THE MEANING OF LIFE

What is the purpose of the whole play of existence?

Mind decides that meaning is found in the end. Where am I going? What do I hope to achieve by doing this? Where is the world going? What will happen next?

A sage named Sosan declared that, if there is meaning, it must lie at the beginning. The beginning is the end in potential; the end is the beginning, realised. Meaning may not be apparent right now, probably because we are looking everywhere but here and now. Meaning is inherent, he proposes, in the developing seed. Therefore, we do not have to wait until the end to understand. The mystery can be penetrated because here it is. The past has happened and it is here right now, carrying with it the flowering germ of meaning that gave rise to it.

We carry in us the seeds of all meaning and of all possibilities. There is no need to wait. While we wait with our gaze fixed on the future, the seed flowers at our feet and we miss it. Even if we look down at our feet, we don't recognise it because it doesn't look as we expect it to. The mistake is ours. Seeing and recognising the flower does not depend on the flower; it depends on us, and where we focus our gaze. While ever we wait for meaning to manifest itself some time in the imagined future, the present appears to be meaningless.

In Mind's eyes, it is absurd to look for meaning in either the beginning or the now, because Mind dwells on how it thinks the future ought to become, and moves and works through desire. Motivation, like a carrot on a stick, has to be somewhere out in front of the donkey. Mind seeks the meaning of Life in eventual Death. No wonder we bought the ideas of resurrection, reincarnation, heaven and hell. Ego cannot believe it is going to die.

The problem I have with the future is that it never arrives. As I write this, "today" is Thursday.When Friday finally comes, it will no longer be "tomorrow", it will be "today". Fridays tomorrow'(Saturday) will still be just as far out of reach. Tomorrow is an imagined fiction, an illusion harbouring hope and dread. It appears as if it is coming and it never does. There is no substance, flavour or aroma to it. Like the horizon, it is coming continually and never here. The future always remains un-arrived.

Waiting, waiting and waiting -- for the kettle to boil or for The Messiah -- we feel meaningless, impatient, despairing and trapped in a rut. The only solution seems to be to suicide.

Why wait for life to end? There is every chance that, in death -- the death of consciousness -- we will miss it anyway. That would be the cosmic joke of all time, but with no-one to laugh at it.

Is there another way of looking so that we can penetrate the seed now? While we can still get the joke? Is there another way of looking into it? Try this for yourself ..........

We belong to this existence. It preceded us and we arose out of it. The blueprint of existence is in every cell of our body, every thought that crosses our mind, and every feeling that washes over us. Existence in every moment now/here is fulfilling some part of its destiny through you and through me. My suggestion is to quit resisting it and, instead, engage with it. Get into a deep and intimate friendship with the whole of existence. You may find that what you've been looking and waiting for out there is already in you, waiting for you to notice it. Give up chasing shadows and dreams. Step into the shade and sit down. Meaning is flowering already. So are your deepest desires, especially the ones you have forgotten about. They have always been here. But we all listened to ideas about what Meaning should look like. Old ideas. Out-of-date ideas. Ideas irrelevant to you and your existence. Ideas about anything block our access to that thing.

What have you been waiting for? Meaning is here, now, waiting for you to "get it". What you crane your neck so painfully to see coming is standing right in front of you. Your mind might object "Nah, that ain't it!" Take no notice. Whatever it looks like, enter whatever is in front of you; the door is open to you, and the journey beyond that will open up to you in due time. It always has: it always will. You can trust that.

The blessings and graces of life wait patiently for us to stop peering into the future and come back to the present. We have been distracted, engaged and occupied in other things while we waited for that which is already here.

Give What-Is your attention.

Turn and see.