Can you imagine if there was a meaning class in school?
I mean, out of all the things that students are required to learn as part of their education,
what if there was a class that actually was about why you should be learning what you're
learning in school, that can maybe answer the question of why should you continue in
school?
Why should you do these things that you're expected to do?
But of course, we don't see that, and it seems like those answers are not readily available.
I mean, we're told the idea is you go to school, and it helps you to get a job.
Getting a job helps you to get money, so that you can support yourself.
So that's really the main function that is explained to us as, you know, this is why
you should participate and do these things.
Okay, it will help you to make money so that you can survive.
So of course, this economic level, this is really at the survival level.
It's at a very basic, almost like an animal level.
It's like you have to take care of your survival needs, your animal needs, and so this is why
you should do what's expected of you and learn to do the right things, so that you can then
get a job and make money.
So that's the most basic level to give as a reason, as a meaning why we do things.
And then, on top of that, the usual meaning, the main meaning that is given for why we
should do anything is to be happy.
Let's live happy lives.
Let us live good lives.
And that sounds like a good thing, living a good life.
I like the idea of live a good life.
I want to live a good life.
I know that I'm alive now, and this is a special thing, this chance to be alive, so I want
to live a good life.
But the term "happy", let's, you know, live to be happy, that seems to be very limited
in what it can offer for us.
Because if we're really just following happiness, it's just chasing pleasures, it's momentary,
it's fleeting, chasing after a feeling that's always ebbing away.
And certainly, if happiness is the reason why we should work hard and be successful,
you know, as a young person, you think, well, I can be happy in lots of ways without working
hard and being successful.
Why should I be following this program?
Now, the way I presented all this, you know, it is kind of at a pretty low level.
I mean, this stuff can be presented in a much stronger way, to say, you know, this is why
we should do these things.
And there's the most basic thing of just that we know people.
It's it's the personal connections.
We know people, and they encourage us to do things that they believe will help us become
successful in the way that they define it, and help us to define what it means.
So we follow this pattern.
But ultimately, there is no foundation.
There's no answer.
In the society we have, in our culture, in our system, there is no answer for what gives
our lives meaning.
Even the idea of questioning the meaning of life is almost a joke.
It's like, oh, what's the meaning of life?
That's the never-ending and impossible question that doesn't seem to get a lot of attention.
So all this is to say, if we're looking for meaning in life, it's not going to be found
in the culture, society, and system that has an expected program, this sort of imaginary
path of life, an imaginary idea of what life is about.
Simply doing those things, like getting a job, building a career, building a family,
those are fine things, but they still don't ultimately get to the ultimate point.
They can be part of a complete life, but they don't in themselves answer the question of
what is the meaning, what is the thing, beyond everything else.
What is the thing that keeps me working hard?
What is it that I'm working for?
What is it that makes it all meaningful?
For that, we have no readymade answer, and we have to find some other way.
There has to be something beyond.
Even if the answer is a very simple and basic thing.
It doesn't have to be some grand thing.
It can be a very simple thing.
And yet, it is still something that, I believe, we each have to find for ourselves.