12. Meaning will always allude us
’Don’t seek the truth — just shed your opinions.’
Japanese Zen Master
If the true nature of reality is mystery, then it is difficult to see how any meaning could ever be discerned or understood. There may well be such a meaning, but by definition it is unknowable. Mircea Eliade says: ‘When something sacred manifests itself (hierophany), [that is, if we catch a glimpse of transcendent meaning] at the same time something “occults” itself, becomes cryptic. Therein lies the true dialectic of the sacred: by the mere fact of showing itself, the sacred hides itself.’ Since we do not know whether there is any meaning or not then life will of necessity be ambiguous and to some extent conflicted.
I would suggest then that the search for a transcendent meaning is really the problem rather than the solution. We look for meaning for ourselves, or at least to appropriate meaning, by looking outside of ourselves. We look for some objective truth that will centre meaning in our lives — perhaps backing up that truth with religious conviction. In a sense, we aim at an image of meaning — rather like the way we might aim at an image of spirituality, ideological politics or body image. Simon Parke takes up this idea:
‘So we shall not strive for truth, for there is no need. Indeed, it has been said that it is best not to strive for anything, for striving is concerned with goals, and there are no goals, for you are perfect already.
‘Striving is a tool of the ego, to keep you busy and desperate whilst you are missing the point.
‘Instead, the search for truth is a quiet and non-demonstrative business. It’s not really a search or a business at all — but an unveiling. It is the fearless and simple exposing of error in ourselves, the ruthless unveiling of motive. And out of this quiet exposure arises a new space within us, in which we can receive new impressions.
‘We begin to notice things. We begin to notice how we hurt people. We begin to become aware of the negativity that blights our days. We become aware of our endless self-justification. We become aware of the same life lived again and again and again.
‘And as we notice, and refuse to avert our eyes, what essence we become. We are the bravest of the brave, and the most to be honoured, for the steady refusal to lie to ourselves or deceive ourselves, is perhaps the noblest human act of all.’
Simon Parke — The Beautiful Life
I hope that this quote resonates with the ideas of Erich Fromm quoted in Chapter 10 — Desire Leads Us. Given our position of acting from ignorance, we can at least infer some relative purpose, that is, contingent, localised, small-scale purposes that relate to our planet, our society, community or just to ourselves as individuals. In the absence of ultimate purpose, we can only come to some sort of balanced view of what might be legitimate and worthwhile purposes for our situation. Whilst recognising these to be necessarily parochial, they nevertheless allow us to devise a valuing of various actions and attitudes in relation to the human economy. It is this derivation of value based on real experience rather than idealism that is a key factor in the chapters that follow.
The desire to understand some kind of ‘deeper’ or ‘higher’ meaning to life in general and/or to our own lives in particular might well be a philosophical pursuit, independent of any emotional connotations we may bring. That said however, our mental constructs are for the most part ‘after the event’, that is, rationalisations of feelings and actions stemming from our emotions. It is not therefore necessarily so easy to distinguish between a purely philosophical quest and one that is really a personal one. Someone has said, there is only a need for meaning when there’s a problem. We don’t seem to feel the same need to find meaning in pleasure! If instead we focus on our real life as we experience it then meaning might be derived from our interactions rather than as an abstract and transcendent ideal.
If we accept that the universe appears to be pre-disposed towards nurturing life, then we at least have a beginning. We may call it providence, or perhaps grace. Again we do not know the real nature of this providence or grace. If we are to deal with life though — as we all must — then part of this dealing will be to try to discern reasons and meanings, even whilst accepting that a full understanding will always be beyond us. We might look to truth, goodness and beauty as three aspects of being the means of grace. Truth — in terms of honesty in dealings between ourselves and others and equally and contiguous with this — in dealing with ourselves as individuals. Goodness — less in terms of moral respectability — and more in the sense of a genuine and heartfelt compassion and love for our fellow human beings and for the other creatures with whom we share this world. Finally, beauty — in its broadest context of living a wholesome life — at peace with ourselves, with others and with the world and engaged in creative work (which all work should be) and in creative play. Beauty — as we will see in the next chapter - undergirds all of this.
Whilst providence remains fundamentally mysterious, we can at least set this nurturing against the alternative of sheer indifference or hostility to life. Beyond this, as conscious beings, we can act on the world and to some extent we can understand and reflect upon the consequences of our actions. In this way, we can either enhance or frustrate the general disposition towards providence — we can be the means of grace, or the means by which grace is withheld. We might create meaning for ourselves then by being the means of grace in the world.
