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Purpose of Life
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What is the purpose of life? There must be greater purpose than what we see happening to us and to others. People often
seem to find their whole purpose in the pattern of growing up physically, going to school, getting a job,
falling in love, getting married, having children, saving for the children’s education, planning
retirement, and then, hopefully, dying easily without much pain or trouble to the family.
If we can do all these things successfully, we feel we have lived a good life. But what is it good for? It seems like a lifelong obstacle course, considering all the challenges one must face along the way. What is the reward for successful completion of this life cycle? Years ago in Sunday School, I was told that the reward was going to a wonderful place called “heaven” where there would be no more hardship, no more lack, no more sickness, and where everyone would be equal.
This story of life sufficed for a while, well really not very long, because early I always asked the questions that the church could not or would not answer. When I was old enough to read the Bible for myself without the sunday-school teacher of minister trying to tell me what it was suppose to mean. It seemed to me they had it all wrong. It seemed to me that Jesus the Christed one never talked about these wonderful things as if they were in the great “by-and-by” after death of the body. He talked about the here and now! He taught that the kingdom of God is at hand—even that the kingdom of God is within us. I decided that whatever the purpose of life is, it must be something that is found in the here and now—something far greater than the weary cycle we often see.
A good starting place in our quest for true purpose is the mind. Just as life must have a greater purpose than the outer cradle-to-grave, sequential events, so must this mind of ours have a greater purpose than to plan the day’s duties, or to store information and data from books, or to calculate numbers and make a larger profit at business.
Our emotions make up an important facet of what we loosely term “the mind.” Our emotions seem to lie in us like a huge, ultra-sensitive field. When something pleasurable is reflected through any of the five senses, the sensitive emotional field makes us happy and excited. When something irritating, upsetting, and or threatening is encountered by any of the senses, the supersensitive emotional field excites us with a flare of anger, frustration, avoidance, fear, or hatred. It is said that all frustration is caused by wanting more than what is. This is what we have to work with; this is our outer life, passing linearly moment-by moment, hour-by-hour, day-by-day. Our mind watches the outer parade while our emotions compulsively respond to what we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell, perhaps the way an old player piano responded to the holes punched in the roll of recorded music.
I don’t know the whole answer, but I do know this isn’t it; as I once heard someone say, “I’m just beginning to know the right questions!” However, I feel that the path to the answer lies within, in the area of growth, unfoldment. We are spirits having a human experience, not humans having a spiritual experience. We are not this body. We are living entities and the nature of a living thing is to grow. What is there to grow in us? Certainly the physical body grows and develops. But then what else grows? We may enlarge our store of information through study and experience. We may broaden our awareness by the mere fact of staying alive.
New thought teaches that what grows or is capable of growth in us is the seed-idea of perfect
If we can do all these things successfully, we feel we have lived a good life. But what is it good for? It seems like a lifelong obstacle course, considering all the challenges one must face along the way. What is the reward for successful completion of this life cycle? Years ago in Sunday School, I was told that the reward was going to a wonderful place called “heaven” where there would be no more hardship, no more lack, no more sickness, and where everyone would be equal.
This story of life sufficed for a while, well really not very long, because early I always asked the questions that the church could not or would not answer. When I was old enough to read the Bible for myself without the sunday-school teacher of minister trying to tell me what it was suppose to mean. It seemed to me they had it all wrong. It seemed to me that Jesus the Christed one never talked about these wonderful things as if they were in the great “by-and-by” after death of the body. He talked about the here and now! He taught that the kingdom of God is at hand—even that the kingdom of God is within us. I decided that whatever the purpose of life is, it must be something that is found in the here and now—something far greater than the weary cycle we often see.
A good starting place in our quest for true purpose is the mind. Just as life must have a greater purpose than the outer cradle-to-grave, sequential events, so must this mind of ours have a greater purpose than to plan the day’s duties, or to store information and data from books, or to calculate numbers and make a larger profit at business.
Our emotions make up an important facet of what we loosely term “the mind.” Our emotions seem to lie in us like a huge, ultra-sensitive field. When something pleasurable is reflected through any of the five senses, the sensitive emotional field makes us happy and excited. When something irritating, upsetting, and or threatening is encountered by any of the senses, the supersensitive emotional field excites us with a flare of anger, frustration, avoidance, fear, or hatred. It is said that all frustration is caused by wanting more than what is. This is what we have to work with; this is our outer life, passing linearly moment-by moment, hour-by-hour, day-by-day. Our mind watches the outer parade while our emotions compulsively respond to what we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell, perhaps the way an old player piano responded to the holes punched in the roll of recorded music.
I don’t know the whole answer, but I do know this isn’t it; as I once heard someone say, “I’m just beginning to know the right questions!” However, I feel that the path to the answer lies within, in the area of growth, unfoldment. We are spirits having a human experience, not humans having a spiritual experience. We are not this body. We are living entities and the nature of a living thing is to grow. What is there to grow in us? Certainly the physical body grows and develops. But then what else grows? We may enlarge our store of information through study and experience. We may broaden our awareness by the mere fact of staying alive.
