The last time we discussed the meaning of life, it was born of action. Being is verbing, and verbing is doing. What you’re doing is your purpose. So we want to make our purpose mean something, right? In my example I said that if one consciously decided to make a sandwich, his purpose in that moment then is to make a sandwich. But we’re not just talking about the little in between moments (like eating, sleeping, driving to work everyday), are we?

When I say “The Meaning of Life,” it sounds like a profound idea. So lets discuss Life on a macro scale. What’s the meaning of life overall, from birth to death? Why are we here? I want to address this by again looking at the micro-perspective. Instead of making a sandwich, let’s say I am studying for school. My books are open on my desk, Mozart is softly playing in the background, and I’m reading voraciously while taking notes. I got it goin’ on. I am so wrapped up in the process that I don’t even notice that three hours have passed since I’ve looked up from the pages. I’ve become immersed in my actions. In so doing, I have not simply been whiling away and burning the midnight oil—something special has been happening. I’ve been enraptured. My study has become empowered by my focused attention, so much so that I begin to blur with the act of study itself. Where do I end and the study begin, so to speak? There is no fine definition between the two anymore. I am the study. Or, I am studying. This personal identification with the study reveals itself when it is alive inside of me and I also move in it. The study has become me. This is the Rapture. This is Oneness.

When something lives on in us, and we live on in something, we are One, in this case One with study. Attaining Oneness isn’t that difficult. It happens anytime we lose yourselves in activity. It probably happens on a daily basis. We live for that, be our union with the good or the bad.

Unfortunately, many lose themselves in the dull or unsavory aspects of life: mind-numbing television, substance abuse, sex/porn addiction, racism, materialism, etc. Choosing to fall into Oneness with these passions (and certainly more) are self-forming habits of addiction, hatred, desire, escape, fear, insecurity, self-doubt, etc. If one loses themselves in TV, they’re finding rapture in apathy. They become what they do. In this case, they become a zombie.

So in short, we fuse with our actions, and become them. This is our meaning in life, our life’s purpose. The meaning of your life, in particular, is significant because you can choose what that meaning is, and what your life means, and what it stands for. The moral of the story? Don’t lead a meaningless life.

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