Some aspects of meaning that I find in own experience…

First, there is a sense of meaning that comes from culture and personality. This sense of meaning comes from moving towards what a story tells me should be, and it tends to feel a little hollow. Some examples here are living a “good life” for the purpose of aligning with an idea. Patriotism. Giving ones life to the corporation. Eating vegetarian even if we don’t quite get why at a gut level. Living up to a certain image. Or living up to any “should” in the culture/subculture in general. (Tools to explore these stories: The Work.)

A variation of this one is to see meaning as somehow fixed, an objective purpose “out there”, to be found or missed, and the objective meaningfulness of our life hinges on finding and living it. This is a good way to create stress for ourselves since we will always wonder how to find this objective purpose, whether we have found it or not, if there isn’t something more, and to what extent our life measures up to it. (Tools: The Work.)

There is also a sense of meaning (at least for me) in finding wholeness at a body-mind level. In moving towards it, taste it, live from the wholeness of who I am that includes body and mind. I can find this through body-centered practices (yoga, mindful exercise), mediation, allowing/being with experience, working with projections/shadows, and many other ways. There is a sense of coming home in myself and of a nurturing richness and fullness. Also, independent of the external circumstances, there is little or no sense of being a victim or lacking. (Tools: Body-oriented practices such as yoga, tai chi, chi gong, aikido etc. Meditation. Allowing/being with experience. Working with projections/shadows through The Work and the Big Mind process. Mindful exercise such as Total Immersion Swimming.)

Related to that one is the sense of meaning that comes from feeling connected with the wider world. With others, a landscape, life, Earth as a whole, the universe as a whole. This can happen in many different ways, and often through receptivity and an open heart, and (with the intention of) living our life for the benefit of the larger whole. (Tools: Tong len, well-wishing, prayer, intention to live for the benefit of the larger whole, Joanna Macy’s practices to reconnect, the universe story.)

And there is also a sense of meaning from the soul level. The soul level can express itself in many ways, for instance through an alive presence in/around the body which is timeless and in time, universal and personal, and has a sense of being infinitely insightful and kind. Or from recognizing all as awareness and all content of awareness as one. The sense of coming home goes even further here, is even more independent on life circumstances, and is even more nurturing. (Tools: Prayer, soul level shaktipat, unraveling knots at personality level.)

Then there is the sense of meaning that comes from how I relate to situations. I can use any situation as an invitation to - and material for - healing and maturing as who I am, and what I am noticing itself. (Tools: The Work and any other.)

And related to that, the sense of meaning that comes from listening to and following our heart and intuition, in daily life. Or just notice what brings up a sense of meaning for us in daily life, even in small ways, and follow that with curiosity and receptivity - as an experiment to see what happens.

Finally, at the level of Ground - when what we are notices itself - any sense of meaning is seen clearly as just coming from and happening within content of experience. What we are is inherently free from and untouched by any sense of meaning or purpose. Meaning and purpose is just the play of what we are, within form.

Here, there is a full freedom to play with any sense of meaning and purpose in our human life, and we also come to see meaning and purpose as a tool for our human self to function in the world and - sometimes - invite what we are to notice itself.

Trigger: The teacher so often referred to here, presenting meaning and purpose as objective, “out there”, and our lives only having meaning and purpose if we find it and live according to it. (His sense of meaning seems more related to the soul level.) I see that my view of meaning may be more aligned with a postmodern view, and his a premodern/modern view - which also makes sense considering each of our backgrounds.

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This follows from the previous post…

• Any sense of meaning happens within content of experience, within the world of form.
  • It is a guest, as anything else within content of experience. It lives its own life, coming and going on its own schedule.
• Any sense of meaning comes from a story.
  • The basic story is that of an I with an Other, and this gives rise to the dynamic of experiencing meaning in (a) supporting and enhancing this separate I and those within its circle of us, and (b) for this separate I to find a sense of connection with itself and the wider world.
  • More generally, whenever I believe a story, there is a sense of meaning when I work at reducing the gap between my stories of what is and what should be.
• What I really am, is always and already free from any meaning-inducing story and any sense of meaning.
  • I can explore this in several different ways, for instance through the sense fields. How does this sense of meaning, and the meaning-inducing story, appear in the sense fields? Where do I find it?
  • What I am, that which content of experience happens within, to and as, is free from meaning, yet fully allow any sense of meaning.
• Any story is a guide for our human self for functioning in the world, and - possibly - noticing what it really is.
  • It gives a sense of direction and purpose.
  • It guides action in the world, or inquiry into what we really are.
• Any meaning-inducing story is more or less appropriate to our human self and its situation.
  • First, does it actually give rise to a sense of meaning? Does it work?
  • And then, what practical consequences does it have for our human self, in the world and in its exploration to discover what it really is? Does it seem helpful?

