What is a Meaningful Life?

Some people seem to spend their whole lives disgruntled, in search of a reason, a positive purpose. Philosopher Iddo Landau advocates that all of us have everything we need for a significantly meaningful existence. A meaningful life is one in which there are enough aspects of adequate value, and pointless life is one in which there is not a satisfactory number of aspects of sufficient value.

Simplicity

For a life to be precious, or important, it needn’t have to be unique. Believing that specialness is tied to meaning is another error many people make. This mistaken belief leads some people to unreasonably see their lives as inadequately meaningful and to miss ways of enhancing meaning in life. They forget the power of now and this gift of life.

We move, we meet new kind people, have fresh experiences, bump into new ideas, and age. As we change, our values alter, and so does our sense of purpose in life, which we must continually work on. The transformation can be emotional, mental, spiritual, or physical.

You are here, thus you matter

Some might object that this is being very simplistic. Surely there must be more to survival than simply assigning a value to what we already have. We will be thinking in a different way if we fail to know the purpose of our lives.

It can be disturbing, perhaps, to have such a simple answer. And critics might argue that nothing can matter, given the vastness of the universe and the brevity of our lives. But this presumes our purpose is rigid, fixed, and assigned outwardly, and not flexible or a product of the mind. This is where emotional intelligence comes to use.

Lao Tzu once said that deep understanding of the spirit of existence is mysterious. We, like trees and rivers, are part of “the way,” which is prepared for everything and makes the whole thing and cannot ever truly be recognized or spoken of. From this viewpoint, life isn’t understandable, but it is also intrinsically meaningful—whatever position we dwell in, in society, however little or much we may do.

Life matters for the reason that we exist within and among many living things, as part of an enduring and inexplicable chain of existence. Sometimes life is atrocious, but the meaning is derived from insistence. As Tao says, “One who persists is a person of purpose.”

Common Good is a way to see in everything for a meaning, among others to explore.

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