>>143 While suffering can be transformative, purposely causing suffering to another is never a justifiable thing to do. If we choose to be vengeful or to destroy then we have simply returned to an economic mode of living. By economic I mean that we have returned to that meaninglessness that our society presses upon us: that we're all just objects to be used for one another's pleasure--that all we are is a consumer driven by animal emotions and feelings. Contrary to what Mouse in The Matrix says (that our impulses make us human) our humanity consists of our ability to deny our impulses and to decide what is better. >>130 has finally reached a stage of selflessness (although it's manifesting in an improper way) and you would have him re-establish his ego, to return to what drove him here in the first place? To do good works in service of another is to renounce our ego--to make ourselves into judge and declare the value of another's life is to make us all numbers, including ourselves!
I see now that I need to clarify the phrase "create your meaning" that I used. For me, it has a specific context that I failed to evoke, and I apologize for that. Meaning is rooted in truth; there is no meaning aside from truth. The creation of our meaning is how we choose to respond to truth, how we make that truth manifest. If our meaning is something that is soley our creation, then its essentially just an arbitrary goal that we've set. Without knowing truth, how can we seek to act in this world? Creating our meaning means interacting with and discovering truth. What is suffering? What is purpose? What is justice? What is humanity?
Our society places us in such a powerful mode of relativism that we're essentially nihilists: "I'm ok, you're ok, just seek out your individual happiness like an animal, we have no responsibilities towards one another." "Nothing is true, everything is permitted." Our popular culture has even devolved into making religion into either an agent of the status quo or a tool for our own egocentric happiness. Go to church because you'll develop a strong social network. Go do yoga because it's good for your muscles and body. Go do meditation because it will reduce your level of stress. Never mind that the church is the Body of Christ that calls us to love and forgive one another, never mind that yoga is about seeking union with the divine through physical and mental discipline, never mind that meditation is about transcending our simple self-centeredness to recognize the great sense of being in the world and the interdependence of all its elements. Never mind responsibility! Never mind being challenged! Now we just have fads of Qabalah and Zen*, we have a buffet of interesting ideas where we can arbitrarily declare our own truth as it is convenient for us. Truth has become a playground for our creativity, but we're all miserable because as finite human beings we can't create truth, we can only discover it.
I use the phrase "create your meaning" because too many people expect everything to fall into place without any action. Saints don't fall down from Heaven, the Bhagavad Gita wasn't found lying on a street corner, and the Dalai Lama doesn't just sit around all day. Truth is something that we have to engage. This is why I stayed away from "go find meaning," because that implies that we can just look around and say, "Oh, there it is." It's much more difficult than that. But I will tell you this: even from the beginning of this struggle, you will begin to cultivate a sense of joy. No longer that cycle of happiness and suffering subject to the whims of the day (or as >>143 said, a total inability to experience happiness), but a real, true sense of joy within you. Joy is distinct from happiness. It's not about having something or being somewhere, it's about doing something and being someone. You will be frusterated as you encounter so many conflicting ideas, you will be angry as you fail to live up to the example of those you admire, you will still have to work and eat and sleep. But underlying all this will be a simple sense of joy and a profound sense of responsibility. And someday, if you struggle for truth with openness and honesty and sincerity, you will find home.
*Note: I'm not insulting Qabalah or Zen; just saying that they've been bastardized by popular culture.