In the Absence of Love

“Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than him”
— Proverbs, 26:12

We search for meaning (or the lack thereof) in events, in literature, in life because we want to understand the universe, and feel we are not just the victims of dark and mysterious forces. We want to find the theme to our story, to get closer to the author. If we understand the universe, then we control it, in a sense, and so we replace fear of the unknown with curiosity. And the great inconstant constant, along with climate and economic forces, is the curiosity of human nature.

It's been said that curiosity kills the cat, but there are times it can help it land on its feet. One of the world's most famous physicists, Professor Stephen Hawking delivered the first memorable moment of the 2012 London Paralympics by telling the world "Look at the stars, not at your feet. Be curious." It's a great instruction for life.

We need a healthy curiosity about ourselves, life and each other, and the most empirical way of understanding the universe is to find the limits of our own intelligence and of science. The most fundamental scientific principles and laws explain not only the story of the universe, but the story of us all. And it is a story bathed in the dark.

Sherlock Holmes, a fictionalised detective dealing with murder and the dark side of humanity knew too well the violent potential of humankind, and had a deep sense of the random cruelty of the human scene. In "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", published in 1892, he asks, "What is the object of this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must have a purpose, or else our universe has no meaning and that is unthinkable. But what purpose? That is humanity's great problem, to which reason, so far, has no answer."

Here Holmes is voicing an anxiety felt by many at the end of the 19th Century. With the advance of science, religion seemed to have been discredited. But the human needs to which religion answered - above all, the need for meaning in life - hadn't gone away. If anything, the need for meaning was felt more acutely than before.

Along with others at the time, Sherlock author Arthur Conan Doyle found consolation in spiritualism - a movement with many of the functions of religion, but which claimed to be based on scientific evidence. That particular rationalist creed was followed by others, more militant and political in nature. All of them claimed to have solved "humanity's great problem" and to have done so by the use of reason.

Aside from a few relics of Victorian rationalism who find a curious comfort in Darwinism, experts say that most of us now accept that reason can't give meaning or purpose to life. If we're not content with the process of living itself, we need myths and myths very often contain contradictions. Holmes is one such myth. Seeming to find order in the chaos of events by using purely rational methods, he actually demonstrates the enduring power of myths.

Read more about myths.

As an exemplar of logic who lives by guesswork, a man who stands apart from other human beings but who is moved by a sense of human decency, Holmes embodies the modern romance of reason - a myth we no longer believe in, but find it hard to live without. Thanks to the collapse of systems (such as our economies) based on theories that were supposed to be rigorously rational, reason has disillusioned us - while the solution of organised religion is to say that we suffer now, to reap the rewards in an "afterlife" of bliss.

Searching for meaning

“[Because] you are a wheeler and a dealer, a financier, a pusher ... a manipulator, a raider ... you are a taker instead of a builder, a conniver instead of a designer, a user instead of a bringer.”
— Julie Newmar (in The Twilight Zone's "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville"

We fear what we don't understand, and too often we have tried to deal with our fears of death and the larger questions of life with religion, but the major monotheistic religions suggest we should shun the world; the Bible writes, "Do not love the world or anything in the world" (1 John 2:15) and that we are not of the world, so it hates us (John 15:19).

If we took this literally, then dogma dictates that we continue to use the world as a rubbish dump. Worse still loving the world has too often been seen as devil worship and paganism, and those that treat this belief as a religion have been shunned and persecuted for centuries as witches.

It won't come as a surprise to some then, that a new poll suggests that atheism is on the rise in the United States, while those who consider themselves religious has dropped. Some believe that the institution of any religion is corrupt and cruel, and really a simple form of pyramid selling - taking money from the poorest to build a lavish life-style for those at the top. Increased enlightenment is creating more and more bad press for organised religions.

Critics say religious institutions are some of the richest institutions in the world and that you don't need a religion to believe in a higher power. Living a decent life, helping others, being satisfied at what you have has more potential to bring happiness, and probably have more chance of getting you to heaven if there is one. In this way, religion without dogma is another way we try to put meaning into out lives, and so choosing your beliefs and faith is an important part of being a responsible soul on this planet.

