The Search for Meaning

What each of us wants is to live the most meaningful life possible. Humans have performed, are performing, and will perform everything conceivable in search of meaning. We search for meaning in survival, pleasure, success, love, creativity, and freedom – rarely satisfied.

Beginning the Search

Like a solar system, each individual’s “actual body” is composed of “rings”. Each “ring” is itself an interface. The outermost rings allow us to interface “with the world”. I am typing on my computer, I am looking at the artwork on my walls, I am eating a meal with my wife, and so on. The outermost rings decay and are experienced as “passing in time”.

The innermost rings allow us to interface “with intangibles”. I identify with and value certain actions, objects, ideas, places, groups of people, and so on. I try to surround myself with what I value, and I try to avoid what I do not value. The innermost rings are not “subject to time”, but are ever-present “realms” that influence and inform how we live and act in the world. The inner rings are the “who”, “why”, and “how” of our being, whereas the outer rings are the “where”, “what”, and “when”. The inner rings affect the outer rings. 

The innermost ring – ring a – is who I am. In every interaction of “my life”, “I” am there (or sometimes, no one’s home). I am aware of myself – my sense of I – with greater or lesser understanding of what that entails. For a sovereign being, “myself” includes all phenomena. 

From what I perceive “myself” as inclusive of – more or less limited – emerges my value structure and motives, the “why”. We value what we feel connected to and inspired by. We take action to support what inspires us and to develop what we feel connected to. Ring b is why I do what I do. 

Were my reasons to find value in the world very limited, “how” I interact with the world would be inconsistent and unstable. But were my reasons to find value numerous, I would conduct myself gracefully, sensing meaning all around. Ring c is how I am with others. 

Ring d is my discipline – the why and how of my being expressed within a specific domain. Most often, ring d is expressed as career path, family/home structure, and leisure – the “where” of my dominant action-patterns. Most sublimated, ring d is a dedicated, sincere investigation of life. 

Ring e is what I am doing, right now (right now includes “when”, obviously). What I am doing right now is the result of an inconceivable series of relationships, interactions, causes, and conditions “located in the past”. The past “exists now” as ingrained habits influencing present choice of action. What I am doing right now is the manifestation of my who, why, how, and where rings. 

The outermost rings are the most literal, most linear, and most easily perceived – they are the mirror of the innermost, which are fluid, non-linear, and intangible.

Deepening the Search

As stated earlier, that which I find most meaningful is that for which I feel a deep sense of connection and concern. The more “connected” I feel to something, the more I perceive a “reason to live”. Reasons to live are primary motivations – central axes. That motivation can be a child, a friend, a spouse, a business, a profession, a hobby, and so on. Approximating sovereignty, an individual senses her/himself as connected to a nearly inconceivable network of relationships – past, present, and future. Such individual is never short of “reasons”. 

Conversely, the more limited my sense of connection and concern, the more fearful I am. The more I fear something, the less capable I become of authentically connecting with and caring for it. Perceiving that my only reason to live is a small collection of fragile “things”, I may do everything in my power to protect my ability to relate to those things, fortifying them and myself off against the world. Walling myself off against the world, I ruin my opportunity to connect – and therefore ruin the opportunity to experience meaning.

Like humans, all phenomena are composed of both inner and outer rings. As stated earlier, the outer rings inevitably decay. Becoming overly identified with the outer rings of phenomena is like trying to cook and eat the husk of the corn rather than the kernels. Attempting to experience sustained spiritual nutrition without penetrating beyond the surface of phenomena is the height of arrogance and ignorance. Surfaces are not to be appreciated in and of themselves – but for reflecting and representing inner qualities.

Each of us understands inherently that arrogance (distorted view of reality), ignorance (active anti-knowledge), and fear are states of being to be avoided – they lead to suffering. None of us wants to suffer. That is why we try to protect our perceived sources of meaning. 

Discovering the Key

Conflict exists in the world. Conflict is generated when two or more points of view are unwilling to identify with one another. However, no point of view exists “in and of itself”. Each specific point of view is a manifestation of its causes and conditions. How do I know that I would not be expressing similar qualities as those with which I do not identify, were I to be subjected to similar causes and conditions? Lemons, when squeezed, produce lemon juice. How do I know for certain that, when squeezed, I won’t also make lemon juice? This question is the gateway to compassion – and therefore to meaning.

If I sense that the source of the actions or points of view with which I do not identify are motivated by arrogance, ignorance, or fear, then I could infer that the person is “feeling squeezed” – that individual may be suffering. Knowing that I try to avoid suffering at all costs, and that no one else deliberately chooses to suffer, I can empathize with the suffering of others. Empathy is a bridge – the prerequisite for compassion and a necessary gateway for relationship. The real question is, if I am experiencing conflict, am I certain that I’m not the one who is bitter? Thankfully, humans are not lemons – what’s magical about humans is that when life squeezes us, we don’t have to choose bitterness.

Kindness, like bitterness, is a way of relating to others. Relationships are the primary prerequisites for meaning, allowing for interaction, perspective, and measurement. Relationships are conductors. Tuning to channel 91.7 FM, for example, I listen to songs – I don’t listen to “the channel”. The channel has no meaning – it is just a blank canvas without the information conducted through it.

Relationships are intangible. If one were to dissect me, for example, my relationship to my wife would never be found. Nor would my relationship to food, my relationship to my car, my relationship to my eyes – to my boss, to my children, to the air I breathe, to my thought processes, or to my feelings – ever be found.

Living Meaning–Fully

Our relationships reflect “who we are”. What we orchestrate and conduct in the world through our actions indicates what we feel “related to”. To conduct something is first to receive energy or information, and then to guide that information, energy, or object in a specific direction. The broader my “field of conduction” – that is, the broader my ability to relate – the more meaning I can experience. The converse is also true. 

A sovereign is everyone’s “relative”, so to speak, inhabiting a position of being marked by an irreversible identity-unification-experience with all phenomena. To identify completely with “other” is to experience the joy or the suffering of “other” as “my own”. 

Motivated by this inconceivable idea, a sovereign engineers every minute detail of life to assist in digging up and removing the root causes of suffering – first by eliminating them completely in her/himself, and then by offering those techniques as efficiently as possible to others. This “gardening process” – the weeding out of meaninglessness – necessarily produces a beautiful, purposeful, and meaningful life.