Meaning and meaninglessness

This is an essay I wrote for the "Anca Romantan" scholarship. Unfortunately, it did not qualify amongst the first two. Hope it will make for a good read, though!

Meaning and meaninglessness

Who are we? Man has always sought to understand his role in the big picture: how he related to divinity and vice versa. It is of human nature to question everything, ranging from the tiniest of atoms to the complex status of meaning and meaninglessness. This relentless thirst for knowledge has led to a shocking discovery: man cannot see the true aspect of things from where he stands. In order to see reality in full color, the viewing angle must be changed.
The purpose of this essay is to analyze the conflict between objectivity and subjectivity in human existence, whilst, at the same time, attempting to provide a solution for getting out of the “impasse”.


The status of man

In order to fully comprehend the status of man, we must first define how the soul interacts with the body. According to Gnostic philosophy, the soul is a spark of the divinity, which is objective – able to view reality for what it really is. Ergo, the soul is objective as well.
However, the soul is encased in a body made of flesh, blood and bone, body that disables any form of objectivity due to its flawed nature. As a result, the soul becomes subjective, unable to perceive the true aspect of reality. This form of imprisonment is similar to that of wearing a costume which is too tight: freedom of movement is severely restricted. The “movement” in this case refers to the spiritual nature of humans.
By being placed in a material body, we become its subordinate. It is a well-known fact that everything we do comes as a result of a desire – craving if you will. We drink water because we are thirsty; we eat because we are hungry; we spend time with our friends because we seek social interaction, etc. Our brain, thus, oversees any choice that we make, distorting it according to physical necessities.
As such, the status of man is dramatic: he strives to subdue life, both through labor as well as the accumulation of material wealth. Unbeknown to him, the effort is in vain because life has its own, fixed trajectory.

Trials of life

As we have seen in the aforementioned analysis of the “status”, there is a constant battle between man and destiny. The former, attempts to compensate for the loss of the primordial omniscience through material wealth, whereas the latter transforms these attempts into a series of “trials”. Only by “completing” them can man regain his objective viewpoint.
Such a trial is that of suffering. There are many moments in our existence when we experience it: we cry when coming into this world and we cry upon leaving it. In between, we cry when we are hurt and we cry when we have failed. The purpose of these “moments” is to determine how far we are willing to go in order to attain omniscience.
Happiness is another challenge. We feel good when we are with our friends and we experience joy when succeeding professionally. We savor the company of our beloved and smile when things happen according to our master plan. The difficulty, however, lies in truly relishing such moments as they are only temporary.
Therefore, one can assume that the entire existence of man is a repetitive sequence of good events and bad events. The only way to surpass it is by accepting the fact that one cannot view both sides of the coin at once: we have to be subjective in order to be objective.

Choices

A large part of our existence revolves around making important decisions. It is a way of ordering the chaos that is life. But there are cases when the decisions are made for us.
Choices usually fall into two categories: direct and indirect. The direct, biological choice can be defined as a nervous impulse that is “spawned” inside the brain and passes through countless synapses until it reaches the designated organ or muscle. Examples include choosing to do housework, choosing to drink a cup of tea, etc. In most cases, we can establish a meaning to these choices as we are the ones who create them. That is to say, they exist with our consensus.
In order to better understand how these decisions affect us, let us expand upon the example of doing the housework. This process is created by selecting the appropriate option from a wide range: one can choose to go outside, turn of the TV, clean the room, etc. Once the choice is made, the meaning is automatically there, as the decision has emanated from the self. But what happens when decisions do not emanate from within our being?
The indirect or spiritual choice is something that is predestined and cannot be altered, regardless of how much we strive to reach the status quo ante. Usually, it is life that provides such obstacles: hence the “notorious” reputation. Job is the example of a person who was subjected to a series of trials, choices if you will. In his case, ‘life” was represented by God. He made the decisions for Job: the death of his livestock and family, the emergence of his disease and, eventually, the restoration of the status quo ante.
Birth is not a choice. We are not asked where or when to be born. But, most important, we are not asked if we want to be born. Who knows how our nonexistence could have affected society? Perhaps this is our role: to reflect on ourselves not being born.
Life is not a choice. We can neither predict nor prevent what is going to happen to us. Every man that tries to be the architect of his own future is stopped dead in his tracks by the unpredictability of life. Thus, we cannot see past what is predestined; we cannot be objective.
Death is not a choice. We are unable to choose where and when to die. It just happens. We leave this world without control over our legacy and without having defined a reason as to why things happened the way they did.
Could this be the way out of the impasse? Fully discarding order and embracing the fact that life is “controlled” chaos?