What's the point of love in life?

We all need something to believe in, but it must be a choice that your heart is happy with, and that brings you comfort or joy in moments when you need assistance. It shouldn't make us forget that we're a symbiotic part of this world - our bodies are made from this world, and we share its beauty and its brutality. We are part of the order and the chaos of life, and its uncertainty.

Does being spiritual give us meaning?

Spirituality is a common term these days, used by many as a way of stepping beyond religious divides. Some call themselves "spiritual" but not religious - and this is starting to represent a major strand of belief across the West. It's a broad church, so to speak. The spiritually aligned range from pagans to devotees of healing crystals, among many other sub-groups. But for millions of others it is nothing so esoteric. Instead, it's simply a "feeling" that there must be something else.

Some see the rise of this type of spirituality as driven by a sense that religion is out of keeping with modern values. People associate religious institutions with constraining doctrines, and bad things that are done in the world - that may be outright fundamentalism, the oppression of women or some kind of conflict with liberal values.

For many, science has replaced God today, but while science may be able to explain the world, it doesn't evoke how many people feel about their place in the universe. In this sense, spirituality is more than belief, it holds a translucent quality that stems from an appreciation of life itself. Spirituality in this form refers to things that are not expressible in words. There's an aspect of human experience that is non-conceptual.

The practice of spiritual worship is as diverse as the individual is unique. For some practising mindfulness meditation is not about worshipping a God or paying homage to something in the sky, it's about learning to accept things like impermanence and living in the moment. Others may do daily walking meditations, it is simply a matter of entering into the zone of a meditative state. Adherents to this view believe that if you get a glimpse of how happy you can be by embracing the moment, all the chattering of your thoughts stops. It's about making time to contemplate the awe we feel for life on earth, the extraordinary luck this planet has in sustaining life.

Read more about meditation.

Within meditation, some individuals believe the only true spiritual experience is silence. For example, transcendence is often triggered by being in nature, like being on a mountainside, but by learning to meditate, proponents say you can bring that mountain experience to your home. Some follow physical healing practices, like reiki, which claims that by laying hands on someone according to reiki tradition a profound change can take place. By placing your hands on different parts of the body, they believe they can rebalance the energy flow of my body, while promoting calmness and a sense of connection with the world.

For some it could just be about reconnecting with life, and with past human traditions. Those who practise paganism in their private life believe in a divine force in nature. They see that everything is connected, and feel very in touch with nature and the changing seasons. Pagans have a deeps sense of awe and respect for nature, and they believe they can communicate with the deity in this way.

For some spirituality is inherent in their culture. Native Americans believe in spirits and spirituality. To the indigenous natives of what we now call America, religion is not a concept they use, because they don't use the word religion - of if they do, they say it's for the appeasement of others. For them religion implies that things are always going to end badly - holy wars, crucifixion and annihilation - and they don't ask other tribes what "religion" they are.

Spirituality consists of two things for the Native American - nature and creation. Life is a circle, like the seasons, the power of the world works in circles. This circular logic is broken down into quadripartite divisions: sun-moon-sky-stars, red-green-blue-yellow, four seasons, four winds, four directions - but there is no manual to explain what spirituality means for native people. Because there is hundreds and hundreds of different viewpoints on the world, and to try and accumulate that all into one definition is difficult.

For example, the Dakota native calls the energy that creates all things simply the "great mystery" - an unknown power that is out there. Nothing beyond that, there are no churches set up to collect money in its name, or establishments set up to theorise what it might be - the native just accepts that it is all around them. Lenny Foster, veteran director of the Navajo Corrections Project and American Indian Movement (AIM) explains that the Native American believes their essence is all one. "We don't have any separation of culture and religion. We have the Sun and Mother Earth, and the wind takes our prayers. This is some of our beliefs. We don't have cathedrals, our cathedrals are the trees and the waters," he says.

