The writer introduces himself as the "teacher" or "leader of the assemble".
"Meaningless, meaningless", or "vanity of vanities". The word can also mean vapour. All is meaningless. This is actually the only logical outcome of atheism or materialism (the view that the material world is all that there is). For according to atheism we have no idea why we are here, we just happened as the outcome of a random event. We are here for a short period then we die, and everything we did has come to nothing. You could argue it will benefit those who come after us, but this is no real solution. For they too will die, and one day the sun will die and consume the earth. The logical conclusion of atheism is a meaningless existence.
Even ignoring the eventual dying of the sun, the solar system just continues as it always has done, totally unaffected by anything that we do. The wind blows and streams flow into the sea, but it is never filled up. Things just keep on going on and on.
We watch and listen to things, bit never see enough nor know enough. History goes around in a cycle of sorts. Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. One generation follows another and nothing really has been achieved.
Now this is not the end of the matter. The Teacher was king over Israel and was not satisfied with this conclusion. Nor is any thinking man or woman. We have an inherent sense that there must be more to life, there must be some meaning somewhere. So the Teacher set to find out what this meaning is. Men seek understanding, seek wisdom. The Teacher himself, assuming it was Solomon, had great wisdom. Yet this wisdom just brings grief and sorrow. In a modern context, so much progress just seems to make things worse.
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