“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
― Albert Campus
The never-ending question seems to stump us.
What is the meaning of life?
Unable to conceptualize infinity into a mere finite standard, we keep asking this question hoping it will reveal some light.
Of course, the closest we ever come to comprehending the infinite is reminding ourselves that it never ends.
Time and time again, what we forget most to consider, and fail to realize, is that infinity also never begins.
Inconceivably continuous is quite simply the closest definition we can mentally touch.
And thus remains our question, all too similar to the infinite,
“What is the meaning of life?”
Its elusive answer perplexes us in roundabouts of an ever-escaping truth.
We can never seem to wrap our minds around the most essential questions and their obvious answers.
The mental abyss of existential mind games misleads even our best intentions.
Questions that pose infinite perspectives never lead down a road of limited possibilities.
Limiting ourselves to a particular answer, we will eventually settle for less than we initially bargained for setting ourselves up for disaster later on.
Convinced and comfortable with an immature philosophy, we await life’s wonder to shake us violently and awake us from our nonsensical slumber of trying to understand life through a lens of security.
A day’s volatility can change everything including our preconceived notions of living a purposeful life and our role-play in it.
The constant problem unhesitatingly remains: our lives change.
We are forced to handle its consequences, good or bad, better or worse, right or wrong.
We must constantly accept change even under the pressure of new circumstances.
As our lives invariably precipitate, so do the solutions we are desperately searching for.
When suddenly everything has changed, there is no correct answer.
Life continues.
It has. It does. It always will.
Day to day, the trivial meaning of things allude us in our over-consumption and dumb attention.
Our wants, desires, and “needs” change like the wind.
This, that, and the other become more, more, more.
After initially obtaining what we want, we move on; our desires change, and eventually, we chase after something bigger and better than what initially satisfied us.
The unquenchable thirst remains a puzzling factor.
Is something lacking in us?
Where is this hole that we are trying to fill?
We imagine that obtaining new “things” in the physical world will make us happier than old ones which they do, minutely.
Always wanting more things, our insatiable appetites are destructive and temperamental.
Likewise, searching outside ourselves attempting to solve the riddle of existence leaves a rotten taste in our mouth. Even in answering it, we are bound to be initially let down by the answer.
Convinced we do not know the meaning of life, we fail to recognize the glaring truth.
Unable to realize our foolishness, we gain nothing but a headache from asking such silly questions.
Continually grasping at the surface features of life becomes like trying to hold water in our hands. Seeping through our soaked palms, saturated Q&A aren’t solid enough for us to grasp.
Alas, the answer to our initial question mentally crashes like a rushing waterfall into the rocks below. Splash!
In trying to grasp hold of the meaning of life, answers fail to help us.
Upon posing the question, we are immediately lost in contemplation.
Before we can dot (.) our question mark of proposal, the formulation of what we want most collapses into a rubble of confusion.
Leaving us trapped underneath, we are left trying to sort out the mess.
How do we escape?
By digging deeper.
Within, not without.
Striking poise, we slow to an evening pace.
The stillness slows our backwards momentum to a halt.
When we stop questioning and look around, answers bloom before our eyes and our problematic paradoxes disappear.
An obvious answer provides relief.
Life’s meaning is… to live.
Yes, simply living is the solution and we must get to it!
Wait one second now… the skeptics want a word.
“How do we apply such a shallow attempt at an answer towards living a deeper, more purposeful life?”
Ah, now this is precisely the point.
Because the answer is so simple, we manage to escape the complexities of our never-ending question.
Stopping the impossible questioning that captivates us, our path illuminates. Our problems disappear.
We are free to get started. For the first time, we allow our true selves a chance at actual liberation.
Stopping the whittling wit of intellect and hitting the pause button on mental noise, poise steps into the picture.
Nothing else matters.
Listening beneath the surface, our answers come to life.
Seeing from a different perspective, we understand all problems.
Feeling nothing, all things can be touched.
When the verbal ringing in our ears stop, we hear the world truly for the first time.
The balance within speaks softly without a sound. Find it.
The beautiful sound of the natural world is calling our name.
Unfortunately, we cannot hear a thing except our incessant chatter.
Life’s answering. We just aren’t listening.
Engaging in trivial non-sense occupies most of our time instead of enjoying life with a relaxed, peaceful state of mind. Question after question after question, we feel we may never reach the bottom of our search. And we are absolutely right, the well is endless and fetching water for our thirst is taking too much time.
Living means being alive, right now.
Do you feel it?
In the moment’s vibrant embrace you will see, all is well.
Look around you.
Now, look around you quietly.
You are alive.
Enjoy this moment. Know it is the only moment you ever have and can ever be in.
You are always in this moment; for every moment you will ever be in arrives precisely now.
Think about it for a few seconds and then drop the noise of thought.
When you stop asking questions about the meaning of your existence and start being in the world around you, the meaning of life begins tugging at your coat tails. Pulling you to slow down, look around, and pay attention, you begin to realize what’s most important to living: being here, fully, present-minded, focused on the day and its onslaught of opportunity. There are wonders to find, relationships to make, and discoveries to enjoy.
Life is about realizing and recognizing your aliveness.
Deeply know that you are alive.
Bring enjoyment into to your life.
Realize that which is within you and around you is the essence of life itself.
Simply, you are the aliveness moving inside and around you.
Can’t you see it?
Breathing, you experience what it means to be alive.
Breathing out, you give life to other forms: the trees, the plants, algae.
Life is about finding yourself, aliveness, and waking to it.
It is, you, consciously realizing, you are alive.
Without you, there would be no fir tree blowing in the wind or squirrel to notice running up the pine.
Without you, there would be no freedom to go grocery shopping or to cook an amazing dinner together with friends.
Without you, there would be no exotic places to visit or a marvelous world to be explored.
Without you, there would not be life to read this.
For without you, there is no life, this is the why the question so many of us ask is silly.
You, the life in you, is the meaning of life.
You give life meaning.
Not the other way around.
It is the essence of being fully awake, alive, and realizing that without this aliveness there would be no cognition of your life.
When we eliminate the perturbing question, we liberate ourselves to experience life. In every experience, we find out more about who we are and why we are here.
If you are wondering the meaning of life, you most certainly are not living it.
Trapped in thought, you must escape.
This is the time to free yourself.
Go out at be alive.
Every moment is awaiting your wonderful realization of it.
Embrace your liveliness, liberation, and surroundings.
Realize who you are.
“Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.”
-Joseph Cambell
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What are you doing to escape the thinking trap?
Let me know in the comments.
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