Is human life just a meaningless procedure - from birth to death? William Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest:
"We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep..."
So, what is the meaning of life? Is this the reality and the meaning of life? Birth, dreams or plays, death?
We have to admit, the basic nature of our life is like any creature - life is procedure, a journey from womb to tomb. However, we are human beings, and the smartest creature in the world, and we have emotions, feelings. We know what we love and what we hate - no matter what they are, there are something that we love and some others that we hate. We do not live to eat, and we eat to live, then we do what we think it is meaningful to our life.
That is the meaning of life, anything valuable and virtuous for the others, for ourselves, and for the world that we are living in. Love gives meaning to our lives ¨C our love to our parents and children, friendship, and so on. Here, we can find some factors of true happiness, of inner peace, of feelings of harmony, allowing meaning to our existence.
How about the cruelty of life, unhappiness, pains, cry, evil things, death etc. These are the factors that tend to make our life meaningless - the negative side of our life. However, without them, we don't what is happiness, joy, good etc the positive side of life. Just by telling between the positive side from the negative side, we know the significance of life, and even more, we know how to do during the journey of our life.
When we meditate about all that, we begin to probe the meaning and purpose of life. When we read the poem "Life" by Francis Bacon, we know that he is keen for freedom, so he advocates to fight against injustice.
Hence, when you look back at your life, you will have no regrets over any time you wasted. Nor will you feel ashamed of not accomplishing anything. That's the meaning of life that you have found.
