Does every action in life have a secret, hidden meaning?

by Vic Shayne
author
13 Pillars of Enlightenment: How to realize your true nature and end suffering

Does it matter to know or understand whether there is a reason behind every action? In short, the answer seems to be No. In fact, many people drive themselves crazy over this, thinking that the universe is sending them hidden or coded messages. We have to be careful, though, not to let the mind run wild and distract us from what is most important, which is to know what we really are and how all else fits into the scheme of things.

The mind is a curious instrument. It helps us navigate this world, figure out solutions to problems, interact with others and our environment, communicate, differentiate between forms, and so on. But this same mind becomes psychologically conditioned at a very young age and then continually throughout life. Overall, the mind becomes conditioned to form a sense of self. It is this sense of self that becomes obsessed with ideas and practices.

The sense of self — also called me, the egoic self, the egoic mind, and so on — is only a belief. It does not exist, which has been demonstrated by psychologists, neuroscientists, sages, physicists, yogis, and philosophers. Anyone can look into this sense of self to see if it is real or just an accretion of ideas. While the egoic mind does not actually exist, until this fact is fully realized, it shapes our actions, words, ideas, memories, responses, interpretations, judgments, and language. It worries, philosophizes, schemes, surmises, supposes, proposes, trusts in Moses, and is involved in every emotion and motive. Thus, the egoic self is like a computer that has gone rogue due to the information it has been stocked with.

One of the preoccupations with many people, due to the conditioning of the egoic self, is believing that everything has a reason, a purpose. We hear this all the time — we need to find our purpose in life, or that people are having an existential crisis as they search for meaning, etc. But meaning, symbols, and all else, are only of concern to the egoic mind and have no real bearing on reality. If this were not true then we would see everyone being worried, afraid, or excited about the same exact things. Perhaps a simpler way to state this is that everything is subjective and nothing is objective.

Of course, when people take an action or say something, there is usually a reason, but this reason is predicated on their egoic selves. But when something happens out of the blue or in nature, or fortunately or unfortunately, the best reason is because the entirety of consciousness, which is the total movement of life, has brought it about. Life is one singular, dynamic, and complex movement and it takes the entirety of life, or consciousness, for anything to come to fruition, including your every action. Nothing exists in isolation.

It is the egoic self that takes an event personally as a sign from a higher power. But what the egoic self does not know is that you are already the higher power, which means that you are the seer of the sign and the sign itself.

If the egoic self were fully stripped away and laid bare, then it would be obvious who you are at the core. In this case, it would also be obvious that you, as the totality of consciousness, are the one who creates everything in the world, but you as the egoic self does not create anything at all.

Sometimes we see important or pertinent signs and messages, and sometimes, as Sigmund Freud said, a cigar is just a cigar.