Sense Of Meaning example essay topic

"If a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, then he hasn't got a reason to live". These were famous words of the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., spoken June 23, 1963 in Detroit, Michigan. Why do so many people fear death, fight for their country, defend their honor, seek love, stand up for their principles, go on living in the face of adversity, or believe in God? Each of these things involves living beyond the immediate moment, and all of them have at least one thing in common, and that is a sense of meaning. These are examples of big meaning, but in fact every conscious event has significance, no matter how small, fleeting, or trivial the event might be. Even if we can someday explain all behavior in terms of biological evolution, brain chemistry, and social theory, there will still be meaning in the world.

Why, because meaning is a phenomenon of mind. So long as there is at least one brain having an experience of meaningfulness in the universe, there is sense in the universe. Meaning is not a condition imposed upon consciousness from some outside source. It is, rather, inherent in the nature of consciousness itself, just as is the potential for experiencing a sense of being one's self. Different meanings may be found in different things, but ultimately there is but one meaning at the root of all things, and this significance is a singular state of mind held in common by all conscious life.

Entire books have been written about the nature of this state of mind called "meaning", but this is the focus one aspect of this deep and subtle mode of consciousness, namely, it's tendency to permeate and transform every mental state. Meaning in one way or another colors every mental state, because it is the foundation of every conscious level. We don't always focus specifically on the sense of import in every experience, but it is precisely this sense of meaning, whether conscious or unconscious, that turns each and every experience into a conscious experience in the first place. Thus, no conscious experience is a completely meaningless experience, because without some level of meaning the event cannot be experienced as "conscious" at all. Numerous metaphors can be used, the fact that meaning may be thought of as the seed from which each and every conscious experience grows, or meaning is the spark that ignites the flame of consciousness. It is these metaphors that fulfill the theory that life without purpose is not life at all.

We can draw upon these metaphors and begin to grasp this property. A sunflower, for example, is literally made of the things in its environment. Soil, water, air, and energy from the sun come together, through the organizing capacity of the seed, to create an entirely new entity, which has a life of its own, and yet remains intimately connected with the environment from which it arose. The seed allows the world around it to express its total nature in interesting new ways through the substance and functions of the growing plant.

Similarly, a spark allows the substance and energy of a combustible environment to completely rearrange itself. The whole is transformed and expressed in the nature of the part. The whole was "combustible" in its very essence, but it took a spark to bring the meaning of combustibility out in manifest form. The spark does this by connecting the parts in a way that they were not previously connected.

The essence of meaning is the capacity to create transformation through connection. Without an understanding of purpose, the world is fundamentally chaotic. Without a seed, the soil, air, water, and sunshine essentially loiter around, doing nothing of particular interest. Their potential to take on the fundamentally new form of a sunflower remains unexpressed. Without a spark, a cloud of gas is just a cloud of gas.

Reason allows the raw materials to combine in interesting new ways, making refined, strengthened products. Some may say that it is possible to just "live life", and to never worry of the stumble or strife involved with finding your true meaning. But that in itself is finding meaning for living; to live life at it's fullest. Also, it is even quite possible to search for the deeper meaning while just living for today, because today is the best place to find that very meaning.

Let's summarize by saying this, there is only one "I" in the universe. This universal "I" is one-and-same to that which you identify as you as an individual, when you introspect upon your own existence, although from the perspective of your individual, you are unaware of the universality of your own being. It is to be understood that when I say that there is only one "I" in the universe, I am implying that there is some significant sense in which the matter of which I am composed is identical to the matter of which you are composed. Since our own being is driven by the search for purpose, it is this, the search for the meaning within meaning, which drives all of us. If you haven't got meaning in your life, then you haven't a reason to live at all.