At a certain age we all seek meaning in our lives. It is famously known as midlife crisis in pop culture. For me it didn’t happen in my 40’s, it happened when i was 19 years of age, pursuing a bachelors and juggling my time to become an artist.

I started thinking deeply about life and its purpose. After spending many hours going through literature, history and world religions, I stumbled across the concepts of Buddhism. A month planning and journeying in Himalayas to meet the actual monks gave me a profound perspective and i ended that journey with one word which i still find very intriguing, Emptiness. This concept freed me from my existential crisis.

So how does Sartre and his famous concept of existentialism sit in all this?

Our generation would rarely care about who Sartre was, or what was his legacy. Millennials studying philosophy at a university will get a lecture about him at some point. But for rest of us, we need to find Sartre by ourselves. And i am lucky that i found a wise old man who runs an antique art and book store on King st. west, very close to where i work. So whenever i visit him, he gives me a new book and they all have really helped me mature my world perspective. Sartre’s existentialism is a humanism was one of them.

Sartre said humans are free to make their own independent choices and follow their own free will and if they don’t, they are living in bad faith.

He said, Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.

This freedom of choice makes us and just us responsible for who we become. Our whole existence is just our responsibility and we choose if our life is a success or a failure by our own standards. It doesn’t give room to the idea that our life is controlled by situations beyond our control and even if we do find ourselves in such a situation. We are still making a choice, we are still deciding our free will. We still are in control of our lives.

As empowering as i find this, it enrages a lot of people as it in a very brutally honest way conveys that if you didn’t achieve your dreams in life then its all because of your own choices and not so good ones in this case.

With this new found freedom, comes a great responsibility. Now we have to be conscious of what choices we make in our day and be mindful that our choices are aligned with the goals or dreams we have set for ourselves.

For example, I very innocently believe that I will change the world. But to do so, am I putting enough effort? What choices do I make to achieve this goal. For one instance, Am i quitting all forms of entertainment to read books written by greats of science, literature and philosophy to create a mindset similar to people in past who actually have? Even here I am making a very choice among many to decide where should I put my time and effort in and consciously create meaning through actions.

Coming to the second part of all this, Existentialism.

This big and interesting word means something we have been discussing so far.

Core of this idea lies in the statement, Existence precedes Essence.

What this means is,

Man is born, find himself in his era and defines who he is by his own choices.

So the essence, the nature which is the culmination of all the choices made throughout life only comes after the existence of man. We all start our existence with nothing pre defined and basically build up or add on our personality, life, accomplishments etc based on our very own choices. Simply said “Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself”.

The artist who is sculpting you is you. Not Michelangelo, not god, not faith. Just you.

Now coming back to the start of all this. My search for the meaning of life. It really ends as i realized, as Sartre must have realized before me.

That the meaning of life is what you give it. How simple, yet so profound.

Now these statements put a lot of pre conceived notions and ideals of our society in a disarray.

Some might say, their life is directed or controlled by God or a divine being. Here I am in no way rejecting that humble stance being spiritual myself. But if your god is not letting you fulfill your life’s desire, holding you back to do something meaningful for yourself or in any way making you commit evil because you have no other choice but to do it, then i would say you are living in bad faith.

One may argue that their life is controlled way too much by their life partners, job, friends or a boss. But then again we and our choices have really lead us to them. Not something beyond our control and we can still exercise that power.

Some might ask how people in a war or poverty fit in this scenario. And as unfortunate as this may be, people in past have changed their immediate situations and became successful. Its more tough but its still possible. We all know countless rags to riches stories and such individuals have made a greater impact on the world. Personalities like Andrew Carnegie are the champions for people who started from nothing and became the most wealthy among us.

Now there can be plenty more counter arguments. But we shall not forget that this is a philosophy not a proven scientific fact like gravity. No one is obliged to believe it, but it still makes life and its countless decisions easier and more fruitful.

Nevertheless, we still are choosing what we want to believe in or what we don’t. Hence our choice is still dictating our world view.

I hope this gave you something different to think about.

Enjoy being rulers of your life and make great choices.

Until next time!

Harsh Dhillon