The Meaning of Life
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Stanwood Cobb, The Meaning of Life, bahai-library.com.
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The Meaning of
LIFE

by
STANWOOD COBB
It is to develop the soul's creative will
that it was submerged in matter. As the
mystic views this worldly life it is a vast
school whose tasks have but one aim: to
strengthen and increase the will of man.
Every obstacle surmounted, every diffi-
culty overcome, every ingenious device
by which man masters his environment
-magnify within him the confidence
and power and creative greatness of his
soul, rendering it akin to the Divine in
its ability to mould matter to its will.
For matter is not really the harsh, im-
possible medium that it would seem.
Handled by the Divinity itself it is easily
fluent to His will-harmonious, obedi-
ent, joyously evolving into more and
more magnificent forms of usefulness
and beauty.
As man, then, develops gradually into
the enjoyment of his spiritual birthright,
more and more will he too be able to
control matter, to employ it, to dictate to
it, and to mould it harmoniously to his
will.
The Essential Mysticism
By STANWOOD COBB
The Meaning of
LIFE
bv
STANWOOD COBB

Author of
DISCOVERJNG THE GENIUS WITHIN YOU ,
CHARACTER, WISDOM OF WU MING FU .

PRI CE   I 0 CENTS

LIFE GUIDANCE SocIETY, Washington 15, D. C.
COPYRIGHT 1932

BY STANWOOD COBB
CHEV Y CHASE, MD.
PR I NTED IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
The Meaning of Life
W       HEN all is going well we do not ask
the meaning of life. It is sufficient
then just to be alive. In the enjoyment of
health, activity and successful achievement,
existence is taken for granted and enjoyed for
its own sake-just as are beauty and love. As
Emerson has said, beauty is its own excuse
for being; and so is life when it is zestful and
JOYOUS.
But there come into every life periods of
depression, of frustration, of struggle against
seemingly overwhelming obstacles . Periods of
ill health, of over-work, of strain, of anxiety,
of misfortune. Then it is we ask: What is the
purpose of existence? What is the good of it
all? Has life any meaning, or is it only the
capricious gift of a fortuitous universe?
I have given a good deal of thought to this
problem, both in connection with the events
of my own life and with the events of many
other lives that have been disclosed in all dra-
matic detail to my sympathetic study. And I
have come to the conclusion that the sole pur-
pose of life, so far as the individual is con-
cerned, is growth through struggle.
•3•
THE MEANING OF LIFE

Life is a struggle. In truth, struggle seems
to be an inseparable element of all existence.
It is just this very fact that so frequently
causes the complaint: What is the good of it
all?
Growth, I feel sure, is the purpose of it all.
Life means opportunity for growth on the
part of the individual. And we grow only by
means of activity-or, as the psychologists
call it, purposeful activity. Not to be active is
to stagnate, atrophy, crystallize. Movement is
the sign of life. It is more even than that. It
is the essence of life.

T IFE, from one point of view, is simply a
L succession of inevitable exertions. If we
did not start out on a career of purposeful
activity the moment we came into the world
we would never learn how to walk; how to
talk ; how to use our hands; how to think.
After the infant period is passed, we strug-
gle through an education. Here too we attain
growth only by means of mental and manual
activity. At its best education is a struggle-
an arduous endeavor which has its strains, its
anxieties, its obstacles, its frustrations. All of
these scholastic difficulties of growing and de-
veloping youth could be avoided simply by
not receiving an education. But even with the
• 4.
THE MEANING OF LIFE

