Some, such as Epictetus and Tolle, argue that we can find meaning inside our selves, by shoring up our defenses against the blows of fortune and by being present. It also requires, at some level orthodoxy (right belief) and orthopraxy (right life and practice), though again, much debate exists on the details.

It certainly makes you unhappy to be poor, but over a certain threshold, people don’t get much happier by having more money. Also, note that if you purchase this book online, some publishers create atlas-sized books, which isn’t a reasonable size for anyone outside of childhood. Written in 1943, this short story has been used to help people explore patience, acceptance, and love. The meaning of life is not found in them so much as it is found in how they came to be, and also why they choose to remain locked inside this world of fear.The article then investigates three ideas that illumine what meaning means in this context: sense-making, purpose, and significance.

In addition to God’s existence, meaning in life requires that a person be appropriately related to God, perhaps as expressed in one’s beliefs and especially in one’s devotion, worship, and the quality of her life lived with and among others as, for example, embodied in Jesus’ statement of the greatest commandments (cf. I think both of those things, and the package that goes with them, except for the metaphysical part, can survive from a scientific, naturalistic perspective.The riddle of existence faces all ages of mankind with the same mysterious countenance; we catch sight of its features, but we must guess at the soul behind it. Most events important enough to make it into local lore will not matter enough to be included in a national history, let alone world and, especially, cosmic history.