Essay 1
May 19, 2022
Today begins a new series of essays considering the highest possibilities toward which a human life can aim. It will focus on the ways each of us can explore and perhaps find the fulfillment we seek. This is the ultimate journey, and through the ages the wisest among us have offered ways to find the wholeness, fulfillment, and meaning that is our birthright. They tell us it is possible to experience the love, peace, wisdom, and joy this journey can bring.
They do not say it is easy, but the wise ones of many traditions tell us we are called to ascend the mountain of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful — and that each of us has the possibility of reaching the summit.
Few reach the top of the mountain, and even fewer are able to remain there permanently. The vast majority of us do not live our lives in the rarefied air of that high place. Some of us have breathed it for brief moments, then found ourselves back in the thicker atmosphere of our daily lives. Yet the saints and sages keep reminding us that the summit is always there, waiting for us, though hidden by clouds of ambition, anger, illusion, greed, desire, and despair.
Their guidance consistently says that life is about finding our way up the mountain as far as we can go. Right now, at this moment, it does not matter whether you are well on your way or just beginning. Wherever you are, the meaning of your life is about taking the journey seriously and climbing as best you can. Do you see? What matters is not how far you have traveled, nor even reaching the end of the trail. The crucial thing is simply to begin, to start from where you are now. Then, as the Sufi poet Rumi said: “If your leg is gimpy and you have to hop, what’s the difference? Going there, even by limping, the leg grows whole.” In his statement, it is the “going” that is the crucial factor.
Many have begun this journey, have felt the call to find “something more.” A significant number have had glimpses of the destination, have experienced an instant in which the veil was lifted and, in the words of poet William Blake, “the doors of perception were cleansed.” When this happens, everything appears as it truly is, “Infinite.” During such glimpses, you feel what Blake proclaimed, that you have the capacity to, “Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand; And Eternity in an hour.”
Again, though, few have been able to live permanently in this mysterious “Infinity.” Yet a significant number of us have had moments, moments that transcended time, moments in which we sensed there was a deeper meaning to be experienced and lived. In such moments, we have broken through into the timeless dimension. It has happened for many during meditation, prayer, ritual, or in dreams. It has happened to others while traveling, hiking, camping, or during extreme challenges — sometimes deliberately chosen (dangerous adventures, acts of bravery in war, or dramatic moments in sports). For some the extreme challenges came unbidden; tragedy or sickness took them out of their normal mind and routines. For the fortunate, special moments came without recognizable cause, as pure gift, an experience of grace.
Even for those of us who have touched the mystery, however, become discouraged, forget, get distracted, give up on the journey for long periods. Balancing our lives in the world of time with the timeless dimension, about which the Buddha and Jesus spoke, is difficult. As Blake put it, most of us have “closed ourselves up,” till we see only “thro’ narrow chinks of the cavern.”
Blake is likely referring to Plato’s “parable of the cave,” in which we live our normal lives in a dark cavern, seeing only shadows on the wall and taking those shadows for reality. Plato, Blake, Jesus, and the Buddha — and so many others through the ages — all suggest that when we are immersed in the daily routines of our lives, we are not in touch with the highest levels of reality.
Have you ever had a sense there is more to life than you have yet found? Have you ever felt a calling to look for “something more,” that what you take for reality is not the whole picture? If so, and you wish to do something about it, the next step is simply to begin. You do not need to make elaborate plans or to have answers to all the questions that arise when you think about it. You just need to decide to take the journey and commit to making an effort, then continue with courage and determination as best you can when difficulties arise.
W. H. Murray describes what happens next:
“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.” (Murray was inspired on his journey by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, from whom he took two lines of poetry and expanded it into this quote, which captures the power of beginning.)
If you commit to the journey, you will start to meet others who have also begun. They will provide encouragement and support. Teachers and guides will appear who will share hints about the best routes to take and the pitfalls to avoid. Some of them will inspire you, and you, in turn, will inspire them. Thus, no matter how far you have traveled up the mountain, you will find companions. They will serve you, and you will serve them, and thereby your life will become an act of service. As Rumi put it: “If you go even three feet toward Solomon’s mountain, others will use that as a yardstick to measure their lives.”
