Meaning and Life
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” -Nietzsche
The Storm After Dawn
There have been many times in this life experience when I have acutely felt that I was not this body, this history, this conglomeration of personality traits or inherited genetics. I knew it as true, not because of inference or deduction or because someone or some scripture told me, but because it was direct and unquestionable. During those times, joy, freedom, and peace were eternal and the only real thing. Yet, despite my
realization of this truth, the mind would bring clouds, and I would wonder, “What is the meaning of all of this? Why is there this rise and fall of pleasure and pain, gain and loss, success and failure.” My ability to remember the reality of freedom faded like the bright dawn of spring behind storm clouds.
After meditation this morning I sat in the bright sun on the overlook outside of my home, and the question of life and meaning arose for me once more. I began to think of how I conceived myself to be, and I wondered what it was really all about. I know I am a meditation teacher, a writer, a Vedic astrologer, a musician, etc. But all of these are just concepts. They are of my personality. They are the concepts that life flows through. Notice that I was not questioning the meaning of life, but the relationship between meaning and life.
Sometimes our purpose is simply to see the beauty around us.
Back in college, as I studied psychology and philosophy, I would often wonder at the meaning of life. What’s it all about, I would ask. As the years passed and I realized that the mind likes to have answers to this question, I found that it was a silly question. I wasn’t 100 percent sure why it was a silly question, but it seemed to me, that meaning and life, while related, were not to be looked at in this way. And so this morning as I sat on the overlook and this contemplation of the relationship between meaning and life arose, I saw a woman walking in the parking lot of the apartments below the condominiums. We live on a beautiful mountainside at the top of a development. The woman below was walking with her face turned to all the lovely colors of the autumn trees. It was as if the answer was before me: she was there to see the beauty of this season. Life was flowing through her body and personality and taking in the fiery yellows, oranges and reds as the leaves were dying.
I realized that for today, the meaning of this life experience was to see the beauty in the changing world — seeing the beauty that is right here, beyond the mind’s thoughts and expectations. This may not be true tomorrow or the next day, but for today it is. Tomorrow my meaning might be working with clients and completing this newsletter, or exercising, or helping a friend.
It was then that it occurred to me that life is eternal. It is the ground of being from which all else springs. It needs no meaning. We are all individual expressions of that one life. Our individual life experiences require meaning to continue, but that meaning is only as glorious or pedestrian as we define it with our minds. For our personalities to continue, a sense of meaning and purpose is essential. Yet this is not the case for life. It flows eternally. So the problem of meaning is not for life, but for our own individualized expressions.
Before walking outside, and after meditation, I had picked up a book, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, a survivor of the holocaust, author, and doctor. It speaks to this point. The passage I opened to follows:
Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl
“As we said before, any attempt to restore a man’s inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal. Nietzsche’s words, “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how,” could be the guiding motto for all psychotherapeutic and psychohygienic efforts regarding prisoners. Whenever there was an opportunity for it, one had to give them a why—an aim—for their lives, in order to strengthen them to bear the terrible how of their existence. Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost. The typical reply with which such a man rejected all encouraging arguments was, “I have nothing to expect from life any more.” What sort of answer can one give to that?
What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.
These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment. Thus it is impossible to define the meaning of life in a general way. Questions about the meaning of life can never be answered by sweeping statements. “Life” does not mean something vague, but something very real and concrete, just as life’s tasks are also very real and concrete. They form man’s destiny, which is different and unique for each individual. No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny. No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for a different response. Sometimes the situation in which a man finds himself may require him to shape his own fate by action. At other times it is more advantageous for him to make use of an opportunity for contemplation and to realize assets in this way. Sometimes man may be required simply to accept fate, to bear his cross. Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand.”