New thought teaches that what grows or is capable of growth in us is the seed-idea of perfect
The simplist reason for exsistance of any being, entinty, or species is to reproduce.
Now if you are asking abot a "good" life, that is more personal. Not as broad stroked. Whats great for me might not be a good life for you. ie: I find fear/adrenaline exciting, you might not.
Now if you are asking abot a "good" life, that is more personal. Not as broad stroked. Whats great for me might not be a good life for you. ie: I find fear/adrenaline exciting, you might not.
Plastic.
Earth wanted it, but it did not know how to make it herself.
When we make enough of it, we will simply fade away
Earth wanted it, but it did not know how to make it herself.
When we make enough of it, we will simply fade away
Our emotions make up an important facet of what we loosely term “the mind.” Our emotions seem to lie in us like a huge,
ultra-sensitive field. When something pleasurable is reflected through any of the five senses, the sensitive
emotional field makes us happy and excited. When something irritating, upsetting, and or threatening is
encountered by any of the senses, the supersensitive emotional field excites us with a flare of anger,
frustration, avoidance, fear, or hatred. It is said that all frustration is caused by wanting more than what is.
This is what we have to work with; this is our outer life, passing linearly moment-by moment, hour-by-hour,
day-by-day. Our mind watches the outer parade while our emotions compulsively respond to what we see, hear,
taste, touch, and smell, perhaps the way an old player piano responded to the holes punched in the roll of
recorded music.
I don’t know the whole answer, but I do know this isn’t it; as I once heard someone say, “I’m just beginning to know the right questions!” However, I feel that the path to the answer lies within, in the area of growth, unfoldment. We are spirits having a human experience, not humans having a spiritual experience. We are not this body. We are living entities and the nature of a living thing is to grow. What is there to grow in us? Certainly the physical body grows and develops. But then what else grows? We may enlarge our store of information through study and experience. We may broaden our awareness by the mere fact of staying alive.
New thought teaches that what grows or is capable of growth in us is the seed-idea of perfect BE-ing, which is enfolded in every atom, every idea, in every person by the Creator of all things. The ALL. The I AM. Even the idea, the invisible pattern of a complete oak tree is enfolded in the acorn (and not only the pattern of the complete oak tree is there, but also the plans and direction for the complicated development from the first tiny rootlet, through the sapling stage, to the final complete expression of the mighty oak tree), in human beings is enfolded the pattern and the plan for the ultimate, full, and complete expression of God’s perfect idea of BE-ing. God as the ocean of BE-ing, and us as the wave.
We call this perfect idea that God has enfolded in each person the Christ. St. Paul referred to it in writing of “the mystery hidden for the ages and generations, and remember all of the testaments in the Bible were written some hundreds of years A.D.......Christ in you, as you, the hope of glory”—Col. 1:26, 27. Jesus taught this concept of our inner growth, of the unfoldment of that perfect idea that had been divinely enfolded, through a parable. St. John quotes Jesus as saying, “Verily, Verily, I say unto you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”—John 12:24
Amit Goswami, and Paul Tillich, a Quantum Physicist, and Theologian respectfully, used a very descriptive and revealing term for God. They referred to God as the “Ground of BE-ing.” This term can help us to understand the parable Jesus has given to us. Can you begin to see and understand the principle that the parable is pointing to? We must not make the mis-step of worshipping the pointers, instead of the Source of our BE-ing that the pointers are pointing to. You are the grain of wheat Jesus was referring to. You inherently contain, invisibly to you, the potential for glorious growth into the fulfillment of what you are intended to be, and I might add, what you will eventually, through many lifetime, undoubtedly become. God is the “Ground of BE-ing” in which we move and have our BE-ing”—Acts 17:28.
The important element here is the “dying.” The baptism, the being born again. Jesus says that unless the seed dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it grows and in time bears much fruit. This process does not, of course, refer to the death of the body; it refers to the death of the personal ego, the little self, the vain and arrogant state of mind that thinks there is nothing superior to it, that chooses estrangement from God, separateness, and prefers to go its own willful way with the limited intellect as its prime minister.
The story of the prodigal son is another parable that says the same thing. The prodigal represents the little self, the ego, the vain state of mind that insists on going it alone, figuring out intellectually how to handle life successfully. The prodigal was an intelligent person, and he had a lot of money, but what happened to him is a dramatic description of what often happens to us when we choose that path; we become empty, forlorn, miserable, unhappy. As Jesus said in the grain of wheat parable, “it remains alone.” That can be a terrifying state—alone.
The little self must die, give up its throne, its absolute authority, so that the perfect idea, the Christ, can begin to emerge and grow. The answer is for the prodigal (the arrogant, little self who says in effect, “I want to do it myself, Father”) to recognize its own limitations, swallow its pride and return to obedience to the Father within. The Source of all manifestation.
The parable of the prodigal son is a profoundly spiritual teaching. Yet it is commonly misinterpreted, and thought of as a moral teaching only. We equate the prodigal with a crook, a weakling, a lazy youth—with anyone of loose or questionable behavior. It might come as a shock to many ministers and good, honest, upright citizens to think of themselves as prodigal sons. Most all of the corporate Christian, right-winged moral majority, separatist, who believe they are the only one that will be resuected and all of the rest of humanity will be left-behind. And yet, there is a sense in which we all are like the prodigal son. Some of us may be on our way back to the Father’s house—or trying to find our way—but the journey is neither easy nor quick for most of us.
