Why Do We Exist?: A possible rational concept and an incommodious personal path to the answer

Our mind has the ability to ask the question, why all this? What is the meaning or purpose of my existence on this earth? What of the existence of other people and creatures? What of the existence of the earth and the entirety of the cosmos whose expanse remains unfathomable? The human mind may be able to ask this question, but paradoxically is not able to find an answer to it. We can conceive of any number of more or less probable scenarios as an explanation for what caused the world to exist.

The book shows that, on the rational plane, there can be no proof that a given concept is the answer. The answer can only be found on the basis of individual experience.

 

In Part I of the book a possible explanation for the meaning of it all is derived, one that does not rely on any unproved hypotheses, ideologies or teachings. It is based on the fact that after hundreds of millions of years of the evolution of life on earth, human beings have emerged and been given the capacity for love – to experience and live love.

Love, understood not as a momentary idealisation connected to powerful emotions but as the deep awareness of being accepted and as an attitude of compassion and acceptance of all people and beings. Men and women who have experienced this love have experienced the ultimate purpose of human existence.

But also for many without this personal experience, love is one of the greatest goods they know of. It is perceived – from the psychological, philosophical as well as spiritual perspective – as one of the highest, if not the highest, values we know of. 

 

Part II, the main section of the book, describes object-free meditation: a personal path leading to experiencing the deep meaning of life.

By describing object-free meditation from four different perspectives, the book shows that this path is independent of religious or spiritual beliefs, but by all means compatible with them as seen through its long tradition within different religions.

It is a path leading inward, to our actual selves as human beings – contained in love. Every human being holds a place within ourselves where love can be experienced as the ultimate foundation. Depending on teaching, religion or tradition, this place has been given different names. Lao Tzu terms it Wuji-nature – which is attained by means of tai chi as a spiritual path – Buddhism denominates it Buddha-nature, Christianity calls it Christ, who is born and lives within ourselves.

Different religions describe differing ways – rituals, tenets and rules of life or physical exercises – to the experience of this fundamental element. Object-free or non-object meditation is one of the oldest and most direct ways.

Part III deals with the decisive final and never-ending part of the path: integrating spiritual values into everyday life.

The text differs from other books with a similar theme in that the author has adopted a visibly open-minded attitude. The book is free from ties to a specific spiritual or religious teaching and does not impose a new ideology on the reader. It is also free from the constricting modern belief in the exclusive primacy of reason and logical thinking in approaching questions about the meaning of existence of human beings. It is founded not on dogmas and traditional assumptions but on experience. What counts is what I myself perceive and experience without and within myself. I employ my reason and my intellect but am at the same time aware of their limits.

The book is written in a universally accessible language and describes complex concepts in clearly understandable manner. The author incorporates the present knowledge of religious teachings, psychology, philosophy and astrophysics without using overly technical language.

Samuel Vozeh was born in Prague, Czech Republic and has been living in Switzerland since 1968. He is a husband, father of two, physician and scientist. His professional career includes work in Basel, Switzerland (Professor of Medicine at University of Basel), San Francisco and Bern, Switzerland. He has held positions in Internal Medicine, Clinical Pharmacology, Drug Regulatory Agency and since 2007 in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. He has been practising object-free meditation for more than 20 years. He organises retreats for interested men and women and teaches on the path of object free-meditation. He is a MBSR teacher and MBCT therapist. (MBSR: Mindfulness based stress reduction, a therapeutic method developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. MBCT: Mindfulness based cognitive therapy.)