For many, religion is the key to this validation of self. The Old and New Testaments dictate that living a life oriented around God’s can provide all the meaning one needs. The third Abrahamic tradition, Islam, puts God (Allah) at the forefront of a meaningful life as well. Buddhism urges its adherents to stop searching for meaning in the material world, believing that the only way to avoid suffering is to cultivate this detachment. Native American cultures teach that true knowledge of the self and compassion for others are the paths to a meaningful life. Every culture has its subtly different translations.

Of all the religions I’ve studied, the mystic traditions speak to me as being the most relevant to the yearning for meaning in our time. Mysticism proposes a direct connection between us and the force(s) that rule our lives. There is no middleman, doctrine, dogma, or ritual as a prerequisite. But how can this immediacy be felt? Absolute trust and true comfort with “not knowing.”

Ah, trust. That’s a tricky one these days. All around us, venerable institutions, laws, and constructs for how we operate our lives are crumbling. We no longer know whom to trust to help us guide our course.

Our religious institutions, our government, our financial institutions, our corporations, our families, and our schools—these structures don’t work their magic the way they used to. I think one of the greatest reasons we grapple for meaning at this particular time is that we’re struggling to feel a connection to things we can count on. Yet, if we cannot count on the same things we counted on previously, we have no choice but to trust ourselves and that which is less concrete. In other words, we have to have confidence in things that are, at least at first glance, far less monumental.

It is one of the great ironies that while our hunger for a “meaningful” life can be enormous, these days more and more our desire for meaning is ultimately satiated by the smaller, quieter aspects of our lives. Meaning is where you look for it—and also how you look at it. Meaning is actually all around us, and the circumstances surrounding it can be like an Escher print. Life can look quite meaningless until we focus on a certain point or points and the picture changes. As it comes into focus, we find the peace that discovering meaning can bring.

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