I don’t know the whole answer, but I do know this isn’t it; as I once heard someone say, “I’m just beginning to know the right questions!” However, I feel that the path to the answer lies within, in the area of growth, unfoldment. We are spirits having a human experience, not humans having a spiritual experience. We are not this body. We are living entities and the nature of a living thing is to grow. What is there to grow in us? Certainly the physical body grows and develops. But then what else grows? We may enlarge our store of information through study and experience. We may broaden our awareness by the mere fact of staying alive.
New thought teaches that what grows or is capable of growth in us is the seed-idea of perfect BE-ing, which is enfolded in every atom, every idea, in every person by the Creator of all things. The ALL. The I AM. Even the idea, the invisible pattern of a complete oak tree is enfolded in the acorn (and not only the pattern of the complete oak tree is there, but also the plans and direction for the complicated development from the first tiny rootlet, through the sapling stage, to the final complete expression of the mighty oak tree), in human beings is enfolded the pattern and the plan for the ultimate, full, and complete expression of God’s perfect idea of BE-ing. God as the ocean of BE-ing, and us as the wave.
We call this perfect idea that God has enfolded in each person the Christ. St. Paul referred to it in writing of “the mystery hidden for the ages and generations, and remember all of the testaments in the Bible were written some hundreds of years A.D.......Christ in you, as you, the hope of glory”—Col. 1:26, 27. Jesus taught this concept of our inner growth, of the unfoldment of that perfect idea that had been divinely enfolded, through a parable. St. John quotes Jesus as saying, “Verily, Verily, I say unto you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”—John 12:24
Amit Goswami, and Paul Tillich, a Quantum Physicist, and Theologian respectfully, used a very descriptive and revealing term for God. They referred to God as the “Ground of BE-ing.” This term can help us to understand the parable Jesus has given to us. Can you begin to see and understand the principle that the parable is pointing to? We must not make the mis-step of worshipping the pointers, instead of the Source of our BE-ing that the pointers are pointing to. You are the grain of wheat Jesus was referring to. You inherently contain, invisibly to you, the potential for glorious growth into the fulfillment of what you are intended to be, and I might add, what you will eventually, through many lifetime, undoubtedly become. God is the “Ground of BE-ing” in which we move and have our BE-ing”—Acts 17:28.
The important element here is the “dying.” The baptism, the being born again. Jesus says that unless the seed dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it grows and in time bears much fruit. This process does not, of course, refer to the death of the body; it refers to the death of the personal ego, the little self, the vain and arrogant state of mind that thinks there is nothing superior to it, that chooses estrangement from God, separateness, and prefers to go its own willful way with the limited intellect as its prime minister.
The story of the prodigal son is another parable that says the same thing. The prodigal represents the little self, the ego, the vain state of mind that insists on going it alone, figuring out intellectually how to handle life successfully. The prodigal was an intelligent person, and he had a lot of money, but what happened to him is a dramatic description of what often happens to us when we choose that path; we become empty, forlorn, miserable, unhappy. As Jesus said in the grain of wheat parable, “it remains alone.” That can be a terrifying state—alone.
The little self must die, give up its throne, its absolute authority, so that the perfect idea, the Christ, can begin to emerge and grow. The answer is for the prodigal (the arrogant, little self who says in effect, “I want to do it myself, Father”) to recognize its own limitations, swallow its pride and return to obedience to the Father within. The Source of all manifestation.
The parable of the prodigal son is a profoundly spiritual teaching. Yet it is commonly misinterpreted, and thought of as a moral teaching only. We equate the prodigal with a crook, a weakling, a lazy youth—with anyone of loose or questionable behavior. It might come as a shock to many ministers and good, honest, upright citizens to think of themselves as prodigal sons. Most all of the corporate Christian, right-winged moral majority, separatist, who believe they are the only one that will be resuected and all of the rest of humanity will be left-behind. And yet, there is a sense in which we all are like the prodigal son. Some of us may be on our way back to the Father’s house—or trying to find our way—but the journey is neither easy nor quick for most of us.
When a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it begins to send little rootlets into the earth around it. If I am
the symbolic grain of wheat, when I begin to “come to myself” and at least desire to let myself be directed from
within, to at least become aware of this state of mind in me that is so vain, selfish, and limited, then I am
sending out those little rootlets into the “Ground of BE-ing.” They bring the needed nourishment for
God-idea, the Christ in me, to grow, unfold, and express through me, as me.
This dying of the little self isn’t easy. In the “little self” state of mind, we have looked to and depended upon outer events, conditions, and people for our good, our happiness, our success. When outer things haven’t worked out the way we have wanted them to, we have often blamed the, or blamed other people, events, conditions, etc., or our lack of proper planning in the outer realm. Our whole life and fortune may have revolved around outer circumstances and our limited ability to manipulate them successfully to our own advantage. To make a one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn and totally depend upon an invisible power, a voiceless Guidance, an unseen Presence is not always easy.
