Living a Life of Meaning, Not Purpose

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” - Eleanor Roosevelt.  Author Mark Twain was purported to have said that “the two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you figure out why”.

The notion that you are “born FOR something” has created much mental anguish and dissonance in many persons.   

Is there more to the purpose of Life other than to exist, procreate and propagate the species?

A person wanders through life's journey like a vagabond in search of meaning in a relentless quest for enlightenment in purpose.  For many, “my life is going nowhere” is the common refrain. I never choose to be born. None did. Yet, I have somehow inherited the idea to make the world better, to change it, add positive value to transform it, and to redeem it from its self-imposed and self-inflicted endless journey to hopelessness and oblivion. 

Growing selfishness begins to overwhelm those who accepted the mission impossible of actually changing the world for the better, to gain recognition for valuable contributions so as to make their lives matter, to enrich others, making theirs even meaningful, and create a lasting legacy.  

Indeed, do people actually desire a better world as they go about daily to beat it up, pollute the waters, environment, and waste food resources, as they wage endless wars and inflict usual and unusual cruelties on their fellow men and women?  So many feel empty. Unhappy. Directionless. As they watch their hope for a better world receding as mankind retreats in characteristic madness and self-destruction.      

Born without permission, one is stuck in life’s emptiness in a routine of eating, working, having sex, sleeping, and pretending in fake relationships.  The alternative is having no social life, no parties, no hobbies, no nothing, no one to love, and being loved by none.  Life is pointless. It begins with dependence on someone for nourishing milk, food, sustenance, mobility, education, jobs … and an endless struggle in the natural desire to roam and rove free.

I remember sleepless nights, spent in disillusions and frustrations, regretting my miserable failures, before exhaustion drowned me in hopelessness, dreadful of tomorrow, the anxiety of uncertainties, and worries about so many unimaginable.

How would the world remember me should I vanish tomorrow? Does it matter if I did not leave a legacy or marks or handprints and footprints on the world? My existence of an insignificant life would surely be instantly forgotten, as I become fertiliser for food to nurture future generations of immaterial and useless people.   

What does the legacy of meaningless existence look like? The answer is simple. Just have a long, hard look into your mirror. Others, I think, seem to be living with great happiness, seemingly with purposeful direction and full of passionate living in futility into their hopeless futures.

ARE WE OBSESSED WITH PURPOSE?

Why is having Purpose so important to me?  Can my life be Meaningful without confusing it with Purpose?  

For too long, the pursuit of Purpose was the sole purpose of my life.  It was the raison d'être or justification for my no-choice existence. Like the gullible many, I thought Purpose would enrich this imposing life, create happiness, social connections, and fulfillment of an otherwise empty, undistinguished life.

Somehow, my lifetime achievements, successes, accolades, and awards have not gained me a Nobel-type Prize in recognition and approval of a life that matters, a life of worth, and a life of purpose. Mine was not considered the Purpose-driven life, merely an existential life.

“My life Does Not Need a Purpose!” – I finally shouted back.

There is no need to feel insignificant, pointless, shameful, or stressed if, like me, you do not have a clearly defined purpose. Your existence is not defined by your purpose. Your existence is filled and complete with the many meanings of purpose.  Purpose is empty without existence and its meanings to you.  

“I am the Master of my destiny” – I declared upon attaining self-Enlightenment.

Like a “ronin” or Samurai without a master, self-enlightenment brought forth the privilege of self-mastery to live a life without purpose – to make my own vagabond-like way in the world trusting in that inner voice of cosmic wisdom and divine guidance.  

There are many perspectives (credit in brackets) in the following passages, describing various aspects of a vagabond-like meaningful life without purpose; 

A life without purpose is a vagabond life (Debasish Mridha). I am a fugitive and a vagabond, a sojourner seeking signs (Annie Dillard). The vagabond life is the logical life to lead if one seeks the intimate knowledge of the world we were seeking (Richard Halliburton). I know where nowhere is, I know where nowhere leads, it's the place you go when you have nothing left to lose but you (Jenim Dibie).  

 I am a vagabond of the universe, a drifter among spaces where the madness of things has no limits (Thomas Ligotti).  Become a vagabond by choice (Don Blanding). Don't make your own life your project in your own life: total waste of time (Lorrie Moore).  

The way you think is the driving force that fashions your world thereby governing the kind of life that you live (Steven Redhead). Do not live in the past and stumble through life facing backward (Jonathan Renshaw).

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