A rambling post that gets a little clearer in the summary… 

It is the perennial question for any kid and curious adult: What is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of my life?

It may be a little different for each of us, but most of us experience meaning around the same things. Survival. Relationships. Providing for ourselves and our family. Offspring. A sense of connection with others, ourselves, life, the universe. A sense of belonging. Making use of our potentials and opportunities. Being of service to those within our circle of us. Being remembered by others. Exploring the evolving fullness of who we are. Exploring what we really are.

In short, it all tends to revolve around two things: Taking care and enhancing the life of this human self and its circle of us. And finding a sense of connection with ourselves and the larger whole.

It is of course important to explore this for ourselves. Where do I experience a sense of meaning? How can I align my life a little closer with it? How can I bring it into my life a little more?

But the question we don’t so often ask ourselves is, what is meaning? How does this sense of meaning come about? What are the dynamics and mechanics behind it? What is the anatomy of meaning?

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Rambling post…

I watched a conversation on meaning on a talk show on Swedish TV last night, including philosophers and others. (Which in itself says something about why it is more meaningful for me to be here in Scandinavia than in the US, at least in terms of the general culture!)

The conversation mostly stayed at the conventional level, but it made me curios about meaning. Specifically, what is meaning? (Strangely, not addressed in the program.)

To me right now, it seems that meaning is experienced when there is an alignment of our stories of what is and should be, or seeking a closer alignment of the two.

I want a nurturing intimate relationship, so see it as meaningful when I find it or work towards it. I want more money, so find it meaningful when I find or work towards that.

And within a should is an attraction and an aversion, or a seeking of freedom and fullness. Seeking freedom from something and experiencing the fullness of something else.

To take some examples: I experience money as meaningful, so I want the fullness of money and what it gets me. I see relationships as meaningful, so I want the fullness and intimacy of a good relationship. I want to find meaning in life, so I want the fullness of a sense of meaning. Similarly, I experience it as meaningful to find freedom from limitations, suffering, stuckness, certain situations, and so on. (The fullness may be in the forefront unless there is a critical need for freedom.)

(We can explore this for ourselves by taking any desire or wish, the more petty the better, and then see what we hope to get from it. What is the freedom I am looking for? What is the fullness I hope to find?)

This freedom and fullness shows up in different ways at different areas and levels.

As a human self, it has to do with freedom and fullness in our relationship with the world and ourselves, with the outer and inner. This can take many different forms, from an exclusive pursuit of money and status (which works to only a limited extent) to a wider embrace that also includes finding our own wholeness as a human being (which can be with us always).

And as Big Mind, it has to do with noticing the freedom from beliefs and identifications, and the fullness of the whole world of form, that already and always is here. Finding ourselves as Big Mind is the ultimate freedom and fullness, free from identification with any and all beliefs and identities, and full of whatever arises.

There are also widening circles of what is experienced as meaningful.

At the level of the (raw) personality, things has to line up a certain way to be meaningful. It has to fit the attractions and aversions of the personality. Then, as we work on noticing and living our evolving wholeness as a human being, most or all situations are fuel and material for this shift. And finally, as Big Mind awakens to itself, it is free from all views on meaning, so the human self functioning within this context is free to use, engage and play with any of them.

We can also say that meaning is God seeking to know itself as it already and always is.

Or rather, a sense of meaning comes when God is identified as a human being (or any other being for that matter), has an intuition and knowing of what it already and always is, and seeks to notice and live this more consciously.

Meaning arises in the tension between what God temporarily takes itself to be, and what it knows it already and always is, and in the closing of this gap through seeking to notice what it is and living it through a human life.

And this shows up in all the different ways we know from a human life: seeking money, status, relationships, health, joy, wholeness as a human being, God, awakening. It is all God seeking the freedom and fullness that it already knows it is.

It is seeking its freedom and fullness as Big Mind, or Buddha Mind, or Brahman, or the Divine Mind. This field of awakeness and form inherently absent of an I with an Other, yet still functionally connected with a human being.

And it is seeking freedom and fullness at all levels. As a human being living in the world, healing, maturing, developing, interacting, relating, engaging. Through to Big Mind noticing itself as what it already and always is, this field of awakeness and content, inherently absent of an I with an Other.

One is a freedom and fullness within the world of form. The other is noticing the freedom and fullness of what we already are, independent of what happens within the world of form.

Why leave one of them out?