Ultimately the growth process, which is the purpose of the spiritual being that you are, comes down to this: on what do you depend? Do you depend on outer circumstances, events, people? Or do you depend on that universal Presence and Power that man calls God, whose kingdom of Divine ideas is within you?
If you depend on your job for your comfortable existence, you are its slave and it is your master. A threat of layoffs gives you sleepless nights; a demotion or being passed over for a better position is a disaster. Of course, under this system you can become a master, too. If you can manipulate someone into depending on you, then he or she is your slave and you are the master. Watch the greatest game of life. Everyone seems to be trying to become master—through accumulating money, coercion, or some power of some kind—and at the same time we are forced to be dependent on others in order to attain that power.
We do need outer things and people; we should not be dependent on them. When we depend on God, our needs are fulfilled in ways that leave no sense of bondage and they work for the greater good of all concerned, and all of humanity, bringing always freedom, light, love, and peace.
Where does one start on this spiritual journey of independence and true purpose? One starts with meditation. Not meditation to relax. Not meditation to make us more efficient at our work of striving for power and outer success. Not meditation as a new thrill because the previous excitement has worn out its ability to stimulate us. Instead, we need to practice meditation just to “hunger and thirst” after understanding and wisdom. We need to meditate to observe objectively what we are and what we can become. And then, without shame or guilt (for those are just ways of fear, and making us think we are paying for our mistakes so that we don’t really have to change) we do what the inner light makes crystal clear for us to do. Always remember we are perfect, whole, complete, and Divine always. It could not be any other way. God does not make mis-steps, or mistakes. We are unfolding just as we should be in this and every moment. It could not be any other way. Our purpose in life will unfold for us and through us according to Divine plan. The soul does not love, it is love itself. The soul does not know, it is knowledge itself. The soul does not exist, it is existence itself.
The practice of meditation and spiritual “self-analysis” helps us to find and to answer that persistent questioning, that wondering, “What is the purpose of it all?” We need the assurance and guidance of meditation to satisfy this longing, especially when we go through a period when one hard challenge after another hits us.
I remember talking with a man several years ago who was hitting bottom—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. His wife had divorced him. Because of the emotional strain at home before and during the divorce, he had let his small business go downhill. Several months previously he had an auto accident and although it was not entirely his fault, there were all kinds of legal complications still unresolved. His health, because of all this tension, was not good. “What is the purpose of it all?” he asked. “You work, you try, but it is as if life has something against you.”
I could certainly understand his discouraged viewpoint and feel empathy and I tried to help. The essence of what I told him is: I feel the purpose of life is to learn to be more loving, and continually find ways of allowing God to express through us as some form of positive right action—good, beauty, wholeness, order, prosperity, love, harmony, peace—whatever good is needed at our present place in life. In the wow and now of life.
I told my friend to discard the concept of God as a white bearded Father figure high in the sky, keeping score of good and bad, let go of duality. Let go of the idea of God as a “person,” an individual somewhere in the sky who has personal control over all events in each person’s life, an individual that, through prayer, could be prevailed upon to change things for us a little bit here and a little bit there.
Jesus opened the door to a new concept when He described God as Spirit. Try to catch this vision of God as an invisible, but ever-present creative Energy and Wisdom. All things must have a cause. Nothing just happens; something caused everything. We think of this invisible creative Force, this creative Energy and Wisdom as first cause. In the Universe it is said that 99.9999% of everything is empty space, but everything ...The ALL is in this. There is not a place where in the ocean one wave stops and another starts. It is all one movement. The Ocean of Bliss. THAT is God.
This dying of the little self isn’t easy. In the “little self” state of mind, we have looked to and depended upon outer events, conditions, and people for our good, our happiness, our success. When outer things haven’t worked out the way we have wanted them to, we have often blamed the, or blamed other people, events, conditions, etc., or our lack of proper planning in the outer realm. Our whole life and fortune may have revolved around outer circumstances and our limited ability to manipulate them successfully to our own advantage. To make a one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn and totally depend upon an invisible power, a voiceless Guidance, an unseen Presence is not always easy.
Ultimately the growth process, which is the purpose of the spiritual being that you are, comes down to this: on what do you depend? Do you depend on outer circumstances, events, people? Or do you depend on that universal Presence and Power that man calls God, whose kingdom of Divine ideas is within you?
If you depend on your job for your comfortable existence, you are its slave and it is your master. A threat of layoffs gives you sleepless nights; a demotion or being passed over for a better position is a disaster. Of course, under this system you can become a master, too. If you can manipulate someone into depending on you, then he or she is your slave and you are the master. Watch the greatest game of life. Everyone seems to be trying to become master—through accumulating money, coercion, or some power of some kind—and at the same time we are forced to be dependent on others in order to attain that power.
We do need outer things and people; we should not be dependent on them. When we depend on God, our needs are fulfilled in ways that leave no sense of bondage and they work for the greater good of all concerned, and all of humanity, bringing always freedom, light, love, and peace.
