What is meaningless is neither good nor bad. Why, then, should a meaningless world upset you? If you could accept the world as meaningless and let the truth be written upon it for you, it would make you indescribably happy. But because it is meaningless, you are impelled to write upon it what you would have it be. It is this you see in it. It is this that is meaningless in truth. Beneath your words is written the Word of God. The truth upsets you now, but when your words have been erased, you will see His. That is the ultimate purpose of these exercises.
The point is – to accept life on its own terms rather than the way we want it to be. We hold on to beliefs for our future based upon our past experience, but both the past and the future are an illusion. All there is – is now. Any attempt to live in the future or the past is going to lead to anxiety. We aren’t open to today being totally different than yesterday.
We think that what upsets us is an oppressive world, or an insane, world, or a miserable world. The world is meaningless in and of itself – we have given it it’s meaning and it is we who must take responsibility for it.
I think I see a scary world, a dying world, a tragic world, an absurd word. But I am upset because I see a meaningless world.
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. Each man is questioned by life and can only answer to life by answering for his own life, by being responsible. Responsibleness is the essence of human existence.” ~ Victor Frankl