As I said in my previous post about Milton Munitz' marvelous book, "Does Life Have a Meaning," the notion of boundless existence sends a chill up my churchless spine.
This isn't really a "notion," though. Munitz makes clear that the awareness of That -- That existence exists -- can never be anything more than exactly That: simple awareness, without any cognitive content of What boundless existence is.
At best, all we can have is an awareness of Boundless Existence. But this awareness is not an exercise in understanding, of making possible a kind of intelligibility. Nor is it a case of our finding some value in our awareness of Boundless Existence because of the presence and activation of certain properties or powers it possesses.
The only contribution to the resultant experience of awareness is made from our human side. It is the combination of this absence of all normal conditions and sources of meaningfulness (such as we find in the case of our interactions with existents) that distinguishes our experience of Boundless Existence from all other human experiences.
When we find meaning in life, it always is the result of our interacting in some fashion with someone or something else.
A beautiful sunset leads us to feel the wonder of nature. Gazing at our baby's peaceful sleeping face causes us to marvel at the continuity of life and the love that binds. Kneeling before the altar to take communion, a religious believer is reminded of the sacrifice that Jesus supposedly made to absolve humanity's sins.
In his book, Munitz answers the question of his title with a strong "yes." Life does have a meaning. Lots of meanings, though. Not one, since each and every person finds meaningfulness in different ways.
So how does an awareness of Boundless Existence, which I seem to feel in much the same way Munitz describes, contribute to a meaningful life if the only thing we can say about Boundless Existence is nothing?
Since it is devoid of all properties, Boundless Existence is another way of interpreting and sanctioning the use of the concept of "Nothing." Yet how can the admission of such Nothing into our lives perform a crucial and important role? How should we make room for it in our manifold interactions with various Somethings?
...How can our awareness of it be the source for achieving meaning, if (as we have argued earlier) meanings are to be found only in the interactions of human existents with other existents?
Well, how does a blank canvas contribute to the creation of a painting? How does an open mind contribute to the acquisition of knowledge? How does a clear blue sky contribute to the perception of a jet streaking across the horizon?
These are backdrops. In a sense they are inseparable from the focus of our attention -- a painting needs a canvas to exist, as a bird needs the sky to fly in -- and in another sense they are separable. Similarly, says Munitz:
The relation between Boundless Existence and the existent observable universe is not one of Creation of the latter by the former. Boundless Existence is not a creator, not a person, not an infinite mind, not a being possessed of the attributes, qualities, or properties of power, wisdom, or goodness, nor indeed of any other.
It does not stand to the existent observable universe and its contents in the relation of one entity (being, object, substance) to another. It is not "separated" from the world in the way in which we think of the relation between a craftsman and the work he produces.
...in one respect we can (with proper qualifications) affirm that Boundless Existence is a "property" of the existent observable universe, whereas in another respect it is not a property at all.
Boundless Existence simply is what it is. Which is, nothing that we can know, understand, experience, feel, comprehend, or cognize. It's akin to looking into emptiness and saying, "There's nothing there."
Exactly.
Yet that nothing also is everything. Existence is the background to essence, philosophically speaking. Also, realistically speaking -- if existence didn't exist, there would be no place for anything to be what it is.
So an awareness of Boundless Existence leads us to this conclusion: the meanings in our lives come from us. There's no ground floor to the cosmos that everything rests on, other than the Nothing of Boundless Existence.
Meaninglessness thus is the backdrop to a meaningful life.
Hunger and satiety, boredom and excitement, routinized performance and genuine creativity, restricted and shared experience, evil and good, welcome accidents and disastrous ones -- these and many other parameters for mapping the course of interactive meanings are everywhere germane, applicable, and reapplicable to the lives of individuals.
But they play no role whatsoever insofar as we think of our lives under the aspect of Boundless Existence. Boundless Existence has no powers of its own, no cares or concerns, no standards, no goals, no plans, no order of operation -- not even a blind, purely causal one.
...When we take this perspective, what can we say? We cannot point to any wider scheme in terms of which the enormous variety of human experiences takes on a role, fills a place, or contributes to our understanding of how or why they are what they are.
We must remain silent; there is nothing to say that would give our lives meaning in the cosmic sense because, in living in a world that has this dimension of Boundless Existence, our lives, too, are surrounded by and immersed in meaninglessness.
The only sources of genuine, redeeming positive meaningfulness of our lives are on the level of interactive meanings -- as human existents living in a universe that is itself an existent, and by interacting with other existents, but whose Existence, in general or in part, is without meaning, without intelligibility or value.
Right here, right now, you are the source of meaning in the universe. Only you. Meaning doesn't come from anywhere else.
No God. No guru. No holy book. No philosophical treatise. No manifestation of nature. Your interactions with the world are the fountainhead of meaning. Flow on, freely and happily.
I just finished reading The Importance of by Lin Yu Tang, where he addresses many of these issues. For me it can be best summed up as "appreciate your life."
Posted by: Rick Matz | June 08, 2010 at 06:49 PM
Or maybe "accept and relish life".
Posted by: Suzanne | June 10, 2010 at 01:31 AM
Brian,
This post was very good. I'm kinda suprised with such few responses. Roger
Posted by: Roger | June 11, 2010 at 10:24 AM
Roger, when I get a lot of comments on a post, I figure that readers were blown away by the brilliance and profundity of my writing, and had to say something in response.
When nobody, or hardly anybody, comments on a post, I figure that readers were blown away by the brilliance and profundity of my writing, and were left speechless.
Posted by: Brian Hines | June 11, 2010 at 10:33 AM
Beautiful post.
I read "The mystery of existence" by Munitz, and it was one of the most beautiful book in my life.
I've always felt what Munitz describes in his book, but i was not able to describe it the way he does (successfully).
I'm going to read "The question of reality" as well in the future.
You should read another very important book about this topic:
"The problem of existence"
by Arthur Witherall
Ashgate publishing
Posted by: Matteo | June 13, 2010 at 05:31 AM
No. Some of this is overstatement or simply untrue. Well meaning but untrue.paragrapg two is merely a Henid. That does not make it true in and of itself.paragraph five is adeptly felt personal statement but again that does not make it true. Some people find intense meaning in non- human things or activities. (Chess, Sport, Philosophy just to name three of many.)paragraph six: "leads to".. Really? Maybe a subjective experience, albeit a common one, is being objectified here. It is all too common for us to confuse deep feelings we may have(but, actually, not everyone shares) as being "truths". I think this underpins much of this posting.
Posted by: Robert Nicholls | November 08, 2015 at 10:33 AM