Subtitles
it's very commonly said that the root of 00:00:01
it's very commonly said that the root of most human unhappiness is the synthesis 00:00:05
that one's life has no meaning this is I 00:00:13
suppose most frequently said in circles 00:00:17
interested in psychotherapy because the 00:00:20
feeling of meaninglessness is often 00:00:21
equated with the existence of neurosis 00:00:26
and so many activities into which one is 00:00:31
encouraged to enter philosophies one is 00:00:34
encouraged to believe and religions one 00:00:36
is encouraged to join are commended on 00:00:39
them on the basis of the fact that they 00:00:41
give life a meaning and I think it's 00:00:46
very fascinating to think out what this 00:00:50
idea itself means or what it is intended 00:00:54
when it said that life has to have a 00:00:56
purpose I remember so well as a child 00:00:59
listening to sermons in church in which 00:01:03
the preacher would constantly refer to 00:01:06
God's purpose for you and for me and I 00:01:10
could never make out what it was because 00:01:14
when questioned about this the Reverend 00:01:16
gentleman seemed to be evasive 00:01:19
what is the purpose of God for the world 00:01:21
we used to sing a hymn to God is working 00:01:23
his purpose out as year succeeds the 00:01:25
year and the nearest cool one got to it 00:01:29
was in the sort of refrain of the hymn 00:01:31
nearer and nearer draws the time the 00:01:34
time that shall surely be when the earth 00:01:37
shall be filled with the glory of God as 00:01:38
the waters cover the sea and of course 00:01:42
that raises the question what is the 00:01:44
glory of God well now it's pretty 00:01:50
obvious I think that when we talk about 00:01:53
life having or not having a meaning 00:01:56
we're not using quite the ordinary sense 00:01:59
of the word meaning as the attribute of 00:02:02
a sign 00:02:04
we're not saying are we that we expect 00:02:06
this natural universe to behave as if it 00:02:10
were a collection of words signifying 00:02:13
something other than themselves it isn't 00:02:19
the point of view which would reduce our 00:02:22
lives and the world merely to the status 00:02:25
of signs and it's obviously in some 00:02:29
different sense than that 00:02:30
that Goethe who wrote his famous lines 00:02:33
at the end of Faust Aleister ganglia is 00:02:37
nur and likeness forgive my 00:02:40
pronunciation of German all that is 00:02:43
mortal or all that is perishable is but 00:02:47
a symbol and so a symbol of what what do 00:02:56
we want to feel what would satisfy us as 00:02:59
being this meaning behind this world 00:02:59
it's so often you know that we don't follow our ideas and our desires through 00:03:10
most of the things that we want very 00:03:15
fervently how things that we've only 00:03:18
half glimpsed our ideals are very often 00:03:21
suggestions hints and we don't know 00:03:25
really exactly what we mean when we 00:03:27
think about it but there is this obscure 00:03:31
sense in which we feel that life ought 00:03:36
to have significance and be a symbol in 00:03:40
at least that sense if not just so 00:03:42
buried a symbol as a mere sign or it 00:03:47
also may mean that life is meaningful an 00:03:52
individual feels that his life amounts 00:03:55
to something when he belongs and fits in 00:03:59
with the execution of some group 00:04:02
enterprise he feels he belongs in a plan 00:04:06
now this too seems to give people a 00:04:09
sense of great satisfaction but we have 00:04:12
to pursue that question further - why is 00:04:14
it 00:04:15
a plan why is it that fellowship with 00:04:20
other people gives the sense of meaning 00:04:23
does it come down perhaps to another 00:04:26
sense of meaning that life is felt to be 00:04:30
meaningful when one is fully satisfying 00:04:32
one's biological urges including the 00:04:40
sense of hunger the sense of love the 00:04:44
sense of self-expression mint activity 00:04:49
and so on but then again we have to push 00:04:53
that inquiry further what do our 00:04:57
biological urges really point towards 00:05:02
are they just however things always 00:05:07
projected towards the future this 00:05:09
biology and its process is nothing but 00:05:13
going on towards going on towards going 00:05:15
on or there's a fourth and more 00:05:19
theological sense of the meaning of life 00:05:19
in all theistic religions at any rate the meaning of life is God himself in 00:05:26