What stops us from accepting that life needs no meaning but our individualized selves do? First, it is the confusion that our transitory selves are eternal. When we so identify with what is transitory and insist that our transitory selves must persist forever, we become a little crazy and do and think things that are not based on fact. Then it is our identification with the mind that says “All must have a reason and a meaning.” While this is true for the personality — who you think you are — it is not appropriate to apply this idea to life itself. Life exists with or without a meaning. So used to identification with the mind and what it has to say, we will not allow ourselves to just be with life.
Our task is to realize the mind’s proper place and application. Once we can do this, then we are closer to knowing the truth of what we truly are. A hammer is good for certain tasks, as is a screwdriver, but they are not interchangeable in their application.
When interacting with our individualized life experiences and directing our relative purpose, the mind is helpful. When seeking to realize our absolute purpose, being is most important. With an organized, efficient, and functional mind, we can make good plans and understand how to get from point A to point B. With an ability to detach from the mind when it is not helping, we can experience our being — life itself — and know the joy, freedom, and peace that holds and supports all experience.
Rather than questioning the meaning of life, get to know life. Find out what life is. There are plenty of contemplative practices out there to help with this. Find the one that suits you and stick with it until you know what there is to know.
If you want to question the meaning of something, question the meaning of your personality and find the why for who you are and what you are to accomplish through this personality and individualized life experience. Then direct your life experience by that knowledge. Keep in mind that we can have a long-term goal for our meaning, but we also live, moment to moment, day by day, month by month, and year by year. While all of those individual moments will contribute to the fullness of your meaning, sometimes courses change or our routes need to go a different direction for a while before it all makes sense.
Please see the video below for a further explanation of this topic.
Vision and Purpose
A Course in Tranquility – Lesson 4 of 14 – Vision and Purpose
We are each individualized expressions of consciousness. What does that mean?
It means that we are a condensation of Infinity. Imagine that there is a field of being that
has no boundary and no limitation. You can imagine it like an immense ocean, if you are
inclined. Now, from time to time, that ocean becomes more dense. Imagine a flat cloth
sheet spread across a table. Now imagine pressing your finger on the sheet and twisting it,
so that the sheet bunches up around your finger. The field bunches up into an
“individual”. The field becomes contracted and it experiences itself with attributes. It
gains a sense of self, it feels that it is an individual. It gains a personality, an idea of
history. It is then able to feel itself and begins to “think” that it is different than the space
around it.
Imagine, as the sage Vasistha would have you do, that this field takes shape,
much like a block of gold can be shaped into a bracelet. The biggest problem we all have
to face is the forgetfulness that although we are no longer identified with the formless
field, we are still that field, just as the bracelet is really still gold. To feel separate from
God or the Divine is just as absurd as the bracelet bemoaning that it has become a
bracelet and lost its “goldness”.
Yogananda has said that, “the purpose of life is much different than what most
people believe.” He is correct. The purpose of life is to wake up to your immortal nature.
It’s to realize that, yes, you currently identify with a form, but that really you are the
wholeness of life. I’ve heard my meditation teacher say before, that when you meditate,
“feel as though you are in God.” I followed this advice for a long time. Then one day, it
occurred to me. ‘Since we are not separate from God or the infinite, why not meditate as
though we are the infinite!?’ You then realize that you are what God is doing right now.
From a human perspective, raised on stories of heroes saving the day, and taught
that we need to overcome odds and achieve glory, fame, money, a big house, the perfect
family, etc. the need for a purpose is extremely strong. However, the question I’d like to
encourage you to ask your self is, “What needs a purpose?” Obviously you will say that
“You do!” But that is not true. Remember, the real you is immortal, changeless, timeless,
infinite. Yet something within encourages you that there must be a purpose to your life to
be happy and successful. You can meditate on this, and I highly advise that, so that you
get the direct experience of this knowledge.
I’m going to go ahead and give the actual answer to this question, “who needs a
purpose”. The mind needs a purpose. You are not the mind. Yet you have a mind, and it’s
not happy unless it’s got something to think about. Hence, one thing that will keep it
thinking for centuries is “what’s my purpose?” Why is this case? If you had a purpose,
you would be acting on it and not wondering what it is. We’ll discuss how to remedy the
“I need a purpose” problem later in the lesson.
