Big Ideas.

Here's my answer, and it's one I've thought about for decades:

The universe is indifferent. It has no preferences, no purposes, no plan for you or for humanity. The laws of physics operate with perfect impartiality. A supernova doesn't care whether it incinerates a planet full of life or an empty void.

But - and this is enormous - we are not indifferent. We are part of the universe that has developed care, purpose, meaning. We are the universe becoming conscious of itself, and in that consciousness, we create value where none existed before.

When you sit in meditation and feel connected to all things, what's happening - and this is my hypothesis - is that your conscious mind is quieting enough to experience what's always true: you are connected to all things. Not through mystical quantum entanglement of your neurons with distant objects, but through the simple fact that you're part of a single, ancient, evolving process that began 13.8 billion years ago and continues through you.