something is here

“In that direction.” The grinning cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter: and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit either if you like: they’re both mad.”

            “But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

            “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat. “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

            “How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice

          
        “As a man is, so he sees,” quotes William Blake. Belief has a lot to do with upbringing, environment, and personal choice. It is within human nature to question existence and meaning. In Greece in 300 BCE Plato was using analogies to explain perceptions and reality in The Republic, however, during the same time in China Zhuang Zi (who developed and refined the basic concepts of the Tao and died shortly after 300 BCE) was pondering upon the same things. “Am I Zhuang Zi dreaming I was butterfly or am I a butterfly dreaming of being Zhuang Zi?” Wherever you may be, and whatever year you may find yourself questioning the meaning of Life, you can bet someone somewhere is asking the same thing.

            A lot of people don’t question life to the extent that some go to (i.e.- me!) Many continue with faiths from their family and background, and some venture out to seek an alternative religion. Others however, deny God and meaning altogether. Today, with new philosophies and a wide range of growing beliefs, many wish to find the answers within themselves instead of giving responsibility for their life to a creator.

A philosopher who has influenced thought in this way is Jean- Paul Sartre. As an Existential philosopher, Sartre believed that since the ‘discovery’ that there is no God, this has lead to a crisis for meaning in life. Sartre is not saying that life has no meaning; he is simply saying that people have to take responsibility for their lives themselves. “ If existence really does precede essence, man is responsible for what he is.” However, for those who believe in God this should not mean that the search for life’s meaning has ended and purpose has been fulfilled. People can still be in control of what happens in their day-to-day lives. People find hope in religion and faith and this is a positive thing for the individual. One philosopher who did not deny the existence of God, and yet found room for his own beliefs was Benedict de Spinoza (1632-77). Spinoza believed that God was in all things, from the trees to the clouds and to the ants climbing the trees. Spinoza was  pantheist, believing in the Monism view that all is one.

This thought also provides the basis and overall concept of Tao. In ‘Watching the Tree’, Adeline Yen Mah explains Taoism as follows:

“The goal is spiritual freedom, to be achieved in the realm of Nature. Following Nature means wu wei (taking no action), through which one will gain contentment, enlightenment and peace. Man should see his lifecycle as birth, growth, decay and death as part of nature and accept change to be the Tao of everything in the universe.”

Taoists have a strong belief that everything is interconnected. In modern days this is called Holism, but in the past, Monism. Everything is apart of everything else, therefore, part of the bigger whole. In the movie ‘ I heart Huckabees’ Dustin Hoffman explains this to Albert Markovski his analogy of “the blanket thing.”

“When you get the blanket thing, you can relax because everything you ever want and be, you already have and are.”-Bernard Jaffe

‘The blanket thing’ thus means everybody is connected; nobody is separate from anybody else or nature around him or her. All atoms connect together making Oneness in the universe. If our perception of reality and ourselves change, then naturally so will our lives. To forget you and to overcome fears through self-discovery without an ego-centered view will bring positivism to our lives instead of focusing on the negative judgements of others and our own opinions.  What could this have to do with the meaning of life? Well, to realize we don’t have to fight with others about who is right or wrong will bring a release to our lives, to let go and for us all to live the lives we wish to lead, without harming others.

Meaning is bound to be different for all people, as we only know what we have experienced and can only make conclusions for ourselves. To tell others what to believe can only lead to dismal consequences. In is within human nature to fight for what we don’t believe, so why put our opinions onto others when they would only fight them anyway? Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) states “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” So, therefore, the question may be asked, why waste time and energy on fighting others beliefs?

This brings us to the point of living completely and simply for the love of doing what makes you happy. As we all know, life it too short. This can sometimes be looked upon as a cliché, an overused term that everyone has heard but no one really takes it into account when living day to day. The Dali Lama is all for the happiness philosophy. When questioned about the meaning of life he states, “ From the moment of birth, every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affect this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire contentment.”

Society and all it’s brainwashing has a different idea of happiness for us. Every household has a television that we glue ourselves too, watching adverts, going out to buy things that we have seen on the adverts (or more recently, just buying things from the Internet.) We work in crap jobs just to earn money to buy things which we think will make us happy. For the majority of the time, this only works for the short term. When you look beyond consumer culture, media, government, all the psychology and politics of life, all you are really left with is the power and control that they have over people.

However, it is inevitable in human nature to be drawn into life’s little dramas and worries. Even if you think you’re on a spiritual role free from that, it is still likely you will get drawn back in at some time or another. And for what? At the end of the day we are not here forever, and nobody is going to thank us for working for so many years, when on your death bed, you are filled with so many regrets, “if only I had done this, or life had been different.” Society has these unwritten rules about how you are supposed to live. We are not given any other option! But to free your mind, to take your head out of the sand and to embrace life free of its restricting boxes, life can be much more joyful and simple.
To quote A. C Ping in his book “Be,” “If we continue to react to what is going on around us, we will never be free.”

      If the meaning of life was down to one word to be explained by, it could be love. Without it there wouldn’t be much point to life and with it, love brings hope, laughter, motivation, purpose and goals to achieve in our lives. Whatever you believe, you are only doing it for 'the love of it.' It may sound like the most obvious thing, but think about it. Love is the one thing all religions have in common, and even if you are not religious you still search for it. With love in the air, you are then motivated to do what you want to do in life, to pursue goals, and fulfil them. Have a lot of love in your life and do what makes you happy.

Many people are not satisfied with love and happiness as the answer for the meaning of life. They find it too simple, and think there must be more to it. Maybe there is, but I am no genius, I only know what I believe. What I don't believe is that it would be so complicated and unknown. Surely the answer is accessible to us in this life? I don’t for one minute believe we are here to find out the meaning when we die. Maybe there is more of an answer to life in the afterlife? Well, I do hope there is. But don’t stop living just because you may find out then. Whatever you believe there is no reason not to make the most of this life and do whatever you can to still find your own meaning. It probably wouldn’t make us any happier if we knew what we knew before we came into this world as a conscious being. And that is why we are here. To find that out for ourselves.

Meaning can be sought through reproduction. Not only in the physical sense of birth and continuing humanity, but also through the creation of art, of pursuing your goals, making a difference in the world, whether it is in your own back garden or by protesting against injustice.When you look back over your life, at least you can be thankful that you were ever here in the first place.

“We can still the heart that longs for satisfaction, not by finally finding the perfect mate, the dream house, or success in the work place, but by perceiving, perhaps for the first time, the pulse of eternity in the moment at hand and the contours of the whole in the ordinary things currently in sight.”

-Thomas Moore, Original Self.