The Meaning of Life

 

            Around the middle of Leo Tolstoy’s life, he reached the conclusion that life was meaningless and there was no point in living anymore.  He reached this point even though he was a famous author, wealthy, and had a large and loving family, and many friends.  He was in excellent health, and in full command of his mental abilities.  What happened to him?

            It became quite obvious to him that someday he would lose his life, and that his friends, family members, and wealth would all cease to exist.  Though he was famous while alive, there would come a time when he would be forgotten, his works no longer read (this might take a long time but it would happen), and everyone who knew him would be dead, and all memory of him would be swept away.  It will be as if Tolstoy, and all he worked to create, never existed.  And of course, the same thing is true of all of us, except that almost all of us will have this happen much more quickly because we have left a much smaller mark in the world.  It is this sort of thinking that causes many of us to try to keep thoughts of our death out of our minds.  As one existentialist put it, the voyage of our life ultimately ends in shipwreck, and there is nothing that any of us can do about that fact. 

            There was a time when I agreed with all this and it seemed unfair and was upsetting. I railed against the universe for things being this way. But looking at it more deeply, it becomes clear that Tolstoy’s perceptions were based on highly questionable assumptions. 

He seems to be assuming that if something doesn’t last forever, then it is meaningless.  But is this really true?  If what I do each day lacks meaning, having more days of it does not suddenly make it meaningful_.  Suppose you watched a terrible movie with no redeeming qualities whatsoever and it lasted an hour and a half.  Suppose the movie added more of the same kind of content so that now the movie is 3 hours long.  Does that make the movie one iota more meaningful?  What if the movie lasted an eternity?  Would that make it worthwhile?  No!  What is important is the quality of the movie—a movie could last 5 minutes and be very moving and positively life changing.

Whether something is meaningful or not would seem to have nothing to do with how long it lasts.  We’ve all been stuck in conversations that were utterly senseless and boring, but having it last forever wouldn’t make it better, it would simply make it hell!

Or think of a sculptor who gets to sculpt all day, but then the entirety of each day’s work is destroyed overnight so he has nothing to show for his efforts the next day.  You might say, “What a tragedy!”  But if he keeps his awareness in the present moment, and if what he loves is the act of sculpting, the process of creation, then he has a great and meaningful life. He gets to do what he loves to do every day.

The Buddha’s central teachings on impermanence are relevant her.  It is a bedrock truth about the world that everything is always changing—there is nothing in this world that is permanent.  We can mourn this fact, we can try to make things last forever, but, if we do, we will suffer because that is not the way the world works.  The Buddha taught that the real problem is not impermanence, but rather our desire to have permanence in an impermanent world.

Impermanence is actually a good thing.  It makes positive change possible: it makes it possible for a child to grow into an adult, for an unjust governmental regime to be replaced, to find cures for diseases, heal emotional wounds, produce inner growth, and to transform ourselves at the deepest level so we can stop creating so much unnecessary suffering.

As I understand the Buddha’s teachings, the meaning of life is to transform yourself, to realize the oneness of all things, that there is no separate self or existence, to achieve inner peace, and to be of service to all of life.  The teachings (practices) are a means to this end.  These things are possible for everyone, whether you are rich or poor, old or young, male or female, educated or uneducated.  And for the Buddha, a meaningful life is one that is intentional and assertive, rowing our boat in a direction that was consciously chosen by ourselves.

The existentialist French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, had a similar take on this.  He said that whether your life has meaning or not comes from the inside, not from anything in the external world.  We create whatever meaning there is in our lives by the day-to-day choices that we make.

Meaning is not some objective property or state of affairs that exists out there in the external world.  If someone says that something has no meaning, it always makes sense to ask “No meaning to whom?”  And someone can always respond to it by saying “It does have meaning to me because I care about it.” Meaning is created by our choice to care about something.

My friendships with people are very meaningful to me because I care about these people and my relationship with them.  My commitment to working to mitigate climate change is very meaningful to me because I care about the beings that live on this planet. Having and acting on moral principles adds meaning to my life because I care about the well-being of others.  Having the latest fashionable clothing is not meaningful to me because I don’t care about “looking cool or looking right.”

This ties in closely to the idea of purpose. Having a purpose or purposes in life that we care deeply about creates meaning.  But there can be confusion here because there are two different kinds of purpose.  One kind of purpose comes from the outside: We were created by God in order to do God’s will, or brought into existence by our parents to carry on the family business. 

This kind a purpose is one that is assigned from the outside.  So, for example, a manufactured wedge-shaped piece of wood may have the purpose of holding a door open—it is a doorstop.  But what this means it that has a use.  So having a predetermined purpose of this externally-assigned sort, essentially reduces a human to a mere object. Slaves had uses—the use of this one is to pick cotton, this one is here to clean the house—but this kind of purpose certainly did not create a sense of meaning in their lives

True purpose is created from within.  I decide that I want to be a teacher because I love learning and love to help others to learn.  This is very different from being a teacher because my parents tell me that I must carry on the family tradition of being teachers—this is assigned from the outside.

A meaningful life is possible to all of us at all times, regardless of our specific circumstances.  The Buddha taught that we do not have complete control—and sometimes very little control—over our circumstances in life, but we always have total control over how we respond to those circumstances.  We can learn to accept, open to and be at peace with our circumstances and as long as we choose to care about serving life, we will always find meaning in our lives.

Even Sisyphus,* if he chooses to care about the quality of his rock rolling, can have meaning in his life.  He can turn rock rolling into an art form like a dance, creating something different each time if he chooses to.  And he can be present for the entire experience, enjoying the view, feeling the sun and the wind on his face, and the movements of his body.

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            *In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to roll a large rock to the top of a mountain, only to have it roll back down again and repeat the process endlessly.

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            If you have questions, comments, or ideas for new Blog topics please contact Dale at ahimsaacres@gmail.com.