Negative Thinking

Meaning is Meaningless

We have all heard about the power of positive thinking and how it can create nothing short of miracles by its invocation. I grew up completely disgusted by its saccahrine sweetness and the divine dividends it promised. I did believe it to be over-rated and I chose instead the path of negation; meaningless self-destruction as the answer to mankind’s melodramatic malody. I sought the company ofsarcasm, hopelessness, despair and defeat to tide me through the meaningless journey of life. Living just for dying. Both birth and death having no meaning whatsoever. Such an existence drove me deeper and deeper ino the cynical chasm of chaos as I smirked at the prospect of meaning, growth, joy, love and beauty.

Jean Paul Sartre said that man is a useless passion because there is no meaning in life. Another existentialist Albert Camus said that the only metaphysicall problem is of suicide. Why go on living? Even Sigmund Freud said life is more a matter of endurance than enjoyment. Down the ages, man has invented religions and Gods to provide meaning to life. None have succeeded. They are only consolatory. They are helpful only to the mediocre, for the one who has decided to deceive himself by pretending there is meaning in money, power, respectabilty, virtue, character, meaning in being a saint. But if you are intelligent enough and probe incessantly, you will vcome to the rock bottom of meaninglessness.

But then Zen has succeeded where all else falters. Buddha’s unique experience under the Bodhi tree told him one thing; that if meaning is dropped, meaninglessness also disappears. ‘Life looks meaningless because I am searching for meaning. Life is not meaningless; it becomes meaningless, because of my longing for meaning. If I dont long for meaning, then what is meaningless? All is as it is.’ Suicide means there is no meaning, so destroy yourself. Sannyason the other hand means, there is no meaning, so you are freed from that hankering to enjoy yourself. Because there is no meaning, there is no destiny. You are free to enjoy this moment with your totality – no hindrance, no God to take care of, no commandment.  Utterly free to be in this moment. An there is nowhere else to go.

To understand this, the myth of Sisyphus in Greek Mythology is significant. The gods were angry with Sisyphus and condemned him to the almost impossible task of rolling a large rock to the top of a hill. Sisyphus however does so but the rock does not stay at the top and of its own accord rolls back into the valley again. Sisyphus pushes the rock back again to the top only to meet the same result.  He then repeats the task again and again. This is symbolic of man’s life as he struggles repeatedly from birth to death. Sartre’s words resound here screaming about man being a useless passsion; meaningless. If Sisyphus was a man of Zen instead, the same story would take on a different flavour. He would not have bothered about the rock slipping down again and again and instead would have enjoyed every trip to and from the beautiful valley, marvelling at the flowers blooming, birds chirping and the fresh morning air in ecstasy. Singing a song of enlightenment – a shodoka he would have defeated the gods by enjoying his punishment. He would recite haikus as it rained down and would have been mesmerised by the very texture of the rock even. And when it slips down, he would see it as a new thrill, a new adventure, another ecstatic journey beginning.

Zen drops the very search for meaning, thus all kinds of meaninglessness disappears. Then life simply is; no meaning, no meaninglessness. See the very beauty of it.