For me, this insight is incredibly encouraging. It means that someone who has just begun the journey is already helping others. It means those who simply make the effort and travel three feet are helping, not only themselves, but others as well. Therefore, what you must do is simple: Start walking right now on the best trail you can find. Reevaluate the path you are on from time to time, to see if there is a better one. Be on the lookout for the best guides who cross your pathway. Then, keep going. If you will do those four things, you will be accomplishing all you can at this moment to reach your highest possibility. After doing those things, as the poet T.S. Eliot said, “The rest is not our business.”
The core questions
Poetry, metaphor, and myth are ways to explore life’s journey, and all three will be used extensively in these essays. But another approach is to be more systematic and rational, and those tools will be used as well. In that vein, here are several core questions we all face as we go about the business of trying to live our human lives. (If you have time for a little reflection, consider each of these questions for a few moments.)
1. Will I focus on finding happiness, fulfilling my duty, having pleasurable experiences, achieving longevity, being creative, feeling good, or being productive? Is there something besides these options that moves me? Then, focusing on the ones that seem most important: How will I allocate my time between them?
2. What does love mean to me, how important is it, and how can I find it?
3. How important are my relationships — with family, friends, and the people in my community? How much time will I invest in building and nurturing those relationships?
4. How much time and energy will I devote to helping others — people who are in need either physically, emotionally, or spiritually?
5. What duties have I been taught to fulfill, and which of those will I consciously choose to accomplish?
6. Is there a meaning to life, and if so, how will I attempt to find and live it?
7. What is morality to me? Will I try to live by any moral values? If so, which ones?
8. What role will I give to religion in my life? Is spirituality different from religion for me? If so, is it important? If it is, how will I explore it?
9. Are deep and abiding feelings of peace, love, and joy possible? If so, how can I go about finding them?
10. Will I think about what might happen when this life is over? Will I give thought or effort toward getting to heaven, having a good reincarnation, getting off the wheel of rebirth, coming into harmony with the Tao, merging with the One, or whatever I think the ultimate might be?
Wherever you are in relation to these questions, if you wish to have a conscious input into how your life will unfold from this moment forward, the first order of business is to “Know Thyself,” as Socrates advised. And the place to begin is where you are right now, to start in this moment cultivating a better understanding of who you are and how you came to be that person.
This will include trying to gain a clear glimpse of the trajectory your life is now on. Then, as you better understand yourself and the path you are currently traveling, you will be in a position to create an image of where you would like to go from this moment forward, and thereby influence how your life will unfold as the future rises to meet you.
Before we dive in
One further point. Every project, discussion, investigation, or attempt at understanding starts with what you think and believe as you begin. Each of us lives within a framework of assumptions, and everything you do from this point forward will be based on the assumptions you currently hold, tempered by the changes you make as you proceed. Even the most scientific endeavors rest upon a scaffolding of assumptions that have a dramatic effect on the outcome.
If this is true in science, it is even more true concerning inquiries involving things that cannot be precisely measured — such as relationships, meaning, purpose, values, philosophy, psychology, religious questions, or spiritual longings.
It is certainly true when dealing with how to live one’s life. As in mountain-climbing, base camps must be established along the way — then used as staging areas for the final ascent. For me, there are several key assumptions about life and living that are my base camps, the framework upon which the following essays are based. Many will become clear as read along, but if you would like to see a summary of some of my key assumptions, they are all posted on this web site.
The following essays will focus on the higher stages of the journey — when one has glimpsed the summit but is not yet able to keep it clearly in sight. Wherever you are on the journey, however, you can dive into the essays without any further background than what you know right now. On this journey, we constantly move back and forth, up and down, circling back to different stages. Sometimes we do this intentionally, to understand more deeply an issue we have encountered before. Sometimes, though, we are forced to retrace our steps and return to an earlier stage — by a crisis, or when we have lost our way and need to find the true path again.
