Is this life Meaningless?

Albert Camus, a French existentialist philosopher, has an interesting point of view. For him, there is only one important thing to think about in life, namely whether we should kill ourselves or not? Is life worth living, or not? He asked like that because life is absurd and makes no sense.

From childhood, we learn. We work. We continue to develop ourselves. But, eventually, we have to get sick, grow old and then die. Isn't this absurd?

All our efforts disappear when we die. All our struggles are in meaningless when we die. Money, power, and intelligence, fought for for years, vanished in the blink of an eye. It's as if life is meaningless.

We try to do good. However, the bad and corrupt people are getting richer and more powerful. We try to work honestly. However, luck did not come.

We believe and pray. However, not many changes have come. In fact, amid the economic crisis and pandemics, life is even more difficult. The religion we love is used to divide society.

Life is absurd, Camus said. However, we cannot be discouraged. Instead, we should celebrate that absurdity. We should rejoice in all of it.

We need to enjoy the whole process. We need to be people who persevere in business. The results are not in our hands. Often, although accompanied by hard efforts, the results also never arrive.

Mandala Sand Painting

In Tibet, there is a tradition of sand painting. The object of the painting is the Mandala. It is a symbol of the world in its most idealized version. It is balanced, detailed in design, and very pleasing to the eye.

Mandalas are painted to purify the world and are considered to be able to heal the world from suffering. This kind of suffering comes, because of human stupidity. They are greedy and hate each other.

Mandalas are more than just ordinary paintings. It is made of sand. The process is very complicated. There are millions of grains of sand that are assembled to paint a detailed mandala with a variety of colors.

It had to be painted by several people. At a minimum, one mandala painting takes 2 weeks to make. The larger the size of the sand painting, the longer and more complicated the process. Hundreds of ancient colors and symbols are very detailed in it.

Usually, it is the Tibetan Buddhist monks who paint. They have to duck for hours to do it. One by one the grains of sand are assembled in detail. For them, it is the practice of meditation. They direct their awareness to a community project that is done together.

After weeks, even months, of working, the Monks prayed together. Then, they destroyed the painting. The detailed and beautiful sand painting was destroyed in a matter of seconds. There's nothing left.

Usually, the sand leftover from the painting is distributed among the people. Some are also dumped into the nearest watercourse. The magnificent painting that was made with great effort by many people was deliberately destroyed. In just a few seconds, months of hard work vanished in an instant.

Looking for the Real

Isn't this absurd? But, that's life. The message from Camus and the Tibetan Monks is similar, that everything is temporary. All efforts will end in nothingness. All things that appear will also come to an end.

Life is beautiful. But, not real. It is precious, yet so fragile and temporary. This is a lesson we must always remember.

Everything, however beautiful, will disappear without a trace. The greatest people in history are now buried in the ground. The mighty kingdoms of the past are now just stories. Once upon a time, humans did not exist. Now, we exist and rule the world. However, one day, we too will be gone.

We can be smart. We can be rich and powerful. However, it was all temporary. Soon, we will age, get sick and die. The pandemic seems to have accelerated that.

Therefore, in this short life, we need to do important things. We can't get caught up in all that is temporary. We must seek what is eternal and sacred within each one of us. This is the essence of the spiritual path.

The spiritual path transcends religious boundaries. The spiritual path leads us to our original selves, i.e. the pure consciousness that is the observer of everything. This pure consciousness is the essence of life itself. It was never born, and will never end. this is eternity. This is the energy of the universe itself. This is "God".

Touching pure consciousness means transcending life and death. This is the essence of enlightenment and liberation from suffering. The body can be destroyed. The ability of the mind may decrease. We can age, get sick and die.

However, we will be far from suffering. We will always have the clarity and peace needed to deal with any situation. The key is to know our true selves through meditation or other spiritual paths (Zen, Yoga, Dzogchen, and Advaita).

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