However, because of this diversity, for some, spirituality is a byword for irrational beliefs and a sense that anything goes. Spiritualists have been mocked for their tendencies. From reflexology to astrology, from ghosts to homoeopathy, from wheat intolerance to "having a bad feeling about this", they see spirituality as the celebration of all the wild and wonderful sets of conclusions to which people the world over jump on to fill the gap left by the retreat of organised religion.

Arguably, most of the harshest critics of spirituality are from organised religions. Major religions agree on wanting people to see how they fit into the big picture, but they frown upon the array of beliefs, and spirituality being a lifestyle choice to enhance what's there, like a pick and mix from consumer culture. And, on the other hand, while most spiritual people would view themselves as humanist, most humanists seem to avoid spirituality, because it is a smorgasbord of ideas used for everything from the full Catholic mass to whale songs, crystals, angels and fairies - with a lot of pseudo-science in between.

Humanism is about the belief that human beings find value in the here and now rather than in something above and beyond. People have social instincts and as a humanist it's about reinforcing those instincts, but it is certain that the humanist, religious and spiritual will all agree that the search for meaning can be tiring.

There is always a yearning for something more, and the underlying fear us that you can yearn for the higher as much as you like, but what you're yearning might not be there. What's worse, the desire won't go away. This doesn't make wanting to find meaning a bad thing, but it may lead to discovering some tough questions with no certifiable answer. Thus, spirituality, by some, is seen as a soft cushion for the fall. Interior mental treks are always risky and painful - the promise is great, but it's a challenge to go and try and see things from a bigger perspective.

The fear of an unknown never resolves, because the unknown expands infinitely outward, leaving you to cling to any small shelter of the known, but what is knowable in a universe where entropy grips us in a fatal dance of nihilistic despair? There was a similar feeling of doom in Britain at the start of the Second World War, with petrol and food rationing in the country from September 1939.

The astrology of September 1939 - whether you believe in or not - is uncannily similar to that we see in September 2012. Hunger frightens and hurts, and it has many faces, and we all must at some time face the terror of one of them. Wouldn't it seem that a misery understood by all people, would lead not to chaos and murder, but to faith, hope and love? And yet such fears can lead to deliberate obliteration, which is malignant - a contagious epidemic with a tendency to spread.

Astrologists say that it is little wonder of the impact on the national psyche all over again of the collapse of financial security - and the need for calm. Hot days of summer mean we get into a different physical and mental state, and in these heated times, when the approach of even the most democratic governments has become heavy-handed, the need for calm is more important than ever before.

When love is absent so are we

Britain especially, has been perceived as using bullying tactics, rather than its usual channels of open dialogue and negotiation, during the Julian Assange row with Ecuador. Assange - who is wanted by America for blowing the whistle on its national secrets - was granted asylum by Ecuador's president when he entered Ecuador's embassy in London seeking asylum on June 19, and has been inside since.

Last week it was announced he had been granted political asylum, sparking a major diplomatic row as the British government will not allow him safe passage to Ecuador; but Assange is not without support in Britain and abroad. There are many who see this as a "witch-hunt" against someone who is pushing for a more transparent and accountable system of politics.

But the UK is obliged to extradite Assange to Sweden where he will face charges of rape. In 2010, two female volunteers accused Assange of committing sexual offences against them while he was in Stockholm to give a lecture. He claims the sex was consensual and the allegations are politically motivated. He says he fears onward extradition to the US if extradited to Sweden because of his website's publication of confidential documents. If extradited to America, he believes he will face terrorist charges that could attract a death penalty.

The controversy has raised debate about what constitutes rape under the law of different countries, with a lot of myths surrounding the legal issues being circulated. If Assange is guilty of this sort of heinous crime, then he should pay the penalty provided under Swedish law, but many are focusing on Assange's whistle-blowing company Wikileaks, rather than the morals of the man himself. His supporters ask at what price should we pay for national security, if the tactics we use to protect our freedoms become the main cause that erodes them?

