Jan 18 2009
When Life is Meaningless, It Just Is
During my life, I have wanted things and achieved my desires many times, but after a while, I got to feel that my achievements didn’t mean very much and my achievements simply got replaced with new desires. And so I continue on my path…
When Zen came into my life, gradually through my zazen , I began to realize more and more the value of the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama’s realization when he sat under the Bodhi tree some two-and-a-half thousand years ago… In his enlightenment he realized that the source of all suffering was desire.
This seems to be true whether desires be large or small. Or paradoxically, even to desire enlightenment is a desire! This is where I can recognize the value of the words or many Zen masters when they say, “it is the journey, not the destination”.
So what I am currently making out of all of this is that life doesn’t mean anything. It just IS. Life is about living (the journey along the path), not the destination. When I desire, I am projecting a neediness on to the future. This is like trying to get to my destination before I arrive there.
Life’s journey is meaningless. It just IS! When I realize this cosmic joke, there are times when I can cry about it, and there are times when I can roar with laughter about it. Life’s journey is not about meaning, laughter or tears, it just IS.
