Introduction to Meaning of Life

Hello everyone,

      I wanted to make this article to establish a foreground for a topic I’ll probably repetitively discuss in future articles: meaning. Meaning would be, as I define the word, the state of moving toward a desired future. Suffering, thus, would be characterized by the negative emotion that results from locomotion away from a desired future; perhaps toward a terrible future (anxiety), or an inability to escape the terrible past (depression). Meaning, then, involves no such disjunction—it is unity. As time progresses, you progress harmoniously. 

      I want to harp on the fact that meaning and happiness are not synonyms. Happiness is a state of being, to be measured in a moment, as a thermometer can be used to tell you what the temperature is outside. A thermometer is of no use in defining the climate in a region. Happiness is an instantaneous emotion—it is fleeting; the world tends to operate in a way that ultimately, there will always be a sort of “rebound” after good times. Meaning is more than that, and its opposite is suffering. 

      Suffering, even outside of the definition I provided, has a connotation of length. You wouldn’t describe the overcooking of your dinner as “suffering”—suffering is a prolonged mode of existence. Meaning, the obverse of suffering, too, would constitute a “mode of being.” You hear people referring to having had a “meaningful life,” and “happy moments.”

      So clearly, meaning and happiness are different—however, their relationship is more complex than mutual inclusivity or exclusivity – happiness can certainly be a byproduct of meaning, but this is not an invariable occurrence. There is nothing particularly blissful about a firefighter running into a burning building and developing lung cancer from inhaling from a fire rescuing a child. If you were to use a psychological thermometer and measure the degree of happiness the firefighter was experiencing in such a moment, your reading would probably not be on the side of “joy.” However, if you were to inquire about the experience in retrospect, surely, having saved the child would have been a fond memory—a useful memory.

      Meaning transcends a mere emotion – it is an existential stance, and something more reliable than joy, which we know all too well to have its ugly cousin—the rebounding “come-down” of any high. How can we seek meaning in a way that the emotion of happiness is a byproduct? And how am I going to explain how to achieve meaning in life in a brief article for a club? 

      It is simply said, and a lifelong journey of effort to be done: don’t disappoint past you, don’t make present you miserable, and don’t ruin the existence of future you.

      Don’t disappoint past you – By this I mean, use your storehouse of past experiences in your brain to determine what a good future looks like. What have you always wanted to be? It may (or may not, if you’ve drastically transformed since such times) be a good hint as to what you should throw yourself at. Even if you are a totally different person, past you had some insights about you – we are only capable of perceiving ourselves in the slice of time we inhabit. Making past you proud, I will admit, is an ancillary pursuit to the two I will describe next, but this can give you a place to start. Step one: determine something to aim at. Determine what the ideal future actually is, so you can plan to work toward it.

      Don’t make present you miserable – Meaning can certainly be sought in the ugliest of places, such as that house that firefighter was rescuing that baby from. It does not have to be the ugliest place, though. Sure, there is little meaning to be found within the realms of comfort, but you cannot do things you hate. If you are a person who gets skittish in social situations, perhaps public speaking will not be your pathway toward a meaningful life. Past you would be able to tell you this, reminding you of the time you threw up on stage in the fourth-grade talent show. Sure, you could work out those kinks and become an alright public speaker, but you may very well have been able to become an excellent something else. This is where meaning and happiness do not work together – when you are doing something that feels terrible that gives you meaning. Ideally, the thing from which you derive meaning feels at least bearable in the present moment. You cannot do an action that makes you miserable every day for the rest of your life (every day for the rest of your life being the type of meaning we’re looking to achieve.) 

      Don’t ruin the existence of future you – do not do something now that sabotages future iterations of you. It’s perfectly fine; perhaps necessary to make sacrifices in the present at the benefit of future you—but that is the only appropriate locus of sacrifice. Sacrifice should not be a prospective process. Sacrifice is in the now, for the future. Do not sacrifice future possibilities for short-lived success—that is not “meaning”—you have left the existential mode of meaning and have returned to seeking happiness. Could you do what you’re doing forever? If so, why not? What will happen, and how can that be avoided? This is not a call to be pathologically anxious toward the future – it is a call to not set yourself up for delayed failure. 

I hope this brief, rudimentary foray into what I understand “meaning” could be of some use—or at least provoked a thought or two. I believe this is worth thinking about. Life is very, very, hard at times—inevitably. We are all doomed to inhabit the horrible existential mode of “suffering” at some time or another—your mother will ultimately no longer be able to offer you her loving hand and die. (I know, a cheerful note upon which to end the article). This will happen regardless of whether you live in a way that produces meaning—whether you have that anchor to keep your ship stable. I detest nihilistic thinking, but it isn’t untrue that suffering may be the realest fact of existence, and what I’ve read thus far in life has pointed to the idea that all we can do is attempt to counterbalance it via meaning. Meaning vs. Suffering, in eternal conflict—that’s life in a nutshell. And it is very possible for meaning come out on top. It’s just not easy.