Where does one start on this spiritual journey of independence and true purpose? One starts with meditation. Not meditation to relax. Not meditation to make us more efficient at our work of striving for power and outer success. Not meditation as a new thrill because the previous excitement has worn out its ability to stimulate us. Instead, we need to practice meditation just to “hunger and thirst” after understanding and wisdom. We need to meditate to observe objectively what we are and what we can become. And then, without shame or guilt (for those are just ways of fear, and making us think we are paying for our mistakes so that we don’t really have to change) we do what the inner light makes crystal clear for us to do. Always remember we are perfect, whole, complete, and Divine always. It could not be any other way. God does not make mis-steps, or mistakes. We are unfolding just as we should be in this and every moment. It could not be any other way. Our purpose in life will unfold for us and through us according to Divine plan. The soul does not love, it is love itself. The soul does not know, it is knowledge itself. The soul does not exist, it is existence itself.
The practice of meditation and spiritual “self-analysis” helps us to find and to answer that persistent questioning, that wondering, “What is the purpose of it all?” We need the assurance and guidance of meditation to satisfy this longing, especially when we go through a period when one hard challenge after another hits us.
I remember talking with a man several years ago who was hitting bottom—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. His wife had divorced him. Because of the emotional strain at home before and during the divorce, he had let his small business go downhill. Several months previously he had an auto accident and although it was not entirely his fault, there were all kinds of legal complications still unresolved. His health, because of all this tension, was not good. “What is the purpose of it all?” he asked. “You work, you try, but it is as if life has something against you.”
I could certainly understand his discouraged viewpoint and feel empathy and I tried to help. The essence of what I told him is: I feel the purpose of life is to learn to be more loving, and continually find ways of allowing God to express through us as some form of positive right action—good, beauty, wholeness, order, prosperity, love, harmony, peace—whatever good is needed at our present place in life. In the wow and now of life.
I told my friend to discard the concept of God as a white bearded Father figure high in the sky, keeping score of good and bad, let go of duality. Let go of the idea of God as a “person,” an individual somewhere in the sky who has personal control over all events in each person’s life, an individual that, through prayer, could be prevailed upon to change things for us a little bit here and a little bit there.
Jesus opened the door to a new concept when He described God as Spirit. Try to catch this vision of God as an invisible, but ever-present creative Energy and Wisdom. All things must have a cause. Nothing just happens; something caused everything. We think of this invisible creative Force, this creative Energy and Wisdom as first cause. In the Universe it is said that 99.9999% of everything is empty space, but everything ...The ALL is in this. There is not a place where in the ocean one wave stops and another starts. It is all one movement. The Ocean of Bliss. THAT is God.
In the beginning this universal creative Energy caused itself to come forth into individual modes of
expression, the ONE becoming the multiplicity of all life in manifested creation: solar systems, planets,
water, earth, the ether, vegetation, animal life, angels, and, as its highest aspect of creation,
human beings. Let’s really try to catch the wholeness of this vision. We look around us at what we call nature:
the trees, mountains, ocean, stars, and the wild life are all modes of expression of the ONE invisible,
universal, creative life Energy. Where do we fit in? We, too, are points of expression of this vast, originating
Spirit, but with a difference. God’s highest creation has the power to think, consciousness to
co-create, to understand, and therefore, the power to recognize the Source. The ALL. The IAM. Om Nama
Shivaya. We have the innate ability to work with that Source and co-create in bringing forth increasingly greater
good.
This is our greatest purpose in life—to learn to be more loving, to learn to make ourselves an instrument of THAT love, to learn to make ourselves an evermore perfect channel for God. The IAM, the underlying creative life Force, to work through. God needs us to reflect his Omniscience, and Love back to Him! That is why universal Spirit created us. If God didn’t need us, there would be no reason for us to be here. God made us in His image and after His likeness. Universal Spirit has an instrument in us through which to find greater expression of itself as love, beauty, life—all good. In the Upanishads it is stated that all this life, is Gods lila. The passion play.
Now, let’s consider how all this relates to yours, and my life today. Once you catch the idea that God needs you in order to get into expression as greater good, then your life with its problems takes on an entirely different look. Take, for instance, the man we spoke about earlier who had all sorts of worry and troubles—the family, business, legal, and health. He had the opportunity to allow the one creative Power to express through him to establish order, harmony, wholeness, and happiness.
Can it be done in your life? Of course it can! Nothing is impossible to the creative Power of the Universe. It all depends on setting up the right mental conditions so that the Power can work with you and through you. We each have been given free will. How do you do it? The first step is to stop looking to the outer environment—people, organizations, books, seminars, economic conditions, lucky breaks, and all of the rest—for guidance, good, rewards, or purpose. Instead, begin to train yourself to look to God, to the light of truth, the light of wisdom within.
Transfer your present dependency on friends, parents, job, education, seniority, stock portfolio, or anything else, to God, The IAM; not to God in the sky, but to God as the Spirit of Light, Infinite Intelligence, Infinite Pure Potentiality within you. The very fact that people become so discouraged when things go wrong in the outer is incontrovertible evidence that their faith and dependency have been on things, people, conditions, rather than on the God within. Not being present in the wow and now of this moment, living from the past in anger, or living in the future in fear. BE HERE NOW. Be Present, that is all that really exist.
