What is it?

I´m reading two quite stimulating books right now: Awakening the Buddha Within, about Tibetan Buddhism, and The Moon Guide to Guatemala.

From the latter book, I learned that one of the very few Mayan texts still in existence (most of them were destroyed when the Spanish conquered), called the Popol Vuh, tells an intricate creation story. It says that the gods created humans to give meaning to creation, to praise and name it, and to mark the passage of time.

From the former book I learned that Tibetan Buddhism teaches us to peel away the layers upon layers of meaning we give the world. After stripping away those veils of fantasy and seeing them for what they are, we eventually come to the center, which is essentially called ¨emptiness¨ or ¨nothingness.¨

I like how those two seem to complement each other--we´re here to give meaning to the world, but maybe we have to let go of it to get back to the gods?

The author also says one of his favorite teachers used to always say, ¨What is it?¨ That was his mantra for life, essentially, ¨What the hell is going on?¨