Or is Assange merely using this a ploy to protect himself from the sexual allegation made by two women? He clearly believes that his accusers are the pawns of political motivation. Appearing on the balcony of the embassy building, he told his waiting supporters:

I am here today because I cannot be there with you today. But thank you for coming, thank you for your resolve, your generosity of spirit. On Wednesday night, after a threat was sent to this embassy, the police descended on this building. You came out in the middle of the night to watch over it, and you brought the world's eyes with you.

Inside this embassy in the dark, I could hear teams of police swarming up inside the building through its internal fire escape. But I knew there would be witnesses, and that is because of you. If the UK did not throw away the Vienna Conventions the other night, it is because the world was watching. And the world was watching because you were watching.

So the next time that somebody tells you that it is pointless to defend those rights that we hold dear, remind them of your vigil in the dark before the embassy of Ecuador. Remind them how, in the morning, the sun came up on a different world, and a courageous Latin American nation took a stand for justice.

Others would say that the Assange crisis is just an indication of the underlying currents that move the world in 2012. We're obsessed with getting other people to do our dirty work, but we'd solve so many of humanity's problems if we took responsibility for our own mess instead of spreading fear through threats and coercions.

Astrologers say that if we don't remain focused, another world war might be imminent, bringing more than a sense of repetition of 1939. Just as the Second World War was a lesson in values, so, too, they believe late 2012 and 2013 will remind us of the core moral issues underlying not only world economies and businesses, but to the cost of our lives. From the end of August, the planet Mars - the Roman god of conflict, the raging red planet - will come into play. September is a short, sharp road to rebellion and radical change - which is where we're headed in October if we believe that our destiny is not only written in our soul, but in our stars.

However, as Shakespeare wrote, some believe that our destiny is not in our stars, but in our own hands, and it is up to us what we make of it - we can change something we think of as unstoppable. We can usually do this if we have learnt lessons from the past, by focusing on what resulted in favourable outcomes. And adherents to astrology say that this is what astrology does - it reminds us of the past, so that we can assist the future. To this end, what can we learn from the Second World War - what are the values that got the world through the 1940s? This:

• Stop shopping.
• Mend your possessions.
• Grow your own food.
• Find values above materialism to be happy.
• Recycle.
• Exchange.
• Donate.
• Ask yourself about the ethical price tag of any wealth.

In Britain, even big business has begun to criticise the government, for pushing tactics to persuade the public to spend. Supermarket giant Sainsbury's boss has attacked government plans to make temporarily extended Sunday trading hours for the London Olympics permanent. Sunday has a special status in England and Wales due to it's religious significance, and opening hours for trading is restricted by law. The argument against relaxing the rules is that public spending is not a "magic answer" to the United Kingdom's economic problems. Longer opening hours won't put more money in the pockets of shoppers or spur economic regeneration; critics say they will just see spending spread over a greater period.

Our karmic journey seems to be one where we explore money, property, business and values, in depth for the foreseeable future. Some now say that the next stage of our journey is to understand that we all share the world, and our actions affect the very fabric of life. Any advancements in medicine and technology must take ecological concerns into account. Designs should not only focus on social impact, but ecological impact. In Janine Benyus' book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, she emphasises nine laws of nature including the following:

• Nature runs on sunlight.
• Nature utilises only the energy it needs.
• Energy fits form to function.
• Energy recycles everything.
• Nature rewards cooperation.
• Nature banks on diversity.
• Nature demands local expertise.
• Nature curbs excess from within.
• Nature taps the power of limits.

Benyus believes that each of these "laws of nature" must be seriously considered when attempting to create a biometric design. If one of the laws is not considered, the design's outcome cannot be truly biomimetic. It's interesting that when our values (as shown from the 1940s) closely mimic natural laws our chance for survival is the strongest.

Figure yourself out

And if our actions are so important, then we need to figure out what makes us tick in our own lives. Happy, balanced people, at peace with themselves, don't act irresponsibly or jeopardise the safety of others. Those sorts of individuals know we are each on our own path to our vision and visualised passions.

But to reach them we need to know in which situations we work best. Some experts say this is the real meaning of life - that there is no single meaning, there are as many meanings as there are people. We define the meaning in our lives, and it can be anything we want it to be. It's a journey of discovery, of self-improvement, value and meaning.

