What is “the answer”? That is, the answer to life, the universe, and everything? According to the Deep Thought supercomputer of Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it’s not an answer that we would like. Do you want to know what it is? Are you unperturbed on account of some morbid sense of curiosity? In that case, I’ll tell you. The answer to life, the universe, and everything is…. forty-two. Deep Thought thought it over “quite thoroughly” over a span of seven and a half million years. Of course, those in the book who had asked what the answer was were disappointed by this, to which Deep Thought replied that it would have been more useful to know what the actual question was. So much for millions of years of suspense.

Humour aside, I think this raises an important question: what are we asking when we ask about the meaning of life? If we knew what it was, why do we suppose that we would instinctively make sense it, as though it would many any more sense than life already does? The funny thing about Hitchhiker’s is that despite knowing “the answer”, they wind up doing the same thing that we ourselves—who have only a question and no answer—do already. Namely, they embark on a quest to make sense of the madness.

What does this say about our search for the meaning of life? What can this tell us about our purpose? I’ve often mused at what I would do were I to awake in a world with no problems to solve or contemplate, and have concluded that I would not find it stimulating enough. In fact, I would probably go completely mad. I daresay that a world without problems or conflict or obstacles to overcome would ironically be a problem for most people. One would need the calmness of a zen master to be content with it. There would be nothing to do other than to “be”, after all, and so the progress towards any “purpose” would essentially be a fait accompli.

But, of course, people are as numerous and varied as are the constellations in the sky that it would be impossible to reduce the human condition to a singular purpose. Meaning in life is bound to be expressed differently for different people, even if one may suppose that there is an ultimate goal to which all activity is directed such as happiness or eudaimonia, as Aristotle would have said. Like “42”, either of these might suffice as an answer, although a deeply unsatisfying one. Who cares if the meaning of life is for human beings to find happiness or “fulfilment” (which is perhaps a better translation of Aristotle’s Greek)? The real question we want to ask is what that meaning looks like for ourselves. Or, in other words, we make a question of our own lives and find meaning through that.

Keiji Nishitani, a Japanese philosopher, suggested that this is the essence of the religious quest (in Religion and Nothingness). In this respect, I would say that I have always been a deeply religious man. In fact, I would argue that even the most materialistic, atheistic, non-spiritual person alive might even qualify as religious by this estimation. For anyone at all who seeks any deeper purpose, meaning, or happiness in life, this applies just as well. “We are all on a spiritual journey,” as one of my professors once told me.

Spiritual journeys, of course, are unique amongst individuals, cultures, and religious traditions. Nevertheless, people have tried to create models that delineate what are supposed to be stages of progression in the “spiritual” life. My favourite of these, the Zen ox-herding pictures, end with a depiction of the practitioner returning to everyday life, albeit with a new perspective on life. Much like Adams’ hitchhikers, the accomplished Zen master does not find their circumstances changed much. It is not as if their perspectives are magically altered by their understanding the path before them or knowing what “the answer” is. In other words, theory, though perhaps it was a useful guide, was no substitute for the practice. As such, the Q&A of the meaning of life isn’t as important as you think it is. The question you should be asking is one put to yourself: how can I live a more meaningful life today?