Dear True Self,
Does it matter what we do in life? We have free will and can choose whatever we want, but it all feels so pointless. Life doesn’t seem to have any real meaning at all!
Sincerely,
Existential Crisis
Dear EC,
You are right actually. There is no meaning.
Not the answer you were expecting, huh?
I want you to understand that this isn’t about being nihilistic. This also isn’t about being realistic to a fault either. It is just about what is true and what is not true.
Meaning is not something that exists on it’s own. It is a human invention. Your meaning is something you create. It doesn’t exist independent of you, and when you die, it dies with you.
In many ways, this means life itself is pointless. But that’s a limited viewpoint. It’s not about having a point or not having a point. Life just is, whether you give it a point or not. It is here, a gift. What you make of it is your freedom, your privilege.
Life does have consequence however. Every action has an effect. This is the most fundamental law of existence. Every thought, every word, every act you perform, all of it ripples out from you affecting everything around you.
Think of it like ripples in a pond. Your existence itself is a constant ripple, effecting this great ocean of existence. It is felt all over.
If you could experience the depth of the effect you have, the depth of the effect life is having on you right now, even for one brief moment – well that would be enough to show you that life is your making, and that is no small thing.
But at the same time, for how powerful of an effect you have, you are also insignificant. In the grand scheme of the cosmos, what you do on this small little speck in this solar system matters very little.
This is how life is – so important yet so insignificant. Importance and insignificance are just two complementary halves, inseparable. That is how your life is too.
You see, nothing truly matters that you do, because life will always go on. But at the same time everything matters. Why? Because it is your life!
Everything that comes into your experience is your life, isn’t it? If something isn’t in your experience, it doesn’t exist for you. If it doesn’t exist for you, it obviously doesn’t matter to you.
Conversely, everything that happens in your life does matter! Forget the grand scale of things for a moment. What happens to you matters to you. To tell yourself otherwise is a psychological lie, a stupid game. If I suddenly start whipping you, trust me, it will matter to you.
So every moment of your life matters to you. Please remember: everyone and everything else in this universe feels the same way. I don’t just mean the people either. I mean every atom in existence.
If you can remember this one thing, that everyone else feels the same way you do, that what happens to them matters, then you will see that we are all equal, in this together. It will be impossible to deny your compassion.
Understanding all this, you must see the two dimensions of life – inward and outward.
The outward, or what you do, is really arbitrary. It doesn’t truly matter. There are no laws in the universe that state you must do good, be kind, etc. No judge is weighing cosmic scales. You are free to act however you want, always.
But an intelligent person will understand that every outward action they take reverberates inward as well. Someone who knows this will not waste time being unpleasant to anything in existence, because they are not stupid enough to hurt themselves. Only stupid people use their free will to make things more difficult for others.
To sum it up: Life is meaningless. But it matters to you. It doesn’t matter what you do, only how you are when you do it. If you are wise, you will leave this world better than you found it, and everyone in it who has encountered you better off for having met you.
Your choice.
With gratitude,
Your True Self
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Dear True Self 