Discover your passions.

Real freedom is allowing people to pursue their purpose; by changing our bad habits and erasing negative mindsets and discovering our core values, as I've mentioned before, the freedom to figure things out for yourself is the only real freedom you have. And if you've ever asked yourself what is the point to life, you'll know it's a tough question. To some it might just be a comfortable pair of shoes (it's often joked that all the great thinkers wore accommodating shoes). To some having children, creating life, is the point of life, while some say it's the loved ones in your life, your friends and family that give meaning to living.

In this context, meaning comes from understanding that time goes by so fast with people going in and out of your life, you must never miss an opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you. To some people the most important thing in life is love. It doesn't matter what you love. It could be a person, it could be a thing, as long as you love totally, completely and without judgement.

Mozart said "love is the soul of genius", Samuel Coleridge said "love is flower-like", on the other hand Samuel Daniel said love is "a sickness all remedies refusing". For hundreds of years we have been trying to define love, as we have been searching for the meaning of life.

Some would say the search for meaning is a waste of time, all human life is just a cosmic accident, an arbitrary conglomeration of molecules evolved by chance into an organism with a brain stem condemning it to ponder futility the reason behind it all. And when we look at the state of our societies today - and the state we have placed the world in - you can't blame some for repeating the nihilistic view that was so prevalent in the 90s of the last century.

We have young crown states of countries, brought up on pomp and privilege, dancing naked with strangers at drunken parties; what kind of example does that set for the youth of the country where he is third in line to the throne? The photographs of the UK's Prince Harry may seem harmless to some, but add that to the new figures that show one in six 16 to 24-year-olds in England were not in education, employment or training at the end of June this year.

Prince Harry is an icon of his generation in my country, so what is he representing? Evidence that we Brits have a psychological weakness to alcohol, where we drink irresponsibly and it causes us to shed our inhibitions and become aggressive, promiscuous, disorderly and even violent? Yet, this is the darker side of "Britishness" - which even showed up in the 2012 London Olympics. The British media - complaining of being neutered by recent enquiries into press standards which meant they wouldn't publish the naked Prince Harry pictures (apart from one paper which caused a backlash) - were almost racist in their reporting of this year's Olympics, some critics say.

The Olympics were conceived in the spirit of fair play, to encourage the very best of human nature. Although in the run up to the London Games that generosity of spirit and unity, which captured the mood of the nation so well, went missing once the competitive programme began. Ed Smith, writing for the New Statesman, had this to say about it:

Invariably the home country focuses on its athletes - but surely not to the extent of ignoring the rest of the field. Sometimes the BBC and newspaper coverage suffered from trying to turn every Olympic contest into a tribal battle between Team GB and the rest of the world. The Games have been most un-British, and most unattractive, when they have been most jingoistic.

There is some truth to Smith's complaint; it can be seen in the BBC's Medal Table, which is tweaked to rank countries by number of gold medals won, rather than final tally of medals received. Had they done that, Team GB would have been fourth behind Russia, who won more medals but fewer gold ones than the British and Northern Ireland team. Placing countries by the gold medal tally put Team GB in the top three.

But even if the British media have fallen prey in the jungles of nationalism, the true spirit of the Games have shown the generosity of the home public in applauding all who competed. Sports personalities have also shown that in these Olympics what we perceive to "be a winner" has changed. Smith from the Statesman also had this to say in the same article:

These Games have shown how the image of “a sporting champion” has changed. Twenty-five years ago, in line with the worst strands of Thatcherism, the image of being a winner was aggressive individualism. It was assumed that John McEnroe-style outbursts would become the norm, because “nice guys finish last”. Not so long ago, a leading sportswriter chastised Colin Jackson for congratulating his friend and rival Mark McCoy for winning a gold medal.

That is absurd. These Games have proved that sportsmen do not gain any competitive advantage by losing their dignity or forgetting their friendships. Usain Bolt talks about Yohan Blake, his fellow Jamaican who won a silver medal behind Bolt in the 100 metres, like a younger brother, thanking him for pushing him hard. Farah was thrilled that his training partner, the American Galen Rupp, won silver. As we have learned from the rivalry of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the greatest rivalries are underpinned by respect.

