Meaning

We are all mortals who live in a vast and uncaring universe; one which proceeds regardless of our desires and wishes. Some of us are, sadly, overwhelmed by this existential reality and give in to nihilism and despair. Most of us seek to establish some sense of meaning in our lives, and connection with others, which gives our lives a path to fulfillment and purpose despite the existential problems we face.

Generally, people’s approach to finding meaning can fall into one of two broad categories:

Firstly there is the method of finding meaning through submitting to something that is supposed to be more powerful and long lasting than ourselves: For instance Gods (or God), Dharma, the spirit of the nation, the laws of history, the dictates of ‘pure reason’ and so on. These ‘higher’ entities are usually, allegedly, something which will live beyond our own mortal lives and which can legislate morals and/or truth. But while many different ‘higher’ entities have been proposed as the one true underpinning of meaning there are flaws and dangers in all such concepts. Apart from the question of whether the proposed higher entity has any independent existence outside of human will and desire there is the sad fact that too often the search for an external basis of meaning through such entities leads to the creation of an idol whose interests and purposes are said to be higher than those of any individual human beings. This in turn risks leading to the the justification of exploiting, persecuting and even killing our fellow human beings, as their interests are less important than those of the idol; God, the communist party, the nation, the market etc. Every person who has been killed for a God, a nation, an idea, has been killed because the interests of an idol were put above respect for our common humanity.

Secondly there is the method of finding meaning based on realizing what is inside ourselves, and what can be realized through our social creations such as family and community, rather than surrender to an externalised ‘higher entity’ such as a God or a nation. This approach is based on finding fulfillment and connection through realizing the best of our own human potential; through such potentials, as love, sympathy, reason, curiosity, etc. Rather than seeking meaning through association with an imagined immortality through God etc. this approach seeks meaning through utitlising our own resources to realize the best of ourselves. This approach can even be found in everyday language when we talk about a person fulfilling their potential.

It is an approach which provides meaning through accepting our mortality and making the most of our potential, and making the best connection with others, that we can while we are enjoying our opportunity to live. It focuses on maximizing the natural sense of fulfillment and happiness that comes from realizing our potential and building good relations with others, rather than seeking a way around our mortality and limited abilities by associating with an idol.

Human Heartedness is a version of this second type of approach to meaning

Of course, in talking about this second type of approach to meaning, there are many different views on how and which potentials we should promote. There are those who say our only relevant potentials are those to seek wealth and/or procreate. There are others who advocate focusing on potentials for greed, selfishness, love of power and so on. What makes an approach a human hearted approach is that its emphasis is on social potentials such as sympathy, compassion, empathy and love. It is this social focus which differentiates human heartedness from approaches to human self realization which focus on pure egoism, power and domination etc. The human hearted way focuses on the human source of compassion and sympathy; it is not a God or a philosophy, but the love in a person’s heart which enables them to be kind to others. Cultivating that love and sympathy is part of the human hearted way to personal development and fulfillment.

The human hearted approach to meaning is to find our best potentials and do our best to realise them. This sort of answer can be found in numerous human hearted thinkers and is encapsulated in well known phrases such as self realisation, self actualization, fulfillment, be who you truly are, live authentically, and so on.

The human hearted approach seeks meaning through accepting our mortality and making the most of our potential, and making the best connection with others, that we can while enjoying our opportunity to live. It focuses on maximizing the natural sense of fulfillment and happiness that comes from realizing our potential and building good relations with others, rather than seeking a way around our mortality and limited abilities by associating with an idol. The happiness and fulfilment that comes from building good relations with others, and realising the best of our own potentials, is the best path to meaning, satisfaction in life, and a sense of not being alone in the universe that is available to us.

More on the difference between the human hearted and other self realization approaches:

The key difference between the human hearted version of self realization/fulfillment and many other and mroe well known versions is that the human hearted version focuses as much on our social potential as our individual potential.

Human fulfilment or self realisation/actualization in the human hearted tradition always involves realisation of our positive social potential as well as any distinctive individual potential. It involves building good relations with others and living as ethically as possible.

In this sense the human hearted version of self realisation is very different from the version promoted by many aspects of contemporary culture; versions which focus on egotistic self gratification and aggrandizement at the expense of other people. Such a form of fulfillment is not fulfilment but abandonment of our humanity from the point of view of the human hearted way. This difference needs to be stressed when talking about the human hearted tradition as concepts such as realization and fulfillment can easily signal to people a form of intense anti social individualism or inward looking lack of interest with the welfare of others: which is actually the opposite of what self realisation means for the human hearted way.