The way out

Despite the apparent impossibility of regaining objectivity, God has provided us with a solution. For there is one thing capable of shattering the material constraint that is our body and restoring the lost objectiveness: the connection with spirituality.
This link needs to fulfill two requirements in order to function:
First of all, man needs to embrace the divinity willingly. In other words, we have to want to accept our spiritual nature because otherwise, we wouldn’t understand what is going on. For instance, if an “average Joe” forcefully accepted his spirituality, he would not be able to see the big picture.
Secondly, the now-established relationship must not fail when subjected to trials. That is to say, the challenges that arise during one’s lifetime must not destroy the connection to the spiritual world. Job, for example, accepted the status quo and remained faithful to God despite his terrible suffering. In the end, he was rewarded with an existence superior to his previous one.
The way out of the impasse, thus becomes clear: man must embrace his spiritual dimension. By doing so, he connects with God and creates a relationship. Only after sustaining this relationship in front of countless trials will the objectivity be revealed.

Conclusion

To conclude, man has a complex destiny. He arrives into the world devoid of any objectiveness, with nothing more than a crude body in one hand and a shattered soul in the other. As time goes by, he is forced to make choices, some of which are direct, some of which are not. The direct ones are created by his human instinct whereas the indirect ones are created by the divinity. It is the latter ones that prove to be the most difficult as they cannot be controlled.
Surpassing this subjective condition implies two stages: the stage of acceptance and the stage of resistance in front of hardships. The first one is achieved through an open mind whereas the second is achieved through will and determination. After, and only, after completing these two phases can man emerge from life and regain his omniscience.

Résumé

L'homme a un statut complexe. Grâce à sa “soif de connaissances” il a déterminé que, à son arrivée dans ce monde, l'omniscience est loin de lui et il se retrouve avec rien de plus qu’un corps très fragile et une âme emprisonnée. Les désirs prennent le contrôle de son âme, ergo insufflant une subordination du spirituel au matériel.
Au cours de sa vie, l'homme est fourni avec beaucoup de choix - choix qui sont volontaires. Ces ont un sens parce qu’elles sont générées à l'intérieur de la personne. En outre, leur importance est relativement faible en raison du fait qu'ils se rapportent uniquement à des problèmes matériels.
Contrairement à ces décisions organisées sont les décisions dénués de sens ou involontaires - elles sont prises par une autorité supérieure: la vie. Ils ne demandent pas la permission d’être (la naissance, la vie, la mort), ni devient contrôlées par l'individu. Ils représentent le chalenge. Leur importance est cruciale car elles déterminent si la personne est apte à entrer dans le domaine de la spiritualité.
C'est ce chalenge que génère le conflit dramatique entre l'homme et son destin. Et il est aussi ces choix involontaires qui récompensent l'homme avec l'objectivité cherché depuis longtemps (être capable de voir le vrai visage du monde).
Réussir dans ce défi exige non seulement l'acceptation de sa nature subjective, par la force de caractère, de volonté et de détermination, mais aussi l'établissement d'une relation qui survit à l'avant de toutes les difficultés (la souffrance, la douleur, etc.).
Cette relation existe entre l'humanité - le matériel et la divinité - l'immatériel. Seulement après ces deux phases d'existence, l'homme peut-il vraiment redevenir ce qu'il était: une instance supérieure, avec la force de décrire précisément ce qui est réel.