No inherent meaning of lyf

 A

woman climbs to the top of a mountain and finds a mysterious old man meditating.

The old man waves her over, “I see you have come here to learn the meaning of life from me.”

The woman is weirded out, “I didn’t realize life was supposed to have a meaning… and who the heck are you?”

“You didn’t come here to learn the meaning of life and don’t even know who I am?!! Why did you climb up this mountain then?”

“I just like to climb mountains,” the woman smiles sheepishly.

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I remember being much younger and watching a kid’s show where someone goes to the top of a mountain to ask an old master type the meaning of life.

I wondered if there was an old master type I could find that would tell me the meaning of life, but I eventually grew older and asked myself why would I trust someone else to tell me the meaning of life.

I ultimately concluded: There is no universal meaning of life. People impose meaning on their own life instead.

A

That conclusion is pretty close to a mainstream philosophical stance—often called existentialism or, in a softer form, meaning as constructed rather than discovered.

But there’s a useful nuance that can make it less stark than “there is no universal meaning of life.”

It might be more accurate to say: there’s no single, externally imposed meaning that applies equally to everyone in a way that’s verifiable like a scientific fact. But there are recurring human “meaning patterns” that show up across cultures—things like attachment, mastery, contribution, curiosity, care, status, transcendence, etc. They aren’t imposed from outside like a law, but they’re also not purely arbitrary personal inventions. They tend to emerge from the kind of creatures we are.

So instead of:

“There is no meaning of life.”

you could frame it as:

“Meaning isn’t found like a hidden object at the top of a mountain—it’s built through what we care about, and those cares are partly personal and partly shared.”

That also reframes the mountain story nicely. The irony isn’t just that the “old master” is irrelevant; it’s that the expectation itself is mismatched. The woman isn’t missing some hidden answer—she’s operating from a different goal entirely (climbing, not seeking revelation).

One pushback worth considering: if meaning is entirely imposed, it can start to feel like it’s just arbitrary preference. But most people experience meaning as something more binding than preference—more like “this matters to me” rather than “I chose to label this as important.” That “feels like discovery” even if it’s constructed.

A more grounded middle position many philosophers land on is:

• There is no universal, externally authored purpose of life
• But meaning is also not random or purely invented
• It emerges from engagement with the world, relationships, and constraints

In other words, you don’t get handed meaning at the top of a mountain—but you also don’t just invent it in isolation. You grow into it through what you do.

If you want, I can map your view to specific philosophers (existentialists, absurdists, pragmatists), because your framing sits right at an interesting intersection.