving** **Love is a holistic need: intellectual, emotional, sociological, primal.** **-Existence points in this direction - civilizations and individuals can’t function without it.** **-Innate meaning:meaning is not subjective: we can persist without hate but not without love.** **-“Each like a coal drawn from the fire” – community and connection must exist.** **Hierarchy of values** **-Wants and desires that do not provide meaning?** **-Can we live without a hierarchy of values?** **Understanding and wisdom – does it have an endpoint?** **-Knowledge – intellectual, emotional, experiential (what it’s like to be/experience), participatory (how we participate/roles we have), etc** **Romantic love – what we desire in another and in ourselves.** **-If we desire the superficial, will others desire superficial in us?** **Spiritual enlightenment – what does this look like?** **-Buddhist Ox herder metaphor** **-Comfort vs Adventure and what this means in terms of spiritual growth** **Were all religious founders saying the same thing?** **Power and the corruption of spiritual thought.** **-What power structures do we live within and how do they affect our lives/corrupt us? “Ishmael” book and the taker civilization.** **-Materialism and the simple life.** **-Is perpetual order sustained through force or love? Does order through love require sacrifice?** **The nature of sentience, evolution, sociability and love.** **-Can our level of intelligence evolve and exist without sociability and love?**…