Probably the single most important question that humans have yet to be answered is what is the meaning of life?. Our life here on earth is the most valuable gift that has been given to us, and we are all in search of fulfilment and happiness. In our humanistic culture, people can sometimes lose sight of the meaning of life. Many pursue various goals in life, thinking that in them they will find meaning and purpose. Some of these pursuits include business success, wealth, good relationships, sex, entertainment, and doing good to others. People have testified that, while they achieved their goals of wealth, relationships, and pleasure, there was still a deep void inside, a feeling of emptiness that nothing seemed to fill. Many look back years in their later years in life and wonder why they feel so empty, even though they may have achieved what they set out to accomplish. For example, I once heard an athlete who had reached the pinnacle of his sport asked the question, what he wished someone would have told him when he first started playing his sport. He replied, “I wish that someone would have told me that when you reach the top, there’s nothing there.” Many goals reveal their emptiness only after years have been wasted in their pursuit.
The meaning of life can be simplified if you look at the life of Animals. Animal life (excluding that of humans) shows that life is a simple matter of just being, by means of a modest routine of eating, sleeping and reproducing. Animals balance their days between these necessities, doing only what their bodies ask of them. The life of vegetation is not far from that of animals. They eat and sleep and reproduce in their own way, for the same result. So life is a beautiful and naturally harmonious borrowing of energy and the meaning of life is simple.
Now there is a lot more to the question of what is the meaning of life. When you start considering peoples beliefs, cultures and religions, and the answer to the question starts to become more complex than it has to be.
We have taken life as we know it for granted. We have lost the power to simply be happy eating, sleeping, reproducing, believing we need a reason to be alive, a purpose and a goal to reach so that on our deathbeds (something we have been made to fear) we can look back and tell ourselves we have done something with our lives. Life has lost its purpose because we have tried to give it one. We tend to over philosophise the question and ultimately everyone will have a different purpose and meaning in life.
No matter what your race, religion or gender, when you first step outside your door in the morning and feel the fresh air in your lungs and the morning sun on your face, you close your eyes and smile. At that moment you are feeling life as it should be. No defining, no understanding, no thinking. Just that feeling of pure bliss. For that is what life is.