A Meaningless Life

"My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?"

-- Charles Schulz

Why do we think we need goals or meaning or purpose in order to be happy? Why do we believe that we must always be aiming for some target, striving for some vision, or attempting some heroic act in order to achieve happiness?

To answer Mr. Schulz question, I believe that what he is doing right is that he is living in the moment and not being sucked into the prevailing assumption that life must have meaning in order to be enjoyable. Joy is always and already present. Happiness requires no prerequisites.

All meaning is made up, anyway. You don't discover meaning, you create it. And to what avail? To convince yourself that your life somehow holds some intrinsic importance? To bolster the ego's claim of having a unique mission worth pursuing? Do those creative fictions really help you live a better life, or do they merely mollify your discontent with the life you have?

This is it, folks. Reality 101 -- right here, right now. You can play any game or any role that you want -- just don't forget that you're merely playing. Don't mistake the game, or your role in it, for reality.

Being is where happiness lives. Not becoming, not striving, not even arriving -- being. That's why it's called "being happy." It's not called "doing happy" or "becoming happy." Happiness does not lie on some far off shore. It does not even reside in the striving to reach that far off shore. It is inherent each moment, each second, each breath.

Goal -less happiness, strive-free joy. Here and now.