I think what's missed in a lot of these discussions is your upbringing. Our society changed very quickly in the last 30 years and parents may not be providing the proper "foundation" for their children since they didn't grow up with all this stuff. Even if you had shitty parents before, you'd probably do alright since all of society in past times was based on in-person interactions and there wasn't endless media consumption at your fingertips.
Personally, my parents were very immature, divorced, and generally didn't set me up for a healthy/balanced social life. I haven't completely given up; I work, maintain loose contact with a few friends, and basically just "doing my time" until I die.
At this point, my biological urge to stay alive. Other things interest me like new game releases or OSS projects but I wouldn't say that there is anything that makes me look forward to waking up.
I'd ask you to look for a deeper purpose. Purpose that goes beyond your individual self (the ego), your family, your society, your nation.
The Bhagavad Gita explains that this material existence is basically like a prison. We're all doing our time so you're right about it. The Bhagavad Gita gives a beautiful analogy. It says, as you go from childhood to adulthood, your body is changing constantly but the identity or the self remains the same. Have you ever thought about it how strange it is? You don't go from identifying as John to James, but the body, each cell in the body is replaced multiple times throughout your lifetime. The consciousness remains the same, the "I" remains there. It says that we're born out of karma (action and fruits of actions). The consciousness is eternal (always is, never is not), the material nature is not (as evident, has a beginning and an end). So it asks you to look deeper into the Self. Inquire what is it that you're here for and what you're made of.
The idea that the whole universe was made just so you could work and die, is born out of a feeble mindset, forced by an extremely materialistic society. You can go deeper and find something invaluable. Read into philosophy (not the depressing kind), read books like the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Bhagavad Gita, Upanishadas. Learn about sāṁkhya, nyāya, vedānta. It can give your life a whole new meaning and direction.
It doesn't have to be this way, your current mental imprints want you to believe there's nothing beyond this life, nothing beyond who you are. If there's nothing that makes you look forward to waking up, then that just means you have to look for it, instead of it being handed to you.
If there really is nothing to look forward to, there's no harm in giving this wildly different life-changing thing a try.
Some links to get you started if you're interested:
As someone who identifies with the commenter you’re responding to, this kind of response can be really difficult to hear. It feels like philosophy 101 arguments against a straw man.
> The idea that the whole universe was made just so you could work and die, is born out of a feeble mindset…
Nobody was arguing that, and it baselessly assumes that the universe was made for a purpose.
> If there really is nothing to look forward to, there's no harm in giving this wildly different life-changing thing a try.
Most people make decisions based on things other than what they look forward to. Like just because I’m not looking forward to my day tomorrow doesn’t mean I should set my bed on fire, even though it would make me appreciate getting out of bed more.
As far as I can tell life doesn’t come with a meaning to be discovered.
It can be difficult to hear of course. Everything is difficult to hear when all we see is death in front of us.
I only commented because I have been in a similar situation in the past, so it's not coming from a state of feeling superior but a state of empathy. I know what it feels like when life has no meaning left and all you're doing is passing time, waiting for the last moment.
> assumes that the universe was made for a purpose.
You're assuming, without any good reasons that it's not made for a purpose. If that's the case, please let us know your arguments to believe so and why you think teleology is non-existent
> As far as I can tell life doesn’t come with a meaning to be discovered.
and you know this because...?
Unless you have looked, you do not have the right to claim such a thing. When one hardly knows who they really are behind all the identities, how can one even claim to know about the purpose of life and creation?
This is why I suggested reading nyāya and sāṁkhya from the links, because you do not even know what you do not know and yet you claim things.
Also, OP said that they do not have anything to look forward to. If you don't look into this, what would you even do? Continue with the same lifestyle and mindset that makes you feeble? How's that working out?
The same Bhagavad Gita says that everything has a beginning and an end: consciousness too by that logic. Even the gods, including
Vishnu/Krishna, during Maha Pralay get destroyed and rebuilt. There is no escape for anything. Ethernal consciousness is an illusion.
> The same Bhagavad Gita says that everything has a beginning and an end
I can tell that you have not read the Gita. It never says such a thing. You're confusing the material nature with the nature of the Self.
2.12: Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.
