There is a reason for our existence that is inherent in our life, a meaning that goes beyond our daily survival needs, or there is not. Neither the scientists nor the philosophers can settle this question with any certainty. But it is not a scientific or philosophical question. This is a question that is only meaningful as it applies to an individual life. And the answer to the question can only be lived and experienced by an individual or not experienced.
Existence
The existence of life as a whole is either accidental or it is planned in some way. The existence of the earth and the particular life forms that inhabit it is a simple and natural chemistry experiment and we are its results. Or there is some kind of intelligence behind it all, a super mind.
Argue as we might, with great passion and mountains of evidence on our side, no one is in a position to know for certain why we exist and whether our being has any meaning. We must each decide for ourselves. Religion comes down firmly on the side of a mind behind existence. Many others see life as a big accident with no purpose and certainly no guiding higher power.
Our beliefs about existence and being have a huge impact on how we view the self and how we view life as a whole. Since nothing can be proved one way or the other, why not choose the worldview that makes the most sense to you and which makes life more worthwhile and potentially rewarding?
Meaning
If there is a mind behind life, a creative force, then life, existence, being, has meaning. Many individuals seek meaning in their life. Many try to create meaning in their life through their work, their relationships, and perhaps through some kind of service to humanity. But is there a meaning built into life? Is there a purpose for life that is included in the creator's package?
While my belief in a meaningful existence cannot be proven by any scientific method, I have an awareness of meaning just by paying attention to my life experiences. I would suggest that if we take a meaningful existence as a working hypothesis and look at our own life experiences as if they were meaningful, we might be surprised at what we find.
Projection & Reflection
I come to a belief in a meaningful existence through my religious studies and personal experiences. I also come to it through my study of dreams. Because my dreams are meaningful, there is the suggestion that everything is meaningful. In fact, I have taken my work in understanding the meaning of dreams into my waking life. By doing that, I have discovered that my waking life is just as meaningful and revelatory as my dreams.
Projection is one of the great understandings that Sigmund Freud brought to psychology. Essentially, I will project onto other people the things in myself that I reject and deny. Because of this process of projection, other people will end up reflecting back to me those very qualities I have tried to deny.
This is what happens in dreams. In dreams, the various characters, settings, and circumstances of the dreams are materialized manifestations of the projections of my psyche. All aspects of the dream represent aspects of my self. They all reflect who I am or who I believe I am.
Because projection is active in waking life, I posit that in all of my interactions with others, all of my experiences during the day, I will also be meeting aspects of my self. My life is meaningful because everything I see and do, everything I think and speak, everything I feel, is a meaningful reflection of my psyche.
Existence, Meaning, & Intention
This idea that life is like a dream suggests a meaning for existence, an intention behind this whole process. The intention seems to be to make me a better person. The feedback that I receive from my sleeping and waking dreams seems to have an intention to let me know where I need to make changes in my life, where I have fears or anger or unfinished psychological business.
This intention seems to lead us into the greatest possible expression of being that we might attain. In other terms, the intention of life seems to be to bring us to enlightenment, Buddha consciousness, Christ consciousness, or Cosmic consciousness. The feedback from our dreams and waking life experiences is designed to be course correction. When we drift away from the fullest possible meaning of our being, we will be shown what we need to see.
Of course we can always ignore the feedback. What I am suggesting is not an easy path. The fact that we are constantly being given information about how we're doing in our search for our highest potential, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, does not mean that it is easy to interpret that information. Beyond that, it doesn't mean that we have the courage to follow our understanding even if it becomes clear to us.
It means, for better or worse, that my existence and being are intertwined with yours. I am your teacher and you are mine. If I know you, if you are in my life, if you have some kind of impact on me, you are telling me something about myself and I am telling you something about you. If I have people in my life whom I do not like, people who drive me crazy, they are also telling me something about my self.
If you look for the meaning in your dreams and the meaning in your waking experiences, you will find it. You will begin to notice synchronicities, those wonderful meaningful coincidences. You will begin to notice redundancies. The same symbol, image, or experience will show up in your dreams and waking life in the same day or over a period of days.
Once you begin to recognize that everything in your life is meaningful, there will no longer be any question in your own mind about the reason for your existence or the meaningfulness of your being. Spiritual growth, then, can actually become fun, but it still requires a fair amount of courage.