The meaning of life.

 Spiritual Reflections. 

The meaning of life.

The necessity of giving meaning to what we do in life. 

Before we ask ourselves whether our lives have meaning or what the meaning of life is, which for most people lasts considerably less than a century, we have to ask ourselves whether we want to ascribe meaning to a life that is finite and limited in time and ends with death, or whether we view life, the Life, as something more than a mere appearance or effect of chemical-electrical processes associated with matter, i.e., whether we are able to envision infinite, eternal life. Without answering this question, it makes no sense to ask about the meaning of life. Our own life literally depends on the answer we give to it.

In this sense, the meaning of biological life depends entirely on the life that lies beyond it, namely the life of our consciousness as the unique, eternal self. So where do we direct our inquiry into the meaning of life? If we do not believe that our consciousness is the result of blind forces generated by our brain, which itself is a product of other blind and random forces, and that the self we are, with all its memories, feelings and preferences, depends on the survival of this gray mass of neurons, we will not ask about the meaning of the life of the brain, but about the meaning of consciousness as something free, which uses the brain as a material interface, but is not its effect, but its commander.

Anyone who limits themselves to the physical plane immediately discards the need to ask about the meaning of life. I can only come to the same conclusion that all those who do not look beyond the body as the basis of the self are forced to come to: life consists of working, suffering and dying, with a few moments of temporary joy and peace that we soon pay for with more suffering, pain and illness, to eventually die and no longer exist.

Well, I do not believe so. As you can see, this meditation does not end here, because it aims to break the wall that is death and go beyond its limits. So we will try to understand what characteristics the ideological and emotional content must have to give life a meaning that goes beyond this fatality. Because if we are not able to overcome the death of our self with the meaning we give to our lives, we have achieved nothing. With this sentence, we have already fully entered into what this meaning must be, formed from ideas that are applicable to our existence and have the power to fill the emptiness that appears before us at first glance.

The most adequate meaning we can give to our lives, which appears to be a brief passage through this existence on the plane of matter, fulfills the function of protecting the soul with a protective layer against fear, emptiness and depression, among other and increasingly common psychological and emotional ailments, which we can compare to a virus or to those pesky mosquitoes that we cannot eradicate from the face of the earth. A meaning to life, a true meaning that offers coherent answers, giving us inner peace and the certainty of the ultimate victory of life within us, in the face of the many death threats that the world reminds us of every day; this meaning opens up a path for us that has no end, that is ascending and -not without trials at this level- leads us to a radiant world that harbors a life of love and peace. To achieve this love and this peace, which is not inaction but peace of mind, we must be willing to seek and find the path of self-discovery of our own essence.

Speaking of essence, we must insist that one of the essential characteristics of an acceptable meaning of life is that its paradigm includes our transcendence beyond physical death. Any explanation that purports to answer the questions of who we are, why we are here, and why we die, and that does not roll out a red carpet for our spirit beyond the moment we finally close our eyes to this world, is a vain presumption that plunges the soul into a dark and bottomless abyss, and would be pure chatter that only reflects our confusion and a serious contradiction in what we call truth. Such answers are based on mere fantasies and present themselves as options, mere could bes, that vanish like soap bubbles in the air, because they neither define us nor give us a firm ground on which we can walk with a clear conscience until the moment of our death in this life.

The second quality necessary for our sense of life not to be shaken by any eventuality that disturbs our delicate balance or our comfort zone is that it frees us from our fears, which, even when they first arise, are appeased and silenced in the light of faith in the truth that expresses this existential meaning. No matter what happens, no circumstance should be able to breach the sacred circle of the meaning of life that protects the soul from anguish and despair. The meaning of life must, in the heart of the one who accepts it as true, inspire an inner strength that allows the soul to remain calm even when the world is shattered. The Romans had the following saying for this fortitude of spirit: Si totus illabatur orbis, impavidum ferient ruinae - Even if the whole world collapses, the ruins will carry the fearless.

We have already understood that whatever gives meaning to our lives must have a transcendent character; it cannot give meaning to our existence here and today and no more tomorrow, nor can it be circumstantial or conditional. The meaning of life is something that must be useful, true and lasting. From this, the following questions arise: useful for what and for whom, true on the basis of what and lasting in what way?

If we look at these three characteristics more closely, we see that they belong together, because that which is useful must always be useful for something permanent and thus become true, something that cannot be undone or refuted by anything; something that can withstand the ultimate destructive force in our lives, death. In fact, it is death, as the polar opposite of life, that drives us to seek this meaning, and we must recognize its crucial role in this process. To live and act as if it did not exist, as if we would never die, is a serious mistake that humanity is increasingly committing, indulging in the present as if there were no tomorrow... but there is.

If the meaning of life is permanently useful, we can deduce that it does not apply to our physical life, which is limited in time. The meaning of life therefore applies to our immortal being, the soul and its spirit, which are now our premise for giving our lives this meaning, because without a soul, life has no meaning at all, let alone a lasting, useful and true one.


A test of freedom.

The soul is the self trapped in the body on this material plane and here it has come to suffer from the terrible thought of dying, as a test of faith and love. However, the soul also finds itself in this unpleasant situation, which it tries to deny or resolve as best it can, in order to face the seemingly overwhelming reality of dying with an inviolable power or force called freedom. This freedom allows each of us to decide for ourselves what we want to do with our lives, even to end it prematurely by suicide. There are those who use their freedom to reject death and believe in the immortality of the soul, and there are those who use it to reject life and hate everything it entails, especially themselves. Many people have jumped on this bandwagon that leads nowhere, except into a very long night. But no one can claim ignorance, because everyone on this earth has heard of God at some point.

