And there are different ways of doing definitions too (operational – it is what you do – vs etiology – the linguistic origin etc).

For me the distinctive thing about meaning is that it has to do with the fit between me and my situation and is big enough to take in all of me. But, English being what it is, there are lots of synonyms.

I like Viktor Frankl’s idea that there isn’t a meaning to life, there is though the meaning of my life. For me: connecting deeply with others.

His death was meaningless – probably means something like random/senseless – not fitting his/her own narrative.

Does a tree have meaning? People include it in their narratives/sense of life. Is a tree conscious of itself in some articulate way? No.

For me meaning/purpose/values are in the dimension of our life called ‘spirit’. Linear rationality and emotion don’t give these.

There is much to say about the various views given – too long for a comment. Phrases can have meaning without reference to the world ‘out there’; my favourite is from an e e cummings poem, “not even the rain has such small hands”.

http://barkingunicorn.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/lifes-purpose/

I notice that the author didn’t say positive eventss. I think that’s significant because we can’t change the past. If we live in the past all of the time, it will be difficult to find the meaning in life. There have been some terrible things that have happened to me which I cannot change, but what I choose to do and think about them can change them into meaningful events for me. Maybe I’m able to help someone else, or see a greater good, maybe I don’t know why something happened, but I see the power in the bridge to a better outlook.
.-= Nickie´s last blog ..All aboard for the Nickie’s Nook tour =-.

There is no caring without action, dear.

” then i think accepting would be good but is it a prerequisite?”

Only if you want to care about the real person or thing, and not about your delusions concerning it.

By “delusions” I mean not only qualities or characteristics that you perceive in a thing but which no one else perceives. I also mean your unfulfilled desires that the thing be something other than exactly what it, he, or she is.

“I love you, but…”

“This would be perfect if…”

“are understanding and meaning the same?”

No. What you understand has meaning.

Your attachment to the socks does not mean they are “imbued with meaning.” It means that you are conditioned to keep what your mother makes for you whether you want it or not. A child, of any age, who does so earns social approval. One who throws away the socks her mother made for her earns social disapproval, no matter how uselessly worn out the socks are.

Of course, there’s no one around to disapprove if you throw out the socks – except you. You hold yourself in bondage to this conditioning.

The quest for meaning is a quest for attachments to things. Why seek meaning except to find something for which you will toil and struggle, suffer and die in order to keep it as it is, or to make it manifest if it does not yet exist?

Attachment gives rise to suffering, because everything always changes and so nothing can be yours.

“He who wherever he goes is attached to no person and to no place (or thing) by ties of flesh; who accepts good and evil alike, neither welcoming the one nor shrinking from the other — take it that such a one has attained Perfection.” — Bhagavad-Gita

and are understanding and meaning the same? i don’t want to throw out these socks; my mother made them (i.e. one could say they are imbued with meaning). does that imply that i understand the socks? the fibre? the way they were made?
.-= isabella mori (@moritherapy)´s last blog ..i have a dream – about mental health =-.

Yes, “it’s meaningless to me” and “I don’t care about it” are interchangeable in one sense: how could you possibly care about what you don’t understand?

“I don’t understand him, but he’s my so I care about him,” you say. But you don’t care about him. You care about your mental construct of “whatever”. THAT is what has meaning to you. Unless a thing means something to you, you cannot care about it.

So the prerequisite to doing anything about/for one who you claim to care about is to understand him/her… accept what he/she really is in place of your mental consstruct of “whatever”… banish your delusions.

Then you can clear-headedly decided whether he/she is worth doing anything about; that is, whether the real person has any meaning to you.