Thoreau’s exhortation about how to achieve a happy life- Simplify!- is also good advice on how to communicate an idea. Make it as simple as you can. This, no doubt, is why Hemingway wrote short sentences with a minimum of adjectives and adverbs. I have here tried to follow this advice, communicating as concisely as possible what I see as basic human truth. Those interested in pursuing these thoughts can look to my book, The Void and the Vision, available in PDF.

There are seven basic thoughts.

1.  Life is a string of moments, one following the other, inevitably and irreversibly. The string varies, depending on who and where we are, individually living our own lives.

2.  On occasion, this sequence of happenings is interrupted by events that we will call Moments, with a capital M. Such Moments come to us seemingly from nowhere, under any circumstance, an unpredictable event not the product of our own mind. Although we can be open to them, we cannot cause them. They come to us. Your eye catches the eye of a stranger, and you both reflexively smile. Your heart is moved by good or bad news, and tears flood your eyes. You suddenly solve a problem with which you have been struggling, and an Aha! bursts forth. Goosebumps take over your body. The intensity of totally focused athletic competition precludes the athlete from remembering the feat. Holding a newborn, experiencing the fury of lightning and thunder – any situation in life can become a Moment. And then it goes away.

3.  When we enter life on this planet, we are bombarded with sensory stimulation. Lest our environment be totally chaotic, we begin to relate sensations to one another, forming a world of our own that makes sense to us. As time goes on, we add to this world, learning, growing, and expanding. However, the process is neither simple nor pure because another process also begins. New experiences, be they sensations or other complex stimuli, instead of being simply received, are transformed as they are received and placed into pre-existing patterns of interpretation rather than being received for what they are. We become blind and prejudiced, perhaps unloving and untrustful. Perception has been distorted, and reality has drifted out of reach. 

Moments, as described above with the capital M, are those events when our self-created world is temporarily overcome and invalidated by the intrusion of reality. We get out of our own head, and become open to direct relationship with whatever is triggering that Moment. 

4.  Hiding in the safety of our self-created egocentric world, we can’t help but feel that something is missing in our life. Indeed, something is missing. When we force reality into the prejudicial and predetermined categories of interpretation that exist in our mind, we lose reality. We are unable to experience it in its full glory and wonder. And that’s what’s missing. We sense a Void.

5  There are two ways to respond to this feeling of the void. One such way is to try to escape it by filling it, and there are as many fillers as there are people. Television or telephone. Shopping. Obsessive talking. Extreme sports. Drugs. Greed. Work. Anything and everything has the capacity to function in a person’s life as a filler of the void. Of course, it cannot succeed because the void can never be filled. 

6  The second way to respond to the feeling of emptiness is to search for meaning. Here also, anything and everything has the capacity to offer meaning. Helping others. Learning. Appreciating the wonder and mystery of life. Caring for the environment, for animals. Developing a sense of awe for and dependence upon the universe. It may be that one is never satisfied that the search is over, but seeking itself can be the meaning.

7  Seeking is more fulfilling in the company of other seekers. We are social beings, but it matters with whom we socialize. 

If we now put all the pieces together, we find a simple approach to living life.

1. and 2.  Pay attention to the Moments that happen in our daily life. Enjoy them. Build upon them. Be open to experiencing more of them.

3. We should reflect as best we can on the egocentric world we have built around ourselves. We should be open to learning from others and from our own new experiences. We should be willing to change.

4.  Accept that we will experience emptiness and the search for meaning. That’s the result of losing reality by confining it to what we think it ought to be.

5.  A tempting response is to try to fill the void with our escape mechanisms. We don’t need to stop doing things, but we do need to identify whether or not they serve as escapes and fillers of emptiness, whatever they may be.

6.  A better choice is to search for meaning rather than filling the void. Reach out, help others, work for good, learn with a mind open to wonder, and look for the answer.

7. Finally, align yourself with other seekers, people who can encourage you in your growth as you help them. 

All of this may sound simple, but it is not trite. It is hard work but fun work, and the reward is a fulfilling life.

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Dr. Carl Krieg received his BA from Dartmouth College, MDiv from Union Theological Seminary in NYC, and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of What to Believe? the Questions of Christian Faith,   The Void and the Vision and  The New Matrix: How the World We Live In Impacts Our Thinking About Self and God. As professor and pastor, Dr. Krieg has taught innumerable classes and led many discussion groups. He lives with his wife Margaret in Norwich, VT