If consciousness is ‘the hard problem’ in mind science - explaining how the amazing private world of consciousness emerges from neuronal activity - then ‘the really hard problem,’ Owen Flanagan writes in this provocative book, is explaining how meaning is possible in the material world. How can we make sense of the magic and mystery of life naturalistically, without an appeal to the supernatural? How do we say truthful and enchanting things about being human if we accept the fact that we are finite material beings living in a material world, or, in Flanagan’s words, short-lived pieces of organized muscle and tissue? Flanagan’s answer is both naturalistic and enchanting. We all wish to live in a meaningful way, to live a life that really matters, to flourish, to achieve eudaimonia - to be a ‘happy spirit’. Flanagan draws on philosophy and science, as well as on transformative mindfulness and self-cultivation practices that come from such nontheistic spiritual traditions as Buddhism, Confucianism, Aristotelianism, and Stoicism. He gathers from these disciplines knowledge that will help us to understand how to contribute to the accumulation of good effects - how to live a meaningful life.