The fourth dimension of meaning is the lifeline from the abstract to the concrete, the potential to the actual, the spiritual essence to the material embodiment of value.
“Objective values become concrete duties, are cast in the form of the demands of each day and in personal tasks. The values lying back of these tasks can apparently be reached for only through the tasks.” (The Doctor and the Soul, p. 42)
“Lifeline,” the fourth aspect of meaning, signifies the meaningful change created in the world and in myself through my freely-chosen actions or attitudes taken in response to life’s questions.
In attempting to answer the question of the meaning of life – that most human of all questions – man is thrown back upon himself, must realize that he is questioned by life and has to answer and be answerable with his life. That is, he is thrown back upon the primal elements of human existence – being conscious and being responsible. In existential analysis, which is analysis of the responsibility aspects of being human, responsibility has been shown to arise out of the concreteness of person and situation and to grow with this concreteness. Responsibility grows, as we have seen, with the uniqueness of the person and the singularity of the situation. Uniqueness and singularity, we have said, are fundamental components of the meaning of life. …(The Doctor and the Soul, Frankl, pp. 70-73)
Say ‘yes’ to life!
It is only by saying ‘yes’ to life that you can engage in a dynamic, creative process with life. Saying ‘yes’ connotes the capacity to agree to the terms of the agreement of life in this world. I agree to work in less than ideal conditions. I agree to make mistakes and learn from them. I agree to admit that I don’t know and it’s okay that I don’t know. I agree to embrace people, challenges and my own foibles and emotional field for what they are. Most of all I agree to take responsibility for taking a stand against evil, dispelling my illusions and physically embodying the values that comprise my soul’s mission.
In the past four weeks we’ve discussed four different aspects of meaning
a) something outside yourself communicating something about itself
b) values inside you resonating with the external message
c) hearing that message call you or wake you up to long for a meaningful goal
d) the meaning made real through your response to the call
Each one of these aspects of meaning is meaningful in its own right. There is meaning to my ability to see and hear something beyond myself as it speaks to me of its (or his or her) constrictions, uniqueness or wonder. Seeing and hearing the other allows me to transcend my four cubits and become part of something greater than my limited self.
There is meaning to my ability to delve into the depth of my spirit and find values that make life worth living and then to be able to see potential for their fulfillment out there in the world, even if right now they exist in an extremely hidden place, such as the ability to see a latent and undeveloped talent in a child.
There is meaning to my being here! I am engaged in a dynamic relationship with life in which I am called, I answer the call and am called yet again. In addition to the meaning to seeing the other as a separate entity and recognizing the hidden values there, the idea that life asks something of me connects me to life still more. Through my capacity for conscience and response-ability I understand that I am not an isolated speck floating in space but that I mean something to you and you mean something to me!
“For man resembles a sculptor who chisels and hammers the unshaped stone so that the material takes on more and more form. Man works the matter with which fate has supplied him: now creating, now experiencing or suffering, he attempts to “hammer out” values in his life,” (The Doctor and the Soul, p. 70)
Finally, there is meaning to my actions. Until I act on values and bring them to life, they remain unused potentialities. Embodying and actualizing values ‘shapes’ me and connects me to life!
The tangible realness of meaning is a ‘lifeline’ connecting between higher esoteric values and a virtuous, meaningful existence in this material world. The first three aspects of meaning were the attention to what is, the vision of what can be and the discernment of and responsiveness to a task or mission I’m called upon to do; the fourth aspect is the meaning of the new reality that is created as a result of my response. There is meaning to every action that I take. My journey through existence confers a lasting imprint and so it is for every soul that passes through this world.
If I am in the habit of saying I am a soul that has a body, then I will likewise regard my life through the prism of making esoteric values tangible. “I let go of my resentment and thereby embodied patience.” “I spoke out against corruption and embodied the defiant power of the human spirit….”
We began this series by comparing meaning in life to the four dimensions of textual understanding and insight according to the Jewish tradition. How does this fourth dimension of meaning allude to the mystical? “The values can apparently be reached for only through the tasks.” The level of sod (mystery or esoteric meaning) in life, as in textual study, is the mystery of the spiritual housed in and channeled through material containers.