Excerpt’s of Viktor E Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.
The true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world rather than within man or his own psyche. It denotes the fact that being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than himself-be it a meaning to fulfull or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself-by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love – the more human he is and the more he actualises himself.
1/ by creating a work or doing a deed; 2/by experiencing something or encountering someone; and 3/ by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering; The first is quite obvious, the second and third need further elaboration. The second way is by experiencing something-such as goodness, truth and beauty-by experiencing nature and culture or, last but not least, by experiencing another human being in his very uniqueness-by loving him. The third way of finding a meaning in life is by suffering, facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to transform a personal tradedy into a triumph, to turn ones predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves and this in turn presupposes the human capacity to creatively turn life’s negative aspects into something positive or constructive. In other words, what matters is to make the best of any given situation.
Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to “be happy.” Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically. As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy through actualising the potential meaning inherent and dormant in a given situation. Once an individual’s search for a meaning is successful, it not only renders him happy but also gives him the capability to cope with suffering-to express it in plain words, to become aware of what can be done about a given situation. Most important, however, is the third avenue to meaning in life: even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation, facing a fate he cannot change, may rise above himself, may grow beyond himself, and by so doing change himself. He may turn a personal tradedy into a triumph, seeing it as a growth experience “the defiant power of the human spirit”. Is this to say that suffering is indispensable to the discovery of meaning? In no way. If it is avoidable, the meaningful thing to do is to remove its cause, for unnecessary suffering is masochistic rather than heroic. If, on the other hand, one cannot change a situation that causes his suffering, he can still choose his attitude. As we see the prioity stays with creatively changing the situation that causes us to suffer. But the superiority goes to the “know how to suffer,” if need be. And there is empirical evidence that-literally-the “man in the street” is of the same opinion, those held in highest esteem by most of the people are neither the great artists not the great scientists, neither the great statesmen not the great sports figures, but those who master a hard lot with their heads held high. “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.”
To be sure, people tend to see only stubble fields of transitoriness but overlook and forget the full granaries of the past into which they have brought the harvest of their lives: the deeds done, the loves loved, and last but not least, the sufferings they have gone through with courage and dignity. From this, one may see that there is no reason to pity old people. It is true that the old have no oppurtunities, no possibilities in the future. But they have more than that. Instead of possibilities in the future, they have realities in the past- the potentialities they have actualised, the meanings they have fulfilled, the values they have realised-and nothing and nobody can ever remove these assets from the past. It is that which warrants the indeliable quality of the dignity of man. Just as life remains potentially meaningful under any conditions, even those that are most miserable, so too does the value of each person stay with him or her, and it does so because it is based on the values that he or she has realised in the past, and is not contingent on the usefulness that he or she may or may not retain in the present.
How does a human being go about finding meaning? All we can do is study the lives of people who seem to have found their answers to the questions of what ultimately human life is about as against those who have not.