Human perspective is limited, so truth and success look complicated. But at the deepest level, reality runs on a few simple fundamentals. Since we know so little, it’s best to live our lives based on what works, not what there’s “evidence” for. What we call evidence changes and changes. The most successful people don’t care about being right. They care about being rich. Be right or be rich. And the fact that it works is honestly proof enough itself. There are countless variables that shape outcomes in the world: physics, biology, incentives, timing, relationships, attention, skill, discipline, astrological placements, environment…etc. From a human vantage point, we only see partial slices of the full system, so we experience life as complex and chaotic. But I believe complexity is often the surface level expression of a small set of simple rules interacting.

@Shannon Bowen Thank you for joining, Shannon. As I pondered your question in the last few days, my mind wandered between the meaning of peace and the meaning of true peace in such a way that it snowed in my head — instead of coming up with a coherent answer, I found a snowstorm. It was only later last night, as I was being reminded of the winter solstice, that it occurred to me that perhaps I could borrow a few words from a Chinese philosopher as an indirect reply. Zhang Zai (1020-1077) concluded his masterpiece with this short sentence (8 Chinese characters): Alive, I follow my mandate; dead, I rest in peace.

@David Hamilton Thanks for joining the group, David. I think I understand the implied question in your statement, and my immediate reaction was “exactly, that was precisely how I started this accidental adventure into cosmology three decades ago.” I was studying theology at the time and was tortured by all those stupid arguments trying to prove the existence of God. The axiom I discovered was this one: all is energy; whatever exists is but a form of energy. How I built up the theory of everything describing a self sustaining and self explanatory rotating universe from that simple axiom will be history. This world has seriously underestimated the foundational role played by basic concepts in our understanding of nature.

@Alchemist Prime Thanks for joining the group! Sometimes, the best answer to a question is another question: how to make life meaningful? Since the term “meaning” means different meanings for different people, to define it in one’s own terms very much constitutes the answer to both questions above. Speaking from personal experience, career-wise, I find this observation from Confucius to be very relevant: if you want to establish yourself, you work on establishing others; if you want to develop yourself, you work on developing others. Philosophy-wise, or in existential terms, my answer to your question is this: we suffer mortality in order to know our immortal nature.