Coco Chanel, known best for Chanel Number 5, had a deep inner sense of what she loved doing—what she was passionate about—and she trusted this inner knowing.

Like all human beings there were doubtless many egoic aspects to her career as a Paris fashion designer. But watching the movie about her life, called simply Coco Chanel, you get the sense that from a young age there was an authentic streak in her that couldn’t help but show up.

It popped out everywhere, long before she was ever recognized for her talent.

I walk into a store. The sales associate approaches me and announces, "If you have any questions, let me know. I'll be glad to answer them for you."
 
I reply, "What is the meaning of life?"
 
In our more reflective moments, we've all pondered the vexing questions of existence, meaning, and purpose. Why is there something rather than nothing? Why are we here? What does it all mean? What is my destiny? What happens after death? Is this all there is? Is there a God? What's it all about?
 

If we inquire into the nature of meaning, we discover that it’s nature is love.

So many people who feel their life doesn’t have meaning are really saying that they don’t experience a love of their own being.

This doesn’t mean they don’t love themselves. It means that mental chatter and emotional turmoil block the love that is the essence of being.

We cannot not love ourselves.

The divine Presence at the heart of reality is found in the most simple of ways: it surfaces when we become quiet enough to trust our own heart.

By the “heart,” we mean the core of our being, our very essence, not our emotions.

Meaning flows from that which we perceive in a heart way at the very center of our existence. When we go with our heart, we live a life that's meaningful.

We hunger for meaning, but this meaning is found only in the Presence that's the source of being itself—and therefore also the source of our being.

Because we are dependent for our being on the Presence that is being itself, we are also dependent on this Presence for meaning.

But meaning isn’t something we think about, something we intellectualize about. It’s an experience we live into.

We cannot say, “The meaning of my life is…,” and then go on to articulate some mental concept of why we think we are here.

Human beings hunger for meaning. We long for it perhaps more than almost anything else.

It used to be that people found their meaning in using this life as a preparation for the next. But in an era when many have rightly abandoned the idea of an afterlife as the meaning of this life, where are we to find meaning?

Rejecting all ideas of a God, some seek to find meaning in simply enjoying everything they do. Others seek meaning in some noble cause that will better the lives of their fellow humans or other species on our planet.

At the heart of the entire evolutionary enterprise of life on this planet is the survival instinct. Some months ago, our beloved Norwegian Elk Hound of fifteen years became ill and started into the dying process. As we watched her decline, it was so obvious that she wasn't ready to give it up yet. She wanted to live!

Whether we are talking ants migrating from one nest to another, some creature cornered and fighting for its life, or humans going through an illness, the survival instinct is a powerful driver of the ongoing abundance, diversity, and development of life.

When we come into the world, we are coming out of our source of pure being, which is infinite and undifferentiated.

But we don’t come into the world in this infinite, undifferentiated state. On the contrary, every baby born already has a unique personality. It’s a particular expression of the infinite source.

This particularity of our individuality attracts to itself people and situations that will reinforce what’s already there—both the strengths and the weaknesses.