Friday, May 22, 1998
Why Live?
GROUP: The members
of the Eastern Philosophy Club search for the
meaning of life,
happiness
and studies
By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Contributor
At one time or another, great scholars, scientists and
philosophers have pondered what is the meaning of life? Here at
UCLA, the Eastern Philosophy Club tries to answer.
"Why are we born? Why are we living? And for what reason must we
live?" asks Shiina San, the club’s teacher and a graduate of Tokyo
University.
San says the most suffering a person can experience is not
knowing the answers to these questions. He relates an anecdote of a
psychologist who thought of a unique way to torture prisoners.
The idea was to force them to spend an entire day digging a
hole, and then at night, force them to fill it up again. The
prisoners had to do this for several days before they became crazy
and committed suicide.
And why did they eventually kill themselves? San asks. Because
the action had no purpose.
"If I told you to just sit here for a whole day, would you do
it?" San questions a student. The student shook her head.
"But if I offered you money …" San responds slyly. The group
laughs. "Then you would do it."
The Eastern Philosophy Club connects the meaning of life to the
issue of suicide. San asks another student what he would say if a
friend of his wanted to commit suicide.
"I would … talk to him, and ask him about his problems," the
student replied hesitantly.
But why is it wrong to commit suicide in the first place? San
questions.
"In people’s minds they think suicide is wrong. But they don’t
have an answer if I asked them, ‘Why not?’"
The point, however, is not that suicide is a positive thing.
Suicide is merely used to illustrate the importance of the purpose
of life.
And that purpose, according to club Vice President Bita Enayati,
is to attain absolute happiness.
"The purpose is not to seek for happiness, as everyone is doing.
The very premise of seeking something is to attain it."
One of the club’s key methods in teaching this is emphasizing
the difference between how to live and why one should live.
How to live, according to San, is what many religious groups
teach. It is the method that dictates what major students choose,
how hard they work and what work they eventually do. The final
reason, many people think, might be "to obtain happiness," but that
happiness, according to the group, is relative and inconstant. That
happiness is a happiness based on other people’s happiness, and it
will eventually betray a person.
The Eastern Philosophy Club, however, in explaining why a person
should live, teaches the path toward finding absolute
happiness.
"This absolute happiness is not something we can imagine. It is
completely different from anything we know," Enayati confirms.
When she arrived at UCLA, Enayati was confused about choosing a
major because too many different fields interested her. While
considering medicine, she was volunteering at the UCLA Medical
Center and slowly came to a realization.
"I saw many young people suffering from illnesses, cancer – and
I thought, if a person is in so much pain, how can I encourage that
person to live? I didn’t have any convincing answers, and I
couldn’t find one in the fields I was studying," Enayati said
earnestly.
One day she received a flyer that asked, "Have you ever thought
about the purpose of life? Have you ever wondered why happiness in
your life never lasts?" These questions seemed to speak directly to
her and she attended a meeting.
The group was not an official club, but a small gathering of
interested students. Enayati listened and became so impressed by
the simple logic of the teaching that she wanted to share it.
"There are many students on campus who don’t know why in the
world we have to study," Enayati says.
Enayati, through the group’s meetings, has been able to attain
this absolute happiness.
"It’s the happiness that you feel – happy you were born as a
human being, that you’re living right now, that you didn’t give up,
that you overcame suffering to reach this."
She says how to attain this happiness is clearly taught by the
Eastern Philosophy Club, although it is a long process.
The club’s philosophy appealed to Miori Maela, a first-year
English student at El Camino College who comes to UCLA to attend
meetings. She was born in Japan but has spent most of her life in
America.
Last summer, she was living in Japan again and although there
was no conflict in her life, Maela still felt "something wasn’t
fulfilled."
At El Camino College, the club’s flyers struck a chord in her
and she began attending the meetings. She is now a regular
member.
"It teaches why I have to live despite suffering. I searched for
it, but I never knew it before."
The club, which has about 20 regular members, meets from two to
three times a week and often teaches its subjects in a continuing
series. One meeting might discuss the importance of purpose in
life, and the other will explain what that meaning is. There have
been a variety of topics, such as "Our True Selves: Who are we as
human beings?"
San, who began teaching the tenets of the Eastern Philosophy
Club after his graduation, stated what he believed to be the club’s
distinction:
"This is not religion, and, to be precise, it is not philosophy
either. This teaches why you should live, and it stands alone."