It is easy for the personal ego to say, “I love God, I have faith in God, I depend on God, the pie in the sky God, when everything is going smoothly in the outer world of existence. The confrontation between “lip service” and honest faith comes when the sturdy-appearing facade of outer conditions starts crumbling at our feet.
I suggest you pause right here and seriously consider, and think, about the degree to which you depend upon outer circumstances, conditions, events, possessions, and people. You might find, if you are completely honest, that although you had considered yourself a God-believer all your life, had faithfully attended church and studied the Bible, Koran, Veda, and religious books, that somehow you have missed the biggest point.
You might find that if some of the things you now enjoy and depend on were taken away or even changed to some degree, you would feel crushed, angry, forsaken, helpless, thus proving that your love, faith, and dependency are actually centered in the outer things and not in the inner presence and power of God. Be thankful for that insight, for it is the first step toward a realistic faith in God, the unseen but very real Presence and Power behind the apparent environmental world.
Coming to this realization, you will then understand that your mental attitudes have everything to do with allowing God’s help, wisdom, and infinite resources to come through you to fruition, and to enrich your inner and outer life. For your inner attitudes—over which you have control—either block or facilitate the activity and expression of God through you.
You will learn to understand that your only enemies are your negative emotional reactions to the events, people, and conditions in your life. Everything is as it should be. Everything is in Divine order, Perfect, Whole, and Complete. No one needs to be fixed, and or changed in any way, we just need to be awake, and aware to the Realization of the Omnipresence of God within us and through us. As us. Your enemies because of emotional reactions of fear, anger, irritation, resentment, or impatience has effectively and uncompromisingly cut off the flow of God-power and God-wisdom through you.
In addition to watching your inward response to outer conditions and practicing meditation, responding with patience and calmness, you will also want to spend more time getting acquainted with your new Source of dependency—God within you as you. Meditation will buoy you up during the “questioning times,” for it is the process by which you get acquainted with God with you. In time you will deepen that acquaitance to the intimacy of ONE-ness.
Previously when your dependency was on the outer realm of existence of things and people, you spent a lot of time thinking about them, didn’t you? You worried about your job, position in society, etc. You became lost in thought, the monkey mind, trying to figure out why some person seemed to be avoiding you, or why it comes and seems so easy for others, why good things happen to bad people. If you are switching your dependency (which means you reliance, your faith) to God, you will spend that worry-time and lost-in-thought time going within to let the light of understanding permeate your mind, to absorb the light as a plant absorbs the light, rays, and energy of the sun.
In summation, my answer to the discouraged is this:
God needs us; why else would HE create us in HIS image and likeness? Animals with bodies such as ours would have served the purpose of populating the planet, were that the only reason for our creation. But we are created with the unique gift of self-consciousness and the power of free will, free choice. We have the potential equipment, the inherent (although often latent) ability to co-create, to be a channel through which God can and does express fully as increasing life, love, beauty, growth, joy, and bliss, toward the fulfillment of the Divine plan.
In order to understand, enjoy, and fulfill your own unique purpose, you have to depend solely on God—not on outer things or people—and look forward to the so-called outer challenges or problems as opportunities to grow, to unfold that Christ Consciousness, that Christ-potential, to prove your ultimate and intimate dependency on God. The promise is, the assurance is, God will never let you down. Nor could he. His beautiful purpose for you is now unfolding! And So It Is.
This is our greatest purpose in life—to learn to be more loving, to learn to make ourselves an instrument of THAT love, to learn to make ourselves an evermore perfect channel for God. The IAM, the underlying creative life Force, to work through. God needs us to reflect his Omniscience, and Love back to Him! That is why universal Spirit created us. If God didn’t need us, there would be no reason for us to be here. God made us in His image and after His likeness. Universal Spirit has an instrument in us through which to find greater expression of itself as love, beauty, life—all good. In the Upanishads it is stated that all this life, is Gods lila. The passion play.
Now, let’s consider how all this relates to yours, and my life today. Once you catch the idea that God needs you in order to get into expression as greater good, then your life with its problems takes on an entirely different look. Take, for instance, the man we spoke about earlier who had all sorts of worry and troubles—the family, business, legal, and health. He had the opportunity to allow the one creative Power to express through him to establish order, harmony, wholeness, and happiness.
Can it be done in your life? Of course it can! Nothing is impossible to the creative Power of the Universe. It all depends on setting up the right mental conditions so that the Power can work with you and through you. We each have been given free will. How do you do it? The first step is to stop looking to the outer environment—people, organizations, books, seminars, economic conditions, lucky breaks, and all of the rest—for guidance, good, rewards, or purpose. Instead, begin to train yourself to look to God, to the light of truth, the light of wisdom within.
Transfer your present dependency on friends, parents, job, education, seniority, stock portfolio, or anything else, to God, The IAM; not to God in the sky, but to God as the Spirit of Light, Infinite Intelligence, Infinite Pure Potentiality within you. The very fact that people become so discouraged when things go wrong in the outer is incontrovertible evidence that their faith and dependency have been on things, people, conditions, rather than on the God within. Not being present in the wow and now of this moment, living from the past in anger, or living in the future in fear. BE HERE NOW. Be Present, that is all that really exist.