other words all this world means a 00:05:33
person it means a heart it means an 00:05:37
intelligence and the relationship of 00:05:40
love between God and man is the meaning 00:05:43
of the world the sight of God is the 00:05:45
glory of God and so on but again here 00:05:48
there's something to be further pursued 00:05:51
what is it that we want in love with a 00:05:58
person and even a person in the sense of 00:06:01
the Lord God what is the content of it 00:06:05
what is it that we are really yearning 00:06:07
after well now if we go back to the 00:06:11
first point 00:06:15
taking gutters words that all that his 00:06:18
transitory is but a symbol and that we 00:06:22
want to feel that all things have 00:06:23
significance it does seem to me that 00:06:27
there's a sense in which we often use 00:06:28
the word significance where the word 00:06:32
seems to be chosen quite naturally and 00:06:35
yet at the same time it's not quite the 00:06:36
right word we say for example often of 00:06:40
music that we feel it to be significant 00:06:43
when just at the same time we don't mean 00:06:46
that it expresses some particular kind 00:06:50
of concretely realizable emotion and 00:06:54
suddenly it's not imitating the noises 00:06:57
of nature a program music you know would 00:07:02
simply imitate something else and it 00:07:06
deliberately sets out to express sadness 00:07:07
or joy or whatever is not the kind of 00:07:12
thing I mean so often when one listens 00:07:14
to the beautiful arabesque character of 00:07:18
the Baroque composers bark or Vivaldi it 00:07:26
is felt to be significant not because it 00:07:30
means something other than itself but 00:07:33
because it is so satisfying as it is and 00:07:37
we use them this word significance so 00:07:41
often in those moments when our 00:07:41
impetuous seeking for fulfillment cools down and we give ourselves a little 00:07:50
space to watch things as if they were 00:07:55
worth watching ordinary things and in 00:07:59
those moments when our inner turmoil has 00:08:01
really quietened we find significance in 00:08:06
things that we wouldn't expect to find 00:08:07
significant at all I mean this is after 00:08:10
all the art of those photographers who 00:08:13
have such genius in turning the camera 00:08:16
towards such things as peeling paint on 00:08:20
an old door or mud and sand and stones 00:08:26
on a dirt road and showing us there that 00:08:30
if we look at it in a certain way those 00:08:32
things are significant but we can't say 00:08:35
significant of what's a much a 00:08:37
significant of themselves or perhaps a 00:08:40
significance then is the quality of a 00:08:42
state of mind in which we notice that 00:08:47
we're overlooking the significance of 00:08:49
the world by our constant quest for it 00:08:53
later 00:08:53
all this languages of course quite naturally vague and imprecise because I 00:08:59
think the wrong word is used and yet not 00:09:06
entirely the wrong word because as I 00:09:08
said it comes so naturally to us it was 00:09:11
Clive Bell the greatest addition who 00:09:13
wanted to say that all the 00:09:15
characteristic of art especially the 00:09:17
characteristic of aesthetic success in 00:09:20
painting was the creation of significant 00:09:23
form again a very vague imprecise 00:09:27
expression but it certainly is an 00:09:32
attribute not only of those moments in 00:09:35
which we are tranquil inside but also of 00:09:38
moments of deep spiritual experience of 00:09:41
what would be called moksha or release 00:09:45
in Hinduism or Satori in Zen that in 00:09:49
those moments the significance of the 00:09:51
world seems to be the world seems to be 00:09:55
what is going on now and we don't look 00:10:00
any further the scheme of things seems 00:10:02
to justify itself at every moment of its 00:10:05
unfoldment I pointed out that this was 00:10:11
particularly a characteristic of music 00:10:13
it's also a characteristic of dancing 00:10:15
and in the sensation of belonging with 00:10:21
one's fellow man in the carrying out of 00:10:25
some significant pattern of life which I 00:10:28
mentioned as a second sense of the world 00:10:31
being meaningful again the character of 00:10:37
this feeling is again something that is 00:10:47
fulfilled in itself but a dance is not 00:10:51
to be going anywhere when we danced in 00:10:55
the ballroom we don't have a destination 00:10:57
they're just going around the room and 00:11:01