I’d like to encourage you to think about something to help bring this home. When
you look to nature, do you wonder, “what’s the purpose?” If so, why? Does nature
wonder, “what’s the purpose of my existence?” No. So why should you? Think about
dancing. Is the purpose of dancing to get from point A to point B? Think about music. Is
the purpose to get to the end of a song? You may have heard theories that all of this
experience is God’s play, or that life is a cosmic dance. So what’s the purpose of playing
and dancing? Simply, to do it.
Now, it is obvious that we, being individualized units of infinity, do have specific
role to play in this divine drama. If you want to think about it, think of it as though you
are each individual cells of a larger organism, you are not different from the organism,
because you came out of its substance, but you take shape to express certain aspects so
that organism may experience life.
Before we go into more detail about what you, as an individual “should” be doing
with your life, please take some time to answer the following questionnaire. Write as
much as you want, but be sure to write at least three good sentences for each question.
This will start the process of being able to really question your ideas about purpose, and
bring some more clarity along the way.
So You Need a Purpose Questionnaire
1) In an ideal world, what would your purpose be?
2) Are you living in the world, acting in a way, or doing work that you do not
enjoy or that you find meaningless?
3) Where do you think meaning comes from?
4) Why are you living like you are living now?
5) Who told you to live this way? Why did you listen?
6) Do you think fulfillment is going to come when you accomplish that one
specific thing, meet that one specific person, or acquire a certain predetermined status?
7) What is wrong with right now?
8) When you are in your day, and you are doing your job, or interacting with
certain people, are there particular moments that just are not right? Are you sure? How
can you tell?
9) What makes you think that one moment is better than another?
10) What would it mean to you if you know, in your heart of hearts, your sense of
meaning is really only dependant on your attitude and choice to imbue something with
meaning and purpose?
How to Avoid Wasting Your Life Wondering
As we go along, we need to realize that one of the biggest blocks to experiencing
real tranquility is thinking too much. As mentioned before, yes, we do need to be able to
think. We need to be able to reason, to balance our check book, to make a plan of action,
to assess the merit or demerit of a situation, but once these actions are completed,
thinking does not need to continue.
As mentioned above, wondering what your purpose is, is one sure fire way to
waste endless moments of time thinking and not being in a tranquil space. The real reason
we think too much is to avoid making decisions. Why? Usually it’s because we don’t
want to fail. We want to make sure we are making the right decision. As if, if we only
made that one perfect decision, everything would work out in a fairy tale ending, AND
THEN we can relax and be tranquil.
This leads us back to the ideal of spiritual practice as daily living: To act in the
world, while letting go of the fruits of our actions. Take some time to think about this.
Can anyone, even the most talented expert in a field, completely control the outcomes of
their actions? We can live perfectly skillfully, and yes this has merit. It keeps us out of a
lot of trouble and gives us a higher probability that life will go our way, but has anyone
been able assure that life WILL go the way they want all time? Jesus was nailed to a
cross. Do you think that was on his personal agenda? The point I am making is that, we
are here to act, to surrender, to let the divine work through us. We are here to do our best
and give up the fruits of our actions to the divine, and then let the cards fall where they
may.
Many people mistake this idea of renouncing our actions to mean that they should
just not do anything. If nothing happens, then that is God’s will. There is the thought they
should renounce their work, family, obligations etc, to know God. In our current age, that
is not a useful thought. If work is troubling, if family gets in the way of your decisions,
or your obligations waste your time and your resources, then yes, cut them loose.
Otherwise, this is a projection of your own inability to accept the moment, and to blame it
on an external situation.
