When I was a teenager in the 1960s many people my age went to school (college) to find careers. I was lucky enough to be able to seek a more abstract, spiritual course of study. I was concerned about what a proper course should be for one’s life, and questioned what was the meaning of life.
The mere accumulation of wealth didn’t seem to be enough. In order to solve this existential dilemma I resolved to become a renaissance man and survey the breadth of human knowledge and potential, in order to find my place in the world.
Although I never found my material calling, as I grew older, I became more comfortable with not knowing, or finding, my means of achieving a personal livelihood. At some point I came to the realization that in order to achieve a more meaningful existence perhaps the contribution of something that makes the world better for my having passed through it in this life made my life more meaningful.
Maybe we create the meaning in our lives by what we choose to do with our lives, and that by making the world a better place we may find the meaning we seek. This might entail the pursuit of something beyond the accumulation of personal material wealth.
A Mother Teresa Story
My friend Andrew, (a hippy turned Trappist Monk), once told me a story of Mother Teresa.
In her travels she visited Atlanta and gave an inspirational talk to the business community there. After this visit, the businessmen expressed a desire to do something to further her work, perhaps to fund the building of the wing of a hospital in India.
As the story goes, she replied that they didn’t have to go half way around the world to do good.
They should, rather, instead of buying themselves a five dollar cigar, spend three and a half dollars and then take the dollar and a half that was left, and use it to help the poorest people in their own community.
In just this way, we may help to evolve our world by our everyday actions, and in so doing, find our own inner peace and balance.
My friend also told me of a group of Tibetan Monks who visited the monastery in the middle of Georgia. He was given the task of taking them to a mall in Atlanta, and said that all that they bought was a box of band aids.
