meaning versus meaninglessness

The use of a concept of what it means to say "God" has been the easiest method for letting oneself be moved away from egoism and towards humility for perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. Why? Because it puts wisdom into accepting life on life's terms. That is not to say that accepting life on life's terms is not a wise decision to make in its own right, but using that feeling within us that there seems to be more going on with this business of living than we can yet fully understand, and thereby falling in with most of our fellow human beings and adopting a God concept which makes sense to us (whether actual to the normal use of the term reality or not) most assuredly makes acceptance an easier pill to learn to swallow. The key is in that spiritual term, Thy will, not my will, be done.

In that term, we spot an attitude towards living that can never really fail us, whether there actually is ultimate meaning to existence or absolutely no meaning at all. One may view it as the 'maybe' proposition. That is, maybe there is ultimate meaning to it all, even though it's becoming ever more difficult to believe so . . . because surely the unknown is still not a void. So the question is worth raising, if there is ultimate meaning to my existence, is there any advantage in making use of that meaning in order to learn how to be a happier human being while I'm alive? Thy will not mine be done is the affirmative answer to that question. If we keep in mind that our design is to want to be happy, joyous and free, and our present task is to learn how to accomplish that objective, then we can see that it would be easier to surrender up our 'right to be miserable' to a loving Higher Power than simply to the empire of fate even if the actual existence of that loving Higher Power remains an unanswered question as to its reality. We aren't talking religion here. We need not be willing to enter into all the dogma and promises of tents full of virgins or streets paved with gold being readied for us after death in order to reorder our thinking to that of the agnostic. And once willing to do so, we then can make use of the possibility of their being ultimate meaning to "The Big Bang" rather than absolute pointlessness. The base for our reasoning can then be, "It is wisdom to make use of any reasonable way of viewing my existence so long as that way promises a better chance of attaining the singular goal of life for which I am designed to desire"

So long as we maintain a working relationship with that base, we will be ready and willing to deal with the humbling truths that beset us on a daily basis. And perhaps the most basic of those truths is this. No human being, regardless of social status, degree of wealth, and/or degree of power over others, gets her/his way more than fifty percent of the time. In fact, those of us with inflated egos (i. e. those of us who wallow in our great sense of specialness and separation from the masses) are so filled with ego-neediness that it is likely we don't get our way even twenty-five percent of the time. We really need to see the truth in this thinking. If we tie our feeling really good inside to the necessity of our getting our way, we simply will never learn how to feel good inside more than half the time . . . and probably a lot less of the time than that. See it for yourself. Meditate upon the truth of it. For in that way, you will begin to see the importance of accepting life on life's terms as a way of living, rather than it being some suggestion you can't possibly accomplish.

Admittedly the forgoing argument and idealogy stems from the original beginnings and purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous. The beginnings were tied to a Christian group who were trying to help alcoholics and had devised a program which was having some success. When one of the two founders of AA (Bill Wilson) could not believe what he was asked to believe in order for the program to work for him, an (at that time) successful member of their program had the open-mindedness to suggest to Bill, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God." From that open-minded question from a practicing Christian was born the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. In Akron, Ohio, one of the two founders of AA routinely was reading the Holy Bible at AA meetings. Back in New York City, Bill W. was busy earnestly pointing out that simply by making use of whatever concept of God made sense to you, you could use that concept successfully in order to gain freedom from your addiction, one day at a time.

the point was that the shoe was on the other foot from religious teachings. For these first AA members, it was not a matter of God needing them to believe anything they couldn't believe, it was a matter of them needing God if they wanted a better chance of getting and staying sober. One of the simplest ideas which was put out was said like this: "If you can't believe in God right now, fake it 'till you make it." With the discovery that that advice worked just fine, the fellowship began to grow. Today there are literally millions of sober members around the world. When a friend of mine went to a meeting while stationed to temporary additional duty in Japan, one if the members walked up to him and said, "This program is the first thing you Americans have ever exported to us that works the way you said it would; all we do is change the word God to Good and it works for us just as it works for you."

Is that cool, or what? Love and Blessings - Chuck