So to summarize…

• A sense of meaning comes when we find or seek a closer alignment of our stories about what is and should be. Reality, as we see it, is - or is about to be - closer to our shoulds.
• Within any should is aversion and attraction, seeking freedom from something and the fullness of something else.
• As a human being, we work on finding this freedom and fullness in relationship to the wider world and ourselves, and we do this in many different areas and forms.
• The final freedom and fullness comes when what we already are notices itself, when Big Mind awakens to itself.
• There are widening circles of what is experienced as meaningful, until Big Mind awakens to itself and is free from any ideas of what is meaningful, so also free to engage and play with any of them. (The human self functionally connected with Big Mind awake to itself is free to engage and play with any and all ideas of meaning.)
• All of this can be seen as God seeking its own freedom and fullness. It temporarily identifies with a tiny part of its own content (this human self), knows intuitively what it already and always is, and seeks to notice and more consciously live the freedom and fullness of what it already and always is.

To follow up on the previous post…

This awakeness is inherently free from any content, so it is also inherently free from any meaning or purpose.

Life, the Universe, Existence, is inherently free from any meaning such as play, exploration, evolution, and so on. And this individual life is inherently free from any of those and other meanings as well.

It can seem depressing at first, but there is also a great beauty in it. Since awakeness is inherently free from any meaning, it allows any and all meaning. This means that we, in our own life, are free to explore any meaning that makes sense to us. And if we know that none of these is an “ultimate” meaning, we also experience this freedom to explore. (As any knowing, it happens in any and each of our three centers of head/view, heart/love, and belly/felt-sense.)

The richest stories have many layers of meaning and can be interpreted in a wide range of ways… which is also why there is often a shared fascination with them.

Moby Dick is one of those stories, and the story can be filtered in many different ways, yielding many different meanings and insights.

• Later, more mature worldcentric
  From a later wordcentric view, we hold both the whales and the animals inside of our circle of care, concern and compassion. We see the struggle between animals and humans as an inevitable outcome of both trying to survive, a story they are both caught up in without much (apparent) choice, almost as a Greek tragedy.
• Early, less mature worldcentric
  From an early worldcentric view where our circle of care beings to include all of Earth, we may easily side with and have mainly compassion for the whale. The whale is innocent and only tries to protect itself, the humans evil (or at least blind) killing other species without respect and concern for their life and well-being. (Animal rights perspective.)
• Humans vs nature
  Humans try to put themselves above nature and to subdue nature. Since nature always has the last word (it is, after all, the larger holon), this is only successful to a limited degree, and it may have dire consequences for humans. We are part of a larger living system, so when we reduce the health and well-being of the larger system, it impacts us as well. Climate change is one of many examples of this.
• Beliefs perspective
  Captain Ahab is caught up in blind beliefs, making it appear to himself that he needs revenge and to settle the score with Moby Dick. It not only creates a split between the two and a great deal of drama and suffering for both, but it also brings the whole ship down.
  
• Awakening
  Then there is the awakening perspective. Moby Dick is God (”if God wanted to be a fish, he would be a whale”, “that is no whale, it is a white god”), and Ahab is single-mindedly pursuing God, relentlessly, at any cost, obsessively (which often goes before an awakening). Captain Ahab and the ship is the small self, or more precisely the appearance of a separate self placed on this human self, and that is what is drawn under in the struggle with God. What is left is just the ocean, nondual awakening.

  This is of course an experiential truth, not a literal one. The experience is of a disaster, of dying, of a calamity as U. G. Krishnamurti liked to call it with his flair for the dramatic. It is really just the belief in a separate self that dies, but since that is taken as an “I” the experience is of I dying. The human self goes on just fine, although now without being taken as an I.

  I initially heard about Moby Dick as an analogy to awakening from a friend of mine at the Zen center a while ago, and know that it has been used by others as well. It is an interpretation that comes relatively easily to mind when we are aware of the characteristics of the awakening process.

  Then there are the reflections of a nondual awakening in the text itself (which doesn’t mean the author needed to have awakened, only intuited it), such as… Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I. (Ahab)

As with anything else, we can look at the meaning of life from the emptiness and form sides.

From the emptiness side, there is an absence of even the question.

When we include form, and form is recognized as no other than emptiness, then what is, as it is, is the meaning of life. Put another way, it is God’s will. It is God manifesting and exploring itself. It is perfect as is, or rather, not touched by ideas of imperfection and perfection. It is emptiness dancing.

And from the form side, in the context of all form as God exploring itself, then we see that one of the many relative meanings of life is evolution and development, since this allows God to explore and experience itself in always new ways.

So meaning of life can take on many different flavors… Finding ourselves as emptiness, as awake void, there is an absence of the question. Finding ourselves as awake emptiness and form, the meaning of life is what is, as it is. What is, here and now, is God’s will. It is what comes out of and is made of the void. It is the local manifestations of the movements of the whole. And as form, evolution and development takes on meaning as well, as it allows God to explore and experience itself in always new and more complex ways. And finally, the meaning of life is what we make it to be, through our stories. When we believe a story about the meaning of life, either in general or for our own life, then that becomes our living reality. And that too, is God exploring and experiencing itself in just another way, another flavor.