A few weeks ago, I was medium for a gentleman in spirit who told me that his entire adult life had been devoted to finding meaning in his life. He read many books, attended lectures, surrounded himself with friends whose lives were meaningful to them, and discussed the subject with them. His life seemed empty to him. Unfortunately, he passed without having found the meaning of his life.
It was only after his death that he realized that finding meaning was the meaning of his life – but he never realized this while incarnated. His mind was fixated on finding meaning through an outside source. This prevented him from experiencing the meaning of his life.
His message: Sometimes you do not see what is directly in front of you. Searching outside diverts your focus from yourself and thus from your personal experience. All you need to do is be in the present moment and open to perception. The answers will come to you in many forms – pay attention to your intuition, spontaneous insights, dreams …
Man’s Search for Meaning
This reminds me of Viktor E. Frankl, the founder of logotherapy (logos, Greek, for meaning). His theory that humans need meaning to overcome suffering was put to the test during the Holocaust, when he spent three years in four different concentration camps, including Auschwitz. He credited his survival to the meaning he found in the love for his wife – who did not survive – and the satisfaction of his work.
In his book “Man’s Search for Meaning” he says “… that it never really matters what we still expect from life, rather only what life expects of us” and further “… for the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.”
“Man’s Search for Meaning” is not a brutal tale of life in concentration camps but a tale of how, even in the most inhuman circumstances, humans can rise above their outward fate.
“He who has a WHY to live for can bear almost any HOW.” (Friedrich Nietzsche)