Meaning of Life

The question "What is the meaning of life?" is not a very good question. It is a bit like the Monty Python question "Why is a duck?" (because one leg is both the same). When a person asks this question they are really asking something more complex like "Who am I and why am I here?"

I want to give a couple of simple answers to the meaning of life, without any religious or New Age connotations.

What is the purpose of life?

"To manifest in physical creation"

"To be all that you can be"

There you are, two simple statements. Nothing about being born in sin, having to live out a life of service to make up for past deeds, nothing about reincarnation and past lives, nothing about learning lessons so you can ascent on to spiritual planes. You are here in the physical universe with as much right to your place on the planet as every other creature (no greater right, equal right), and your purpose is to continue the proces of creation to the best of your ability in whatever way you can express it best. If you are a musician it doesn't mean that you must be the best musician, it means you should express yourself musically to the best of your ability. There is no success or failure. It is actually very simple.

The meaning of 42

In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams introduced the notion of 42 as the answer to the question, though there was some confusion as to what the question actually was. Nobody seems sure exactly what Douglas Adams was referring to. It is not known if there is some deep hidden meaning, or if Douglas Adams just picked the number out of the air. Numerically, 42 is an abundant number, it is the product of 1 * 2 * 3 * 7. In the Kabalistic tradition, 42 is the number with which God created the universe. I also recall reading in Lewis Carroll's Hunting of the Snark, that one of the crew:

He had forty-two boxes, all carefully packed
With his name painted clearly on each
But, since he omitted to mention the fact,
They were all left behind on the beach.

The number 42 turns up and I always consider it appropriate that it turns up with something that has been forgotten! In my view Douglas Adams was being mirthful in assigning a number to the meaning of life. If he was indeed influenced by anything I'd go with the Kabalistic link.