The Search for
Spiritual Meaning
The Search for Spiritual Meaning
All humans have three things in common: We’re born, we live, and we die. For such
simple facts, these truths raise profound questions for us.
We know about our bodies: we eat, sleep, work, and have children, for instance.
We know about our feelings, about love, sorrow, joy, anger, or boredom. We form
relationships with other people, we dream, we plan, we play, we get hurt, and most
of the time, we take these events for granted and do what we need to do for another
day.
But then sometimes something profound or miraculous or disastrous happens—like holding
a baby, or falling in love, or being with someone who is dying—or some catastrophe
strikes. At that moment we become aware of just how big the world is and how small
we are in relation to it, and then we ask, “Why…?”
“Spirituality” describes, at least in part, that search for meaning and answers
to our questions about life and death. We cannot answer them on our own, so we turn
to others for help, like our friends, parents, religious leaders, or sometimes even
strangers, just someone who can help make sense of life.
“Religion” is what we call the various ways in which different groups of people
have found to answer these questions. The more people who have found a religion
helpful and the longer they have practiced it together, the better they have organized
it so that they could pass it on to others. Over time, the communities develop language,
rites and ceremonies, and objects, all to express the profound experiences they
have had and the truth they have found through them. The language and rites can
be beautiful or frightening or confusing, yet at their core, they are still about
those three simple facts: We’re born, we live, and we die—Why? What difference do
we make?