Finding joy in a meaningless life

A few days ago I was riding my bike in central Oregon. I was having a good time cruising around the dirt roads and nicely graveled bike paths in oh-so-charming Camp Sherman, where the Metolius River flows.

Pedaling along, idly pondering the Meaning of It All, my brain ejected a marvelous thought that instantly struck me as having a great intuitive appeal.

There's no meaning to life, which is absolutely freaking glorious!

I felt like a weight had been lifted from my pondering psyche. Meaning is heavy, man. It isn't something you toss around lightly. 

Even if you're no longer religious, like me.

For most of my life I believed there was a transcendental meaning to human existence. We were supposed to realize the nature of a divine ultimate reality. Absent that, life was shallow, ephemereal, illusory.

When I gave up that belief, the hold Meaning had on me loosened considerably. However, until that bicycling epiphany popped up I hadn't realized how much I still was seeking to understand what makes life meaningful.

In other words, I was still looking for something beyond the life that I was actually living. Before, this was God. Now, it was Meaning. 

On my next bike ride, I began to hear a pinging sound. At first I thought it was coming from a house, or a nearby RV park. Then I realized it was a broken spoke bumping against other spokes as I rode along.

I stopped and bent the end around a neighboring spoke. Quiet now. Both inside and outside my head. I didn't try to extract any meaning from this event. I didn't wonder how it happened or whether I could learn anything from it.

It was just a broken spoke. I'd get it fixed when I take my bike in for its fall tune-up. 

This is a small life happening. But I used to be one of those people who would wonder about both large and small happenings, "What is the universe trying to tell me? Is there a message for me here?"

Now my attitude is much more along the line of...

Stuff happens. Then other stuff happens. Until we die. Then nothing happens. To us, at least. For the living, more stuff happens. Until they die. 

Life seems much more meaningful to me when I don't try to find any meaning in it. If that sounds vacuous and, well, meaningless to you, I completely understand. Not too many years ago I would have scoffed at anyone who looked upon life the way I do now.

(One of my favorite blog post themes is, "I've become the person I warned myself about." See here, here, here, and here.)

All I'm saying is that I'm finding I can be happy, productive, contented, relaxed, and purposeful without adding an extra layer of meaning frosting to the cake that is my life.

Every day I have lots of experiences. They are what they are, nothing more, nothing less. I no longer believe that happenings mean anything more than "this happened."

Yes, there are reasons for everything that happens. If it were possible to trace the chain of the causes and effects for a particular happening, like a broken spoke, we'd end up at the big bang 13.7 billion years ago.

That isn't meaningful. It is just a fact. Stuff happens. Then other stuff happens. 

There's nothing wrong with searching for the meaning of life. There's also nothing wrong with giving up that search. Either way, stuff is happening. Each of us keeps on doing what we're doing until we do something different.

Pretty damn simple. Joyfully simple. 

Update: after I published this post and proof-read it, I noticed a post under "You might also like" (below) that I did indeed like. Had forgotten about it. Fits with this theme. Check out The spirituality of my sickness.

Comments

[Laura]

The pope is a sinner; and a meditator is an efficient killer.

[Roger]

Yes, I could agree that there is no meaning and purpose 'of' Life. However, the mind and other minds can create meaning and purpose 'in' Life.

So, I can be happy, productive, contented, relaxed, and find purpose and meaning in what my mind makes of my life. Same for you too.

Either way, stuff is happening. Each of us keeps on doing what we're doing until we do something different. With our own meaningfulness and purposefulness.

[just me]

Brian, life must be very different for someone like yourself, who seems to have had a pretty good run so far according to how life goes, as opposed to someone born in a slum and dire poverty where the struggle for existence fills every moment of their life.

They don't have time to indulge in wondering about the meaning of existence because unlike you and others like you (including myself) they don't have a life of mainly good stuff happening.

Do you ever think of the mindset of people in these difficult situations and how lucky you are? Westerners are so lucky and I think spoilt in comparison. So much misery and horror happening in the world especially with the wars and natural disasters.

I will always search for meaning in life. Why so much imbalance, why so much suffering for some and not for others? I can't just think oh thats just the way it is, that seems so selfish and uncaring to me.

Even the young child who became the Buddha when watching a farmer ploughing his field was overcome with compassion for the worms who were dying and realised then the harsh nature of the world. I admire that sort of person who will give up their life of ease to search for meaning!

[cc]

When there's joie de vivre, life needs no meaning.

We live for the joy of living, and joy is measured by the meaning that brings it down.

[the9thGate]

Nice post Brian...searching for happiness makes me feel miserable...

[Brian Hines]

just me, having compassion for those who are suffering doesn't require finding meaning. It requires being compassionate.

I haven't found that dealing with problems in my life, or with problems in other people's lives, is aided by finding meaning in a problem.

Problems are dealt with by dealing with them. This is what I'm getting at in this post. The "meaning of life" is an unnecessary abstraction. What not just experience life?

Have compassion for people. Where is the necessity of saying to yourself, "I find meaning in being compassionate?" What is this "meaning"?

If it is contentment, joy, happiness, satisfaction, why not use those words to describe it? Or why not leave the feeling undescribed? The Buddha (or a disciple, can't remember) silently held up a flower. He didn't say "this flower is meaningful."

[just me]

Yes Brian, looking at my patterns of behaviour and belief systems more than ever nowadays, I am now questioning why do I feel and try to understand or give meaning to the suffering of others!

I like this post because its really made me see things differently. You say "I felt like a weight had been lifted from my pondering psyche". Maybe I do also ponder too much. How can I ever understand the why and wherefore of the suffering in this world. Okay, a new window of not searching for meaning is now opening...

Cheers

[Skeptic]

Everything happens for a reason, but maybe not the deep meaningful "the universe has a plan" kind of reasons we struggle to figure out.

[George peorgie puddin n pie]

Couple of things tho:

1) if life is meaningless, its bizarre that human beings have developed whose most basic psychological desire is to crave and seek meaning.

2) shit happens but where does shit come from? Shit either came from nothing or shit is eternal - both of which are considered supernatural events.

[George peorgie puddin n pie]

We know there is something, which is either acausal or eternal.

Even if this something is energy or mind, that is still something albeit not a tangible thing.

This something either came from nothing or something has always existed.

Either way, this something is supernatural in that it has no natural explanation, the rules of cause and effect or entropy break down.

Science attempts to explain how the Big Bang was created from nothing , but this is supposedly the explanation for physical matter. It does not explain the trigger conditions or where the infinitely dense energy of the singularity comes from.

[Willie R.]

Go get 'em, Georgie!