By Professor V.N.K. Kumar

There is a branch of psychotherapy called "Logotherapy" founded by Victor Frankl, a Hitler's death camp survivor, which deals with meaning of life. We, secular humanists, can apply the core concepts of this to our own lives, to make it meaningful.

According to Logotherapy, we can discover the meaning of life in three different ways :

1. Through what we give to the world, through what we do, what we contribute, what we add to life, and what we create (Creative values).

2. Through what we receive from life, what we take from life, what life gives us, and what we experience (Experiential values).

3. Through the attitude we take when we are faced with situations in which we can do absolutely nothing, as in the case of an incurable disease viz., an inoperable cancer, or being stricken with blindness, or losing a leg or arm. Nevertheless one choice remains and that is the choice of our attitude towards it. This according to logotherapists, is the last of human freedoms, which nobody can take away from us -- the capacity to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances (Attitudinal values).

Regarding Creative values, the chief duties of a human being is to get to understand as much of the universe as he can and then on the strength of that knowledge, to do his utmost towards making it a better universe than it would have been if he had not happened to be born, by creating some bit of a new value, though it may only be growing two roses where one grew before, or mending the broken leg of a pigeon, or making some difference in the world, but not the kind that suicide bombers do now-a-days. It is for each of us to decide in what way, given the powers and gifts that we possess and the situations with which we are confronted, we can add value to the world around us and in doing so, discover the meaning of our life.

Regarding Experiential values, this is the area of life where we receive things that we have not earned, where life gives us free gifts. There are many things of value that come to us in this way:

Natural Beauty and creativity of Nature: sunset and sunrise, mountains and sea, flowers and trees — all these are bestowed on us freely without money.

Creativity of Humans: The great teachers, painters, writers, poets and music composers have given of themselves freely. We could not by ourselves have achieved what they have to offer. Yet it is ours for the taking.

Thirdly, our most beautiful human relationships are a free gift: We did not pay in advance for the motherhood that bore us all or the maternal love that nourished us. All this was poured out freely. Also most of us can find in our adulthood atleast one person in our lives, who is willing to give love and affection (whether passionate/companionate/compassionate) to us.

We can thus find meaning in all these three experiential ways.

Regarding Attitudinal values, it should be remembered that experiential and creative values are not the only sources of meaning in our lives. Even if we are facing a fate which cannot be changed, there is still meaning available in our lives. Logotherapists say that when you can no longer change the situation, you may change yourself, which means you may change your attitude towards your fate. Changing yourself in such cases means rising above yourself, going beyond yourself. Suffering in itself has no meaning, but we can assume meaningful attitudes towards events that in themselves are meaningless.

Attitudinal values is all about taking the proper stance or posture towards tragedy in our own lives. It is the courage we show in facing up to the trials & tribulations of life. Some people who are visually-challenged or hearing-challenged, or handicapped in other ways cannot be very creative or cannot realize experiential values, in the sense that they cannot do memorable feats or even enjoy beautiful sights or music. How then can such people create meaning in their lives?

I have noticed that such people come to terms very quickly with their handicap and try to surmount it by trying to achieve something in their own small ways. People without upper limbs try to paint and write with their feet, blind people or rather visually-challenged people take up singing or active appreciation of music. When life hands them a lemon, they make a palatable lemonade, by squeezing the juice into a glass of water and adding sugar to it. But then, there are those amongst us who, when life hands them a lemon, eat only the rind, throw away the fruit and wonder why life is so bitter.

Stephen Hawking (UK) suffered from a motor neuron disease at the age of 20 and he was given only a couple of years to live by the neurologists, but yet he survived. He completed his Ph.d after getting the disease and all his unique research on Black Holes was done much after that, when he was virtually paralyzed, and he couldn't talk and was confined to the wheel chair. He was depressed for all of one month (!) but through sheer determination, persisted in carrying out his research work, which is now admired all over the world. He is 65 years old today and his thinking is as clear as ever.

Terry Fox (Canada) is another example of courage against adversity. For this young Canadian, the necessity to reflect on the meaning of life was thrust upon him early in life. Two days after his 18th birthday, Terry learned that he had a cancerous tumour in his right knee. His leg had to be amputated immediately, since the cancer could spread through the rest of his body.

He spent little time wallowing in the trap of self-pity. Two weeks after surgery, Terry began chemotherapy. The cancer clinic and the painful treatments were a reminder to him that almost half of all cancer patients never recover. He decided he wanted to do something for the people who were still there. He decided to run with his artificial leg all the way across Canada to raise one million dollars to fight cancer. He would give this money to the Canadian Cancer Society.

On Sept. 1, 1981 after running three-fifths of the way across Canada, Terry Fox had to leave his errand. The cancer had spread to his lungs. By the time of his death, in June 1982, he had raised over 24 million dollars. Can anyone say that his life was meaningless ?

Conclusion

So a human being can make his or her life meaningful by realizing any one of the 3 values at a particular instance.