'THE' Meaning of Life?

An excerpt from: Waking Up To Life! The Art and Skill of Awakened Attention by Aaron McNaught (Available soon!!!!!!)

"We can discover that there is greater meaning to be found in sheer presence than in the naive affirmations of existence that pose as hope." ~ Ngakpa Chogyam

The idea of the meaning of Life is a very interesting one. Human beings are not born with an innate knowing, and there is no guide provided.

When I am asked my opinion on the deceptive question "What is the meaning of Life?" I generally stumble and pause.

Do I bother sharing my true view based on my Life experiences, or do I shrug my shoulders? Do they really want to hear my view, or are they looking for someone to agree with them about it?

I will often opt for the sneaky way and turn it around with "I dunno, whatta you think?"

If I am genuinely being queried, I might suggest that the question is actually a veiled assumption that unfairly presupposes there necessarily is 'A' meaning to Life, which I do not accept.

We must back-up to get to my understanding, and the question "what is the meaning of Life?" will not get us there.

I stop short of even asking the question by declaring I find no inherent meaning in Life. If I look at my Life I find it intensely meaningful, dripping and saturated with meaning.

If I were to posit 'THE' meaning of Life, I would have to put forth my beliefs, but I have none.

It is my experience that when I gave up the idea that 'Life was inherently meaningful', three things happened.

First, a burden of responsibility was removed from Life, allowing Life to simply be what it is. What is the meaning of a sunset? Autumn? Sorrow? What is the meaning of this moment now?

The second thing that happened was a fruitless search was abandoned in favor of relaxing into Life as it is being expressed moment to moment, with out some hope for a future that THE meaning of Life would reveal itself to me. I have no hope to discover THE meaning of Life, which frees Life to be intensely meaning-full as it unfolds and appears.

Third and finally, when the search was allowed to end and Life was allowed to be, the one that was searching also relaxes and uncoils. It is seen that the activity of searching only serves to chase something that I believed is other than here and now. The activity of looking for meaning is discovered to serve only to move me away from Life as it is appearing.

When I relax sufficiently I experience an aliveness that is present, and that aliveness in nothing other than Life, alive AS the body/mind I call 'me'.

Life is alive as 'me'.
I am alive as an expression of Life.
I am alive AS Life

Being alive AS Life is meaningful enough in itself. There is no need to know THE meaning, as if there is one. Alive as Life, all thought or ideas of finding THE meaning of Life do not appear.

A search for THE meaning is caused by mental inquiry, while being alive AS Life is far beyond the mind in which such inquiries appear.