This page is part of “Meaning”, which is part of “Creating a New Positive Religion or Spiritual Tradition”.

This is still a DRAFT.

Meaning that comes from what we feel and receive.

Joy

One possible answer to the question of life’s purpose is joy.

This answer is mentioned in various places, including the teachings of Esther Hicks (aka Abraham-Hicks). They say: “The basis of your life is freedom; the purpose of your life is joy; and the result of your life is growth” (sometimes phrased as “expansion”).

Around this idea, their teachings include the following:

  • Joy: The purpose of our physical life is the joy of the experience. We are not here to be tested, or to get a reward or punishment in the “afterlife”.
  • Freedom: No one is keeping score, and there is nothing you must do. You are free to choose your thoughts and your path, and that freedom is the basis of life.
  • Growth follows: The contrast we meet in life (wanting something we don’t have) gives rise to new desires, and following them joyfully is how we (and the universe) expand.
  • Journey over destination: The joy is meant to be found in the process, not postponed until some goal is reached.

It may be claimed that the question of life’s meaning is more burning when one feels suffering, whereas when one feels joy, it feels like life has meaning.

Hicks also add a metaphysical layer, but you don’t have to believe it literally in order to be inspired by the answer (you are free to form your own view about these matters), though you might find it useful and pleasant to imagine as if it were true. In particular they say:

  • Who we are: Each of us is really an “Inner Being”, an extensions of “Source Energy” (their word for the non-physical, God-like energy). As such beings (aka “souls”), we chose to come into physical life for the joy of the experience, not to be tested, or to earn a reward later.
  • Emotions as guidance: Our feelings are like an “emotional guidance system”. Feeling good means we are aligned with who we really are (the Inner Being), and feeling bad simply means we are out of alignment. So reaching for the best-feeling thoughts is a spiritual practice in itself, not self-indulgence.

Two aspects of this answer are especially meaningful. First, joy is framed as the purpose of life, not as a side effect or a reward. Second, feeling good is treated as legitimate and even sacred, in contrast to some religious traditions that treat pleasure with suspicion.

Experiences

One source of a sense of meaning is finding intrinsic value in all of our life experiences. This is the understanding that motivates people to do a variety of activities, such as classes or trips, and to try new things. A small example illustrates this: even if we really love Italian food, we will still try a new Japanese restaurant that opens in our neighborhood. Even if we don’t enjoy the food there, at least we had an experience, tried something new, and learned something about ourselves.

Love

One of the most powerful and fulfilling experiences is love. Love can come in different forms: love for friends, for partners, for children, for pets, for activities, for works of art, for knowledge, and also self-love. This also includes the feeling of being loved.

Connecting to wonder and the sublime

Another source of a sense of meaning comes from feelings of admiration, amazement, wonder, awe, elevation, and a sense of magic: when we stand before a breathtaking natural landscape, or contemplate the mystery of the universe, with all its complexity, beauty, and harmony, or when we feel connected to the essence of existence, to being, to the source, to the sublime, to the power of the infinite. It is a feeling of excitement to celebrate the amazing and wonderful life we have been given as a gift.

Suffering

The experience of life necessarily involves suffering. There is no person who does not suffer from something at least some of the time, whether from an external cause (such as illness or loss) or an internal one (difficult emotions such as anger, grief, anxiety, or depression). If we are not careful, we may get stuck in suffering and sink into a worse and worse state of mind. But we can also choose to find meaning in the experience of suffering: as a motivation for growth, seeing it as an opportunity for development, learning to develop within ourselves the abilities and character traits that can help us overcome difficulties.

In this context, we recommend reading the book Man’s Search for Meaning by the psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. He was a Jewish Holocaust survivor, and in his book he described how people in the concentration camps who set themselves a great and important task that awaited them to fulfill had a better chance of surviving, while those who saw their lives as worthless or without a future quickly deteriorated and perished. This is true, of course, not only of such an extreme situation, but of all our lives. We can say that if you have a big enough ‘why’ to live for, you can bear almost any ‘how’ (this is a paraphrase of a sentence from Nietzsche’s book “Twilight of the Idols”).