it's in doing this it's in executing the 00:11:04
pattern in singing the music with other 00:11:08
people that even though this doesn't 00:11:10
point to anything outside itself we 00:11:13
again get the sense of meaning and this 00:11:16
is also obviously the case so often in 00:11:18
the satisfaction of the biological urges 00:11:20
it does one live to eat or eat to live 00:11:24
I'm not at all sure about this I'm sure 00:11:27
I very often live to eat because sitting 00:11:31
around a table with people I don't like 00:11:34
eating alone and enjoying food is 00:11:39
absolutely delightful and we're not 00:11:46
thinking when we do this at least 00:11:49
certainly I'm not that we have to eat 00:11:51
because it's good for us and that we've 00:11:55
got to throw something down the hatch as 00:11:57
Henry Miller said and swallow a dozen 00:11:59
vitamins just because our system needs 00:12:03
nourishment I remember quite recently 00:12:06
there was an article in the consumer 00:12:08
reports about bread and learned in some 00:12:12
correspondence and protests saying that 00:12:14
the bread one bought white bread one 00:12:16
buys in the stores is perfectly inedible 00:12:19
and lacking in nutrition and that was 00:12:22
not vetted wheat peasant type breads 00:12:24
rough pumpernickel and things of that 00:12:26
kind and the experts replied that our 00:12:29
white bread is perfectly full of good 00:12:32
nutrients and there's nothing really the 00:12:34
matter with it at all well I felt like 00:12:36
saying it doesn't matter perhaps of the 00:12:39
bread being deficient in the essential 00:12:41
vitamins bread isn't medicine its food 00:12:43
and once complaint against it is that 00:12:45
it's bad cookery it tastes of nothing 00:12:49
and we do 10 don't we to look upon food 00:12:54
so often for what it will do for us 00:12:57
rather than the delight of of eating it 00:12:57
but if the satisfaction of biological urges is to mean anything surely the 00:13:05
point of these urges is not the fatuous 00:13:11
one of mere survival of we might say the 00:13:17
the point of the individual is simply 00:13:19
that he contributes to the literally 00:13:20
welfare of the race and the point of the 00:13:23
race is that it reproduces itself to 00:13:25
reproduce itself to reproduce itself and 00:13:27
keep going now that isn't really a point 00:13:30
at all that's just virtuous surely the 00:13:36
race keeps going because going is great 00:13:40
because it's fun and if it isn't and 00:13:43
never will be then there's no point 00:13:45
obviously in going I mean looking at it 00:13:47
from the most hedonistic standpoint but 00:13:50
then when we come to the question what 00:13:51
is fun what is the joy of it again we 00:13:57
come down to something that can't very 00:13:59
well be explained in the ordinary 00:14:01
language of meaning of leading to 00:14:03
something else and this I think becomes 00:14:07
pre-eminently true if we think of it in 00:14:09
theological language that the meaning of 00:14:13
life is God in any of the theistic 00:14:18
religions what is God doing what is the 00:14:22
meaning of God why does he create the 00:14:26
universe what is the content of the love 00:14:29
of God for his creation well there's the 00:14:34
frank answer of the hindus that the 00:14:38
Godhead manifests the world because of 00:14:40
Leela which is the Sanskrit word for 00:14:42
play and this is likewise said in the or 00:14:46
in the Hebrew Scriptures or the 00:14:48
Christian Old Testament in the book of 00:14:50
Proverbs where there is a marvelous 00:14:53
speech by the divine wisdom Sophia which 00:14:58
in describing 00:15:00
the function of the divine wisdom in the 00:15:02
creation of the world the world in other 00:15:05
words as a manifestation of the wisdom 00:15:06
of God our wisdom uses the phrase that 00:15:11
in producing men and animals and all the 00:15:17
creatures of the earth wisdom is playing 00:15:20
and it was the delight of wisdom to play 00:15:24
before the presence of God and when it 00:15:29
is likewise said in the scriptures that 00:15:32
the Lord God created the world for his 00:15:35
pleasure this again means in a sense 00:15:38
foreplay and suddenly this seems to be 00:15:41
what the angels in heaven are doing 00:15:44
according to the traditional symbolic 00:15:47
descriptions of heaven they are as 00:15:51
ringed around the presence of the 00:15:54
Almighty calling out alleluia alleluia 00:15:57
alleluia through all eternity well 00:16:00
