What is the Meaning of Life? (Answered)

My Mystical Path, Part 4

One summer while I was a child, my dad, mom, and I went on vacation to Florida and visited family. While my parents talked with others in another room, I sat in front of the television and watched an episode of a very strange series. 

In this particular episode, some people waited for a machine to give them an answer to a very important question. Finally, the time had come. And the answer to the question was…

“42”. 

There is a high probability that you know exactly what series I'm talking about.

Yes, it was Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Today, if anyone around me asks, “What is the meaning of life?”, someone inevitably responds with, “42”. You may have even done this yourself. I know I have. 

Today, I may change your answer to that question from this point on. And, strangely enough, I’m going to expand upon “42”.

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The point of mysticism

From what I can tell, the ultimate point of mysticism is to more fully manifest the Divine in the here and now. Sure there are fun mystical experiences along the way, but those are not really the point. It's not about having experiences that make us feel special. It's quite the opposite. To use Christian language, it's about dying to self and rising in Christ. It's about becoming the hands and feet of God in this world. 

In Christianity, we proclaim that God is love. Love always orients toward the well-being of the other. Love puts the other before itself. Love seeks, above all things, the flourishing of life. I think we can safely say, the purpose of love is Life. 

If God is Love, and the purpose of love is Life, so too is the nature and purpose of the mystical path. 

What is life?

When we think of “life”, we tend to default to biological definitions. I am alive, but that rock over there is not. When we think of whether there is life in the universe beyond Earth, we use biological criteria. A few years back, they discovered bacteria on Mars, so they said they found life on Mars. 

This biological component of life is extremely important. But that is not what I'm going to talk about today when I talk about “life”. Instead, I’m going to talk about “your life” and “my life”. 

In other words, I’m talking about life as a lived experience. When you think about it, this is usually what people are most concerned about. Think about all the things people say about their lives. 

• Life is hard

• Life is grand

• Life is full of surprises 

None of those descriptors refer to biology. They all refer to lived experience.

A challenge

I want you to think back in time and recall a particular event in your life. Bring to mind something (anything) that happened to you that you didn't give at least a little bit of your attention to. 

Can’t do it, can you?

You see, in order to have a memory, you must first give an event your attention. That's where the memory comes from, the allocation of attention. No matter how hard you try to come up with a memory of something to which you gave zero attention, it is impossible. 

Your personal experience of your life is the result of the way you have allocated your attention. In fact, your recollection of your story is so entwined with your attention that you can actually say…

Your attention IS your life.