This is the age-old question, and truthfully, a question that is likley beyond our pay grade. Still, it feels compelling to ask the question, for as our friend the ancient sage, Socrates, noted, “A life unexamined is not worth living.”
Many have taken a stab at meaning, some more significantly than others. Some say that life lacks any meaning at all; that we must each create our own meaning out of life. Well, that may be partially true, what is meaningful for each of us individually will be different from what others find meaningful. We are each unique individuals capable of carving our own meaning out of the life we have been given. Some may say that gaining power and pleasure is meaningful; others may say that quietly attending to virtue brings meaning, and sometimes it may the be same person saying both at different stages of life!
But what we are interested in exploring in this article is this: What could be universally meaningful for us all?
From a purely biological and reductive perspective, some have said the meaning of life is to persist — to carryon and perpetuate the gene pool, and in that way we contribute to the apparent meaning of evolution. But few people get out of bed in the morning eager to get going and persist — keep living and reproducing. We are here for greater purposes than to eat and generate organic waste, and then reproduce more beings capable of doing the same.
The question of universal meaning ultimately includes one’s views of the reality of a Creator. We are, it seems clear, the only species on the planet asking questions about whether or not God exists. We have been endowed with that capacity for a reason.
I am biased on this score, and if you are a dyed-in-the-wool atheist, you may want to stop reading this article here. For me, to say that life and evolution occurred by some extraordinary coincidental accident, once, hundreds of millions of years ago, and then tumbled uphill through more accidental mutations to engender increasingly complex forms of life, until arriving at a species that could choose to acknowledge God, bodily housing about 70 trillion living cells that all know their role for the benefit of the whole . . . would be tantamount to saying that all of the bricks, mortar, wiring, conduit, steel, glass, pavement, plumbing, and sewer systems on the island of Manhattan assembled there accidentally.
That there is an underlying design contained in the evolution of life in this world is, for me, beyond doubt.
So let’s dispense with the question of the reality of God and acknowledge that God, or Gods, engendered life on this world, as well as very likely, on hundreds of thousands of planets in our neck of the universe.
We could narrow our focus in this article to this: What is the meaning of life as it relates to our Origins?
To that question, sages of long ago have provided meaningful answers.
The monotheistic religions of the world: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, offer similar pathways to meaning. Each promotes the value of the individual believer. From storied Judaism today, it is to become a “Mench” — a person of integrity, morality, dignity, with a sense of what is right and responsible. From the Islamic faith, a true Muslim man is kind, just, compassionate, forgiving, responsible, hard-working, and humble. For Christians, the call is similar — it is to be compassionate, accountable, forgiving, and pure of heart. Jesus persistently called individuals to “be perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect.” Each of these traditions acknowledges the value of ancient Scripture that teach the reality of One God, and that to “love God and love others” is foundational for their faith.
Eastern traditions, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism, similarly focus on the way of life that leads to enlightenment and a unification with the divine. Buddha, The “awakened one” advocated a way that leads to broadened consciousness, emboldened compassion, and renewed reverence for life. Lao Tse found harmony in an alignment with Tao, and the complementary opposites of yin and yang. Confucius promoted the “Way of Heaven,” a way of personal growth and communal responsibility. Hinduism values a life that leads to unification with the Atman, the presence of the divine within the individual.
Among the indigenous people of North America, where religions traditions varied from tribe to tribe, there was virtually always a recognition of the divine and the emphasis on developing strong character.
For C. G. Jung, a psychologists and polymath, who drew from many of the religious traditions in the world, including Eastern, African and indigenous North American, it was the perpetual development and expression of the unique individual and a life aligned with the “Infinite.”
Each of these traditions suggests that meaning is experientially discovered through one’s way of life. The ultimate purpose for life in the cosmos may be well beyond our grasp, but meaning derived from a relationship with what has been called the “Tao,” the “Atman,” the “Infinite,” the “Way of Heaven,” and the “Kingdom of Heaven” within” is the alluring sacred path to experientially realizing meaning in our own lives.
We may rest in the assurance that there is a great and glorious purpose to the march of the universe through time and space, even though we may only partially glimpse tiny pieces of that grand purpose in this life. The way of life consistent with that purpose is to be found among the many profound threads of wisdom from the “awakened ones” throughout the ages.
J G Johnston is the author of The Call Within — Navigating Life With Inner Guidance and The Way — The Religion of Jesus Before Christianity.