So many others have traveled this path before us, with each trying to find their own route to a meaningful and fulfilling life. Their guidance will be one of the most important building blocks for this undertaking. A good trail marker with which to begin comes from Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung: “The meaning of my existence is that life has addressed a question to me.” Answering this question is my “life task, which I accomplish only by effort and with difficulty.”
Previous Books and Essays
Besides the summary of core ideas on my web site mentioned above, the base camps I have established on my own quest of more than 60 years of active study and practice, I have also written several books and essays that describe how I arrived at my assumptions. There I present those ideas more fully.
Each book and essay can be read separately, but there was a sequence in the development of the ideas, so if you would like to follow the developmental path, this is how to do so.
The Quest for Meaning: The Inner Journey of Odysseus: Written in 1989-90 and used in my first workshops for many years, this book was written well before the others. It deals with the Hero’s and Heroine’s journey, focusing especially on the psychological insights of Carl Jung, as well as the ideas of Joseph Campbell and Helen Luke who were significantly influenced by Jung. In the tradition of these three authors, I take the ancient story of Odysseus as a symbol for the journey we all must make if we are to find meaning and fulfilment for ourselves. It is available on my web site in PDF format.
On Being Human: An Operator’s Manual: Published in 2013 and available on Amazon, this book deals with the four major forces that shape our lives: 1) our basic urges and desires, 2) the messages we received from the people around us growing up, 3) human reason, the capacity to think through and rationally consider options, 4) intuition, the ability to catch a glimpse of the broader picture and the deeper flow of our own lives and of the world. It explores how the stories we were told when young and the way we put those stories together created our individual sense of self and the worldview within which we live. It shows how this process was mostly unconscious, yet determines to a great extent the lives we are living. But the crucial point of the book is that you have the capacity to examine your stories and your worldview, to consider how they are serving you, and then to discover ways to employ the incredible human capacity to be more conscious, to develop strategies that might lead to a more fulfilling life.
Art Science Religion Spirituality: Seeking Wisdom and Harmony for a Fulfilling Life: Published in 2015 and available on Amazon, it examines four of the most valuable ways we humans have sought wisdom and fulfillment: (1) Creating and experiencing art; (2) Engagement with science; (3) Following a religious tradition; and (4) Undertaking a spiritual journey. Although different on the surface, these four paths are not so different underneath. As Albert Einstein succinctly put it: “All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.” This book explores the commonalities between art, science, religion, and spirituality and the guidance they each provide for a fulfilling and meaningful life.
Consciousness and Memory: Two Great Mysteries: This book deals with the way both consciousness and memory, although studied and investigated for centuries, are still not understood. It suggests reasons this is true, and how modern theories that have tried to reduce consciousness to neurology or biochemistry have so far failed completely. This book is mostly finished and is on my web site in essay form.
Ego, Self, and Beyond: Explorations of Identity: One of the most important yet least understood questions we each face is, Who Am I? What is this personal self, this sense I have of having a unique identity? Where did it come from?? And what do I do with it? This book is undergoing a final edit and will be available soon.
Embracing the Mystery: The Journey to Fulfillment: This is the final book in the sequence, and the essays in this series are taken largely from the manuscript. The book itself will be available soon, and offers some of my clearest insights on what life is about and how we can make our own lives as fulfilling and meaningful as possible.
Essay series available at ameaningfullife.org
Transformation: 10 essays on the process of transformation that all journeys involve.
Community and Freedom: 9 essays on the tension and ways to resolve that tension between the desire for individual freedom and the need for community.
Finding Peace: 5 essays concerning the search for inner peace in difficult times.
The Ultimate Journey: 12 essays that describe the later stages of the journey — including short reviews of books by others who have inspired my journey.
Consciousness and Memory: Chapters from the book discussed above.