Examining the Question: "What is the Meaning of Life?"

 The answers you get depend on how you examine the question?

Dr. Joe Walsh

What question do we need to examine?  

What is the meaning of Life and how can I best serve it?  

That is the question I ask throughout the day and into the wee hours of the night. I am defiitely not alone in asking it, am I? It is the question from which the field of Ontology emerged, is it not? Yet, is it a question that was ever answered to humanity's satisfaction? Probably not! Why? Because we fail to notice how we ask it. We fail to examine the question itself. 

Let's look at that question. How do we usually ask it? We tend to ask it from a very narrow view point of "me".  This "me" wants to know "What is the purpose of "my" life? Why am "I" here? What should "I" do with this time I have on Earth that will serve "me" best?"

 So if there are 8.5 billion humans on Earth asking the same question with the "me" focus, guess what we will end up with.  We are going to end up with 8.5 billion different answers. Not one that serves the entire race.

What we need to do is notice or examine how we ask the question and then proceed to ask in a differnet way, a less egoic way. "What is the meaning of Life?" This is a question that will lead to a general, non-personalized answer. It is not referring to "me" or "you" or any one being but Life as a whole. "What is the meaning of this Life we are all experiencing?"  

 Then once that question is asked, we can ask, "And how can this one human best serve Life without getting lost in the idea that "it is all about 'me'"?

It is hard to depersonalize the meaning of Life isn't it? So, it is very challenging to depersonalize the question so that we get an ontological answer that best serves humanity. If we examine how we ask the question, however, we can predict what type of answer we will get. We can begin to shift the paradigm.

I found myself asking the question on my way home last evening. It was a bit of a challenging day.  I had gone down to another city with my brother for him to receive a diagnosis, hearing a word that terrifies so many of us. We were kind of expecting it so it was no major surprise. Infact, the outcome of that visit was probably more positive than we thought it was going to be. Yet, the mere mention of that word puts us humans in an existential crisis as we scramble with what it means to the body and mind we call "me". 

I did think, of course, what this diagnosis would mean to him, his wife, his children, and the rest of his siblings, but I also thought of what it would mean to "me". It made me think. "What is the  meaning of my Life now that I know this diagnosis can creep into our awareness at any time?" Then I examined the  question and I rephrased it, "What is the meaning of Life if it is so fragile and impermanent?" Then I quickly asked, "How can I serve it knowing that?" 

As soon as that question emerged in my mind, I immediately had to deal with another ongoing crisis. I suddenly felt overwhelmed and exhausted by the "Vanity of vanities" of this Life.  I questioned again, "What is the meaning of Life?" (removing the 'this' and the 'my') and I felt so much more peace without that "me" focus.  I saw the beauty and the specialness of Life even with this challenge. I saw the impersonal nature of it...the equanimity of this experience...neither bad or good...just is. ...just one of the many intertwining threads of this being human. 

The "me-ness" of the question also floated away and the paradigm shifted for me a bit. The experience of living is so much more peaceful without the "me" in the way. Life can be experienced with much more clarity and objectivity when it isn't so personal.  I did ask, "Now, how can I serve? How can I serve him and this situation? How can I serve Life?"  Without the "me" in the way, there was little thought of personal outcome, hardship or gratification in that question. 

Though I had a giant sized knot in my gut throughout the drive home...a sign of some lingering internal resistance...when I sat to meditate later in the evening, when I sat with exactly what was going on inside this human I call "me" related to the day's offerings,...I asked the question again. "What is the meaning of Life? How can I best serve it?"  I fell back into something a little deeper than the diagnosis, the suffering of others, my own worry and concern...and that knot just seemed to disappear. I fell into this non-thought place and it was very, very peaceful. 

I got an answer. 

The meaning of Life isn't about how much we are doing. It is about how much we are in it. Simply being and experiencing what unfolds in front of us regardless of what it is ... is the meaning of Life. How do I serve then? I just need to be fully in it and be willing to experience it all! Even this. 

Sigh! The knot was back this morning lol.  I still have work to do but I do believe if we want answers that soothe the soul...we need to examine how we are asking the questions.

All is well.