What is your life Purpose? By Mike Raal
14th September 2009
Do you ever contemplate your own life purpose? Do you even think that we are meant to have a purpose in life? These are questions that I have asked myself many times without any definitive answer. I have largely lived my life unconsciously. I just did things that at the time felt right such as going to University and then into the Corporate world. When I look back now, I realised that at the time i did not really know what my dream job would actually be. I had a vague idea of what my strengths and weaknesses were, but i had no strong desire in a definite direction! (Is this the case in your life?)
I suppose i was also too scared to really consider what my dream job would be because perhaps I could be viewed as a failure in the narrow eyes of society if i deviated too much. And thus i followed the conventional route as much as possible!
However with growth in my understanding, I have come to realise that although I did not really have a plan, the universe did. Right from the time of your birth the Universe and part of yourself (lets call it your inner wisdom) are conspiring together to create the perfect conditions and experiences to help us grow. Even conditions such as the country of your birth, the time of your birth (astrology?) and your upbringing. What we consider as life events or happenings are rather learning experiences in a master plan for our benefit. This can be very difficult to understand or appreciate when there is much suffering connected with these events.
The Buddhists have a way of looking at this in that they differentiate pain from suffering in that Suffering is pain, but with meaning! Many people experience tremendous breakthroughs in growth and understanding after these events (Nelson Mandela ?) which equates to meaning. The perspective that I have tried to employ, is looking at these events in life with Compassion and Wisdom. Compassion for the very real pain and suffering people are experiencing but with the wisdom that these events have tremendous meaning in a master plan.
Funny enough scientists have started to uncover this themselves. From the thought of the universe is in Chaos (Chaos Theory), they have found that it is only in chaos from a limited perspective. We have not been able to grasp the overall picture and thus we could not see the patterns which really exist. Would it not be great if we could see the bigger picture of our lives right from the start?
What if after your 12th birthday you were given a master chart which says this is what you signed up for and this what you need to do to get there. There are many inherent flaws with this but a basic one would be what would be the fun in that? Further mystics will tell you that you don’t get enlightened by doing anything but rather just by being (present).
And thus here is the real issue for me regarding Life Purpose.
I believe that during our lives we get many obstacles and experiences to help us to grow and gain a greater understanding. Piece by Piece we get to see a portion of the bigger picture and our role within this. The key then is one of perspective, for just like the scientists if we cannot see the bigger picture or even just accept that is does exist, then we will never be able to see the patterns in our lives. Thus where ever you are in your life you can do some very basic things to gain a better understanding of your life purpose:
1) Look back on your life at the major decisions you took and try to see them in a different perspective ie what did I gain from that decision? There is always something to be gained from a decision even if it is just the understanding of what the right decision was
2) Consider the experiences you faced during your life and try to see the positives that you gained from this. As crazy as this may seem, even the most horrific human experiences have many positives from them.
3) Consider your reaction to these experiences. Was it one of learning and growing or did you only take the negative out of the situation?
4) Consider how you have integrated these into your life now. Have you taken your experience and lived you life around that specific experience holding it tight and never letting go?
5) What events keep happening to you? Have you perhaps not learnt the lesson yet?
6) If you had a pre determined expiry date, what would you do in the life right now?
