The Meaning of Life

There are many religions, spiritual disciplines, theories, and ideas about the meaning of life. Monty Python made an entire movie dedicated to it.

And speaking of a million galaxies...that is the conversation I was having with my two good friends, Kasia and Robert last night. We began a discussion of the Hubble Deep Space discoveries in 2004. What is astounding is that this little area of the entire sky, described as being the size of a grain of sand when held at an arms length away from one's face, is listed as having 10,000 galaxies in it.

These 10,000 galaxies are in this one little area. The entire size of the sky is 12.7 million times more area than the Ultra Deep Field. So that is 10,000 galaxies times WHAT?!

“There is not one big cosmic meaning for all; there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.”
― Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

  Not only is the "sky" 12.7 million times more area than the Ultra Deep Field of 10,000 galaxies but there is the fairly well recognized notion that the Universe is ever expanding! http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dp29hu.html

Then what does this mean to our one little teeny life existence relative to the entire ever expanding 10,000 X 12.7 millions, etc, etc, etc, etc infinity of galaxies?!

What is the  meaning of our human life time here on planet Earth?

“Plato says that the unexamined life is not worth living. But what if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well?”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons

Now, I fancy myself a bit of a visionary explorer. For example, I spent some time with a fascinating physicist in Italy, F. David Peat, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._David_Peat, during which time we discussed many things, including David Bohm's last theory, which was never reviewed in the circle of most prominence. 

Actual profound words in this moment  from F. David Peat: "Oh, my dog just took a crap."

 

 

 I spent two weeks with him in Pari, Italy, talking about the community that he was trying to build, the people who have come to visit him there, where consciousness comes from, the possibility of me building and pouring a sweat lodge based on Native American tradition, and other diverse topics. It was a beautiful experience and one of many over the years since I have been actively asking these "big" questions and searching for the answers. I have been willing to go into the deepest realms of Mystery in order to explore, examine, ask, and receive.

One magical night, my friends Kasia and Claire and I were in one of our favorite deep mystery spots on Nantucket; the artists run gallery called X-Gallery and also known as Orange Street Gallery. Claire had just learned a hypnosis style meditation in which we could follow the journey she was describing and find the meaning of our lives. Investigating mysteries with Kasia and Claire is one of my greatest joys, as well as a necessary grounding friendship connection that keeps me tethered to the here and now. Finding out the meaning of my life? With these two friends? During a magical Nantucket evening? In the artists run art gallery? Easy and enthusiastic answer! YES! LET'S DO IT!

“As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that. … That is why people are always searching for a meaning to life… Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning. Life only makes sense when you perceive it as mystery and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind.”
― Anthony de Mello

We were in the gallery, lying around on the old wooden floors. Claire began. I could barely slow my images down enough to hear the next suggestion out of her mouth. I was sure, absolutely sure, that in the company of these two women, who I trust beyond reason, that I would find the answer to the meaning of my life. I saw myself walking down the stairs, just as Claire directed. The journey was vivid and all my senses were engaged. She offered that on one flat landing we would find something. I did. I found a refrigerator. There on my first landing was a white, old fashioned refrigerator. She then told us that we had to carry that object that we saw with us down to the next level. I was a bit frustrated with both the dullness factor of this object and the effort it required to lug it down more levels of stairs and landings.

She talked us through different levels of this descending stairway with me, all the while, carrying this humungous refrigerator on my back. 

Finally her gentle Irish voice took us to the ground floor of this visual quest for the meaning of our life. She spoke words that I can only equate as a sort of drum roll leading up to the very last significant suggestion.
There, on that level, we would find the most important and last piece of the puzzle. See this object, relate it to the first object and the journey, and, TADAAAHHHH! The meaning of life answered!

Wait for it.........

Yes, that is correct. THE LAST OBJECT, which signified a substantial bit of MY MEANING OF LIFE WAS A TOILET!

After the complete aggravation wore off, I asked the objects of my journey what they were there to tell me about the meaning of life. The toilet word was excretion, and the refrigerator word was nourishment. I tracked it even further into the most simplest form.

The meaning of life was so basic that I was both relieved and disappointed.

To take in and to release out. That was it. All that hootin' and hollerin'. All the books, the talks, the deep thinking, the Star Trek episodes...all of it, just for show. I didn't need Bohr or Einstein, Ayn Rand or Alice Ambrose. All I needed was the very simple truth of taking in and letting out. That is the meaning of life...the simple perfect movement of what comes in to me and my life and what moves out of me and my life. 

“The Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything is...42!”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

May Today be a First Day to Begin to keep things simple. To search with zest, friendship, and love, into the mysteries not looking for the answers but rather to taste the experience and release the experience. 

May today be a First Day to Begin to smile while we embrace the 10,000 x 12.7 million more areas of galaxies of which we are a minute and simultaneously a precious, powerful, and significant part of...