Meaning of Life

by Gregory Allen Butler

Meaning of life is everything. Without it, there would be no purpose in being alive. When I look back on the course of my life I see that it was my perception of meaning that shaped everything that I did--whether is was becoming a musician, a writer, a photographer, having a family, traveling to India on a spiritual pilgrimage, or starting this website.

The motivation, in every instance, came from meaning. The meaning of life has evolved for me over the years, a deepening from the outer world to the inner world. As I discovered more inner meaning, my outer life became more ordered and with more purpose. And as my outer life became more ordered and with more purpose, my perception became more expansive which resulted in an expansiveness of inner meaning. The inner feeds the outer and vice versa. It's a continuous loop.

Meaning of life supplies the energy to manifest intentions. And if the meaning is one that is conducive to life, then there will be, without fail, an expansiveness experienced. If a woman discovers that the meaning of life is being in charge of her own destiny, then she will have all the motivation needed to start a new business, or discover a new mode of life that will provide independence.

The forces set in motion by the unfoldment of the new meaning cannot fail to hit the intended mark. No opposition can be too much. The intention is already a reality even if it is not already manifested. The seed is planted and the tree will grow. No sacrifice will be too great in pursuit of that quest. As St.Theresa was fond of saying, "All the way to heaven is heaven." Purposeful life is driven by motivation; motivation is born from meaning. The meaning of life supplies the energy that motivates. That becomes power.

So what is your meaning of life? Is it something enduring or is it more transitory? If your meaning of life is getting your kids through college, what happens after they are through with college? Does your life become meaningless? It's an importnat question that shapes everythihng we do.

Yesterday my wife Maggie was in line to get a bite to eat at a restaurant where you order your food before you sit down. The people in front of her were placing a large order and it was taking more time than usual. As the line grew longer, a cashier opened up another line. The women behind her (a woman Maggie even held the door open for) jumped up to the new cash register quicker than Maggie was able to. No one else behind Maggie moved to the new line. Maggie said, I was here first," not that it was that important, but because she didn't want to allow someone to walk all over her. The other woman said, "No, you were in that other line," totally ignoring the fact that she was too in that other line.

Today Maggie asked me how somebody could do such a thing. What came to my mind is that perhaps the primary meaning to the other woman was getting ahead in life, to be numero uno. Nothing else mattered. She hadn't developed the meaning of caring and selflessness. That meaning had not unfolded for her yet. It was simply a case of unconsciousness of respect.

Anyway, Maggie's story today had me looking at everybody I came across, wondering what their meaning of life was, if indeed they had one.

So how are you spending your time? Do you see the meaning behind it? Or is your only meaning of life the escape from meaninglessness? And what are you going to do if your life is meaningless? Do you try to find meaning or do you take a pill for depression and try to numb the pain while you live out your years remaining in life? That's a depressing thought, but a reality in the Western world at this time,

It seems to me that our culture is one of sleepwalkers following sleepwalkers. And every once in a while somebody wakes up and asks, "What is the meaning of life?" And with that question comes the awakening of meaninglessness and its pain.

This is a most relevant topic for holistic personal development because meaning, when discovered, encapsulates our total being. Every cell of our body, every thought of our mind, every action prompted by our energy, is all shaped by the meaning of life.

David Bohm, in his book, Unfolding Meaning, elaborates that "modern scientific studies indicate that such meanings are carried somatically by further physical, chemical and electrical processes into the brain and the rest of the nervous system where they are apprehended by ever higher intellectual and emotional levels of meaning." The levels of subtlety are endless. And it is all one.

To give you an example that clarifies how the body and the meaning are in effect one continuous process, imagine someone with a heart condition. When this person senses that his heart is beating too fast, which is a sign of danger, the stress of that danger causes the heart to beat faster still. This can lead to extremely harmful results.

On the other hand, the experience of hearing a piece of beautiful music can give the meaning of deep inner peace, which causes the heart and breathing to slow, allowing deeper modes of perception, which in turn lead to deeper experiences of inner peace. You can extend this to every aspect of life. In communication, if the meaning is deep, our motivation will manifest in a way that drives us to communicate even more deeply. In meditation, if the meaning is deep, we meditate even more intently. If self-esteem has meaning to a person, his motivation will drive him to give that his attention and energy, and his self-esteem will grow. You can apply this principle to physical health, leadership, spirituality, and education. The list goes on and on.

Not only is the body, brain and motivation influenced by meaning, but also, as David Bohm postulates, is the implicate order, our enfolded reality. That is, our blueprint of the future is modified-that which is not yet even manifested to our consciousness.

The implications are infinite, especially when you think how one person, usually an inspired person, can affect the meaning that thousands or millions might experience. And the result of those eventual by-products of meaning produce even further meaning.

The ultimate result is not only a deepening of our experience as human beings, but also the collective deepening of life on the planet--it's the motivation for the evolution of humanity.