Jamie Wheal

How Meaning in Life Has Progressed

If we don’t trust authorities, organized religions, politics, or corporations — if that’s all fractured and broken, how do we find the meaning of why we’re even here?

Unfortunately, that answer is unique for everybody — it has to be! Any top-down answers, no matter how good they sound at the beginning, almost always devolve into some form of fascism over time. 

Meaning 1.0 was traditional religion that offered salvation with the story of how you get to heaven but at the price of exclusion. Those who believed were saved, those who didn’t weren’t. It was a harsh approach, but it was fair because the cards were on the table for everyone to see how the game was played. This was the way of life for most of history. 

Then in the 18th century, meaning 2.0 came along: the French enlightenment on modern liberalism, civil rights, civil liberties, private property, and markets. They decided that the salvation game was problematic — they had led to holy wars, inquisitions, and superstition. Instead, they wanted to be more inclusive — everybody gets to play (in theory) at the cost of salvation. Thus began the separation of church and state. 

Both of these haven’t worked out too well because we’re still sitting with an awful lot of people who have played by the rules waiting for their turn to come — and yet many are still in the ‘Staying Alive’ arc. Joseph Stiglitz, a world bank and UN economic advisor, called the entire system a shell game. It’s been 40 years and the results are in: Neoliberalism and democracy have broken, and the benefits have accrued asymmetrically to those at the top. 

“I had written the first chapter of this book 18 months ago, [with] a paragraph that said ‘68 people on the planet hold as much wealth as the bottom half, the bottom 4 billion. 68 people could all fit on a bus’,  That sort of asymmetrical accumulation of resources occurs in no living system. That was 18 months ago just before we went to press, [and after the pandemic] it’s now 27 people. They can fit in a stretch limo. 27 humans have the same wealth as 4 billion people.” – Jamie Wheal 

Whatever you believe is the best way to live, we’re about to see what happens. We’re going to see whether these systems are stable, inflationary or deflationary, efficient or inefficient. Late-stage capitalism is a total sham compared to the idea of a free market. Mike Tyson’s quote comes to mind: ‘Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the face.’

How Do We Create Meaning 3.0?

There is a tremendous amount of wisdom in organized religion, the modern liberal experiment, science, and ancient cultures, and we can put them together — we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We should understand the best parts of each and build upon them as part of our new structures going forward. 

As an example, the promise of salvation was an important component of meaning 1.0. We know this because, without salvation, people succumb to the diseases of despair: depression, anxiety, addiction, suicide — because there isn’t a greater purpose. 

That’s like staring into the abyss with no rope to pull you back. WHO (World Health Organization) has shed light in the last couple of years that more people commit suicide than die from all wars and natural disasters combined every year.

“Think about our newsfeeds. All we see is war and natural disasters. Now just [remove] that all, and say the silent epidemic is people saying, ‘I cannot make sense of being alive on this earth [anymore].’ [It doesn’t have to be this way because] the thing about heartbreak and facing our grief is it categorically makes us stronger and connects us to our courage. Tonglen is a Tibetan practice of meditation specifically about this. Pema Chödrön, a Tibetan nun and Buddhist teacher, lays it out [explaining] most meditations [ask you to] think happy thoughts, say a mantra, try to get to stillness. Tonglen is the exact opposite. Start with picturing [the difficulty]. Imagine it as black tar or smoke, all the pain, grief, angst, jealousy, and resentment. [Visualize it as] tar and smoke and inhale it. Then exhale light, love, compassion.” – Jamie Wheal

This practice is an imaginal exercise that works by cultivating it, just like a muscle in the gym. By building those ‘muscles’ to become better at coping with difficulties, you can expand that energy to everyone in your family, your community, and everyone in the world. The power in this practice is the foundation for meaning 3.0 because now we take our suffering and use it as raw material for our compassion. 

Alice Walker, the author of The Color Purple and student at Pema Chödrön said, ‘My heart’s been broken open so many times, now it just swings open wide, like a suitcase.’  That’s an example of putting this into practice and learning to weep, not whimper — embracing our experience as opposed to avoiding it. 

The Birth of Soul Force

We face a tremendous amount of uncertainty, fear, and risk in the world, but the flip side is that none of us was promised a rose garden. The key is — can we step back into the bigger arc of history? Can we stack them up with courage and access what Martin Luther King called ‘soul force?’ That’s a term he used in his ‘I have a dream’ speech, borrowed from Howard Thurman — a mentor to the civil rights movement.

“Howard visited Gandhi in 1935 as the first interfaith, African American ambassador to go to India. Gandhi shared with him this notion of nonviolence, which Indians call satyagraha — basically translates to alignment with truth. Arriving back in the US, Howard knew the Sanskrit word was a mouthful, and so he rebranded it ‘soul force.’” – Jamie Wheal

Soul Force transformed civil disobedience, which typically included protestors being hurt by antagonizing people with guns and batons and dogs, to remaining unhurt in the ‘fight’ for freedoms. It became the central philosophical pillar of non-violent protest around the world.

Erica Chenoweth did an interesting study of the successful civil rights movements throughout Eastern Europe, Asia, and the United States between 1950 to 2010. Each required about three and a half percent of the population to make these phase shifts that then can create this catalytic event, which is beautiful and inspiring. 

Why You Should Listen to This Jamie Wheal Podcast Episode Right Now…

This interview was incredible. It was hard to stop asking him questions to hear his thoughts!  I hope you enjoy part one as much as I did, and that you’re excited to wrap it all up in part two! Don’t forget to listen to the episode in its entirety to get the full scoop, and to share the episode with someone who needs to hear it. You could change someone’s life!

If you enjoyed this episode, let us know on Instagram! Tag Jamie, @jamiewheal, and me, @lewishowes, on Instagram with a screenshot of the episode and your greatest takeaways! Remember, this is just part one! Check out part two [here] to learn even more from Jamie.

You should also check out his website www.recapturetherapture.com to connect with him and pick up his latest book. 

To Greatness,