We are left however with a certain amount of ‘middle ground’ between a purely parochial understanding of meaning and something that is more over-arching — if not strictly speaking transcendent. There is meaning then of the parochial kind that refers simply to our intentions to carry out various acts or whatever in our lives - actions within the human economy. Then there is meaning that is a derivative of this, which acts as a guide and shapes communities and cultures. Over-arching meaning — albeit still parochial — is built up through relationship of various kinds.
The contention then is that it is through the quality of relationships that we make meaning for ourselves. As divided persons, we have a relationship with ourselves first and foremost, which is in a constant state of flux. How we deal with ourselves (with honesty, compassion and humour or with fear, anxiety and rationalism) is the starting point for meaning. Then with other people, further meanings open up. The self exists within the context of the human economy. Connections with others, which affirm the underlying reality of nonduality, thereby confer meaning to our lives. There might just be a chance meeting — the briefest of encounters with another. In that short space of time all of us have the opportunity to create meaning through kindness and generosity. Perhaps it is just a smile or a compliment and we move on. Alternatively, meaning can be confounded (or a different meaning created) by selfishness, anger or resentment. What if nothing else had any meaning apart from our interactions with others? I suspect the way many of us spend our time would be very different. Then there is our interaction with nature. This too is a relationship — one that we either deny or take delight in — or somewhere between these two. This nature includes our own bodily nature as well as the nature of the planet as a whole. Here we always meet a paradox. There is letting go and there is creativity, living and dying, form and formlessness. It is because all these things are really not separate — nondual — that they confound our human understanding. Nonetheless, the beauty of nature is the first source of awe, the cause of our celebration and the inspiration for being pleasure in the world.
Our own ‘purpose’ is of course circumscribed by the inevitability of our death. Ideas of leaving a ‘legacy’ are sooner or later realised to be vanity and our personal values are reconsidered in the light of this. A similar evaluation may be fruitful for humanity in general and the future of the planet. At the moment it seems that we want our species to endure forever — even if this entails the destruction of other species and possibly the need for finding new planets to inhabit. There is a certain amount of hubris in this to say the least! It seems to step up our parochial purpose to a universal one – to create some kind of eternal, unchanging kingdom for ourselves — heaven on Earth. Again it is the tendency towards transcendence rather than accepting the boundary of our human economy and indeed the boundary of our Earth’s ecology. Could we ever come to the point where humanity as a whole would accept the inevitability that one day we will cease to be? If yes, then perhaps our idea of what would constitute legitimate purposes and values would re-align.
All of the above though still places us on shaky ground. If we refer back to the quotation from Simon Parke, (and indeed the opening quote of this chapter) then we get the sense that even this derivation of meaning from relationships could still involve a degree of striving. It sounds like grace analysed and then packaged for general application. Can we step back from this somehow? As we go into our chapter on beauty, we will see there two effects. Beauty has the effect of helping us to see more beauty — to discover it in more ordinary things. Beauty also has the effect of letting us step aside from the world, to exist for a time in ‘lateralness’. These effects in turn lead into seeking ‘fairness’ in terms of an equity and balancing in human relations — an equality that undergirds both justice and freedom. The starting point for all of this is then simply to see! If beauty remains unseen or unnoticed, then none of the virtuous consequences will follow. Two authors at least have taken up the simple notion of seeing as the key to life’s meaning.
‘The whole of life lies in the word “seeing”.’
Pierre Tielhard de Chardin
‘Other animals do not need a purpose in life. A contradiction to itself, the human animal cannot live without one. Can we not think of the aim of life as being simply to see?’
John Gray — Straw Dogs
We could summarise this chapter by saying that individual acts take on meaning as they manifest either loving attachment or alienating and disempowering violence. To the extent that we can be pleasure for others, we can find meaning in our lives. Stepping back though, the first act is to see! Seeing the beauty of the world leads us into this process of finding more beauty then creating beauty through being pleasure. This is contrasted with ‘imposing’ a meaning from some kind of transcendent knowledge, belief or revelation. It is a very awkward balance as there is an inevitable tendency in the human psyche to create meta-narratives on the one hand, or on the other hand to become dogmatic and idealistic about more parochial meanings. Stepping back, waiting, watching, unveiling our minds of delusions — these seem to be our best approaches to a universe that is fundamentally mysterious.
