The question of the meaning of life – answers from the depths of your soul
10 min reading time | published on: 20.08.2024
Many people in today’s affluent society feel tormented by the inner search for the meaning of life. This often fruitless search for meaning can lead to depression, personal crises and disorientation, leaving us with a taste of hopelessness.
We increasingly see a world full of violence, chaos and unpredictable upheaval through a variety of information channels and ask ourselves about the meaning of these unmanageable events and our place in them.
and our place in it.
As long as we are primarily concerned with our material survival, the question of the meaning of life fades into the background. However, surveys show that the unhappiest people often live in societies that are doing very well economically. When we have achieved everything material and are outwardly full and content, we increasingly begin to hear a quiet voice within us asking: What is the point of it all?
Finding the meaning of life?
If we ask ourselves this question and take a closer look at the attitude in which we ask it, we often find a hidden expectation or consumer attitude. It seems to us that life must present us with a meaning that we like, that gives us confidence, motivation and the possibility of self-realization. At the same time, we claim the right to deny it meaning in moments or situations in which something happens that we don’t understand, that frightens us, hurts us or makes us feel powerless. We place conditions on life – and thus lose the knowledge of its meaningfulness.
Perhaps it is not the “task” of life to reveal its deeper meaning to us, but rather our own inner mission to ask ourselves what we really want. What is our deepest desire for this – limited and given – time of life?
The Birth of the Lion
from OM C. Parkin
In his introductory autobiography “The Birth of the Lion” OM C. Parkin shares an extraordinary account of awakening to REALITY after a harrowing experience of near death and his subsequent meeting of his last teacher Gangaji. Combined with questions and answers taken from public gatherings called “Dialogs of Self-inquiry” (Darshan) OM C. Parkin confronts the reader directly with the essential question: Who is the “I” to which we relate our happiness and unhappiness, our past, present, and future?
The pull of unfulfilled wishes
This deep desire is not easy to uncover within us. Many unfulfilled desires emerge when we ask ourselves about our true will. The promise that we would be happy or happier if this or that wish were fulfilled is great and attractive. First of all, we give our attention to the process of wish fulfillment and “have to” experience that the quiet voice asking about the deeper meaning of life does not fall silent just because we have a new relationship, success in our career, an exciting trip abroad or more money. It takes our readiness for disappointment and disillusionment to awaken our interest in the deeper levels of our being and the existence of God.
The unconscious suffering that is hidden in the search for wish fulfillment is exposed and can become a moment of conscious suffering. We can admit to ourselves that we are suffering, that we are missing something, that a deep need for meaning, for truth and love has not been satisfied. Although the failure of our efforts to find happiness and meaning is the end of our striving, it does not have to lead to resignation. Failure is an important threshold into deepening, into letting go – something we cannot do, but can only allow. And this can give rise to the question:
Who am I?
Self-exploration leads to self-knowledge
“The God-given task of every human being is to know who he is. “*
The knowledge of our true self is not a subject of natural science, even if it can prepare the ground in its accuracy, repeatability and precision. We need a knowledge of inner science and a willingness to open ourselves up to objective exploration. Neither what we feel nor what we think alone can be the yardstick for our self-exploration. All of this is given appropriate space and serves to determine our position. But deeper than our subjective view, we touch knowledge that goes beyond our personal feelings and can be confirmed by other inner researchers.
The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates (469 to 399 BC) was a master of penetrating, in-depth questioning and laid the foundations for the nature of inner science in the Western hemisphere. Above all, the method of maieutics, which he brought to life: Midwifery, was even then a form of philosophical dialog that nourished an open-ended process of self-knowledge.
In popular thought, the concept of spirituality is often associated with the idea of diffuse perceptions, which a rational person would at best ridicule. That true spirituality is an inner science that is bundled in the one question: Who am I?” is information that we can approach. Only the “whole person” can devote themselves to this question and pursue it in contemplation and with a clear mind, an open heart and an inhabited body. The higher self and the lower self must unite in us so that we are capable of cognition.
The Birth of the Lion
from OM C. Parkin
In his introductory autobiography “The Birth of the Lion” OM C. Parkin shares an extraordinary account of awakening to REALITY after a harrowing experience of near death and his subsequent meeting of his last teacher Gangaji. Combined with questions and answers taken from public gatherings called “Dialogs of Self-inquiry” (Darshan) OM C. Parkin confronts the reader directly with the essential question: Who is the “I” to which we relate our happiness and unhappiness, our past, present, and future?
This life is an “emergency”
“Well, what is it that you really want? There must be an awareness within you that you want to be free, otherwise you would not be here. If this desire was clouded by limiting self-images in the past, use the darshan of this moment to give everything to this desire. All the awareness that is available to you at this moment. The only purpose of life is to awaken and realize who you are. You become aware of this essentiality, this urgency. This life is an “emergency”.
The fact that we experience it as urgent to turn to the question of our true nature is the result of a maturing process. The true knowledge of ourselves is not the product of accumulating, acquiring and archiving wisdom, but crystallizes in the moments of loss of our known world. What then remains? Who am I when I lose – even if only for a moment – what I thought I was? We can begin to fall into these inner voids, give them meaning and value, so that self-knowledge can unfold as an answer to our urgent question.
References in the text:
*OM C. Parkin, Schmetterlingsflügel und Löwenpranke (German)
** OM C. Parkin, Auge in Auge mit dir selbst – Gespräche im Sein (German)