possibility of such a simple solution of our
pedagogic difficulties, no sane person would
avail himself of this way out of intellectual
struggle. We wish an education, with all its
strains and difficulties, because we wish to
grow and develop intellectually. We may at
times envy the savages who bask indolently in
the sunshine of the South Sea Islands; but we
are really never desirous of substituting such
a mentally idle career for the intellectual
training of the modern technological world.
When the struggle and strain of education
is over, can we then relapse into a life of ease
and supilleness? Not at all. The real effort
of our life has hardly begun. We now face a
career. This calls for every ounce of energy
in us. Here again we meet with difficulties,
with strains, with disappointments and bitter
frustrations . All the trials to which humanity
is heir seem to be concentrated in the human
environment of the business world-a Scylla
and Charybdis through which the individual
must carefully steer his bark if he would reach
successful havens.
Meanwhile marriage beckons from afar.
This seems in prospect like a halcyon cruise
amid Elysian islands. But in actual experience
we discover that marriage has been but the
portal to more struggle and effort. One of the
most difficult things in life is the human ad-
•5•
THE MEANING OF LIFE

j ustment rendered necessary by marriage, if
marriage is to result in any kind of harmony
of living. All those pampered qualities which
as son or daughter were deemed but charming
peccadillos in the eyes of adoring parents, ap-
pear now as inexcusable faults which must be
shuffled off before married life can rise to a
successfu l stage. Those twain are indeed for-
tunate who in this marital struggle attain to a
permanent harmony and happiness.
To the mated life is eventually added an-
other factor of difficulty-progeny. If the
individual has faced anxieties before, they are
as nothing to the anxieties met and faced in
child raising. What difficulties of child health ,
of child development, of child training! What
financial strains and stringencies! What un-
foreseen disturbances to the normal tran-
quility of life!
And now when life has run its course and
the physical vehicle is too worn out to further
convey the soul on its journeys, does death
have its way with us without a struggle? Not
at all. This universal event is accompanied by
pain, by agony, by intense struggle-just as
the event of birth. The soul seeks to maintain
its hold upon the body, while the body seeks
to shake it off. This tragic struggle can end, of
course, only in one way. But why the wrestle,
the struggle, the strain? Why can we not just
•6•
THE MEANING OF LIFE

go to sleep and fail to wake up? Some do die
this way. Perhaps many more of us would if
we knew how to do it .

W       HAT an immense struggle all this
living is! Yet we can dimly perceive,
even in the midst of it, something of meaning.
And upon retrospection, as they say a drown-
ing person sees his life pass before him, we
can sense the purpose of it all-that purpose
being growth.
And these struggles, these obstacles which
have been thrown before us, have been enor-
mous aids to our development. We have be-
come very different individuals because of the
struggles of education. Again we have grown
enormously through the struggles inherent in
married life. Parenthood we have found a
great field of development; for while we were
training our children, they were training us.
And in pursuing a career we have attained to
undreamt heights of certitude and power.
We cannot avoid struggle. But we can
meet struggle as an opportunity for growth.
We can suffer obstacles and frustration to be
merely a misfortune to us; or we can utilize
them as aids to development. If growth is
attained, the struggle seems well worth the
while. If growth has not been attained in the
• 7.
THE MEANING OF LIFE
course of struggle, in every case, I think it safe
to say, the fault is our own and not that of
Destiny.
Growth, however, is not an end in itself.
It is a means to achievement. The greater the
development of the individual, the greater his
power of achievement. To grow, to achieve-
this is to perform our part in the universe.
When we do this we have become creators.
We are expressing the native genius which is
within each one of us.
And miracle of miracles, achievement
causes further growth. So that we have here
an infinite cycle, of which the mythological
snake swallowing its tail may be taken as a
symbol; for there is no end to this process of
achievement by means of growth, and growth
by means of achievement. Achievement there-
fore becomes both the means and the goal of
growth. And since growth is life itself, we
must conclude that achievement is the evi-
dence of a constantly expanding existence.
Could any scheme of things more wonder-
ful than this be conceived? Destiny has placed
within the hands of every individual the com-
plete means for achieving growth, and for
expressing that growth in terms of achieve-
ment.
We might depict existence in the form of a
diagram. At the center, is the Self-radiating
•8•
THE MEANING OF LIFE

out into the world of matter, and expressing
itself by means of growth and achievement.
At the perimeter, which we may call E xis-
tence, we find struggle leading into growth,
growth leading into achievement, achieve-
ment leading to more growth, and so on to
renewed struggle, et cetera, ad infinitum.*

