What Is the Meaning of Life? The Answer Might Be Simpler Than It Seems

Who could disagree that the question “What is the meaning and direction of life?” is one of the most haunting questions humanity has ever asked? Philosophers have chased it for millennia. Religions try to answer it with dogmas. Individuals avoid it with distractions. And many carry it silently as an invisible burden.

But what if the answer has been right in front of us all along? What if the meaning of life is revealed by life itself?

Life is defined by one essential quality that separates it from mere matter: movement. Where there is life, there is motion. And not just any motion, but motion with direction. Just look at nature: plants grow toward the light, roots expand to seek nutrients, rivers flow, winds blow, waves advance. The movement of life is, by essence, forward.

But what about living beings with cognition and the ability to choose? Unlike plants and animals, the human animal and the non-human animal have the ability to choose not to move forward — or even to move in the opposite direction. And that’s precisely why we need an internal agent to guide that freedom: the Observer.

The Observer is the part of us that sees. And only those who truly see can walk with purpose. That’s why the meaning of life is directly linked to the vision of the one who sees. Vision gives direction to movement. It tells us where to go but it is the Observer that tells why. Progress without vision is just agitation. Movement without purpose is noise. A human being who hasn’t activated their Observer may live an entire life without direction — or worse, under the illusion of progress while actually moving backward.

Since I began my work with moral principles as inner compasses, I understood that the purpose of every human being is to discover those principles, govern them with wisdom, and put them in service of the Whole. And this is one of the most sacred functions of the Observer: to align a person’s essence with their role in the world.

Everything in the universe seems to exist in perfect balance between what it is and what it’s for: the fluidity of water, the firmness of rock, the lightness of the wind, the precise distance of the sun, the soft reflection of the moon. Everything cooperates. Everything contributes. Would the human being be the only exception?

The function of life is to collaborate. Collaboration is the final destination of all that lives. And this isn’t just an idealistic or moral statement. It’s simply the recognition that we are part of a Whole. Rocks collaborate. Plants collaborate. The wind collaborates. And when the human being discovers their true essence and places it in service of the harmony of the Cosmos, they, too, collaborate.

Wouldn’t it be the height of arrogance and human presumption to believe that we — and only we — are outside this equation?

With Love,

Augusto do Carmo