As I said earlier, the role of our death is fundamental in the search for the meaning of life; without the inescapable fact that we will all die, there would be no reason to reflect on this question, which must lead us to something that allows us to look beyond that fateful moment when we stop breathing. If we face it, death, our death, will force us towards life, in the sense of a search for immortal life, for that which is in us and remains forever, in an environment in which everything we know is subordinated to time. It is therefore clear that the meaning of life is the search for the life within ourselves, a life that cannot be destroyed.

If we have meditated and understood this fact and accepted the existence of the immortal soul as a premise of our meditation, we can connect the meaning of life without undue effort to the need to believe in eternal life within us, the soul being the recipient of that life, its bearer and beneficiary. If this benefit or divine grace is true, the meaning of life automatically appears as an exercise of faith and love, in the midst of a tangible reality that tells us the opposite if we pay attention only to the symptoms, to appearances. This makes it clear that the meaning of life is not to be found in the world, in the external, in the temporal forms of life, but in the underlying power that we feel and that brings about the constant renewal of life in natural cycles, creating living and yet mortal forms. And in these forms we find the key to the meaning of life if we take them for what they really are and not for what they appear to be. But what are life forms, forms made of living matter? This important question includes us as life forms and is a question of cause and effect, something that modern science has twisted and turned upside down by attributing the power of cause to matter, although matter is always effect. Science should deal with its data, measurements and mechanisms and leave the meaning of life or its essence to the realm of the spiri.

Forms only express life, but they are not, in and of themselves, life; it is the same with us, that is, our body expresses a life that is human in its form, whereby the form is only a temporary reflection of a spiritual power, not its cause! This cause can be called energy, but it is actually spirit. This renewing power is truly spiritual and must be found through the path of patient and humble introspection. This humility leads the seeker of the meaning of life to the first cause of everything, the supreme and original spiritual power, God. And as the cause, which He is, only God can be the sustainer of a transcendental purpose of life that is nourished by the right perception and understanding of the force that brought us into this life and that ensures that our life is never extinguished.

We should remember that an idea whose meaning of life is extinguished at death cannot serve as a basis for giving meaning to life.

Christ made it very clear to his followers 2,000 years ago: Whoever believes in me, in God and in the immortality of the soul, has eternal life. The meaning of life is a flaming sword that cuts off the painful sting of the death that awaits us, because that meaning leads the soul beyond death. But why do we have to die, to live through this traumatic event? Why are we under this pressure, which leads many to want to flee and to give themselves over to a meaningless life? The answer is: because we came to test our ability to do good despite everything that is opposed to us and that leads us to want to save ourselves from death through healthy routines and others that are not so healthy, such as accumulating all kinds of goods as an absurd bulwark against death. The futility of these behaviors is such, that those who are concerned about their (physical) well-being are content to enjoy life to the fullest until what they consider their extinction occurs, precisely because they have identified themselves too much with matter, which has ended up suffocating their soul and the light of the spirit that the truth about the renewing power that emanates from God everywhere and within themselves could have transmitted to them. They have thrown away the most precious of all treasures, the treasure of eternal life, for a perishable life here. In the end, they will get what they feared so much, their death, because their souls will be in a dark space for a long time, until they realize that they must ask for help to save the eternal life they have despised by seeing material life as the only true one. Our deepest compassion for them, poor souls.

If you have not fallen into the most profound nihilism or hedonism, you will, whether you are aware of it or not, want to give meaning to your actions every day; you will want to have a purpose that brings you a satisfaction or reward that is lasting and does not fade away after a short time, leaving you with an existential void. If that happens to you, then you have not yet found the meaning of your life anywhere, only vague fantasies, because you were constantly looking out instead of in. The meaning of life is the connection with a source of light and warmth, something that embraces and protects you, pure love, a love that can only come from the Being that is love itself, God.

But when you look into your own center and begin to walk the inner path, the words of the world, which once seemed so important and necessary to you, will begin to sound empty and meaningless, at best well-intentioned pipe dreams. The world is a big garbage bin of useless and pernicious ideas that only serve the material interests of one or the other. In this theater of speculations and vanities, all kinds of misguided figures abound, only out to get our attention for a few moments and almost always our money. Rhetoric has replaced truth and marketing the prophets; people talk and write to sound good, nothing more, without saying anything at all! Thousands and thousands of pages and millions of hours have been filled with these presumptuous fantasies. In the face of this grotesque mountain of error and falsehood, you will have compassion for the brothers and sisters who try to stand on the shaky ground of these fantasies, for you will see them walking discouraged, broken, and resigned to the end, to their death, which they consider unimpeachable, which throws them into the clutches of robbers and swindlers or turns them into the very same, into dark souls who long for the dreaded end of the world, for which they long from sheer unbearable terror. Oppression and war are their tools for ending a life they deem meaningless except for squeezing what they can out of it at the expense of others. This world is full of them.

But don't fear or curse them. At this point, you will pray for them and know that God is also taking care of their souls, just as he has for you when you began to ask him to give you light in this darkness full of pain, noise and lies.


God bless you.