Nothing we see, hear, smell, taste, feel, perceive, or experience, means anything[1]. This includes our thoughts, attitude, values, beliefs, traditions, or cultural norms [2].
Yet, everything we come across seems to have a meaning. How is that possible? It’s possible because we are the ones who’ve been assigning meaning to these things, or phenomena, concepts, ideas, and even thoughts. We’ve been assigning meaning all along. Not only that, but we’ve been trained to assign meaning, and at this point, it happens automatically, and we are not even aware that we are doing it. However, because our meanings come from our perception, which comes from our attitude, which comes from our beliefs, which are chronic forms of thoughts, which, themselves, also do not mean anything, our meanings, therefore, mean nothing whatsoever.
In other words, things have no meaning [3], yet we assign meaning to things. Still, our meanings to things which have no meaning, and therefore the meaning we give to things has no meaning, which makes things having no meaning, regardless of how much meaning we may assign to them because the meaning itself means nothing, which makes anything with a meaning, meaning nothing since its meaning means nothing.
Since things do no mean anything, including the meaning we have given to them, then it is clear that we do not understand anything. Now, we want to understand things and believe or pretend that we understand things, but we do not. We are giving meaning to things, but we neither understand the meanings we give to these things, nor do they mean anything anyway. So, as much as we may claim, or believe, or try to convince ourselves that we understand things, we actually do not.
Since we do not understand things, we cannot pretend to understand what really makes us upset when we are upset. We cannot say for sure why we would be upset because that which we claim is making us upset, we actually do not even understand. How can we not even understand something, yet characterize it as a reason why we would be upset. This would not be understanding. This would be meaning. Our meaning means nothing, and pinpointing that which we think may be making us upset is meaningless in itself and is in no way that which really makes us upset. Therefore, we are never upset for the reason we think we are.
As such, when we are upset, we are actually upset for something that does not even exist, something that is not even there, something that we made up, that we invented, that we made meaning out of, that we give meaning to, and then say, “this is what I am upset about!” But, we know it cannot be so because nothing means anything. This means our own thoughts do not mean anything, that our own feelings do not mean anything, including our upset feelings.
If our upset feelings do not mean anything, instead of trying to explain them, instead of trying to make something or someone responsible for them, we may benefit most from just making nothing out of them-just sitting with them, without judging them, without labeling them, without blaming them, blaming ourselves, blaming others, or circumstances, or situations, or happenings.
Since nothing at all means anything, including our thoughts and feelings, then our suicidal thoughts and feelings mean nothing as well. Therefore, we need no longer be afraid of them, because they do not mean anything, anyway.
We have been deploying so much effort in preventing suicide. Yet, we have no idea what suicide is all about. We do not understand suicide despite how much we believe that we do. We do not because we’ve been assigning meaning to it, and our meaning assigned to suicide means nothing and nothing at all. Suicide is a concept, an idea, a thought, and sometimes takes the form of a feeling, none of which means anything.
And if we start there, right there, in understanding that suicide itself means nothing [4], maybe we’ll get a better chance at addressing suicide, by treating it as nothing. Since there is nothing there, we can then put something there. We can put the joy of living, love of living, peace, freedom, life satisfaction [5], fulfillment, self-actualization, self-realization, growth, contribution, a life with purpose. These mean something, because they are part of a different type of mental processes. They are part of the mental processes that are the opposite of those that led to thoughts of suicide. And when all we have are these new kinds of mental processes, then we will never have to talk about suicide, for it actually means nothing.
This is how we help others with suicide. This is how we help cease suffering in the world. And This is what SWEET is on a mission for.
Karen and Mardoche
[1] Basch, Michael, Franz. “The perception of reality and the disavowal of meaning.” Annual of Psychoanalysis 11 (1983): 125-153.
[2] Miller, Peggy J. “Instantiating culture through discourse practices: Some personal reflections on socialization and how to study it.” Ethnography and human development: Context and meaning in social inquiry (1996): 183-204.
[3] O’Brien, Ignatius. “The Level on Which the Mind Functions.” Irish Theological Quarterly 21.2 (1954): 156-168.
[4] Dyregrov, Kari Madeleine, et al. “Meaning-making through psychological autopsy interviews: The value of participating in qualitative research for those bereaved by suicide.” Death Studies 35.8 (2011): 685-710.
[5] Pavot, William, and Ed Diener. “The satisfaction with life scale and the emerging construct of life satisfaction.” The journal of positive psychology 3.2 (2008): 137-152.