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still they go on clinging to life. If life is meaningless then why should one live? For what? If it is all going to end in nothingness, if matter is going to disappear into matter and there is going to be no outcome of it, then why all this anguish, anxiety, despair, struggle? And these are all the themes of existentialists: anguish, anxiety, despair, fear, death. If life is meaningless then why should one be worried about death? One should rejoice! Then to commit suicide should be the only worthwhile act, the first and the last. But they don't commit suicide; they go on talking about the meaninglessness of life. In fact this very talk becomes their purpose.
One great philosopher, Zeno, lived a very long life -- more than ninety years -- and for his whole life he was teaching that life is meaningless. In fact it is said that a few fools committed suicide in following his ideas; he was a very convincing man. When he was on his deathbed somebody said, "This is very strange, that you lived ninety years and many of your followers have committed suicide following your ideas. Why did you not commit suicide? He said, "I had to live so that I could teach my philosophy." Now that was his only purpose: to teach philosophy, to teach this philosophy that life is meaningless. It was as if that became his meaning.
No, nobody really agrees -- not even the existentialists who go on saying that life is meaningless really agree with their own philosophy. Deep down they are still doubting: there may be some meaning. Perhaps we have not discovered it yet. Who know? -- maybe tomorrow we will stumble upon it. We may not have come across it up to now but it can happen tomorrow. So let us wait, live and go on searching.
Nobody really becomes convinced that life is meaningless because life is not meaningless; it has intrinsic value, but it has to be discovered. We are unconsciously, intuitively, instinctively aware of it. We have just a hunch that there is -- there is bound to be some meaning -- but we are not clear about it. It has not come to light; we don't have any proofs for it. Love gives us proofs for it.
A lover has no doubts about life's meaningfulness,
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