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Why does life go by so quickly? Please help a teenager out.

Discussion in 'Off-topic Discussion' started by YiboW, May 28, 2015.

  1. YiboW

    YiboW Fapstronaut

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    Why does life go by so quickly? Seriously.

    I'm Yibo and am only a 17 year old ignorant teenager. I'm sure many of you all on the forums who are much older and experienced than me can impart upon me some of your life advice.

    I've been asking myself this question since I found this book at the library called Tuesdays with Morrie.
    It's about a man interviewing his sociology professor Morrie every Tuesday, who is dying of ALS disease, about the life lessons he's learned.

    The biggest lesson that Morrie learned is that our culture is too materialistic and that since we are part of society, we have this same mindset. We waste too much of our life on materialistic things - sports cars, fame, gourmet food - when these material things don't satisfy us.

    How many of us have bought something that is just lying around in our house?
    How many of us spent more time on the NoFap forums than with family or friends? ... or maybe it's just me.

    I'm not saying money is bad. We need money to survive, but we have put it on a pedestal and worship it like a god.

    Instead, Morrie says what we really need to be happy is simply spending time with close friends and family - the only ones we will want to see again on our deathbeds.

    One of the biggest ironies of life is that we all know that one day we will die, but we don't live or believe that will happen.

    I have be misquoting this, but there's a German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who says that we only have a concept to time because we know unconsciously one day we will die. We know deep down inside time is a limited quantity even though we live as though it is not.

    We all have too many obligations to deal with in life - porn, paying bills, tv shows, books to read, a job/school - that is hard to ever think that one day we will be dead... I'm a hypocrite for writing this because I know I don't reflect on my life enough nor live this way.

    You can read the book for free here (or just google "Tuesdays with Morrie pdf") :
    https://www.olchs.org/assets/documents/Mitch Albom - Tuesdays with Morrie.pdf

    I've asked my dad, my mom, my 50 year old highschool physics teacher, my 70 year old grandpa, and a random woman I sat next to on the train this question:
    "Do you think time goes by fast?"

    And every single one of them gave me the same word for word response:
    "Absolutely! And it goes by even faster as you get older..."

    What do you guys think? Why do our lives fly by so past? What are the biggest life lessons you've learned that let you live a happier life?
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2015
    Mike98 and recovering onanist like this.
  2. YiboW

    YiboW Fapstronaut

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  3. Immor

    Immor Fapstronaut

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    I think as we get older we do much more things on autopilot, by habit and are much less involved in the experience. That is why time seems to go by faster.
    It is sad really if I think about it.

    If you want it not to, you have to concentrate on being aware of the moment or get outside your comfort zone and do new things.
     
  4. This is a great post, Yibo.
    When we are kids we have all our life ahead of us, and it seems like such a long time. Even one day sometimes seems like it will last for an eternity.
    As we get a bit older, more care-worn, less innocent, we begin to realise that we don't have quite so much time after all - and we start to wonder where all the years went to. I think we start to value time more when we realise we don't have quite so much of it left. What to learn from this? That our time here is precious, and we really shouldn't waste another moment of it looking at porn and abusing ourselves. Let's try to better ourselves while we still have the time. All of us here are deserving of so much more.
    P.S. Yibo, my friend, you are definitely not an 'ignorant teenager.' Please maybe consider amending your first sentence - truly - you're such a great guy.
     
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  5. The Eleven

    The Eleven Fapstronaut

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    It's the Doppler effect.
     
  6. YiboW

    YiboW Fapstronaut

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    @Immor Yup, that's great advice: To stay in the present moment.

    A year ago, I bought a meditation book from Amazon(Insight Meditation by Sharon Salzberg and Larry Rosenberg) and it was talking about Buddha.

    At the time he(Siddartha Gautama) was an Indian prince who never knew what suffering or death since his father, the king,would remove the dead roses in the palace with new ones each day.

    One day, the prince walked outside the palace and saw a dead person lying on the floor and people much less fortunate than he was. He was shocked and began to ask deep life questions like: "What is like to live in a body that decays? Why do we suffer?"

    After years of meditation, he reached enlightenment and he came up with the answer to life as simply to be mindful - to be present. The past is already gone and the future is yet to come so the only thing we have in life is to clear our mind and engage in the present. He also says that all of our suffering is because of desire. A desire to watch porn, to have money, to be better.