2.16 Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent [the material body] there is no endurance and of the eternal [the Self] there is no change. This they have concluded by studying the nature of both.
2.17:That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable Self.
2.18: The material body of the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity is sure to come to an end.
8.20: Yet there is another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.
13.27: O chief of the Bhāratas, know that whatever you see in existence, both the moving and the nonmoving, is only a combination of the field of activities and the knower of the field.
13.33: The sky, due to its subtle nature, does not mix with anything, although it is all-pervading. Similarly, the soul situated in Brahman vision does not mix with the body, though situated in that body.
I was referring to the phrase you wrote "...The consciousness is eternal..."
None of the verse you cite says that that indestructible thing is the consciousness. That's what I was referring to. For everything that has an opposite, there would be a beginning and an end: consciousness vs unconsciousness; happiness vs sadness... . Could be something else beyond consciousness?
Even if there is something eternal, then that also has an ending, because in my experience that doesn't exist now, hence it has ended. It may come back, but doesn't mean it is eternal. Something that comes and goes means that is not eternal: it is changing too.
> None of the verse you cite says that that indestructible thing is the consciousness
The Self IS consciousness. It is sat - real, that which always is, never is not. cit - It is conscious. ananda - blissful.
Consciousness isn't what you think it is, maybe you're referring to the western definition of it which is as unreliable as anything. It's not your memory, it's not your ego, it's not your mind. These things are a part of prakṛti, or material nature and they're born of the three modes of material nature as explained in the Gita. This metaphysics is a part of the sāṁkhya philosophy.
This is subtle knowledge, it's not easy to understand these abstract ideas without a good teacher to explain it to you or some good amount of self-reflection and study. I'd highly suggest you to read Nyāya sūtra and the Bhagavad Gita (preferably with a teacher who practices these things) for a logical understanding.
> For everything that has an opposite, there would be a beginning and an end
Only the things in the material nature are composed of duality. Gita's whole point is about you, the Self, who is different from material nature, is only covered by it.
> consciousness vs unconsciousness
You're confusing the mind with consciousness. Mind is a part of material nature. There's no such thing as unconsciousness in the Gita philosophy. There are material things and there's the eternal Self, the consciousness.
> Even if there is something eternal, then that also has an ending
That's a philosophically invalid argument. Eternal by definition means that which always is. The concept of cause and effect does not apply to 'eternal' things, it is beyond time and beyond our understanding.
> because in my experience that doesn't exist now, hence it has ended.
In your experience, the future doesn't exist either, has it ended? This argument of yours is called 'hasty generalization fallacy'.
How can the Self not exist? It's literally You. The Self exists right now, it will always exist. If you think the observer dies with the material body, how did the observer come to be in the first place? An observation exists only in relation to an observer, not independently of it.
> It may come back, but doesn't mean it is eternal.
Eternal means existing forever, without beginning or end. The Self can go through different bodies, different experiences, but it 'never not exists'.
> Something that comes and goes means that is not eternal: it is changing too.
That is material nature. Intelligence, ego - false identity, the mind, sense organs, organs of actions, subtle senses and the material body and the elements that make up the material nature, all have a beginning and an end. Consciousness is even subtler than all of these things, it is not a part of the material nature, it's only covered by it.
I'd highly suggest you to study these things in detail, from a good teacher, with logic. Mental speculation is pointless, philosophical speculation provides a better understanding.
Edwin Bryant has a fantastic 8 part series on Yoga Sūtras where he goes over each thing in detail. He also has a series on nyāya sūtras which explains everything using logic. You can refer to that: https://sites.rutgers.edu/edwin-bryant/yoga-sutras/
Consciousness as the word is commonly used is a descriptor of the material processes that happen in your body. It’s not clear what you’re referring to as consciousness.
The common understanding and the philosophical understanding of consciousness are different.
While most people refer to the state of being awake and functioning as consciousness, in philosophy consciousness is the entity that is immaterial. It is the subtle life force that makes dead matter animate, It is the observer that observes. It is the irreducible immaterial entity which is mutually exclusive of material nature.
Personally, my parents were very immature, divorced, and generally didn't set me up for a healthy/balanced social life. I haven't completely given up; I work, maintain loose contact with a few friends, and basically just "doing my time" until I die.