So it seems we have moved on in three decades, from being all about individual winner takes all (which has brought doping to sport) to understanding that it really is how you play the game. Some have pointed out that the recent news of US cycling star Lance Armstrong being stripped of his seven titles because of allegations of doping is a heartbreaking example of how the win-at-all-costs culture of sport, if left unchecked, will overtake fair, safe and honest competition.

However, sporting celebrities now seem to reflect that there is not one way to win, we can all be winners. And questions need to be asked: What will we sell out for? What won't we sell out for? What or who is priceless to you? What price do you put on your principles?

Are the best things in life free? What is the worth of human life; what is it's value? We have to re-evaluate what "wealth" means, and allow our stories to dovetail with larger stories, around the world, as we place a greater value on unity and the sacredness of life for survival.

What is your life worth?

“Man, biologically considered, and whatever else he may be into the bargain, is simply the most formidable of all the beasts of prey and, indeed, the only one that preys systematically on its own species.”
— William James

We are all made of atoms, and these atoms in turn obey the second law of thermodynamics - an iron law of physics which says everything decays. Everything and anything in the universe has the tendency to go from order to disorder, and once the damage is done it is extremely difficult to reverse this - for example once you mix cream in your coffee (you introduce disorder) you can't reverse the act.

Humans try to put order to chaos - with science and religion. We're taught to think of religion and science as separate truths - and yet some quote Albert Einstein who said, "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind", suggesting he didn't believe that. Faith is important, but it needs to be channelled correctly.

History shows that treating nature as the enemy, and the world as our dominion for resources has brought us to what many fear might be the beginnings of the end of human existence. So, can we learn to reassess our religious beliefs, and be reasonable without expecting too much of reason? Or will we blunder on, trying to remodel the world on rational principles that in practice produce chaos, or give up on this world in the hope there is a next?

Or will that insatiable curiosity of ours to know, which is such a large part of human nature, drive us with some deeper need to discover the covenant we have with life - even if it's only to know how to survive? Because today, survival of the fittest doesn't mean the person who can hunt the most or run the fastest; it's the person who knows the most. We know there are big questions that affect our lives, but is the meaning of life simply a defunct process of questions to which we'll probably never know the answer? Because there is always something beyond our known world, and the confines of what we know alone.

Many scientists and researchers believe we don't even know the rules, let alone what might constitute as the facts. It's been said we're like little ants that have just made it to the desert, and what we can explain is like a grain of sand in the Sahara of the unexplainable. Now, with the few discoveries we have made, we say we have conquered the Sahara, but we haven't conquered anything. We're only staring to find the mysteries, we haven't even begun to solve them. Thinkers and scientists and researchers still need to do a lot of searching through a lot of dark nights and a lot of dark space until we find the clues, let alone the answers.

We have a long way to go, but we do have a talent of fastening labels onto everything we don't understand. However does that lull us into thinking that by giving something a name, we rob it of its mystery or understand it any better? And conversely, wouldn't it be terrifying if everything was known? If there was nothing left for humans to discover about the universe or themselves?

Some have searched for a theory to everything (with labels like the string theory) in physics, to try and join different theories together into a cohesive whole. It eluded Albert Einstein, but many are still looking for the correct fundamental description of nature. Professor Hawking, in a lecture he gave at Cambridge University, finally came to terms that humankind would never discover the answer to everything. Talking on the subject of an ultimate theory, he said:

Some people will be very disappointed if there is not an ultimate theory, that can be formulated as a finite number of principles. I used to belong to that camp, but I have changed my mind. I'm now glad that our search for understanding will never come to an end, and that we will always have the challenge of new discovery. Without it, we would stagnate.

If life is energy, and energy is movement then it follows that stagnation is the antithesis to evolution. Although we move slowly, we do move. And maybe that's the point. A world of unknowns is also filled with thrilling possibility; we just have to step up with the passion and the desire to meet it.

Yours in love,