Real renunciation is being appropriate to the moment while letting go of
attachment to the action. If your kid needs a new pair of shoes, it’s appropriate to get him
a pair. No need to think about it. That is what needs to occur. If your coworker is going
out to lunch, your hungry, you didn’t bring food to work, and she asks you to tag along,
that is appropriate. Who needs to think about it? If you have a terrible disease and need
treatment, do some research, find out what would help out, and if you want to live, take
action. If you don’t like your spouse anymore and you don’t have much in common or
are not supportive of each others lifestyle, it may be time for counseling or moving on.
Make a decision and let it go. You can never look back and say, “Well, if I had only done
that…” If you had only done ‘that’, still no one can say what the outcome would’ve been.
To avoid useless thinking and endless worrying and begin more fully moving into
a state of tranquility, follow these steps:
1) Look at the situation you are in.
2) Ask, “what is appropriate for me to do here?”
3) Based on the information you have, and the inner guidance that is available to
you, make a decision.
4) Act on the decision.
5) Let the result be what it is. You can’t control that. That’s the way it is, so make
some peace with it.
6) Move on to the next moment.
7) Repeat.
Now, you might be focused on step #3, specifically the part that talks about
accessing your inner guidance. This is a very important part of the whole process, and
there are some good points to remember about how this works:
• The same intelligence that organizes the trillions of cells in your body, and the
spinning and whirling of the countless galaxies guides your actions.
• Inspiration and inner guidance is nothing special, mystical or flashy. There are no
bells and whistles. If you think there are, that is the mind needing something
interesting to pay attention to.
• The more you pay attention to your inner guidance, the more active it becomes.
• The less you pay attention to and the more willful you are about needing to think
things through, the less active is the inner guidance.
Learning to Access Your Inner Guidance
First, you can meditate every day. That will allow you to detach from your mind and
your thinking process so you can become aware of the vast stillness, from which the inner
guidance comes. Then as you go about your day, if you need to make a decision, you can
remember what it was like to be in the silence, and then ask, “What is appropriate here?”
Now, the response will not be a thought. If you ask the question, and you are greeted
with a flurry of thoughts resembling a list of multiple choice answers, ignore them.
Remember the silence, and ask again. Then wait. You will find that the inner guidance
comes out of nowhere. It does not come in the form of a thought. It comes as an impulse.
The impulse feels natural. Someone calls your phone. You don’t think about it, you just
immediately decide to ignore it or answer it. Someone asks what your name is, again you
don’t think about it, you just decide to say your name. That’s the kind of feeling that the
inner guidance resembles. It is immediate and natural.
The more you trust yourself to live in this way, the better decisions you will be
making, because you will not be relying on the limited information in your mind to make
decisions, you will be merged with your infinite nature and allowing the natural
expression of that nature to come through. Note, I did not say, everything will work out
exactly as you expect it to. To think that is a waste of time and a way of maintaining
unreasonable expectations. A well informed man once said, “Not even the very wise can
see all ends.” And he said it for a reason!
Your Purpose Is Found in Your Vision
We have a vision of life. Each of us have ideas about how life works, why people are
the way they are, what an ideal life looks like. In our consciousness we have moods, and
thoughts and memories we constantly entertain. These are the threads of the fabric of our
vision.
Do you want to know what your vision of life is?
• Look at the people around you.
• Look at the moods and feelings you habitually have.
• Look at what you do with your time.
• Look at the thoughts you allow your self to think.
This is your vision. You see it outside, but you only see it there, because that is
the way you believe life is, that is your internal faith in the world. This is usually the
hardest thing to swallow, because it can be EXTREMELY hard to change. This depends
on how invested we are in this vision. Again, meditation is so important, because over
time, if we do it right, we eventually get to see that we are NOT our thoughts, moods,
actions, friends, etc. If we are not these things, it is easier to change them, because they
do not define us. If you want to know your purpose, it is sustaining your vision. We do it
every day, whether we know it or not.
Remember, we are infinite. The real us is not bound by time, or space, or
circumstance.
