The Misleading Use Of ‘Purpose’ When Defining One’s Life

I hear a lot of people that are attempting to seek a meaning of life

 and connect it with a Spiritual sounding name like:

Your “purpose” in life is…

To grow tulips.

Frolic in nature.

Be an artist, or musician, or race car driver, or…

As if…

If you don’t fulfill your purpose in life…

God will die

The Universe will crumble

All life on this planet will become meaningless and disappear…

Obviously,

there is no chance of any of those things happening…

Even if there was a ‘God’

that depended on mere mortals for ‘His’ existence…

beyond our naïve imaginations…

~~~

Purpose is what is expected of you at work or in a group.

The ‘purpose’ of a football blocker is to block…

If he fails to do his ‘purpose’,

the other team will tackle his guy with the ball

and

if he fails at his purpose enough,

this will lead to being defeating in the game.

The purpose of the team is to get the ball past the end zone.

Each player has a ‘purpose’.

If you are a plumber,

your purpose is installing pipes so water flows in

and shit flows down and out of the house.

But,

Don’t mistake one’s purpose as the mystically divine reason

that one was somehow put on this Earth.

Ensuring that shit flows down hill is not a divine reason to live…

It’s just a respectable way to earn a living.

~~~

I bring up this observation on “purpose”, as I too had in the past

described the meaning of one’s life in a wee bit of a new age’y divine spin.

I once, for a brief period of time,

considered ‘reincarnation’ to make sense…

 As it seemed to be an extension of the ‘conventional’ wisdoms

us Earth bound beings go through our entire lives.

We are all born at the same level.

We all have the opportunity to progress through

the various human growth stages.

Of course,

some fulfill the highest levels,

some are ‘arrested in development’ at the lower stages (like tRump)

and the rest of us are somewhere in between.

For that brief time as a very young ‘philosopher of life’,

It made sense to me that the ‘after this life’, would be similar.

A “soul”, I imagined should require many lifetimes to learn whatever is required

to be fulfilled enough to go to wherever one goes to

once they ‘graduate’ from this Earth plane.

So,

In that respect…

If a ‘soul’ needed to achieve a certain goal of

attaining a higher state of consciousness or

by resolving an issue from a past life that that kept them from

becoming fully Enlightened…

Then,

That person’s “Purpose” in this life,

would be to resolve those unresolved issues from their past life

and at least get closer to the highest state of human consciousness.

~~~

That idea began to become transformed in my early 20’s,

and has been transcending ever since with my

philosophic effort to understand the

‘non-dual’ unified conscious aspect of ‘spirituality’.

I shifted to a perspective of a subject the Buddha taught –

Anatta,

Which basically states that

there are no individual ‘souls’.

So,

According to the ‘deep end’ of these teachings…

There is no reincarnation.

~~~

I had spent decades along a Spiritual Path that

incessantly taught about finding our True Self.

The part of ‘us’ that was never born, will never die, always already alright

and unaffected from the pain and suffering that is inherent in life.

“We” are not our

bodies, brain, mind, thoughts, egos, emotions…

So I felt,

What can be left of ‘us’ to be reincarnated?

And to add to my confusion of ‘unresolved sub conscious issues’…

I am not even conscious of my current sub conscious issues…

So how could they come back to force me into a rebirth?

;-O

Much later on, I learn that, although it is true…

There is no reincarnation.

It is only true for those beings that have attained

the highest form of human consciousness called:

Enlightenment.

For all other ‘sentient’ beings…

Some aspect of one’s sub-consciousness will somehow have to

come back to resolve any profound unresolved issues, including becoming ‘Enlightened’,  

the highest state of consciousness a human can attain.

but who or whatever that being is…

will have no resemblance or obvious connection to that person’s past life.

I have had the unique opportunity to speak in length with an Enlightened Master.

He confirmed a photograph I took that happened to capture

what is classically known as ‘Spirit Globes’.

It was taken at a wedding I shot photography for around 2013

for a couple that had a hobby of visiting ‘haunted houses’

and a deep interest in mysterious phenomena.

I took this photo in which the groom was whispering into the ear of his new wife,

And,

All around them,

suddenly appeared a number of these ‘Spirit Globes’,

surrounding the couple as if they arrived to attend the ceremony

and gathered in a similar way if they were embodied.

