Discussion How do you define/ experience existential dread?

[Forever Sleep]

Weirdly, the definition of it is pretty much the opposite of what I feel. The description seems to indicate an anxiety over the human condition- being mortal, life's unknown purpose, the prospect of death and unknowning what comes next- if anything.

My dread is around the bare bones of existing though. Having to live and sustain this pile if shit life. It's reached such a bad level these past few days/ nights that, I find it hard to put out of my mind when I go to sleep. Simply dread at the prospect of more life ahead to get through.

That seems more fitting for the term though- to me. Literally a dread around existing. The definition seems more along the lines of worrying about what it means to exist and the fear of that existence ending.

I suppose I tend to figure that one meaning is to avoid pain. Worrying that our lives have no purpose can absolutely cause us pain but, even if we sense purpose in what we do, we can still experience pain! So, to an extent- it doesn't even seem to matter.

Whether we believe life to be brimming with purpose or not, it still requires a whole bunch of monotonous tasks to stop our meat sack bodies suffering. A sense of purpose may make those tasks more tolerable but, either way, we're stuck with having to do them.

How about you though? Is your dread more around the possible meaning/ meaninglessness of existence or, the process of trying to exist? Or, a mixture of both maybe?

 

[Pluto]

 

[Agon321]

I'm afraid of the passage of time and unpredictable negative events. Every day I think about the possibility of receiving news that someone close to me has died, or something similar.
I'm terrified of getting older and losing more and more of what I know.
From my current perspective, everything is very temporary, and I can't think long-term because I think it's all pointless.
I feel anxious every day, and it irritates me.

 

[Cosmophobic]

For me the task of maintaining my existence presents itself as more of a drudgery than a dread. I don't fear the objective meaninglessness in existence but at the same time existenialism has failed me. I have been unable to internalise my own working model of subjective meaning. Absurdism encourages you to rebel against meaninglessness - this I also see as pointless and really just a variation on active nihilism.

The only thing that seems to work for me is fatalism, or to put a pretty bow on it, acceptance. The basic drudgery of maintaining your existence is all there is. Everything else is the mind getting carried away.

I like the Buddhist saying "chop wood, carry water" -- A student asks the Buddha how to become enlightened to which he replies "chop wood, carry water" Later he asks the Buddha what one does after they have become enlightened to which he again replies "chop wood, carry water"

In other words life will always present itself as a task to be performed whether you perceive your life to be devoid of meaning or full of it.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I like the Buddhist saying "chop wood, carry water" -- A student asks the Buddha how to become enlightened to which he replies "chop wood, carry water" Later he asks the Buddha what one does after they have become enlightened to which he again replies "chop wood, carry water"

I love that. I haven't heard it before.

But yeah- it's like all the theories we toy with really- religions, simulation theories, philosophy. Ultimately- whatever the reality really is- we still have to work to pay the bills, take care of our needs or, risk illness. So, while I suppose it can give us a framework to base our ideas on or, something to feel anxious about, it doesn't seem to change the nuts and bolts of what life requires.