We have free will. To think that there is a divine being in the sky proclaiming that
“such and such” should happen, is another way of skirting our responsibility, and once
more projecting the source of our experiences, somewhere outside of us. Our fate, our
purpose, is just the accumulation of our past thoughts, actions, and states of
consciousness. God is infinite. That means there are infinite possibilities. ANYTHING
CAN HAPPEN. God is infinite. While embodied, we have a choice in regards to what
part of our infinity we want to experience.
We’ve talked a lot about giving up the fruits of our actions and letting results be
what they may. Yet I also encourage you to live a dynamic life, making choices and
moving in the direction you want to go. This can create a bit of dissonance. It can inspire
someone to ask, “Well, if I can’t control the results, why should I try to do anything at
all?”
You will always be somewhere in Infinity. So let your purpose be to build your
ideal vision. As you persist, and give it attention and are skillful and mindful as you go,
your vision will become a reality. Worrying about your mistakes, and thinking about the
results doesn’t help you get there. It is your intention, fortified by your actions, thoughts,
feelings and faith, that creates it.
Yogananda once said, that within failure is the best time to sow the seeds of
success. This is because if you fail at an endeavor, you have just burnt off some of the
force of your past actions that were supportive of failure. When you fail, and you get up
and keep moving toward your goal, you are taking actions and setting intentions for
success. To continue in this way, eventually, the power of your actions dedicated to being
successful in an endeavor will become stronger than your past actions towards failure.
Then success in the given endeavor becomes the norm. It’s all about the interplay
between your past and present actions.
Fate is the accumulation of your past actions and modes of being. You create your
future fate by the persistence of your present actions and modes of being.
Creating Your Vision and Purpose
Now that you have had a chance to do some reflecting on your mental concepts of
purpose and life, let’s get right down determining your role in life and how that role is
determined.
Step 1: Make peace with the role you have been playing up until now. This may
take some reflection, some therapy, or just a moments notice. What ever you need to do,
do it.
Step 2: Acknowledge that your head might be filled with thoughts, ideas,
intentions, successes and failures of others you have encountered. Decide if you want to
keep listening to the stuff in your head. Remember, the people that you have allowed to
influence your sense of self are just like you. So there is nothing special about their input
that you need to pay attention to unless you want to. Even if they are extremely
persuasive people, that doesn’t make their insights more pertinent, it just means they are
better at making an impression and being persuasive.
Step 3: Begin to use your imagination. Brainstorm. Get out a sheet of paper and
write at the top MY VISION OF LIFE. Then make a list of 100 specific things you would
be doing, ways you would be feeling, the types of people you would be interacting with if
you were living your vision in this moment. 100 is a lot, but don’t stop until you reach
100.
Step 4: Face your fears. Look at your vision of life. Take another sheet of paper.
Look at each of the 100 items individually. Write down what would need to change in
your life to make this so. Then write down why this scares you.
Step 5: Looking at your fears, take another sheet of paper. Now beside each fear,
list what the pros and cons are of remaining immobilized by this fear.
Step 6: Decide if your vision is worth it to you. If it is proceed to step 7. If it’s not,
start over or revise your vision. But remember, you will get exactly what you settle for.
Step 7: Look at the list of actions you need to take to experience your vision.
Make a discipline of doing at least one thing every day, that will make your vision a
reality. Find pictures of people who have accomplished the same thing. Keep those
pictures somewhere you can see them often. Read biographies of people who have
accomplished this similar vision. In this way, you will be attuning to their state of
consciousness and accessing the support of that state. Avoid people who are unsupportive
in their thoughts and actions. Don’t talk about your vision to anyone, unless you have a
mentor that can guide you. Keep your energy for actually doing what it takes to birth
your vision.
Step 8: Let go of the results of your actions, and persist until your vision is as
natural as the current vision of your life is. Let your purpose be manifesting this vision.
Sincerely, Ryan Kurczak 2010
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