Creating Meaning In A Meaningless Universe

In this talk, Saqib will explore the following questions: Is there an inherent meaning to existence? Or do we ourselves give meaning to things, people, and events that occur in our lives? If life doesn't have a meaning, then what's the point of living it? Or, if we create meaning ourselves, then how can we do that in the best possible way? If you like this talk, then check out Saqib's course here on Insight Timer: "Non-Duality."

Transcript

Reality is merely an illusion,

Albeit a very persistent one.

A quote by Albert Einstein.

We human beings have a habit of judging everything that comes into our experience.

But how can we judge something or someone when they keep changing all the time?

Let's say a person A stole some money from a person B.

Now if these two people meet again after a few months,

It is most likely that person B would think that person A is a thief,

Even though they met after many months.

But as per the universal law of impermanence,

Person A is not the same person anymore.

He or she has changed mentally and even physically.

Their thoughts have changed,

Their beliefs have changed,

Their emotions have changed,

And also the physical cells in their body have changed.

What the person B labelled has totally changed,

And hence that label is not valid anymore.

Our world is a world of labels.

Before we used language and emotions to label and define things,

The world around us simply existed.

It did not have a meaning in itself.

We create boundaries in the external environment and label them.

We looked up in the sky,

Saw something white in the forefront against a blue background,

And chose to call that white thing as a cloud,

And the blue thing as the sky.

We created a label based on the boundary of colours.

But what if the cloud was of the same colour as the sky?

Would we still call it a cloud?

We saw an object that is brown and green in colour,

Which grows and has branches,

And we chose to call it a tree.

Based on the boundaries that we observed,

Like the boundaries of the trunk,

The branches,

The leaves,

Etc.

,

We chose to label it as a separate object,

Which is called a tree.

But is it really a separate object?

Actually,

The tree can't exist without a lot of other things in its environment,

The soil,

The water,

The sunlight,

Gravity,

Etc.

So if its existence is dependent on so many factors,

How can we call it a separate object?

Another critical factor in how we perceive the world around us is emotions.

What emotion we associate with a word or a picture depends on how we will feel about that particular thing.

In my childhood,

When I was made to learn the word dog,

The person who taught me associated the expression of fear with the word dog.

So whenever I would see a dog in actuality,

I would get terrified,

And hence for the whole of my childhood,

I was scared of dogs.

For someone else who have associated emotions of love with the word and a picture of a dog,

Dogs are one of the most beautiful things in the world.

So you see that it is us who creates the meaning of the world around us.

Nothing in the universe intrinsically has a meaning in itself.

Now it's up to you that what meaning you give to even this idea.

Some would become sad and feel that the world and life are meaningless,

And they might eventually become nihilists.

However,

Others would get excited by this idea.

They would realize that they are the creators,

That they are the ones who give meaning to the world around them.

Suddenly they would feel powerful and would recognize that they can choose to give different meanings to things around them,

And hence they can choose to feel differently about the things happening in their lives.

Language plays a crucial role in how we perceive our reality.

There is a tribe in Namibia called the Himba tribe,

And in their vocabulary,

They don't have any word for the color blue.

So when a research group showed them an illustration of blue color that was stacked amongst green colors,

They were not able to differentiate the blue color and called it green in their own language.

For them,

Blue is just a slight variant of green.

This is how powerful language can be.

How our language is,

What we say,

And what words we use determines how we experience our reality.

When you declare in the morning that it is a gloomy day,

It is most likely that you will experience gloominess throughout your day.

Similarly,

If you declare someone as an evil person,

You will most likely perceive them as an evil person every time you look at them.

But if you tell them that they are beautiful,

That is how they will appear to you.

Therefore it will be wise to check what things we say every day.

If we have a complaining nature,

Our life will stay miserable.

But if we use words of love and make positive statements,

Then the world will become beautiful for us.

Our world is a world of duality.

We divide and label things into opposites like good and evil,

Up and down,

Hot and cold,

Fast and slow,

Etc.

But for an astronaut who is in space,

There is no up and down.

The astronaut will ask you,

Up or down in relation to what?

It was none other than Albert Einstein who presented the theory of relativity,

According to which everything in this physical world that we live in is relative.

If you are sitting in a train A and train B comes from the opposite direction,

At speed x,

Train B will appear to you moving very fast.

However,

If train B moves at speed x in the same direction as train A in which you are sitting,

Then the train will appear to be moving very slowly or not moving at all.

Therefore,

You cannot tell anything about any object unless you state that in relation to what you are defining that object.

Or in other words,

You cannot label anything unless you indicate in relation to what you are creating that label.

For example,

You cannot say if a person is good or bad unless you state that good or bad with regards to what.

