Meaning

[Telepresent]

This is very raw so please bear with me.  We speak a lot about judgement and thoughts and what-have-you, and it always seems to fall into a semantic game of definitions.  We play with language and the whole "I" problem and what one person means when they say something vs. what another person interprets it as.  We tie ourselves in knots trying to reconcile the idea of one with the apparent experience that there are many.  And so many ideas, ideas, ideas.

What underlies all of this?  Meaning.  Very basic, very foundational, very important, meaning underlies everything of the 'dream' (if you want to call it that, but of course any understanding we have of what 'dream' means is flooded with meaning).

Meaning dominates everything.  From the very big ("what is the meaning of life?") to the very small (I drink my tea, I feel a sensation of warmth in my mouth, going down my throat... all of these are absolutely suffused with meaning).

And of course we take meaning as truth.  We believe interpreted meaning to be truth.

And what happens when you strip out meaning?  When you dare to view everything without meaning?  I hesitate to say "meaningless", because that itself is suffused with meaning (generally negative, nihilistic, depressive), rather than literally representing a state absent of interpretation.

And note it's something the mind cannot handle.  It cannot imagine it.  Because the mind is a meaning machine - that is the only way it can function.  Interpretation, judgement, past, future, anticipation, fear... all meaning-making.

It's easy at this point to go "duh, of course!", but this really isn't an 'of course' or 'obviously'.  This is very very deep, below everything we engage with, in, and as, as human beings.  As minds.  As life forms.  This is something that really needs careful contemplation, and I'm only just getting started.  But I can feel, can detect, how critical this is.

[LaucherJunge]

This is the beauty of life. There is no meaning inherent but we can give it and everything it contains all the meaning we want and make it even more beautiful then it is or beautiful in the first place, sadly in most cases people give more meaning to the "negative" parts of life.
That is why I think positive focus is really a crucial part of the spiritual path. In my opinion positive focus isn't just going for the positive but also trying to bring your light of consciousness into the dark aspects of yourself in order to light them up.

[Nahm]

Just below all thinking, right under our noses, is the reality that is love. All illusion is relative questions & answers. All love is inspiration. When there is a question, the answer, the truth, is found alone, in silence, in inspiration.