The Meaning of Meaning

Today, I'm writing this from the Komugi Cafe, where I'm parked for at least the next hour to write this weekly blog article of mine. My laptop is partially charged and I'm relying solely on its battery and the internet connection from my phone. Now comes the question: what am I supposed to write today?

I've been thinking about about a subject that's so laughably corny and trite for the past few days: "What is the meaning of life?".  But I'm not going to bore everyone by writing about that. Instead I'm going to go a step further: What do we mean by "meaning"? 

Let's start with a dictionary explanation of the word "meaning": ...the end, purpose or significance of something.  That is a good start because whenever someone asks "what is the meaning of life?", there's a certain sense of hopelessness and futility behind it--the underlying statement is that, life appears to have no purpose. We struggle so hard to survive, only to die of sickness or old age. What is the point of all this? Why be born at all? Where are we heading? What happens after death? Is this all there is? Why am I here?

Usually whenever such a question arises, I would like to throw up another question: If I give you a definitive statement like "the meaning of life is X", where X could be something like, "to go to heaven", "to fulfil the evolutionary purpose of life","to find God", "to leave a legacy", "to love or be loved", "to be useful to my family, community and mankind","to achieve Enlightenment" or simply "to enjoy and be happy". Would that answer satisfy you? If not why?

If one of the above answers is good enough for you, will you stop at that? So what if you achieved Enlightenment or left a legacy or is assured of a place in heaven? Which is why I think the more fundamental question is: why do we seek meaning at all in anything we do? What constitutes something that is "meaningful"?

Is enjoying a happy family life, with a successful career and having someone to carry on your legacy and inheritance something "meaningful"? And having that "meaning" gives you an enormous sense of satisfaction? Is "meaning" just simply a statement that gives you acceptance and pleasure, because you think that is already in your grasp or within your mortal comprehension. Is it simply a goal that you can understand and pursue? 

If it is, then that's simple. Just define your meaning and be happy about it. Which is a bit of an existentialist attitude towards life: you are born and your meaning is defined by your actions. There is no pre-defined purpose or essence. "God is dead", as Sartre famously claimed. Meaning is not written in some divine book, revealed by God. Meaning is not some New Age-y pursuit like "participating in the evolution of life in the universe". Meaning is what you define your life to be. It is a purpose, a call for action and need not necessarily be a "happy" life in the conventional sense. Because your call could be "to fight and die defending your country". 

Which also begs the question: why must we have meaning in life? Why can't we just seek pleasure and pro-create like animals? Isn't the life of an animal "meaningful"? Then we realise the need for meaning arises because we have a certain "intelligence". We have already eaten the apple from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We are cursed with a propensity for asking questions and seeking answers to everything. 

So if the need for meaning is a natural consequence from being an intelligent creature, we have to ask ourselves: does it serve any purpose? Is the need for meaning simply a natural consequence of following the causal logic of natural phenomena where everything has a cause and effect. We are simply seeking the next link in the chain of causality--if I am here living my life, what does it lead to? Is it simply a quirk of our logical mind, to seek meaning? All rivers flow to the sea. We can even go further and say that the meaning of a river's existence is to seek the sea. 

Are we all just like rivers, obeying the laws of nature and the question of meaning arises because simply because that's how we always think: everything must have a purpose and therefore meaning. What if that's not always true? Are we willing to accept that fact that the purpose of life is to live and die? Forget about meaning, because that's like asking if the shape of the waves on the ocean has any 'meaning'. It is what it is.

So am I going to just cop out and declare that asking for the meaning of life is a pointless question? Certainly not! Because there's a practical need for for meaning: it satisfies us in some strange way. It puts us at ease if we know that there's meaning in whatever we do. 

But we are all limited, in some way, by our intelligence. An alien being of advanced intelligence might think our conception of 'meaning', naive. So each one of us have a different criterion for what constitutes meaning. And as we mature, we will seek for 'deeper' meanings. X will change with time.  Some will find it in religion, other's in other pursuits that provide one with a sense of purpose. Meaning is simply instrumental. It helps it us to navigate through life. Having no meaning in life leads one to despair and even suicide.

So seek your meaning in life, whatever that means. To me, it is the constant examination of the nature of our existence: Why do we seek meaning? What is meaning? The meaning of life is to seek the meaning of life. Ah, we've visited this territory before: it's simply the Examined Life.