I’ve been thinking about what is the meaning of life for very long, so much so that I can’t even recall when this contemplation began. Initially, I equated life’s meaning with the fulfillment of life’s goals. However, this view was challenged by the question: What happens after achieving these goals?

Endless meaninglessness appears to me, I was trying to find the answer from the books:

Despite my search, no explanation convincingly outlined life’s meaning until I encountered a Buddhist perspective: life is more about suffering than enjoyment.

In the first place, I can’t understand what does this mean to me. If we come here to suffer, why are we here? Why should we come to life? This prompted deep reflection, as I sought answers from within.

With an opportunity, I had a chance to join the course of Vipassana Meditation, where the participants sit to meditate 9 hrs a day without any physical and visual contact with anyone in this course. We just meditate and listen to voice/video recording from S. N. Goenka. M. Goenka taught us with his simple and insightful language about what is the Vipassana and what is the art of living. I highly recommend anyone who has the same question with me to read his article about the living, where he introduced a very important concept — what we experience is our life, and Vipassana is a way to reduce the pain from the experiential level, and keep you in the peace and harmony life.

However, my intention isn’t to advocate for a specific method to make you happier or suggest meditating 9 hours daily to pursue monastic life. Such a commitment isn’t feasible for most. My aim is to render the pursuit of life’s meaning both tangible and understandable for many, providing a resource someone can turn to whenever you feel unmotivated or disheartened, helping to press forward.

People on this earth lives in a billion different ways. Each person’s life experience is unique. I realized that what we experience or the “journey” itself is the meaning. Considering that life experience itself holds meaning, the question arises: How can one achieve the best or most optimal experience in life? To answer this, we must first define: What constitutes an individual’s life experience?

This is very hard to define. Buddhism associates this with achieving ultimate peacefulness and happiness. However, in this way, you need to practice the Śīla — Buddhism ethic.1 My focus is on everyday people who seek to enjoy love, joy, and all of life’s beauty. These are individuals who aspire to embrace life’s positivity, avoid its negativity, experience peak moments over monotony, and cherish love and being loved. In a word, a colorful positive feeling all the time might be a goal that everyone in this world wants to pursuit.

  1. Basically, you need to practice being a monk. ↩