It is easy for the personal ego to say, “I love God, I have faith in God, I depend on God, the pie in the sky God, when everything is going smoothly in the outer world of existence. The confrontation between “lip service” and honest faith comes when the sturdy-appearing facade of outer conditions starts crumbling at our feet.
I suggest you pause right here and seriously consider, and think, about the degree to which you depend upon outer circumstances, conditions, events, possessions, and people. You might find, if you are completely honest, that although you had considered yourself a God-believer all your life, had faithfully attended church and studied the Bible, Koran, Veda, and religious books, that somehow you have missed the biggest point.
You might find that if some of the things you now enjoy and depend on were taken away or even changed to some degree, you would feel crushed, angry, forsaken, helpless, thus proving that your love, faith, and dependency are actually centered in the outer things and not in the inner presence and power of God. Be thankful for that insight, for it is the first step toward a realistic faith in God, the unseen but very real Presence and Power behind the apparent environmental world.
Coming to this realization, you will then understand that your mental attitudes have everything to do with allowing God’s help, wisdom, and infinite resources to come through you to fruition, and to enrich your inner and outer life. For your inner attitudes—over which you have control—either block or facilitate the activity and expression of God through you.
You will learn to understand that your only enemies are your negative emotional reactions to the events, people, and conditions in your life. Everything is as it should be. Everything is in Divine order, Perfect, Whole, and Complete. No one needs to be fixed, and or changed in any way, we just need to be awake, and aware to the Realization of the Omnipresence of God within us and through us. As us. Your enemies because of emotional reactions of fear, anger, irritation, resentment, or impatience has effectively and uncompromisingly cut off the flow of God-power and God-wisdom through you.
In addition to watching your inward response to outer conditions and practicing meditation, responding with patience and calmness, you will also want to spend more time getting acquainted with your new Source of dependency—God within you as you. Meditation will buoy you up during the “questioning times,” for it is the process by which you get acquainted with God with you. In time you will deepen that acquaitance to the intimacy of ONE-ness.
Previously when your dependency was on the outer realm of existence of things and people, you spent a lot of time thinking about them, didn’t you? You worried about your job, position in society, etc. You became lost in thought, the monkey mind, trying to figure out why some person seemed to be avoiding you, or why it comes and seems so easy for others, why good things happen to bad people. If you are switching your dependency (which means you reliance, your faith) to God, you will spend that worry-time and lost-in-thought time going within to let the light of understanding permeate your mind, to absorb the light as a plant absorbs the light, rays, and energy of the sun.
In summation, my answer to the discouraged is this:
God needs us; why else would HE create us in HIS image and likeness? Animals with bodies such as ours would have served the purpose of populating the planet, were that the only reason for our creation. But we are created with the unique gift of self-consciousness and the power of free will, free choice. We have the potential equipment, the inherent (although often latent) ability to co-create, to be a channel through which God can and does express fully as increasing life, love, beauty, growth, joy, and bliss, toward the fulfillment of the Divine plan.
In order to understand, enjoy, and fulfill your own unique purpose, you have to depend solely on God—not on outer things or people—and look forward to the so-called outer challenges or problems as opportunities to grow, to unfold that Christ Consciousness, that Christ-potential, to prove your ultimate and intimate dependency on God. The promise is, the assurance is, God will never let you down. Nor could he. His beautiful purpose for you is now unfolding! And So It Is.
The purpose of life is to waste time.
Odd actually, it seems as if we have created time just so we could waste it.
Odd actually, it seems as if we have created time just so we could waste it.
After a few decades under my belt, I assume we're here to help others. I strongly feel that when my time is done, that which I gave to others while
her will be the only things I'll get to take with me.
What you plant, you will reap. When you plant 40 bushels of seed corn, come harvest, you won't just get back 40 bushels of corn, but multiples thereof.
And when you plant corn, don't expect to come back at harvest and reap wheat.
What you plant, you'll get back in kind, multiples over.
Envy, strife, bitterness, anger, selfishness, sloth.
Or charity, kindness, understanding, forgiveness, cheerfulness?
The only question you have to ask yourself is, what do you want to harvest?
What you plant, you will reap. When you plant 40 bushels of seed corn, come harvest, you won't just get back 40 bushels of corn, but multiples thereof.
And when you plant corn, don't expect to come back at harvest and reap wheat.
What you plant, you'll get back in kind, multiples over.
Envy, strife, bitterness, anger, selfishness, sloth.
Or charity, kindness, understanding, forgiveness, cheerfulness?
The only question you have to ask yourself is, what do you want to harvest?
Originally posted by dooper
After a few decades under my belt, I assume we're here to help others. I strongly feel that when my time is done, that which I gave to others while her will be the only things I'll get to take with me.
What you plant, you will reap. When you plant 40 bushels of seed corn, come harvest, you won't just get back 40 bushels of corn, but multiples thereof.
And when you plant corn, don't expect to come back at harvest and reap wheat.
What you plant, you'll get back in kind, multiples over.
Envy, strife, bitterness, anger, selfishness, sloth.
Or charity, kindness, understanding, forgiveness, cheerfulness?
The only question you have to ask yourself is, what do you want to harvest?