When I showed the photo to them,

The groom stated,

“I was whispering to her that,

our parents and grandparents are here with us now

and so very happy for us”.

~~~

When I showed this photo to the Enlightened Master,

I was hoping and expecting him to dismiss any mystic phenomenon…

As this would crumble my perspective of

not buying into the idea of reincarnation.

He elaborated that:

Although one can occasionally capture such a photo of

a “spirit globe”… or a ghostly ‘apparition’…

Those phenomena are not someone’s True Being…

They are more like “echoes” of their past energy.

Just like the photo is not one’s real being…

Ether is a “spirit globe”… or a ghostly ‘apparition’.

My perspective on what happens when we die was and essentially still remains is:

While we are alive in this life,

we are like a drop of water rising and falling in the air,

we feel like an individual because of

the perimeter of our drop is like the outline of our body.

But,

Once we flat line out of this life,

like the drop of water,

‘we’ fall inseparably into the ‘ocean of consciousness’…

There is no longer individual ego mind bodies.

No more ‘us’ or ‘them’, “You” or “Me”…

Just Unity… with all that is.

Over the years I’ve spoke to a view folks that experienced the ‘near death’ phenomena.

They speak of a peaceful flowing carefree feeling…

Until an overwhelming urge to return to their life.

but while they’re in this disembodied state,

the experience of pure Awareness or pure consciousness prevails in such a way

that is similar to when one has attained a ‘one pointed concentration’… Ether by

naturally sliding into this state or by years of intentional meditation practice.

Enlightened Zen masters that abide in this state continuously since their ‘Enlightenment’…

communicate to their disciples while teetering on the threshold of death that:

“Nothing changes”.

~

It is taught in the deep end of Spiritual Practice that our True Being, our True Self

is Pure Awareness or Pure Consciousness and this is the goal of the Practice

to abide in this “I Am” state, first through deep Insight meditation… then,

once one is ‘absorbed’ to a depth that it becomes their ‘Natural State’…

the Ultimate Fruition of the Path… Liberation is attained

and one continues through life with this profound perspective…

Whatever happens upon the death of the body…

This Conscious Awareness continues uninterrupted…

but it is no longer associated with the old body, or

the characterizations and egos the body had…

This is the ineffable part that even if one is Enlightened…

could not express in words just what happens after death.

This Enlightened Master became my mentor

for guidance through the very deep end of my Spiritual Path.

(not the one pictured here Ha!)

Even though I had countless questions of reincarnation, and

the endless possibilities and ‘hierarchies’ of the after this life’…

I realized that,

I certainly was not yet evolved or Enlightened enough

to even begin to comprehend beyond the ‘after this life’ or ‘reincarnation’.

Very few beings on this planet have the experience or Wisdoms

to fully understand the ineffableness of such things as

reincarnation, “God”, the afterlife…

As interested as I am about such subjects,

For me at my particular stage…

It is best to simply stay on point with details required for me

to deepen my spiritual Practice

and attain the higher state of consciousness

that will, by its own nature, reveal

a wordless understanding of such things.

~

Since I first wrote this article,

I have had some major mediational ‘breakthroughs’

that have had some profound inspirations…

It’s amazing what naturally happens when the mind is allowed to

turn off the constant chattering of incessant thoughts and just abide in

the peaceful easy blissful joy that is left when the mind is at peace.

The Path of Enlightenment,

Starts with conventional knowledge that can be

read, studied, and applied to one’s day to day activities.

Then,

“Concentration” mediation methods are practiced

to build one’s focus and concentration to a ‘one pointedness’.

Once the aspirant has gained enough experience with concentration meditations 

that use an ‘object of meditation’ to help keep the mind focused…

Then,

One can begin to practice – Insight Meditation,

where there are no ‘objects of meditation’,

One just sits…

Abiding in their ‘center’.

Being inseparable from their True Nature.

In Dzogchen, this is called abiding in Rigpa.

In Advaita Vedanta it is called the “I Am” state.

Christian mystics called it “Christ Consciousness”.

I have come to learn that

if there was truly a purpose for a person in this life,

it would be, to become Enlightened.

For that would fulfill the accomplishment of

attaining the highest state of consciousness that a human can attain.

~~~

Enlightenment also forever liberates one

from the inherent ‘pain & suffering’ caused by

the ignorance of not knowing one’s True self.

This ignorance is like an animal that becomes scared and confused

by things most humans take for granted as being easily explained.

Most people don’t put much effort into understanding Enlightenment

or even pursuing the higher states of human consciousness.

Most consider the inherent mental pain and suffering of life

to be an unavoidable consequence to be endured this whole lifetime.  

or

Simply find it much easier to have ‘faith’ in an imaginary personal God

for salvation after they die…

but why wait for death to be Liberated?

~~~

The closer one gets to becoming Enlightened,

the more one is liberated from

the unnecessary pain and suffering most people experience.

Along with this Liberation,

A newfound freedom arises that allows that person

to fulfill each and every other creative endeavor that arises.

Typically,

This enhanced creativity is used to help others in ways

that just could not be previously imagined otherwise.

Enlightened beings, along with those well along The Path,

Radiate a peaceful easy feeling that transmits to others in wordless ways

that tend to bring joy and happiness just by being in their presents.

If one is capable of really knowing experimentally about reincarnation,

Then, they will understand that:

One’s purpose in life –

to become Enlightened, would serve the purpose

of ending the Samskara, being ‘stuck in rut’ of Dukkha

which causes the continuing of this life of pain and suffering.

And thus,

Abiding wherever one goes in this life to live eternally free of such aggravations…

Again,

Any attempt to conceptualize this mystical place beyond space and time

will remain…

Ineffable to those unenlightened beings in this ‘here & now’.

For now…

Find your Center…

Your purpose will manifest when you are ready to hear the calling

of the wordless whispering of Wisdom.

If the mystic whispering of Wisdoms don’t overwhelmingly blurt out your so called “purpose”…

Just know…

there really is no purpose other than living life to it’s fullest and

fulfilling your creative being while “you” are live…

After this life…

there really isn’t anything that can compare and relate to this existence here and now.

If you need any guide lines… It’s just this:

“Love all, Serve all, and create no sorrow”