T IFE forces struggle upon us at all times;
L but especially is struggle a necessary fac-
tor of achievement, as has been shown. Some-
times one wonders why so many obstacles
must arise between the conception and the ac-
complishment of a project. Why is matter al-
ways obstructing life?
The farmer and his toil is a symbol of the
difficulties that face all purposeful activity on
a material plane. To get the earth to bear for
him, the farmer must first plow it. This nec-
essary process meets with obstruction at every
step of the way. When the earth is at last
thrown aside and reduced to submissive fur-
rows, the planting must be done. But this is
not the end of the matter. Constant cultiva-
tion is necessary. The elements present new
dangers almost daily. And as if that were not
enough, the insidious attacks of the insect
world call for incessant battle if these greatest
*The cycle is repeated in ascendi ng curves, as we master the lessons
li fe brings us .
•9•
THE MEANING OF LIFE

foes of man are to be conquered so that crops
may grow healthy. To bring about a success-
ful harvest is a long drawn out task, requiring
infinite patience, industry and wisdom.
And so it is with all thought of man toward
achievement. The idea, the plan many come
with a rush of joyous inspiration. Here on this
inner plane all is clear smooth sailing. But
between the idea and its accomplishment ap-
pear a thousand obstacles, once a thought-
form enters upon the plane of activity.
This is so characteristic of life that we must
accept it as a law of existence : achievement
can be reached only over the barrier of in-
numerable obstacles.
Why is this so? Is it, perhaps, because if
our ideas could be transformed immediately
into realities we should become magicians
and demigods-a veritable danger to the uni-
verse? For we are not isolated individuals
when we come to the plane of action, as we
were on the plane of conception. In the world
of the idea we can erect dream castles ad
libitum without in any way interfering with
other people's dream castles. But when we
come to deal with the phenomenal world, our
plans and efforts must somehow fit in with
plans and efforts of other people; they must
harmonize with the organization of humanity
and with the universal scheme of things. All
• 10.
THE MEANING OF LIFE
such plans can be achieved only in competi-
tion with the plans of millions of other indi-
viduals, in a medium of matter which itself
opposes obstinately the will of man.
ff we understand these laws, we shall not
be so impatient at difficulties in our career;
at unexpected obstacles in the working out of
projects and ideas.

0      NE thing that we can do is to make
certain that what we are attempting to
accomplish is reasonable-is worth while not
only for ourselves but for the world in general;
and that it is in line with our own abilities and
strength.
Much of the struggle in life is unnecessary
and avoidable. It is due to the unwise en-
deavor to accomplish impossible enterprises
-things not meant for us.
When Napoleon, in the intoxication of his
titanic vanity, undertook to invade Russia, his
rashness and lack of wisdom had already
guaranteed insuperable obstacles to the ac-
complishment of his plans. Never before had
his military aims been impossible of achieve-
ment. Always his power of will and military
genius had enabled him to overcome any ob-
stacles which existed. But here, for the first
time, Napoleon undertook a quixotic enter-
• 11 •
THE MEANING OF LIFE
pri$e. ttere was an und~rtaking in which his
geniµs ,could not suffice for vidory, for it was
P.ot simply a case of defeating the enemy on
the field of battle. For the first time Napoleon
found himself up against insuperable ob-
stacles.
Therefore, we must always consider care-
fully everything we undertake, realizing that
quixotic quests are sure to meet with insup-
erable difficulties and to end in disaster.
We must budget and economize our energy
as wisely as we do our income. If a shipload
of banknotes goes down to the bottom of the
sea a lot of money may be lost, but very little
real wealth. For actual wealth is labor con-
verted into things of human need. The mis-
direction of labor, either our own or that of
other people, into futile enterprises is the
greatest loss of wealth that can befall. There-
fore, make sure that your labor is creating
real wealth for the world; and rest assured
that in that case it will bring sufficient recom-
pense, both in income and in happiness, to
yourself.