Excellent post.
And yes, life itself is the purpose. Nothing more nothing less, since we live in the illusion of time the only important thing to focus on is the NOW. In other planes the NOW is everything and all time.
When you are in love you do not ask yourself why you are here because then you know!
If you'd like to know the secret purpose of life, start living it. Leave the words, questions, philosophies, sciences, religions, rules behind and
it becomes clear. The purpose of each life is to live it as fully as possible. Life is a sequence of experiences without judgment or importance
other than to those living them.
As John Lennon said: Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.
Stop talking and start walking, kids. You'll be surprised where you might find yourself. I know I am.
Each life is a purpose unto itself. And none can find theirs but that they live it.
[edit on 11-12-2008 by TravelerintheDark]
As John Lennon said: Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.
Stop talking and start walking, kids. You'll be surprised where you might find yourself. I know I am.
Each life is a purpose unto itself. And none can find theirs but that they live it.
[edit on 11-12-2008 by TravelerintheDark]
To the OP,
If you haven't already and it sounds like you may have, check out books by Edgar Cayce, Wayne Dyer, and Hwee Yong Jang.
This stuff is right up your alley, I'm sure you'd find it interesting.
If you haven't already and it sounds like you may have, check out books by Edgar Cayce, Wayne Dyer, and Hwee Yong Jang.
This stuff is right up your alley, I'm sure you'd find it interesting.
Originally posted by INTHESKYWITHDAIMONDS
What is the purpose of life? There must be greater purpose than what we see happening to us and to others.
Why? Why must there be any kind of greater purpose? It might not be very intellectually or spiritually satisfying, but there's a good possibility that life has no particular purpose. It just is.
There are some nice benefits to life existing, of course. The universe pretty much needs life to exist, since without a conscious observer, everything stays in a virtual state of equal probability. But I wouldn't go so far as to say that the purpose of life is so that the universe will exist. That seems to be nothing more than a fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on your perspective) industrial byproduct.
The purpose of life...I asked this question of Spirit once, and without hesitation here's the answer I got...
To love each other.
Simple.
Many blessings..
Cait
To love each other.
Simple.
Many blessings..
Cait
I have found that the purpose isn't in the NOW
but that NOW is the purpose.
doing the now is all we've got really. choose. choose now, and now. and you'll get there.
creation evolving now.
in the quiet or deafening, it's all we have
love in the now. love now.
but that NOW is the purpose.
doing the now is all we've got really. choose. choose now, and now. and you'll get there.
creation evolving now.
in the quiet or deafening, it's all we have
love in the now. love now.
I know my post was broken up and long but I hope you can take the time to read it as a whole. The purpose of life is to love, to live and to be. Be
the divine creature God intended you to be. When you begin to see that you are God you see that nothing is lacking and the peace of God fills your
life. It is a wonderful realization and I only wish to share it with my fellow man.
reply to post by INTHESKYWITHDAIMONDS
live it!!!
Sorry for such a lame answer but thats how I feel.
I do think there is More to life, but then im happy being alive i guess even tho I do have my ups and downs the same as everyone Im Greatfull for being alive and being able to witness the universe
being alive rocks and everything els is bouns
live it!!!
Sorry for such a lame answer but thats how I feel.
I do think there is More to life, but then im happy being alive i guess even tho I do have my ups and downs the same as everyone Im Greatfull for being alive and being able to witness the universe
being alive rocks and everything els is bouns
reply to post by theresult
Its not a lame answer at all. That is the point. Living in the here and now. not in the past or in the future. Not in anxiety or fear. In the love and peace of God.
Its not a lame answer at all. That is the point. Living in the here and now. not in the past or in the future. Not in anxiety or fear. In the love and peace of God.
There need be no purpose for life. To live.
Many have tried to answer this question with their own politically motivated ideals. I.E. The purpose of life is to worship Christ. Such a statement drives the funds of Catholic institutions worldwide by the billions.
Many have tried to answer this question with their own politically motivated ideals. I.E. The purpose of life is to worship Christ. Such a statement drives the funds of Catholic institutions worldwide by the billions.
The purpose of life is to invent it self.The forms that emerge will fill the spaces in competition.All others will fall.
reply to post by INTHESKYWITHDAIMONDS
You can't tell the meaning of life because you are alive...
The meaning of a thing never exists on the same level as the thing itself but on some meta-level...
The meaning or purpose of a tool like a fork is not obvious to you if you are a tool or a fork but only if you are on the higher level as the designer or user of tools and forks...
As a living thing how can you expect to know what living things are for? That's too self-referential, self-containing, that is the one thing that you would NOT know...
(Now I'm not saying the above is actually true, merely advancing it as a line of argument...)
You can't tell the meaning of life because you are alive...
The meaning of a thing never exists on the same level as the thing itself but on some meta-level...
The meaning or purpose of a tool like a fork is not obvious to you if you are a tool or a fork but only if you are on the higher level as the designer or user of tools and forks...
As a living thing how can you expect to know what living things are for? That's too self-referential, self-containing, that is the one thing that you would NOT know...
(Now I'm not saying the above is actually true, merely advancing it as a line of argument...)
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