The soul or the infinite field is a place outside space and time where there is no duality,

There is only singularity.

We are all one,

There is no separation,

There is no division there,

There is no label and there is no judgement.

There is no good or bad,

There is no darkness or light,

There is no here and there,

Everything is merged into a singularity.

And hence,

Someone like Buddha or Jesus who function from their soul have no judgement at all.

They understand that there is no separation or duality and hence they love everyone and everything.

So now that we understand that there are no labels,

We can choose to function from the level of our soul and stop judging everything around us.

Whenever we find ourselves judging a co-worker,

A relative or a random person on the street,

It would be wise to remember that there are no labels and then correct ourselves and also realize that we don't have the complete knowledge about that person so we can't really judge that person as a bad person.

Bad in relation to what?

And even if out of habit we have to label things,

Why not label everything as beautiful?

After all,

What words we use for different things and phenomena determines how we would experience our reality.

So why not experience a beautiful existence?

For today,

Check what words you generally use in your daily life.

Do you complain or do you have gratitude for everything in your life?

And if you catch those limiting words,

Change those words and change your reality.

For example,

If you are out of money and you are broke,

One meaning that you can derive from that situation is that you are a failure and your life is over.

However,

Another meaning that you can derive is that this gives you an opportunity to start something new in your life,

A new job or a new business etc.

So what do you choose?

Namaste.

Reviews

Opened my mind, thank you so much for your beautiful words.

Amazing and so helpful can’t wait to start applying this! 🙏🏼 🩷♥️

Lovely reminder to see the good in our lives and live as optimists. Thank you dear Saqib 🙏

Thankyou for this! The fundamental concept of pointing out to be mindful of the specific words we choose to use is exactly what I needed to hear and the way I needed to hear it this morning. I always try to be aware of how and what I'm thinking at any given time and recognize when my"self-talk" is moving into a non supportive direction. I can see that being able to focus on the specificness of choosing different words rather than a broader idea of general "self-talk" would help to break through the sense of overwhelm and frustration that comes when habitual negativity gains a foothold in my thinking. It's like...if you're drowning and one person throws a life ring to you, you grab it. But if several people throw you ropes, now you have to put the energy into a decision. So I've chosen what could be called a "pivot word" to use when I catch my old negative programming taking over to remind me of who I am truly..Divine Expression. I don't have to find sentences to "talk myself up." It's already there waiting.
I can feel the relief in my body. Again, thank you!🕉️🙏❤️

I was quick to judge and label things, situations, people, etc as “bad” or “good” but it came to a point when I asked myself “who told me this was ‘good’ or ‘bad’” From there, I have been able to catch myself having these thoughts and redirecting/changing them to come from a place of love and compassion instead. This talk was a reminder to continue doing this practice because it’ll bring more love and peace of mind 💭

Thank you, Saqib, for this very insightful talk. Much love and gratitude 🙏🏼

When you brought up nihilism and how some people fall into that thinking it resonated so much. I had that mindset for way too long. "Nothing matters so why try." I fell into such a deep depression for many years and it's only recently (past 3 months) that I started challenging myself on those destructive thought patterns. You brought up that we give the universe meaning and that it can feel empowering. You are right and it's adding a level of gratefulness that I believe I've took for granted. I'm only just recently starting this journey of healing and retraining my brain not realizing how powerful our minds actually are. With judging and judgement it almost feels like second nature to have formed an opinion on something or someone without even knowing the full extent. At the end, that mindfulness that you were speaking about, that really is the key. I appreciate this talk so much. Thank you for your teachings as well. You always have something to teach about other cultures or people and it really adds to the overall experience. 🌌

Thank you so much! This was the doses of positivity, optimism and insight I needed. Very powerful. I wish you best.

This was a very powerful, moving, and overall thought provoking talk. I am beyond thankful for having a fresh perspective and will continue to use this idea daily. Thank you! Stay blessed and healthy 👍🙃✨

Absolutely brilliant! These powerhouse nuggets of teachings are just so wise and illuminating! ♥️🙏

Hello, Dear Saqib! The way you describe things and deliver this talk is so insightful and on point! It had me thinking about general semantics and clean language 💜

Our words matter. ❤️ love to you and all here, feeling blessed to connect.

Definitely 5 stars — it is ironic to give stars. Thank you.

Such wisdom! Thank you Saqib! 💙🙏🕯

Excellent thank you

Excellently timed for handling our present times.

Powerful and thought provoking message that is also full of loving kindness. Thank you for sharing 💜.

Thank you. Namaste

Thought-provoking. 💜

This was fascinating. Your examples make this profound topic so easy to quickly understand. Thank you, dear Saqib. ❤️