Meaning and/or Aliveness:
What Are We Seeking in Life?
What are human beings truly seeking in life? Is it meaning—a sense of coherence, purpose, and narrative structure? Or is it aliveness—the felt vitality of being present, connected, and awake to the moment? At first glance, these may appear to be distinct quests: one cognitive, the other affective; one philosophical, the other experiential. But as we look more closely, we discover that meaning and aliveness are not so easily separated. They are braided together in the human spirit, often co-arising and co-shaping the way we live, suffer, hope, and love.
The Search for Meaning
The quest for meaning is ancient and well documented. Human beings are meaning-makers by nature. We ask questions about our origins and destinies, we create stories to make sense of our experiences, and we seek values that transcend the immediate. Viktor Frankl, in his work Man’s Search for Meaning, observed that those who had a sense of purpose were more likely to survive even the most horrific of circumstances, such as the Nazi concentration camps. Meaning, in this sense, is not a luxury—it is sustenance.
Meaning can take many forms: religious belief, ethical commitment, artistic expression, familial love, political struggle, or scientific curiosity. What unites them is the sense that life is not random or pointless, but that it participates in some greater whole, some unfolding pattern that grants dignity and direction to existence.
The Longing for Aliveness
Yet human beings also hunger for something more immediate than meaning: the feeling of being fully alive. This is the spark we find in children at play, in lovers' eyes, in artists lost in the flow of creation, in monks immersed in contemplative silence, or in musicians carried by rhythm. Aliveness is not a concept to be analyzed; it is a quality to be felt. It is the inner pulse of vitality that says, “I am here, I am real, I am awake.”
Aliveness is not always joyful. It includes sorrow, rage, awe, and fear. What matters is not the emotion's content but its depth and presence. To be alive is to be engaged—to be touched by the world and to touch it in return. Sometimes the pursuit of meaning can become too abstract, too cerebral, and it loses this pulse of vitality. People can cling to dogmas or systems of belief that no longer nourish them, because they are still searching for meaning while their souls crave life.
Aliveness as Meaning
In process philosophy, particularly in the thought of Alfred North Whitehead, we find a bridge between these two quests. Whitehead proposes that the ultimate aim of every moment of experience is the attainment of intensity—a kind of richness or depth of feeling. This intensity is not separate from meaning but is itself a form of meaning. A meaningful life, then, is not merely one that fits into a tidy narrative but one that is felt as alive.
According to this view, God does not impose meaning from above but lures each moment toward beauty, depth, and connection. Meaning is not static but emergent. It arises through the process of becoming—of living deeply, of responding creatively, of loving freely. To seek aliveness, then, is already to seek a certain kind of meaning: the kind that breathes, dances, weeps, and sings.
Entangled Quests
Of course, there are times when the search for meaning and the longing for aliveness may seem to conflict. A person might have a stable, meaningful role in society—a job, a family, a belief system—but feel emotionally numb, devoid of joy. Another might be immersed in vivid, intense experiences yet feel directionless or lost. These tensions are real. But they are not insurmountable. Rather, they are signs that we are always balancing multiple desires: for stability and movement, for coherence and novelty, for understanding and embodiment.
What we are seeking, perhaps, is not meaning or aliveness, but meaning through aliveness—and aliveness that opens into meaning. When the two dance together, we experience something akin to fulfillment, even if only fleetingly. We feel that life is both worth living and vividly lived.
Conclusion
So what are we seeking in life? The answer may not lie in choosing between meaning and aliveness but in honoring their interplay. Meaning can guide us toward values and visions that shape our lives with purpose. Aliveness can animate our days with presence, emotion, and connection. And perhaps the deepest meaning lies precisely in the act of being fully alive—of loving, creating, suffering, and rejoicing with our whole being. In this way, we are not merely seekers of answers, but participants in a living mystery.