it's very commonly said that the root of most human unhappiness is the sense that one's life has no meaning this is i suppose most frequently said in circles interested in psychotherapy because the feeling of meaninglessness is often equated with the existence of neurosis and so many activities into which one is encouraged to enter philosophies one is encouraged to believe and religions one is encouraged to join are commended on them on the basis of the fact that they give life a meaning i think it's very fascinating to think out what this idea itself means or what
it is intended when it's said that life has to have a purpose [Music] well now it's pretty obvious i think that when we talk about life having or not having a meaning we're not using quite the ordinary sense of the word meaning as the attribute of a sign [Music] we're not saying are we that we expect this natural universe to behave as if it were a collection of words signifying something other than themselves it isn't the point of view which would reduce our lives in the world merely to the status of signs [Music] all that
is mortal or all that is perishable is but a symbol and so a symbol of what what do we want to feel what would satisfy us as being the meaning behind this world it's so often you know that we don't follow our ideas and our desires through most of the things that we want very fervently are things that we've only half glimpsed our ideals are very often suggestions hints and we don't know really exactly what we mean when we think about it [Music] but there is this obscure sense in which we feel that life ought
to have significance and be a symbol in at least that sense if not just so uh buried a symbol as a mere sign or it also may mean that life is meaningful an individual feels that his life amounts to something when he belongs and fits in with the execution of some uh group enterprise he feels he belongs in a plan and this too seems to give people a sense of great satisfaction but we have to pursue that question further too why is it that a plan why is it that uh fellowship with other people gives
the sense of meaning does it come down perhaps to another sense of meaning that life is felt to be meaningful when one is fully satisfying one's biological urges including the sense of hunger the sense of love the sense of uh self-expression in activity and so on but then again we have to push that inquiry further what do our biological urges really point towards are they just however things always projected towards a future his biology and its uh process is nothing but going on towards going on towards going on or there's a fourth and more theological
sense of the meaning of life [Music] in all theistic religions at any rate the meaning of life is god himself in other words all this world means a person it means a heart it means an intelligence and the relationship of love between god and man is the meaning of the world the sight of god is the glory of god and so on but again here there's something to be further pursued what is it that we want in love with a person and even a person in the sense of the lord god what is the content
of it what is it that we are really yearning after well now if we go back to the first point taking goethe's words that all that is transitory is but a symbol and that we want to feel that all things have significance it does seem to me that there's a sense in which we often use the word significance where the word seems to be chosen quite uh naturally and yet at the same time it's not quite the right word we say for example often of music that we feel it to be significant when just at
the same time we don't mean that it expresses some particular kind of concretely realizable emotion and certainly it's not imitating the noises of nature a program music you know would simply imitate something else and it deliberately sets out to express sadness or joy or whatever uh is not the kind of thing i mean so often when one listens to the beautiful arabesque character of uh the baroque composers bach or vivaldi it is felt to be significant not because it means something other than itself but because it is so satisfying as it is and we use
then this word significance so often in those moments when uh our impetuous seeking fulfillment cools down and we give ourselves a little space to watch things as if they were worth watching ordinary things and in those moments when our inner turmoil has really quietened we find significance in things that we wouldn't expect to find significant at all i mean this is after all the art of those photographers who have such genius in turning the camera towards such things as peeling paint on an old door or mud and sand and stones on a dirt road and
showing us there that if we look at it in a certain way those things are significant but we can't say significant of what so much as significant of themselves or perhaps the significance then is the quality of a state of mind in which we notice that we're overlooking the significance of the world by our constant quest for it later [Music] all this language is of course quite naturally vague and imprecise because i think the wrong word is used and yet not entirely the wrong word because as i said it comes so naturally to us that
in those moments the significance of the world seems to be the world seems to be what is going on now and we don't look any further the scheme of things seems to justify itself at every moment of its unfoldment you