I  F we find ourselves obstructed in the
course we are taking; if we find obstacles
hemming us in on every side; or if we find
ourselves plunged into misfortune-our first
step should be to analyze the situation. See
• 12.
THE MEANING OF LIFE
where the trouble is coming from. Perhaps it
really flows from ourselves; the fault may be
in us. Or, if it comes from without, let us s e
what causes it, and move out of the dang
if possible.
Nature has planted in even the humblest
and lowest of creatures the instinct to analyze
danger and to move away from it. Touch a
caterpillar with a stick and it will immediately
wriggle and try to escape. It senses danger and
is using its insect intelligence to escape that
danger. So must man use all of his human
intelligence to escape from situations that
hem him in unfavorably. First think, and then
act, in such a way as to get out of difficulties.
Every difficulty, be sure, can in time somehow
be overcome.
And we must not rebel against life and the
universe because of the necessity for daily
struggle. How would progress and evolution
get on if there were no obstacles to strive
against, no difficulties to overcome? Where
there is little need of striving, life degenerates.
Evolutionary progress has resulted from over-
coming obstacles. Only by biological striving
has there been evolved a nervous system, a
backbone, and a brain.
We cannot avoid struggle. It is the law of
nature. What we can do is to utilize the neces-
sity of struggle as a means for growth. We
• 13 •
THE MEANING OF LIFE
can allow a misfortune to be merely a misfor-
tune, or we can turn it into progress. We must
see to it, therefore, that our trials and suf-
ferings become a means for growth; for other-
wise they are black tragedy indeed.
The creative person knows well how to
utilize misfortune as a stepping stone to higher
forms of expression. Whatever comes into the
artist's life is so much grist for his mill. A
trial, a sorrow, a tragedy, by means of the
alchemy of art become a sonata pathetique, a
painting which blesses the world, or a noble
tragedy which refines and inspires the heart
of man.
What the artist does, we can also do. We
can forge out from our misfortunes a golden
coin to pay our way onward and upward. We
can make stepping stones of our dead selves
and rise to higher things. It is our own fault,
after all, if we do not turn struggle into
growth; and growth into achievement.
Right effort applied wisely and persistently
cannot fail to win out. A remarkable state-
ment to this effect emanates from one whose
own life exemplifies extraordinarily the power
to achieve a world mission in the face of ap-
parently overwhelming odds; for although a
prisoner for forty years, he yet managed from
prison walls to spread over the whole world
his message of universal peace and goodwill.
• 14.
THE MEAN I.NG OF LIFE

"Man must be tireless jn his efforts," says Ab-
dul Baha in "The Divine Art of Living."
"Once his effort is directed in the proper
channel if he does not succeed today he will
succeed tomorrow. Effort in itself is one of the
noblest traits of human character. Devotion
to one's calling, effort in its speedy execution,
simplicity of spirit and steadfastness through
all the ups and downs, these are the hall-
marks of success. A person characterized with
those attributes will gather the fruits of his
labors, and will also win the happiness of the
Kingdom.~'

