the wrangling

Last Updated: 2025-11-23

Tractatus 5.64. One sees here that solipsism, strictly followed through, coincides with pure realism. The self of solipsism shrinks to an extensionless point and what is left is the reality coordinated with it.

What is the question of life?

First, we must understand that there is no such question, nor problem. It is nonsensical to ask about the question or purpose or problem of life, in the same way it is nonsensical to speak of the inner life of a stone. (You might posit that stones have an inner life in geological time and through the elements of nature, much in the way we do, but to go that far also illustrates the linguistic creativity you have to employ to make this sensical.)

I want to say that all the religious texts that I thought credible - the ones about personal experience and encounters with the divine - all seem to point to a similar thing. All also lead to similar speech and actions, similar guidances of life, a similar experience of unity and oneness (with God, the world, Atman), and the view that reaching that final state of unity both requires incredible work and (more importantly) divine grace. It is up to you to try, but it is not up to you to receive.

What is the relevance of these texts to the “question of life”? If there is no question, then the answer must lie in the vanishing of the problem. The problem vanishes when one sees the mental fabrications necessary to make this a problem to begin with and that the “question of life” is a mask over a different question. However, it is not enough to logically understand the mental fabrications and that there is a different, more personal question. A person needs to feel differently - to feel safe - in letting go of the underlying problem.

Hence, the question is answered by a certain sequence of experiences that make the asker feel safe in answering the real question, and then the stand-in “question of life” vanishes naturally.

Notes

• https://paulgraham.com/worked.html