More Thoughts on Life Purpose

Why am I here?  What was I put on this earth to do?  So many people I come across have never actively sought the answer, yet desperately want to feel connected and on path.  When I sought answers,  it lead me to other ontological and metaphysical questions – Why does humanity exist? Where do we come from?   What is our purpose?  Do we have a creator, and if so, what was his purpose in creating us?

After many years of seeking, studying and soul searching,  my personal discovery was – yes we have a Creator, and our Creator’s purpose is simply to fulfill her desire to experience herself through the multiplicity of form  – humans, plants, animals, rocks – nature in general.  All exist to serve the creator’s experiential knowing.  And when we align ourselves with the desire to serve, we align ourselves with Universal law – we expand, we evolve, we grow – in wisdom, compassion, and peace – qualities that some people refer to as happiness.  And if we serve other’s needs, using our unique abilities, our purpose arises.

I was recently re-reading a few pages from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle yesterday – one of my favorite books of all time.  He was talking about purpose and had a clear and powerful explaination.

According to Tolle, our life’s journey has both an outer purpose and an inner purpose.  The outer purpose is clearly to aim for a destination, or a goal.  But if we become preoccupied with the goal, or the next steps we must take in order to reach our goal, we disconnect from our inner purpose, which is to be totally present to the step we are taking now – or  “the quality of our consciousness at this moment”.

So while the outer journey might contain a thousand steps,  the inner journey contain’s only one step – the step we are taking right now.  And as this realization deepens, we become increasingly aware of the depth, the beauty, the perfection in the present moment, and the light of “being” shines through, both revealing and fulfilling our purpose and journey at the same time.

Then the question arises – does it matter whether we achieve our outer purpose – whether we succeed or fail?

The answer is it only matters if we haven’t achieved our inner purpose.  If we have, the outer purpose is only a game, to by en-joy-ed.  It is possible to achieve the outer purpose, and not the inner purpose – “outer riches and inner poverty” – we all know people like that.  The key point is that every outer purpose is ultimately doomed to fail – since it is subject to the law of impermanence – constant change, and we all die at some point.  So to give up the notion that our outer purpose can make us “happy”, makes tremendous sense.  And to subjugate our outer purpose to the practice of achieving our inner purpose – Consciousness – is what I’ve experience as the only real path to fulfillment.