hallelujah 00:16:02
may have meant something originally but 00:16:05
as it's used now it doesn't mean 00:16:07
anything except well in our own slang 00:16:12
would be it's a an exclamation of 00:16:17
nonsensical delight and it was Dante in 00:16:22
the Paradiso who described the song of 00:16:24
the Angels as the laughter of the 00:16:28
universe in this sense of nonsense as 00:16:33
the theme of the Divine activity comes 00:16:38
out also very strongly in the book of 00:16:40
Job I always think that the book of Job 00:16:43
is the most profound book in the whole 00:16:45
Bible Old Testament and New Testament 00:16:49
because here is the problem of the man 00:16:53
the righteous man who has suffered and 00:16:57
all his friends try to rationalize it 00:17:01
and say well you must have suffered 00:17:02
because you really had a secret sin 00:17:05
after all and deserve the punishment of 00:17:08
God or because rationalize it somehow 00:17:10
and when they've had their say the Lord 00:17:14
God appears on the scene and says who is 00:17:19
this the darkness Council with words 00:17:21
without knowledge and then proceeds to 00:17:25
ask job and his friends a series of 00:17:28
absolutely unanswerable conundrums 00:17:32
pointing out all the apparent 00:17:34
irrationality and nonsense of his 00:17:36
creation why for example he said do I 00:17:39
send rain upon the desert where no man 00:17:41
is most commentators on the book of Job 00:17:46
and with the remark that well this poses 00:17:49
the problem of suffering and the problem 00:17:51
of evil but doesn't really answer it and 00:17:53
yet in the end himself job seems to be 00:17:55
satisfied he somehow surrenders to the 00:18:01
apparent unreasonableness of the Lord 00:18:03
God and this is not I think because job 00:18:06
is beaten down and that he that he's 00:18:08
unduly impressed with the Royal 00:18:13
monarchic awe and paternalistic 00:18:15
Authority of the deity and doesn't dare 00:18:17
to answer back he realizes that somehow 00:18:21
these very questions are the answer I 00:18:24
think of all the commentators on the 00:18:26
book of Job the person who came closest 00:18:29
to this point was old G K Chesterton he 00:18:33
once made the glorious remark that it is 00:18:35
one thing to look with amazement at a 00:18:39
Gorgon or a Griffin the creature who 00:18:41
doesn't exist but quite another thing to 00:18:43
look at a pot a hippopotamus a creature 00:18:46
who does exist and looks as if he 00:18:47
doesn't in other words that all these 00:18:55
this strange world with its weird forms 00:19:02
like hippopotami and when you look at 00:19:05
them from a certain point of view stones 00:19:07
and trees and water and clouds and stars 00:19:12
when you look at them from a certain 00:19:14
point of view and don't take them for 00:19:15
granted 00:19:16
they're as weird as any hippopotamus or 00:19:19
any imagination of fabulous beasts of 00:19:22
Gorgons 00:19:23
griffin's and things like that they are 00:19:26
just plain improbable and it is in this 00:19:32
sense I think that they are the Alleluia 00:19:36
as it were the nonsense song why do we 00:19:39
love nonsense why do we love Lewis 00:19:43
Carroll with his twas brillig and the 00:19:48
slithy Toves did gyre and gimble in the 00:19:50
wave all mimsy were the borogroves and 00:19:52
the mome Raths outgrabe why is it that 00:19:56
all those old english songs are full of 00:19:59
father it'll I do and hey nonny nonny 00:20:02
and all his babbling choruses why is it 00:20:05
that when we get help with jazz we just 00:20:12
go Budi Budi Budi boots on and enjoy 00:20:15
ourselves swinging it 00:20:15
it is this participation in the essential glorious nonsense that is at 00:20:24
the heart of the world that isn't going 00:20:32
anywhere that is a dance but it seems 00:20:35
that only in moments of unusual insight 00:20:38
and illumination that we get the point 00:20:40
of this and find that thus the true 00:20:44
meaning of life is no meaning that its 00:20:49
purpose is no purpose and that it's 00:20:51
sense is nonsense 00:20:51
but still we want to use about it the word significant significant nonsense 00:21:00
yes nonsense that is not just chaos that 00:21:06
is not just blathering balderdash but 00:21:13
that has in it 00:21:14
rhythm fascinating complexity a kind of 00:21:22
artistry it is in this kind of 00:21:27
meaninglessness that we get the 00:21:29
profoundest meaning 00:21:29