Verified by 
Spirituality
The Meaning of Life
Is there a universal answer?
Posted April 3, 2020 Reviewed by Ekua Hagan
Sooner or later, we must face the question of life’s meaning. When we are young, we may not devote much thought to death, which seems a distant, almost unreal event. Eventually, we become increasingly aware of our finite being, leading us to face the quintessential question.
There are many ways we consider meaningful living, e.g., a focus on family, spirituality, art, science, education, entertainment, etc. On the other hand, one may question everything in the face of certain decline and death. Leo Tolstoy had published War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and enjoyed a loving family, wealth, and fame when he turned 50. He achieved anything he could have hoped for and yet, he fell into a deep depression. In A Confession, he wrote:
“Today or tomorrow sickness and death will come (they had come already) to those I love or to me; nothing will remain but stench and worms. Sooner or later my affairs, whatever they may be, will be forgotten, and I shall not exist. Then why go on making any effort? ... How can man fail to see this? And how go on living? That is what is surprising! One can only live while one is intoxicated with life; as soon as one is sober it is impossible not to see that it is all a mere fraud and a stupid fraud! That is precisely what it is: There is nothing either amusing or witty about it, it is simply cruel and stupid.”
In his despair, Tolstoy examined the way others dealt with the question of life’s meaning. While at first, he had little regard for what he described as the ignorance of the “masses,” he eventually discovered that they had something—which he did not—to cope with all questions and suffering in life: faith. More specifically, they had faith in something larger than life, possibly beyond our comprehension. Such faith often is directed at god or a perception of some greater power. By trusting in god, people find comfort that their existence has purpose and destination.
Tolstoy, however, viewed the concept of god as irrational and therefore as unacceptable, given reason was central to his worldview. Yet, he felt trapped in the loop of rationalism having no answer to the purpose of life while being incapable of deriving comfort from a logic-defying concept. To him, the rational consequence of the “cruelty of life” was suicide. Only, he did not have the strength to do it—which depressed him even more.
Eventually, Tolstoy recognized his own logical flaw: We cannot understand the nature of something when we are confined to tools of the very same system. In other words, our mind, bound by the concept of life, cannot obtain a perception outside of life. We may speculate but we cannot know.
Consequently, we may either reject life or we can find a way to reconcile with the fact that we won’t understand its purpose using the tool that otherwise serves us well navigating life, i.e., rationality. Tolstoy understood the irony that our mind, a product of life, has evolved to a stage where it questions its own existence. But he also observed that the same mind worked well for most other humans in providing answers to the meaning of life. The mind is both the problem and the solution.
Once we accept that our mind cannot answer the question about the purpose of life (i.e., all life), the next question must be how we approach our own existence. This question is easier to address because we can retreat to our familiar confinements: the principles of life.
As a product of life, our purpose within life is closely aligned with its general rule: Life must continue. Life, as science has taught us, is cleverly arranged to endure under all circumstances. Among the various partitions of lifeforms, which we arbitrarily define, we observe all of them doing the same: striving to survive. All purpose of life is to produce more life. While most life takes other life for it to sustain, it happens for the good of all life. Whenever a species becomes too dominant over other lifeforms, life finds ways to restore the balance. Balance is a central aspect of life.
Humans cannot live without other life. Our purpose is all the same: to sustain life. Evolution is geared to this goal and, therefore is our biology. Life rewards us for embracing life and punishes us for rejecting it. It fosters our care for other life by flooding our brain with pleasing hormones.
Using functional MRI imaging and blood sample analysis, we can now directly observe the gratifying impact of love on our brain. Conversely, our brain may, transiently, reward us for self-directed actions, including the pursuit of dominance and aggression. Life needs individual life to continue for the purpose of all life. However, logical to the principles of life, the interest of the species (or, by extension, all life) supersedes the individual’s affairs. Accordingly, activities geared towards sustaining life, e.g., love, yield more sustained release of pleasing blood hormones than self-directed actions. The latter typically leads to remorse and anxiety—consciously or subconsciously. Spirituality, across various religions and teachings, prompts us to be altruistic—as a result of the understanding and experience that selflessness leads to a happier existence.
There is growing evidence that humans have not just been evolutionary successful because of their ability to adapt to their environment, but also because they build strong social bonds and, despite conflicts and wars, display a remarkable solidarity across groups and cultures, particularly in times of crises. Deeply rooted in us, there is the understanding that everyone’s life is precious and must be protected—for the sake of the continuity of all lives. Deeply rooted in us is the love for any life. Love, as the urge and continuous effort for the well-being of somebody or something, is at the core of our drive for continuity. Our passion not just for people but for animals, plants—all life—is expressed in many human activities, e.g., the art and sciences, but also in our hobbies and interests, which include various aspects of life. Intuitively, we understand that we must care and protect life—so it can continue. Self-directed impulses compete with our drive to love but, despite examples of tremendous abuse of human and other life, the overall trajectory of the human species is that of alignment with (rather than rejection of) life.
We cannot explain life’s purpose, but we also cannot escape our roots in life—our biology. We are bound to value life and, therefore, concepts of embracing life comfort us. We must have faith that life is good and that it needs to continue.
The concept of spirituality is strongly associated with such faith. Many religions directly address the issue of death and provide solutions for us, e.g., another life in heaven or life in a different form after death. However, our faith in life does not have to be linked to spirituality. The concept of life’s continuity can also be found in our focus on family, art, science, and even fame and power. We thrive on the idea that our physical or intellectual creations live on after we pass away. We find comfort in seeing our children growing up, knowing they carry on part of us, and so will their children.
As Tolstoy noted, our faith in the continuity of life is essential and it is powerful. Humans are willing to give their own lives for such faith. Wars don’t occur because of hatred but rather out of belief in a larger cause. Though usually based on deception, it allows soldiers to share their faith in a common goal. Humans’ willingness to die for an idea is an astonishing expression of such faith—given that we fear nothing more than death. People put their lives on the line every day to protect the lives of others—currently widely evident through the work of emergency personnel and healthcare workers caring for patients infected with the coronavirus. We do this because of our belief in serving a greater purpose—the continuation of life.
The beauty of life is that it continues—for all of us. Our bodies may disintegrate but their molecules remain and will be the building blocks for new life, and so on. Some may receive comfort from this particular concept. Others find ease in different ideas of life’s continuity. The good news is that there are many choices and most of us find appreciation for life, in one form or another. Tolstoy recovered his passion for life and lived another 30 years.
Is there a common answer to the question of life’s meaning? Yes and no. We cannot know the purpose of all life, but we can find meaning in our own existence as part of the larger construct of life. There are many ways to find meaning and contentment—they all have a common characteristic: the notion to value life—because that’s what life wants us to do.
