They didn’t teach this in grade school. They didn’t teach this in church, either. They didn’t even teach this on the streets, though those who excel in the dog-eat-dog world think they have a pretty good idea it’s about getting what you can, when you can.
Now that I think about it, no one taught it. Anywhere. Ever.
Yet it is the one question that lurks behind every experience of every single person on this planet, all eight billion of them.
Why are we here?
It would be easy for me to tell you what I think, or to share with you one “authoritative” view or another. But to be honest, none of us can answer definitively, locked within a reality where we are limited by the constraints of five senses, the ramblings of our minds and the many distortions that muddy the waters of our perception.
All I can do is suggest possibilities and you’ll have to figure the rest out for yourself. So let’s start with what we do know.
We know that we’re here to live, to find a way to survive and hopefully even thrive despite the odds. What that looks like differs somewhat for each of us, our abilities and circumstances. But then again, no two lives are the same. No two people are the same, either. We’re each unique in some way, gathering experiences shaped both by our differences and shared commonality.
We also know that we are not alone in this world. Nature is both a harsh and hospitable hostess, providing a place where we can exist and test ourselves, and maybe even grow a little if life doesn’t take us out along the way.
There are other people, too, inhabiting this world — some of whom are extremely difficult to get along with who too often seek to impose their wills upon us. It is with them that some of our most challenging situations arise when they do, forcing us to choose whether and how to resist their efforts, or to acquiesce in some way, going along to get along.
So we are left to negotiate this minefield of egos and natural causes without so much as a map to guide us, much less give meaning for all that happens. While that meaning may be known at some deeper level, it usually isn’t known to us as life unfolds. Instead we have to figure it out as we go along.
The search for meaning
It would be easy, then, to conclude that the meaning for life is simply to gather the experiences that come along the way, for whatever unknown purpose lies behind them.
Some think this life is all there is, and then when it’s over, we are no more (a view that saddens me to no end, but it’s their choice to see it that way). Others believe we are eternal, and that some part of us lives on (or can live) in another dimension or reality (such as the promise of Heaven as an afterlife).
But really, none of us knows for sure. We only surmise (usually based more on what others say than our own perceptions), and then use those views to construct or interpret our lives as best we can.
So here we are, stuck in a world that’s ready to explode where powerful forces are at work to change it to better suit what they want and think they need, pitting us against each other in conflict and making us ready to rip others’ throats out for getting in our way or wanting something else.
It certainly appears to be a game of survival of the fittest (Darwin thought so), and to the winner go the spoils. That’s certainly the way it operates. But why are we playing it in the first place? And who are “we” anyway?
This is where we turn to the mirror and ask ourselves, “Mirror, mirror on the wall. Why the heck am I here at all?”
That face staring back at us goes blank. It doesn’t have a clue, and if it does, it isn’t letting us in on the answer.
We’re left to assign our own reason for being. Most of us don’t, throwing our hands up in the air and mumbling to ourselves something like, “Who knows?” and then going on about our business.
But some of us can’t leave it alone. We want to know why. Why we are. Why we’re here. Why we’re going through what we’re going through, and what we can do to change things more to our liking.
Those questions rattle around inside us, like echoes in a great, empty chamber that begs to be filled with all the good things in life. Behind the questions, however, is the silence, the deep and wonderful silence that exists beyond the cares of our outer world, and it is in that silence that we best can gain insight into who we are and what we’re all about.
I cannot speak for you. But the silence has led me to perceive that there is more to me than what I know myself as and show the world. There is a Presence whose energy is subtly perceptible in every thought, every emotion, and every action I take. That Presence has consciousness, and watches from the shadows, even as it nudges me to act in certain ways. It processes those experiences and what to think and feel as a result — and then helps me know what to do with them to meet the moments to come.
Moreover, the more I explore that Presence, I perceive its energy at work in others, too, and in the affairs that unfold in my life. It’s as if its invisible hand is continually creating the next moment and what it wants me to get out of it.
It’s as if I and everyone else are puppets whose strings are being pulled by a hidden hand, interacting in ways that alternate focus upon our differences and commonalities, forcing us to meet the challenges that arise and become more in the process.
Become more? For what?
As I explore the Presence, I sense that it is calling me toward a great unknown. And while I cannot reach it in this lifetime, it leads me to believe that the experiences of my life contribute to my journey to get there. As that perspective has taken hold, it has brought meaning and purpose to the myriad situations that I’ve encountered over the many years of my life — each of which brings something a little different to the table of my experiences and what they lead me to become.
That Presence speaks to me through my inner voice and the many signals that come to me throughout the day. Thoughts. Emotions. Moods. Signs. Synchronicities. All contribute to the energy that I present to the world, and that energy to the collective consciousness that gradually evolves humanity into something more.
It allows me a certain perspective that offers more choice over my affairs, especially whether to allow myself to be dragged into the petty conflicts that our increasing polarities are exacerbating — conflicts that threaten to bring down our very civilization down around our ears — conflicts that force us to choose what we want to be about and where we want to go from here.
So far it has kept me out of their wars. Whether that will continue remains to be seen, and whether I will succumb to the forces within me that would rather fight than switch.
It shows me that both sides are part of a unified whole, of a humanity that must find a way to rise above the individual wills of men to find a will that unites all wills so we can move forward with greater peace and ease into whatever next stage of our reality is to be served up. And if we don’t, to kick us to the curb and make us pay for our inability to evolve into something more.
I don’t have to hold onto that vision and its promise of a better tomorrow. But unless I do, I find it hard to hold out hope we’ll find a way through this mess without destroying ourselves in the process.
As a result, the meaning I have assigned to why I’m here is to find a way to become more so we don’t carry the seeds of the problems of today into the future we want to create. For me, that starts with being at peace with the way things are, believing that somehow and in some way all the turmoil will help humanity awaken and make another choice.
These just happen to be principles of the spiritual path that I am guided to follow, a path that the Presence suggests ends with my ultimate “reunion” with God, the One Infinite Creator. The catalysts of my life are just things presented to test how well I’m doing and challenge me to become more, while dangling the carrot of my desires to lead me to the next ones to come.
What’s your choice?
You don’t have to see it my way. In fact, I hope you don’t. I want you to find out for yourself by knowing the Presence within you, and letting it lead you through your inner voice to whatever you need to take your next step on the road home.
It’s up to you to decide for yourself what your life is about, and what is making it the way that it is and you the way that you are. There is no right and wrong. There is only experience, and how you see it will greatly determine the experiences you get along the way, or bring to others whose lives you touch.
So open your eyes. Expand your awareness and bring consciousness to bear. Allow yourself to see what you haven’t and put it to best use to become more.
Maybe you’ll never have an absolute answer to the question of what your life is about. Maybe the one you get will change from time-to-time as you grow into what you need to be. Or maybe you’ll just stay stuck in the way you see it now, and decide to jump headfirst into the fray to fight the good fight.
Only you know what’s best for you. Test it all with your intuition, and most of all, seek the Presence within and let it guide you home — if that’s where you think you’re trying to go.
In the meantime, there is only now, in this moment. Make the most of it. Breathe in the wonder of life. Love it all. Find the joy. Be at peace.
I bid you godspeed. God bless you indeed.