Monday, June 13, 9949

Existential Questions

Why am I here?”
“What is the meaning of life?”

These are egoic questions. The ego wants to feel important, and the only way it can do so is to believe that someone or something created it for some grand purpose, or that life itself must have meaning because otherwise existing would be “beneath” the ego. To think that it exists only by accident, or without any grand cosmic purpose, would be very deflating. Therefore the ego wants the Universe to provide it with something that will make life “worth living”.

The true self does not need such “justification” for existence. Each moment is perfectly adequate in and of itself. The very idea of meaning or purpose doesn’t even appear. Existence is its own reward.

The ego’s desire for meaning and purpose is the reason that religion exists. All the major religions have one thing in common: the idea that we are “going somewhere”, that we must perform certain actions or believe particular dogmas in order to achieve some goal (Heaven, enlightenment, nirvana). These belief systems appeal to people’s egos because the ego is always looking to attain rewards. The idea of merely enjoying one’s being right here and now is incomprehensible to the ego; only the true self can do that.

Once we find our true self, other existential questions also lose their importance. For example, “Are we spirit or matter?” The ego wants a story – a sequential synopsis of events to tell it where it came from and where it’s going – because it cannot exist in the Now. The true self simply is, and does not look outside the Now for answers, because there are no questions.