When We Stop Searching for Meaning, Meaning Begins to Matter
When we stop searching for meaning, meaning begins to matter.
The moment meaning is treated as an object to be found, it ceases to flow and becomes inert. As Ludwig Wittgenstein argued in Philosophical Investigations, many philosophical problems arise not from the complexity of the world itself, but from the misuse of language—from mistaking processes for nouns. Love, meaning, existence, freedom—these are not “things.” They are modes of happening. To ask “Where is meaning?” already assumes that meaning is hidden somewhere like a key, an answer, or a final destination. Yet meaning is not discovered; it is enacted.
Life is not a destination but a vector—a movement with direction and force. In thermodynamics, all structured and meaningful phenomena occur in non-equilibrium states. Without gradients, there is no flow; without flow, there is no life. Ilya Prigogine’s theory of dissipative structures demonstrates that life and order emerge not from static stability, but from continuous energy throughput. The sun does not grant meaning; it makes change possible. Through sustained exchange—between energy and matter, self and world—meaning takes shape.
The sun has no purpose and no predetermined end. Yet without it, life could not arise, and change could not persist. In this sense, it resembles Martin Heidegger’s notion of Lichtung, the clearing that allows beings to appear. Meaning is not directly given by an object, but made possible by conditions of openness. Where my view diverges is in insisting that even for the same being, meaning is never fixed. It fluctuates, intensifies, fades, and regenerates. Meaning is not bestowed by the sun; the sun merely allows happening to continue.
Thus, the essential question is not “Why am I alive?” but rather: Am I still in exchange? Am I still flowing? My own experience suggests that when exchange stops—when creation, expression, and connection cease—meaning does not vanish abstractly. It collapses concretely into one-way consumption, dissipation, and exhaustion. This may not be a moral failure or even a philosophical problem, but a physical one.
Over-attachment to meaning ultimately strips it of its vitality. In Buddhist thought, attachment is not about rejecting the world, but about recognizing how fixation arrests movement—how we try to trap a river in a bottle or freeze the present into eternity. Nietzsche once wrote, “Man is not a goal, but a bridge.” A bridge finds its meaning not in arrival, but in being crossed.
Once this is understood, we are no longer tormented by the question “What is the meaning of my life?” nor compelled to pretend that we have found a final answer. Instead, we allow meaning to change like weather, and permit ourselves to become part of its movement—echoing Camus’s living without appeal, Jung’s individuation as process, and the Eastern notion that the Way exists only in practice.
Perhaps we no longer need to ask, “Is this the right way to live?”
We need only a more physical question:
Am I flowing right now, in this moment?
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当我们停止寻找意义，意义才真正开始成立。
因为一旦我们将意义当作一个对象去寻找，它便从流动变成了静物。正如维特根斯坦在《哲学研究》中所指出的，许多哲学困境并非源于世界本身的复杂，而是源于语言的误用——我们将本质上是过程性的事物，当成了名词化的对象。爱、意义、存在、自由，并不是“东西”，而是一种正在发生的状态（happening）。一旦我们追问“意义在哪里？”，便已默认意义像钥匙、答案或终点那样，被安放在某个可以被抵达的位置。然而恰恰相反——意义并不是被发现的，而是在发生之中。
生活不是一个终点，而是一种流动，一条向量（vector）。在热力学意义上，一切具有结构与秩序的现象，都发生在非平衡态之中：没有梯度，就没有流动；没有流动，就没有生命。Ilya Prigogine 在其耗散结构理论中指出，生命与秩序并非源自静态稳定，而是诞生于能量持续流经系统的过程之中。正是因为有了太阳的能量，变化才得以发生；正是因为交换持续进行，生命与世界才保持生成。而这种持续的变化，才赋予“意义”以意义。
太阳本身并没有目的，也没有被预设的终点，但正是由于它的存在，生命才成为可能，变化才得以延续。这一点在结构上与海德格尔所说的“存在的敞开性”（Lichtung）极为接近：意义并非由某个对象直接给予，而是源于一种使“发生”成为可能的条件。不同之处在于，我认为即便对于同一此在，意义也并非稳定不变，而是始终处于生成、衰减与转化之中。意义不是太阳给予的，太阳只是让发生得以持续。
因此，真正的问题并不是“我为什么活着”，而是：我是否仍在交换，是否仍在流经？我的个人经验是，一旦我停止交换——不再创造、不再表达、不再连接——意义并不会消失为一种抽象的困惑，而是具体地转化为单向的消费、耗散与枯竭。也许，这并非一个道德问题，甚至不完全是哲学问题，而是一个物理问题。
正因为如此，过度执着于意义，反而会失去意义本身的流动性。佛教中所说的“执”，并非要求人看破红尘，而是在提醒我们：执，即停止——是试图让流动凝固，让河流装进瓶子，让当下变成永恒。尼采在《查拉图斯特拉如是说》中写道：“人不是一个目的，而是一座桥。”桥的意义不在于被到达，而在于不断被走过。
当我们理解了这一点，便不再被“我这一生究竟为了什么”所折磨，也无需假装自己已经找到了终极答案。我们开始允许意义像天气一样变化，允许自己在流动之中成为意义的一部分——这既接近加缪所说的 living without appeal，也呼应荣格所理解的 individuation as process，以及东亚哲学中“道在行中”的思想。
也许，我们根本不需要追问：“这样活对不对？”
只需要一个更物理的问题：
我是否还在流动？
