The meaning of life has many subtleties. One of which is that the meaning of life, to be happy, must be discovered. It cannot be found.

A definition of "found": to come upon often accidentally. (Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary.)

A definition of "discover": to make known or visible. (Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary.)

I realize this is a subtle difference. Yet it is profound. One cannot simply stumble across happiness as in "I found happiness at the bar the other night." Now, please, no one needs to assume that I am judging and therefore condemning any kind of behavior. I am not. I am just pointing out that people try to find happiness in "all the wrong places." First, because happiness cannot be found, it must be discovered. Second, because... all the wrong places, meaning it cannot be found accidentally.

Happiness is discovered by making it known. In other words, it already exists; one need only find it. It is already there, you need only to make it visible.

How do you make something visible? By seeing it. How many times have you not seen something that was plainly in sight? How many times have you seen something you thought was there, but wasn't?

We were traveling in the mountains of the southwest of the United States. I saw a deer ahead standing at the side of the road. It was beautiful, with a full rack of antlers. Except... there was no deer. My mind had made me see the deer. But it turns out it was an emergency stand on four metal legs and radio antennae looking similar to antlers. My wife had the most hilarious time pointing out my mistake. (She still does to this day.) The point: I saw what I wanted to see. It wasn't a deer at all.

People think they find happiness because they see what they want to see. What really needs to happen is for folks to look inside themselves and discover, make known, the happiness that is already there. Happiness is within you. Just behind your sensory awareness, just behind your thoughts and feelings, is the "undiscovered country" of happiness. There with you all the time. Never not with you. You simply make it "visible" within you. It is like there is a tarpaulin of blindness covering your happiness within. You merely need to lift this covering and you we see and feel it.

How do you do that? You find the meaning of life, the be happy, by making daily contact with the Spirit. In meditation you tear away the veil and be happy. Meditation clears away the sensory storm that surrounds us. When the rage of the storm is put away from us in quietness, there is happiness waiting. Discover happiness beginning today by quieting the self-storm in meditation. Then you will have found the meaning of life, to be happy, within you already.