The Mind Is A Meaning Making Machine

A man of means decides he wants to learn “the meaning of life.” So he takes a long journey to visit a highly regarded wise man who lives in a cave high atop the Himalayas. The man reaches the cave, frozen and tired.

He enters the cave and finds the old man sitting calmly, warmed beside a small fire. The man sits across from the old man. After a moment, the old man says “Welcome. Tell me why have you come?” The man replies “Master, I came to ask you to tell me: What is the meaning of life?”

The old man closes his eyes, takes a deep breadth, then says: “Life is like a fountain.”

After a few moments of silence, the man says: “You mean that’s it… ‘life is like a fountain’?” The old man opens his eyes and says: “You mean it isn’t?”

Edward Phelps -

A thing happens.

One person is part of a thing when it happens, and thinks something of it.
Another person sees the thing happen, and thinks something of it.
And another person hears of the thing happening, and thinks something of it.

Each person thinks something different about the thing that happened.
They each think the thing that happened meant something...
And what the thing that happened means to each of them is different.

What is true is...
The thing happened.
The thing is not happening in the now (in the present).
What people think of the thing that happened IS NOT the thing that happened.
What people think of the thing that happened is their story about the thing that happened.

Meditation

Can you see that whatever you think is a thought?
Can you see that your thoughts about a thing are not the thing you are thinking about?
Can you see that your thoughts are stories about whatever you think about?
Can you see that what you say and do is based upon what you think?