The Answer to Life’s Greatest Question
I know you’re wondering what the purpose of any of this is.
Since the beginning of human civilization, we have searched for the meaning of life.
Answers will vary depending on who you ask.
Your upbringing, environment, and meaningful life experiences, amongst numerous other factors, will impact your opinion.
But for some reason, regardless of the answer, it never satisfies you.
You unreasonably expect a shockingly new answer and when you’re hit with the same “to love” or “to be happy”, you’re disappointed.
Let’s get real here.
You want an answer that will justify your actions so that can logically explain how you feel inside… but you never get it.
So, what is the meaning of all this?
To be happy
When I started searching for the meaning of life, I began by googling what different leaders have said. The Dalai Lama said something that I enjoyed for years.
“I often ask myself what the purpose of life is. I conclude that it is to be happy.”
It is a nice thought. That you should do whatever you can to make yourself happy and that it should be your number one priority.
Over time though, I became less satisfied with this meaning.
It seems that life's suffering and hardship are unavoidable regardless of who you are or how happy you are. To add, it seems that great things and happier times come after you burden yourself with temporary unhappiness – you take a risk.
What would happen if you prioritized your happiness and stopped doing hard things?
Would you maximize the potential happiness in your life? Or, would it matter because you wouldn’t know what the potential for your happiness is?
I believe that once you begin to do hard things and see the result, you realize that while being happy is important, life is more complicated than that for most of us.
Sometimes sacrificing happiness is worth it. Likely, you would never realize that truth if the only purpose in your life was to be happy.
You would be stuck so much in the present that you didn’t plan for the future at all.
So, unsatisfied, I kept searching.
To love
After years of falling in and out of love, being surrounded by a loving family, and a lot of meditation, I realized that love may be the most important thing in our lives.
There is no better feeling than to be surrounded by love.
Through meditation and experience, you learn that if you lead with love, your life becomes much more beautiful, peaceful and meaningful.
The relationships in your life are better, you enjoy your everyday activities more and you’re happier.
If you go your entire life believing that the meaning of life is to love, I believe you would live a great life.
Love is the force that keeps us connected, and the force that keeps you at peace with yourself.
Love starts with yourself. That’s why self-love is so important.
When you learn to harness the love within you and when you are in love with yourself, you are then able to share that love with others and life becomes truly wonderful.
But, what if you need help with this task?
Does that mean your life has no meaning?
What if you don’t know that love is the meaning of life?
To be
The happier I become and the more I love, the easier it becomes to see that the meaning of life is even simpler than that.
The meaning of life is, to be.
Our lives have so many moving parts that we try to control. When we add happiness and love into the equation, it becomes stressful and complicated and we forget “to do” life.
When you just “be”, you begin to move with life and allow things to happen as they are because you don’t have the control you wish you had (no matter how badly you want it). You react to life accordingly but don’t allow them to get to you.
To be is simply, to live.
The meaning of life and the purpose of it is to live. Otherwise, why would you be alive?
Alan Watts said it best:
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”
We overcomplicate it all and forget to just… do it.
“Life is a dance, and when you are dancing you are not intent on getting somewhere… The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance.” - Alan Watts
When you look at life this way, you begin to grasp how blatantly obvious it was this whole time. You start to move differently - you start to, dance.
You were born on the dancefloor, a cheerful happy baby. But, as you aged you began to look for more and forgot to dance.
While searching for the meaning of life, you stopped living altogether. Your search is what has prevented you from finding what you were looking for in the first place.
Don’t worry though, once you start to dance again, you find your footing pretty easily. As your rhythm comes back, so will your peace.
Closing remarks
If you ask someone what the meaning of life is and they answer, “to be happy, to love and to be”, I bet you that person is someone who is at peace, grounded and very pleasant to be around.
The beauty of it all is that “to be” can be interpreted in many different ways.
Being to you could be a life full of love, but to someone else, it could be working on something they love.
That’s why life is so amazing. Life is what you make it.
Thanks for reading.