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?
-Can deer or starfish be evil?
-Could alien civilizations be evil?