;\ GREAT comfort in times of stress is the
_ft knowledge that the hardship will in due
time pass, and it will seem as if it had never
been. In the struggle of life there are periods
of respite, a truce to battle, a time for rest and
recuperation.
Nature obeys a sublime law of rhythm. In
the plant world the periods of activity, of rap-
id growth, of harvest, are unfailingly followed
by a period of brumal rest which is a time of
preparation for further expansion and growth.
And so it is in the life of man. We have our
periods of zestful activity, of thrilling achieve-
ment. These may be followed by periods of
weariness; of depression; perhaps even of fail-
ure and frustration. But development goes on,
• 15 •
THE MEANING OF LIFE

even in "the winter of our discontent." For
we too, like the plant world, are being pre-
pared (though we little know it) for further
and greater achievement. In these periods of
retirement we can grow mightily, gathering
our forces for renewed and more successful
struggle.
What a great lesson came to Milton in his
blindness! "God does not need my service,"
he discovered: "Thousands at His bidding
speed, and post o'er land and sea. They also
serve who only stand and wait."
Into the life of Lincoln came a period of
disappointment, of lull, after his enforced re-
tirement from Congress. For some five years
his growth in character was mostly in the
silence of his own meditations and rumina-
tions. He spent hours in his office writing, re-
flecting, and studying the stupendous and baf-
fling problem of slavery. At the end of this
period of political retirement he was much
nearer being of a calibre for President than
he had been during his congressional period.
We too may be but gainers from moments,
from years even, of frustration. For during
our enforced rest from the strains of achieve-
ment and success we learn our dependence
upon Destiny. We discover the need of relax-
ation, of resignation, of renunciation.*
*One of W ag ner's noblest operas. Tristan and l sold e, was composed
upon the them e of re nunciati o ni1S the res ult of a bitter experience
in bis own life.
THE MEANING OF LIFE

We learn to give up our own will to that
vast Cosmic current which bears us toward
more glorious harbors than we even know of.
This is not loss, but gain, if we but knew it.
Thus we find strength to repeat once more
the cycle of struggle, growth, achievement.
And so we wend our way ever onward and
upward. Upward, that is, provided we know
how to utilize the circumstances which Des-
tiny places in our way.

I   N all this life process, this complicated
system of existence which so baffles the
human intelligence, let us make sure to use as
much as possible our intuitive powers. Here is
a force given to us for our use-a wonderful
guidance.
I believe the intuition to be a higher, more
far seeing power than the intellect. It gives
us an advantage in finding our way out of dif-
ficulties, such as a man who was lost in a for-
est would have if he could climb a high tree
and overlook all the environs; or if he could
find a trail which guaranteed some definite
though unseen goal.
Before embarking upon any important en-
terprise, therefore, you should consult your
intuition most carefully. And if it should ap-
pear that you are wrongfully embarked upon
• 17 •
THE MEANING OF LIFE

an enterprise from which the jntuition draws
back more and more the farther you go into
it, pay heed to these warn ing signals. Do not
hesitate to turn about. If a mistake is being
made, have no false pride here. There are
very few dilemmas from which man cannot
extricate himself when he obeys the guidance
of his intuition, and uses courage and will
power. Pride and consistency have no part to
play jn such a situation.
There is, it would seem, a negative warning
which comes to us often- a feeling that things
are not right and that it is not best to continue
along this line. Socrates called this the warn-
ing of his "daemon," or good angel. He said
this daemon never bothered him when he was
doing something which was wise and advanta-
geous for him; but that it never failed to warn
him if he was getting entangled in an unwise
or unfavorable line of action. By heeding
these storm signals, Socrates guided his life
very well. This intuitive guidance, you will re-
member, was the cause of his final serenity on
approaching his execution. "If death were a
misfortune," said Socrates in effect, "if it bore
us to some bourne of further trouble, my
daemon would have warned me. But it has
said nothing. Therefore I think that death is
either a welcome extinction of the Self, or
initiation into higher realms of existence. In
• 18 •
THE MEANING OF LIFE

either case, I cheerfully face this last event of
what we here call Life."
In order to make adequate use of our in-
tuitions, we must be able to recognize them as
such. This takes a lot of practice. The intui-
tional power grows in proportion as we use
it.
This need not mean, and should not mean,
the abdication of reason. For we have to use
our reason to test the validity of our intuitions,
and to distinguish real guidance from emo-
tional impulses and aberrations. The intuition
is only one factor of the expression of the Self
-but it is a factor far too valuable to be over-
looked and neglected.
Those persons who make use of intuition to
aid them in the choice and execution of activ-
ities and enterprises will certainly be spared
Jnuch of the struggle that mortal life is heir
to. They will be helped to avoid many pitfalls.
And their achievement, because of this inner
guidance, will tend to harmonize with the uni-
versal scheme of things. In other words, they
will have the force of destiny and of progress
upon their side instead of against them.

