No one knows why they’re alive, what their purpose is. They can claim to know, but there is no absolute certainty. For many, meaning in life is a choice: “I choose for my life to have meaning because of this.” For others, meaning in life isn’t a choice, so much as a set of socio-emotional shackles they choose to inherit. “My life has meaning because of these people and these responsibilities.”

Oftentimes, humans engage in ideological debates about what chosen purpose in life is “better” on some made-up value-scale. We do so using religion, philosophy, doctrine, and social values. But what we all consistently fail to remember, because it’s quite an inconvenient fact, is that all of this is… fiction. These values change over time: the values of a bygone era are often seen as backwards in contemporary times. Our contemporary values will, similarly, one day evoke disgust in future generations.

There are no real values in the world. We abide by a set of time-constrained moral and ethical principles that derive from social mores. These principles uphold society and civilization as we know it. These principles can come from our sense of primal virtue, but they can also chip away at our intrinsic primal virtue and instinct. Regardless, any set of principles is merely one set of moral and ethical solutions to existence. It isn’t the be-all, end-all. There isn’t one overarching set of right-and-wrong for all-time.

You can claim that God established timeless values, but what you’re really doing is placing society and your own preferences on a pedestal and defending those. Anyone who dare go against that grain or even say anything to the contrary is “evil” or “bad” or “misguided” and “arrogant.” But aren’t you the arrogant one, thinking that you can really and truly discern right from wrong? That such a mathematical notion of perfection exists in reality?

Believe you me, I know the temptation, the want for a sense of right to prop ourselves up on. But most people I see, they have a sense of rationale and logic that never fully encompasses the whole picture, but rather, a very small and myopic part of it: a part that entertains their sense of idyllic comfort and self-purported superiority, so they can feel good about themselves. I am, of course, no different; only that my sense of superiority derives from upending everyone else’s and showing that no one has any grounds for any belief. Every belief, religious, moral, or otherwise can be effectively upended.

This isn’t to say I don’t live a principled existence. I do, but the principles I choose are not those of comfort and longevity. I do not subscribe to the thought of being a “good dog” and catering to what society wishes to make of me. I believe in the individual spirit, in the wisdom that comes from facing the world head-on, in living life recognizing that its full breadth and value is both empty and full at the same time. Our existences are a superposition; on one hand, we are tiny, frail creatures; our thoughts and values and beliefs mean nothing; we mean nothing; our entire lives are utterly devoid of purpose and meaning.

And on the other hand, our spirits encompass the universe; they have more meaning than all the matter in the universe; we are more than the sum of our parts. We are, and we are not, and in that, we are all we need to be.

Therefore, should we not exist in striving, not for comfort, not for joy, not for happiness, but for something deeper: some deeper pursuit of truth, of being, beyond the artifices of our man-made society? Is this not where the virtues of true courage, humility, love, and compassion arise from?

Yet most of us are too afraid to be our full-selves, recognizing that we would be ostracized or criticized by the people around us, forced to live lives of solitude – a thought which many of us cannot bear, for our sense of identity is rooted in the recognition we derive from the phantasmic “other.” We are cerebral beings, living in our heads, and so are our identities. We fear truly being ourselves and the gift of true solitude for this reason, for it would mean we could never fully reconcile ourselves with others.

And yet, the greatest and most remembered amongst us do just this. They have this courage, this willingness. They find true joy and peace and serenity in being themselves, unforgivingly, unconditionally, embracing all the suffering that it brings about: for they realize, such suffering is not a curse, but a blessing.

Are you shackled by the cages of your own beliefs, by your own need to be superior? Or do you recognize the world is a level playing field, and embrace the true freedom and joy in being?