The questions

Having just finished 4 seasons of Babylon 5 I am feeling quite a bit wondering… wondering about the questions raised in the series, its dialogues and especially behind the scenes and between the lines. There seem to be three questions asked:

1. Who are you?
2. What do you want?
3. Why are you here?

I am not sure if these questions actually are everything there is to it, but they sure are deep and meaningful questions - questions I cannot answer but also questions I want to have answered, that I feel I need to start putting some life into.

What do I want?

It seems easy to answer the second question “What do you want?”, but maybe it is not that easy. Sure, there are certain needs I have, and things I want - but that cannot be the answer I am looking for. I can fill a page with things I want - maybe this is exactly the way to approach this. Write down everything that is on my mind, write down everything I want and then start looking what is behind all that. This idea reminds me of Dave Allens “Getting Things Done” method, where you try to get everything out in the open, all open loops out of your brain which is not the place where reminders are supposed to sit if it is to live, decide and act instead of just running after shadows.

Who am I?

This is even a better question - and will its answer change the things I want? In the end it will probably all converge into one thing on a high enough level - but then the answer cannot just be “to be” in itself - even if this is enough meaning for anything; just too metaphysical for me I guess. (not really, but not practically either).

Why am I here?

The least concrete question and probably the source for who I am - if there is something like purpose or meaning in the universe - everything I am and want is because I am here - but then there is a difference. If there is such a thing as destiny and/or fate - my wants and my self-view, the answers to questions 1 and 2 do not have to fall in line with it. There is always the filter of the subjective out, always the ego that interacts with the world, that has ideals, flaws and changes perception to reflect its inner self image into and onto the world. So by answering the first and second question I do not get anywhere near the answer to question three - whereas the answer to question three might be changing and determining the other answers. Difficult to think about it, but even more difficult to find the answers. Steve Pavlina talks in his blog about those high level effects - but just on a theoretical level, I cannot really follow as he does not give too many details, no examples - I might need to send him an email to ask for more, to ask for some ideas.