practical inquiry regarding meaning » value » happening / doing / allowing to happen
The goal here is to actually realize that when we ask the question what's the meaning of existence?, the question is the answer. The meaning (answer) of what is happening (existence) is determined relative to how we're interpreting it, where interpretation is a mode of inquiry (question). Usually, this mode of inquiry is non-reflective. We interpret by doing, our actions stretch time into moments that include a series of actions all done with reference to a common purpose, and pursuing that purpose counts as a mode of inquiry regarding what existence means. Existence means possibilities. The possibilities are limitless. Those that we pursue answer the question of the pursuit. The pursuit takes different forms.
As stated, our pursuits are mostly non-reflective. When reflection enters, the distance between question and answer can shrink to the distance between two mirrors pressed together, reflecting each other. This is to witness the pure possibility of existence, which is no possibility in particular. To tarry there too long is unwise (except, perhaps, for monks). Pure possibility can evoke dread. When we consider at length the pure possibility that the answer is the question, we will see that this is the case for any question and any answer, and this will erode our ability to see meaningful/qualitative differences between questions and answers. However, just because we are left with this impression by runaway reflection does not mean that it's true for us given our situatedness in concrete reality, with the historical pressures placed upon us, and so on. When the question is the answer is placed in our concrete conditions, it properly does not deny those conditions, but refracts through them as if a ray of light through a prism. If we tarry too long in dread, we run the risk of devaluing the instrinsic beauty of the refraction.
To actually realize that the question is the answer is to explore at length the particular modes of inquiry (mostly non-reflective) afforded by one's own concrete conditions. These conditions will be somewhat personal (character), someone impersonal (culture, nature), and always historical. They'll project possibilities that are likewise somewhat personal (authentic) and somewhat impersonal (collective, transcendent), and always historical (as futurally-oriented). When we fully explore all these conditions and actually realize that the question is the answer, we stop asking what the possibilities are for. We simply enjoy them.
