An age old question. Sometimes worded as, “Why are we here?”
I’ve asked myself this question and I’m guessing you have too.
It wasn’t until I was on a meditation retreat that I experienced the answer. It didn’t happen through my mind, but an experience – a knowing that came in an unexpected moment.
My mind still grapples to understand what I experienced, but I’m going to do my best to express it here in words for you.
There’s talk about the meaning of life is to be happy, to love, to reach a goal, to “better” the world.
These are all noble deeds and ways of being in life.
Yet they don’t speak to what’s underneath or encompassing all of them. They are each actually a part that makes up the whole. They are a result of what the meaning of life is…
That LIFE IS THE MEANING.
LIFE. This life. This moment. That the fact that we are here at all is the meaning. THIS IS IT.
There is no other place to get to that will have more meaning. When you see this, the dissatisfaction of this moment goes away, like a strong wind that blows – the wind ceases, and there is only stillness with right now.
It doesn’t mean you don’t bother with life, or set goals, or practice opening your heart more each day, but you embrace the moment of apology to your loved one for something you did, or you stop to notice the way the frost or rain drop looks up close.
There is nothing or nowhere else you are getting to that is better or more complete. There is no YOU that is more complete and whole than you are right now. You are the meaning – AS YOU ARE. You are the gift, the expression of life as you – this is the meaning.
Joseph Campbell (1904 – 1987), a modern day Mystic, states, “Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking about the meaning of life when you are the answer.”
He’s saying to stop philosophizing about it, and allow yourself to be the meaning…the expression. The being in which Life is being lived through.
In the end, drop the word “meaning,” as using this word implies that some things have meaning while others don’t. It actually lies outside of either of these ideas.
Joseph Campbell goes on to say, “I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”
When you look out the window notice the subtlety of the breeze as the branch moves, or what you feel when a family member says, “I love you,” or the quality in which you give attention to cooking a meal.
What if life were “the meaning?” How would you live today differently? What would you notice and how would you feel?
Slow down. Be still. There is no where else you’re getting to that’s more complete and fulfilling than right now.
Categories: Health & Happiness