Meaning is built into reality

Another barrier to meaning is the idea that it only exists inside of human heads, and that we need to project it over the world. In trying to resuscitate meaning, it dooms the entire project before we even set off.

But to discover meaning is not to engage in positive thinking or affirmation. We don’t have to pretend that loving relationships bring fulfilment or that sunsets and bonfires speak to some deep part of us. It’s built in.

This is not to deny that our opinions and beliefs alter the world we encounter, for they constantly do. But meaning and value themselves are already written into the fabric of reality. Every culture has recognised this and built myths around it. Scientific inquiry does not disprove this: it explicitly leaves values at the door, before it starts (apart from the value that it is good to know the truth of things…)

The belief that we must create our own meaning is also a recipe for overwhelm. Why? Because it says that you must create all the meaning in your life, and that if you don’t feel that things are meaningful, it’s your fault.

Instead, we can recognise that meaning, value, and beauty are implicit in this world. We see this not by conceiving ourselves as objective observers of reality, but by noticing that you are an active participant in an inexplicable, undivided miracle.