
There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.
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For the Absolute, as we now know, all life is individual, but is individual as expressing a meaning.
quote by Josiah Royce

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for ""finding himself."" If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence.
quote by Thomas Merton

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Everything Has Meaning
the floor give meaning to the ceiling
the shore to the sea
the moon to the night sky
the sun to the earth
and man in between and woman
around the arms of man
and the dog amidst them
there is meaning to everything
and to everyone, and the important conclusion is inevitable
there is meaning in you.
decorate this meaning with a smile.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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Short
The depth of life
The length thereof
The depth of a life
The years thereof
The depth of your life
The distance from your first wisp of
Earth's worried air of
Life to the finish line of
A life well lived or of
One which was spent waiting for
The future which may or may not
Hold you in it for
Today is given you to
Make all the difference you can and to
Smell all the flowers you can and to
Love as deeply as you can and to
Let laughter break some ribs and to
Let rain drown your tears and to
Give yourself away and to
Worship as truly as you can and to
Leave your worries in yesterday then
Do the things fear won't let you do then
Say the things that matter most then
Do the things you haven't done then
Do the things you have to do and then
Give a life a meaning
Find life's meaning
Hidden in love's meaning
And your life meaning
Breathing in God's meaning
And pick up a book of meanings
To check the short meaning
Of short and find that that's the
Aching distance from the
First intake of air to the
Last release of the same.
poem by Jenim Dibie

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Question Meaning
The meaning of the question
Is to always question meaning,
The meaning of life,
And the life of meaning.
The life unquestioned
Means very little,
Just as a life left meaningless,
Without question, has very little life.
Therefore, we all should daily question
The meaning of life,
By doing so, life's Meaning
Will unquestionably, each day, find us.
Remember: we are free to question meaning;
May we become free enough to
Let it freely question us.
poem by Smoky Hoss

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I think a lot of people have lost respect for the individual, you know, the individual, the person who doesn't conform.
quote by Erykah Badu

Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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There Is No Such Thing As An Individual
She looked at me
and asked.
'What is your answer? '
I was startled
and caught up short.
Simple question.
But I did not know
what the answer was.
'Who am I'?
I blurted out
vying for time;
I gave her my name
narrowing it to the millions
of Jim Jones in the world.
But am I my name?
She said
What else.?
'I am Hedi's Father
and Lisa's husband'
but before this response rolled away
into silence
I knew it wasn't enough.
So who else?
'I like hockey' I said
and knew even this
fell short.
How do I single out
the Me among millions?
What could I say
without out offering
fingerprints or DNA?
What would you say?
Maybe I should have given her
an address.
Only I live there.
But my address
is not my essence.
So who
in fact
is the I-
the me,
that I see-
as individual
and precious?
I really didn't
at that point
have an answer.
What about achievements?
.
How many individuals have
my job
and my name?
Fewer still.
This at least narrows it.
But then
the thought came;
I am not an individual.
I am the Me that
has a family and a history
a genealogy;
only me
has that.
I am not an individual
but a person
who can be identified
in the web of relationships
which surround me;
have surrounded me;
which in the end
have defined me.
I am not an individual.
I am all the people who
have influenced me-
nurtured me been kind to me or hurtful.
So there is then
this myth of the individual
which is not so.
But if this is not true
is it not so that much
of society and indeed Democracy itself
is premised
on the creating the conditions
for individual expression;
individual growth?
Is this premise correct
and the individual lives;
or is it that more real
is society and social relationships.?
So which is which?
But then again, one cannot touch society.
Confusing no?
poem by Lonnie Hicks

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The Poems I Write Give Meaning To My Life
The poems I write give meaning to my life.
But what are they for others?
Are they Poetry or just the sentences I happen to think?
The Poems I write give meaning to my life
But only in the time I am writing them
What they are afterward
Does not truly depend on me?
Meaning it seems is momentary for me
And the higher meaning of what will endure
Is a question I by myself however I write
Cannot answer.
poem by Shalom Freedman

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What Is...?
What is the meaning of hate?
Is it the dislike of someone different than you?
Or is it the loathing of something simple like broccoli?
What is the meaning of discrimination?
Is it the hatred of someone of a different background?
The hatred of skin color;
Or is it the bitter taste of being different from everyone else?
What is the meaning of uniqueness?
Is it the purpose of being odd and unusual?
The adaptation to your own life and style;
Or is it the stereotypical clan that society has put you?
What is the meaning of life?
Is it that time keeps moving; leaving us in the dust is leaves behind?
The endless stream of consciousness that everything has;
Or is it the meaningless and indefinable thing we give every day?
What is the meaning of death?
Is it that grim reaper knocking at your door?
The inky blackness of nothing;
Or is it something that can’t be defined only experienced when it is time?
Many questions are asked everyday without even meaning to ask them.
They are hidden within the minds of those who are too afraid to speak out;
To let THEIR voices be heard.
So I ask you these questions in hope that you will ask them yourself;
To find the meaning of it for yourself and not what others say it is.
One final question is all I leave you with.
What is the meaning of everything that you thought you knew?
poem by Regan Meade

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Cloud Of Meaning Over My Head
There is always a cloud of meaning over my head, I know
But I always look down on the ground
Never look up in the sky as my head is stuck with heat of life under my feet running into the shoes of tomorrow
I don't know how I can construct meaning out of dust in the heat
But I know meaning is over my head staring down at me
Absurdity is not meaning but life itself is meaning
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home- so close and so smallthat they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they arethe world of the individual person: the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, and equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them so close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.
quote by Eleanor Anna Roosevelt

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: The neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.
quote by Eleanor Roosevelt

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In the first period religious life appears as a form of discipline which the individual or a whole people must accept as an unconditional command without any rational understanding of the ultimate meaning and purpose of that command.
quote by Muhammed Iqbal

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.
quote by Viktor E. Frankl

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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All Times
Excuse me
I am here to say something
The meaning of my say
Be different to different persons
The meaning of my say
Is equally important to all
The meaning of my say
You are searching and searching
That is not fixed not codified
The meaning of my say
Is true to all times to come
And you are not all timers
Who can know everything
Every meaning of my word my say
Excuse me
I am to say something.
poem by Gajanan Mishra

Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Meaning
Why you keep
Peeping into
Boloji? !
To see if I've
Written any new
Poetry? !
I've penned a poem
On your heart…
Go and decipher it.
Read in between
The lines…
And decode the
Hidden meaning ;)
That will give you
An ‘out of the world'
Meaning…which will
Change your life…
And give your world -
A whole new meaning :)
poem by Aparna Chatterjee

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Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.
quote by Joseph Campbell

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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As a confirmed individualist I certainly do not wish to underrate the influence of the individual, for the masses do not lead the individual; rather, in the individual is vested the capacity to lead the masses.
quote by Gustav Stresemann

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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There is no force like success, and that is why the individual makes all effort to surround himself throughout life with the evidence of it; as of the individual, so should it be of the nation.
quote by Marcus Garvey

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Meaning
The meaning of life
Is truly unimportant.
Finding the answers
Will not remedy sorrows
Or relieve distress.
It will not give us insight
Or greater purpose.
If anything, that meaning
Will just make us more confused.
Note: According to Webster's Dictionary circa 2009, the meaning of life is: 'A state after birth that precedes death.'
poem by Tim Stensloff

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