Finding meaning where there is no meaning.

We all eventually asked ourselves the following questions: Why are we alive? Is there a purpose for my existence? Would the world behave differently if I weren't in it? These questions are only natural to arise in our self discovery as everybody around us finds different ways of interpreting these questions. There is no fixed answer.

Early on in my childhood, I asked myself "why me?". Why was I the one chosen to inhabit this body? I understood that my body was just flesh and that I was an occupant of it, but I couldn't find an answer to who I was and why I was "chosen". I vividly remember that questioning myself about this made me "happy" or increased stimulation in my brain. I would get so mind-blown as we would describe it these days just by asking myself these questions. As I grew older, my opinion got more and more biased by the people around me. That I should go to elementary school then high school, all while keeping a balanced life. That I had to eat healthy, I had to do sports, I had to have friends. While growing, you learn to accept these things without really questioning them for the simple reason that it feels right. That thought always lingered the back of my mind but I found that my mind was rapidly taken over by the flow of emotions that are generated by my environment. I started giving more importance to solving problems I could solve in front of me and paying more attention to the details that I had a certain sense of control over. In other words, I started learning to live in a world that many other humans live in already.

I realize as I observe people around me, that everyone has their own reality built up. A reality they had been building up since their childhood. Ideas, thoughts and concepts were formed. Everyone had their own personality. Everyone followed their own path. But what is my path? Is there a common path that maximizes the amount of good we feel?

In our society, we constantly label things in order to not give them too much thought. We label the unknown by calling it God, we label emotions, concepts and ideologies. Labelling helps us focus on the details that are in front of us while re-enforcing our concept of reality. We couldn't possibly be processing all the information we learned simultaneously, we therefore store it in compartments which take the forms of "labels". The process of learning is the process of challenging our previous labels and forming new ones. Similarly to muscle tissue, we constantly destroy parts of understanding to build stronger structures. The only limit to how much we understand is ourselves. How much are we willing to abandon from our mentality to understand new things from different point of views. I have come to think that the best way to learn and approach problems is to keep what we call an open mind. That is to assume that you are wrong and are always searching to be a little less wrong than you previously were. When your mind is full of distractions and pre-formed concepts and judgements, how can you assimilate something new as it is?

Let us now return to the subject of meaning. Is there meaning in anything if everything is infinite? If you have a certain goal and you achieve it, will it matter an infinite time away from now when your existence is probably completely insignificant compared to the rest of the universe? Then you can tell yourself that there is no meaning in this life, but would that be true? It is only true if you accept it as your reality. You can decide for yourself what is true or not. Having a finite existence gives us a chance to chose and pursue our own meaning. What we think we should accomplish, or ultimately it comes back down to what makes us feel good in the time that we have. But one thing is certain, if you decide that there is no meaning and live a helpless life, if you don't start taking action and let the flow of others control you, then it is as good as being dead. We are given a life in front of us, we can't just discard it away by dictating that there is no meaning or that it is too hard. If we are suffering, we should think why we are suffering and try to change our perspective to avoid living like that. One of my favorite sayings is as follows: "Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional". Life will be full of hardships and only we can give meaning to those, only we can chose how we will react to the things that are appearing in front of us no matter what they are. We have a responsibility of living fully every single second of our lives, of being as conscious as possible of any decision we make, of feeling and loving everyday no matter what our goal or meaning is.

-AK