The Basis of Meaningfulness

Over the course of the past week I’ve been spending a lot of time getting ultra-strategic about what I want to move towards in 2024. I’ve spent countless hours journaling, goal-setting, project planning, thinking through tradeoffs.

In my reflections I came across a few questions from Daniel Schmachtenberger (full list found here). They were:

• What is sacred to you? What does sacred mean?

• What are you devoted to? What does devotion mean?

• What is the basis of meaningfulness?

As I was writing my response to these questions, it dawned on me with perfect clarity.

What is most sacred is existence. The basis of meaningfulness is existence. There is no ‘reason’ that something is sacred. It is sacred because it exists.

If something were to not exist, then how could it be sacred. Sacredness is dependent on existence. And the essence of sacredness is taking time to recognize and honor this fact. 

When we get so caught up in our lives that we forget to recognize the profound beauty of existence, this is when our lives are cut off from the sacred. It’s not that some things are sacred and others aren’t. It’s that all things are sacred and sometimes we forget to recognize that fact.

This is another example of the content vs. context principle I’ve been churning over for years. That what is spiritual is not any ‘thing’ any ‘content’ rather it’s the basis of all content. Reality itself. The fact that anything exists at all is what makes things sacred, not the properties or characteristics of a ‘thing’ in reality. For example, because one thing is inspiring to us, doesn’t make it any more sacred.

Then I asked myself …

What am I devoted to?

After not being able to come up with a specific answer that landed well in my system I decided to then ask What does devotion mean?

I was struck with another insight. The essence of devotion is realizing that our selfish concerns are less important than something inherently meaningful — dare I say ‘sacred'.

I may be overlooking some important distinctions here, but I have this gut sense that wisdom intertwines with sacredness, devotion and meaningfulness in some essential way as well.

I have this urge to say that the love of wisdom is the love of understanding the implications of sacredness, meaningfulness and devotion in every potentiality in which it could exist.

Sorrow and Rapture

In the last 3 months, I’ve been brought to tears by the beauty of existence more than usual.

I’m not sure what it is, but it just hits me at random moments.

I’m questioning why this is. It seems to be what is emerging after an extensive dark night phase in which reality felt dark, meaningless, and the fear of death entirely overwhelmed me for months on end — triggered by a powerful bufo experience.

When I was in the dark night stage of my process, I wondered why I was so afraid of death and everyone around me seemed oblivious to this ultimate fact of existence (that it’s finite.)

But now it feels as though I’m out on the other side.

It was all worth it.

As I was reminded of recently:

In this case, the intensity of the fear of death seems to match the intensity of rapture that I feel for the mere fact of being alive.

After confronting the reality of death, day in and day out, it hasn’t gotten any easier to sit with but yet the sacredness of reality seems to have increased in a meaningful way.

A Life Well Lived Requires Participatory Energy

Another insight that has been arising recently is how participatory meaningfulness is.

In other words, there is no purpose or meaning that is static, that I will stumble across if I keep looking hard enough. 

Rather, the act of participating in my life. Of engaging with the questions. Of doing the difficult things and striving towards a vision are what makes life meaningful.

Meaning is not static. It’s active. It requires engagement.

To engage with our lives is to feel meaning. It’s to realize that even in the depths of our despair there is meaning.

Meaning is found in every human experience, when we open up to it and engage with it.