    Anyways, I'm not Buddhist and have only read that meditation book because I heard from someone on reddit that meditation helped with porn. But thought you find that interesting.
     
  7. skart

    skart Guest

    Life passes quickly if you spend time whereas If you invest your time and make every moment count and have a high level of conscience you won't worry about such trivial matters and focus on important things only.You shouldn't even be asking this question. You should sacrifice your very being to one single purpose.
     
  8. YiboW

    YiboW Fapstronaut

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    @recovering onanist
    Yup, the hardest part is just riding out the sexual urges because for me, my mind naturally thinks about PMO even without me choosing to think about it.
    We're all here to better ourselves. You could say we live life with the purpose to become the best we can be. In fact, in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, our highest need is to "self-actualize" to reach our highest potential and help other do the same.

    Haha nah, I'm pretty ignorant and happy that I've realized it. I was reading about this Greek philosopher named Socrates who lived 2500 years ago. He was known as the wisest man in Athens and the founder of Western philosophy. His philosophy was simply to question everything.

    He would ask the top Athenian politicians, thinkers, scholars deep questions like:

    "What is justice? How do we know what is right from wrong? How can be live happier lives?"

    Eventually after a lot of questioning, Socrates realized that these "smart" people didn't know anything.
    Like they would say justice is when people are treated equally yet these same thinkers spent most of their time thinking only about themselves.

    And so Socrates concluded that the only difference between him and everyone else was that he was humble enough to admit that he was aware of his ignorance while everyone else let their own ego and arrogance blind them into thinking they were smart.

    There is this quote: "The wise man knows that his small island of knowledge is surrounded by a sea of unknown."

    Most people are so blinded that all they see is land and never notice that there even is a sea. They think they they are always correct and never take time to ask what else they don't know. They don't even consider that there even is a sea of knowledge and many times, that's me. So yeah, I'm pretty ignorant.
     
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  9. NetRang3r

    NetRang3r Fapstronaut

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    when my life seems to be going on auto-pilot (at least when I finally realize) I try to take up a new hobbie, or research other religions / ways of living/thinking. I find this helps me not only relate to other people but helps me get off auto pilot and enjoy things more. just a few short years ago I was strung out on drugs and booze, and I accepted that we all die and was pretty ready for that....now I accept it but I want to live as much life and help make as many people happy as I possibly can.
     
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  10. Kenji

    Kenji Guest

    I do apologize for this spiritual rambling,

    "This life of separateness may be compared to a dream, a phantasm, a bubble, a shadow, a drop of dew, a flash of lightning.” - Buddha

    Even in other worlds and dimensions where lifespans are much greater than our tiny human lifespans on this planet, all which lives must one day die.

    Such is Samsara. Life and Death. Some follow God in hope of finding eternal liberation, some call on Jesus to guide them through the maze and suffering that life can be. In the end all religions are working towards the same goal of ultimate liberation from the torrent of birth and death with myriads of sufferings, for even existence in the highest heaven must one day come to an end, as the Wheel goes round and round,

    [​IMG]

    The voiceover at the end of this song is pretty cool and relative to the topic at hand, skip to 6:20 if you don't like the song, not sure whose words the voiceover is, if you know please do tell,

     
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  11. Kenji

    Kenji Guest

    Spiritual rambling aside, for myself, Buddhism is the medicine for ending existential suffering, a means of escape from the quagmire of birth and death.

    Also I like your mind YiboW, I like the questions and insights you share in that first post. I could not agree more with what you are saying.

    I miss my martial arts friends and it has only been a couple days since I was able to see them. Won't be able to step foot in my school again until I am working as I quit my job after this last relapse. Hopefully I find news that I have a new job Tuesday, just so I can go into have tea with my martial arts family and be in my Master's presence. I will train hard and work hard this weekend.

    As if life isn't enough suffering, we pile on the shitstorm with this meaningless addiction.
     
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  12. tomtom

    tomtom Fapstronaut

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    Going from 0 to 14 took a lot longer than seeing my kids go from 0 to 14, so I agree with what most older people say...

    As Henry Rollins wrote:

    No such thing as spare time
    No such thing as free time
    No such thing as down time
    All you got is life time
    Go!
     
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