“One, seven, three, five
The truth you search for cannot be grasped.
As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean;
The dragon’s jewels are found in every wave.
Looking for the moon, it is here, in this wave, in the next.”
Meaning in life is a product of my internal workings. It is not anything external, otherworldly, metaphysical. It is mysterious in the sense of surprise and wonder and not in the sense of anything supernatural. Meaning is made of meat! It is a feeling originating in my brain. Meaning is wonder. Wonder is meaning. This, for some, leads to fatalism. With the realization that meaning is derived from genes, and neural chemistry and the mental processes outside our conscious awareness then they ask ‘Why get up in the morning and do anything, things are already decided?” I find this line of thought foreign. A foreign question. Even though this thing called ‘I’ that “gets up and does things" has a small connection with my mental processes, it is the part of life I live with and share. It is my connection with experience. Knowing that meaning is a feeling produced by the brain via the wonder of neural connectivity and chemistry is freeing. It is a surprise, a wonder, a joy.
There lies the meaning of life. We don’t have to spend any more time looking. In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything", calculated by an enormous supercomputer named Deep Thought took over 7.5 million years to arrive at. We can get the answer in an instant. This is sooo comforting.
Try, try, try.