1.   What is “the Meaning of Life”?
What do we mean by asking this question?  Is it just happiness?  Purpose?  A sense of deep
fulfillment?  Is it objective, i.e., outside of our wants?  Meaning in Life/Meaning of Life.
          Text:     Robert Fulghum, It Was on Fire When I Lay Down On It (excerpt)

     2.   The futility of trying to win the game of life
Introduction to Kohelet.  Failure of hedonism.  Failure of gaining power.  Failure of gaining
wisdom.  What do these “fail” to do?
          Text:     Kohelet

     3.   Linear time, Cyclical time, Desire and Suffering
The river runs to the sea and the sea is never full.  Can we be happy in such a world?  Also, an
introduction to basic Buddhism.  Everything passes away -> All of life is impermanent.  Our
desire to make things remain -> Suffering.  Meaning = Getting out of that trap.
          Text:     Kohelet
                       Indigo Girls, “Closer to Fine”
                       The First Discourse of the Buddha (The Founding of Wisdom), and teachings on
  the Four Noble Truths and Nirvana

     4.   Enlightenment
There is a meaning of life/ultimate reality.  It can be glimpsed, but perhaps not communicated.  If
the purpose of human existence is to come close to the Ultimate, these guys get the closest
 Text:     ‘An Introduction to Zen’ and sample Zen stories
 William Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey
 Rav Kook, “What Are We?”
 Martin Buber, I and Thou (excerpt)

     5.   To enrich one’s existence by living in wonder.
Perhaps the meaning of life is to make a place in this world for the transcendent, a place for the
shamayim in the aretz.  What we need to do is recognize that everything around us is miraculous,
be thankful for it, and have a way to translate that into ways in which we live our lives.
Text: Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man is Not Alone (excerpts)
 Excerpt from Birkat Hamazon
 Jay Michaelson, Trying to Count the Stars (excerpts)

     6.   Mortality and Immortality: Is the meaning of life in the next world, or this one?
Maybe we’re here only to prepare us for an Afterlife.  Or maybe, there are aspects of this world
which make life worth living.  
 Text:     Kohelet conclusion
 Mishna Avot 4:21-22, 1:2
 Rabbi Ron Isaacs and Rabbi Kerry Olitzky, “A World Beyond the Grave”
 Baha’i Text on “The Purpose of Life”
 Various Texts on “Prepare Now for Eternity”

     7.   To drink deep the essence of human life!
There is something essential about the human condition, and we can live it, if we seize the day.
 Text:     Henry David Thoreau, Walden (“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”)
 Dead Poets Society
 Jack Kerouac, On the Road (excerpt)
 Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of Poetry (excerpt)

     8.   Pleasures of this World.  Power, Pleasure, Personal Fulfillment
Hey, we’re here.  Let’s (a) have as much fun as possible, or (b) achieve real immortality by
having kids, or (c) collect as many dollars/power points as possible, or (d) Fulfill Our Potential
(whatever that is) or (e) win lots of status.  In any case, he who gets the most stuff wins.
 Text:     The American dream, as familiar to you all
 J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone (excerpt)
 Anton LaVey, The Satanic Bible (excerpts)
 “Winning Isn’t Everything; It’s the Only Thing” and other fine quotes
 Eliezer Yudkowsky, Frequently Asked Questions about the Meaning of Life

     9.   Tikkun Olam/ Alleviating Suffering
Maybe there is a meaning of life, maybe there isn’t.  But you can’t find it out if you’re starving
and in pain anyway.  So quit contemplating, and help other people.
 Text:     Isaiah 57:14-58:14
 Jonathan Omer-Man, The Spiritual Practice of Politics
 Instruction on the Theology of Liberation

     10.  A Conclusion, in which Nothing is Concluded
 Text:     Kohelet
 Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (excerpt)
 Monty Python, The Meaning of Life