~ A. THEN you have done the best you can
VV to steer your life into ways of harmony,
• 19 •
THE MEANING OF LIFE

yet tribulations still beset you, it is a great help
to recognize the following important truths:
The trial or misfortune you are laboring
under has been attracted to you by some hid-
den, inner law. It may or may not be a result
of previous actions of your life here. But it
certainly has an organic connection with your
personality, and is just what you need at the
present moment for present and future growth
and development. Do not scorn it, therefore,
or indulge in bitter and futile rebellion. Ac-
cept it, transmute it unto creative values, and
escape from it as quickly as intelligence, will
power and wisely directed effort will enable.
Above all things, do not indulge in the
persecution complex, or think yourself a mar-
tyr beyond all other souls. What you are en-
during is the common lot of humanity:* Your
experience may be unique-probably is
unique. For such is the nature of experience.
Experience fits the individual-and no two
individuals are alike. But for the very reason
that it is unique, it is helpful and efficacious
for you. It might not be helpful to another
person, nor any other person's experience be
helpful to you.
And through it all, under every circum-
stance of life, let us remember that suffering
is an essential to growth. For often we do not
*Ed wa rd Martin , Edito r of Lite, o nce sa id: " Most people a re unh appy
beca use they think e veryone else is happy."
THE MEANING OF LIFE

of ourselves willingly enough struggle to exert
our utmost powers. Therefore we have to be
gently impelled by Destiny, by some change
which threatens disaster to our fortunes.

H ow        could animals realize this, that the
pain, the terror of life was to drive
them higher up? How could cave men of an-
cient Europe, basking in a semi-tropical cli-
mate, realize that the icy breaths of descend-
ing glaciers from the polar regions were to
drive them into effort which would make of
them a finer, a more intelligent race, worthy
progenitors of modern Europeans? From cave
men we have forged our way to the man of the
twentieth century with his powerful intellect,
ungoverned emotional nature and almost
completely undiscovered powers of intuition.
Struggle still is necessary, privation and suf~
fering in order to train us to govern the emo-
tions and to utilize that marvelous spirit of
intuition which is ready to do the bidding of
us all. Upward man has risen for eons past-
through struggle, privation and sorrow. Up-
ward he is still to rise, for progress must go
on. And the end is perhaps above all sorrow.
As for the individual, does his progress, as
well as that of the race, go on forever? That
• 21.
THE MEANING OF LIFE

is the teaching of the great spiritual heroes
who have given their lives for man's fuller de-
velopment and progress. Personally I am con-
vinced that these few earth years are but a
slight segment of existence; and it is my aim
to so live here that life hereafter may not be
handicapped. I believe that what gains I make
here in character and development become an
indestructible wealth-a wealth which "moths
cannot corrupt, nor thieves break in and
steal." I believe that my abilities will find full
scope for expression over there; that life will
be even more gloriously zestful and active
than it is here; and that if we have learned
well here the lessons of trials, frustrations and
misfortunes, we shall not need such discipline
hereafter.

We have not reached the point of
truly successful living until we have
found adequate expression for the Self
within us . . . . The creative person has
always the victorious attitude toward
life. . . . For what matters all else in
the world, if one's life is being poured
fourth in terms of beauty, of achieve-
ment, of service?             ·
Discovering the Genius Within You
By STANWOOD COBB
-- The Meaning of Life (Used by permission of the curator)