Article Advise

submitted: Aug 7th 2008 | by: DevinIyer | Total views: 2 | Word Count: 783 | |

One fundamental question in life is "What is life's purpose?" This is a very important question to ask yourself, as the answer changes everything! It significantly changes the way you view things, changes your pursuits, and changes the way you live our life.

Here we find ourselves, experiencing life in this vast universe, seemingly separate, ego-centric individuals with the ability to desire and achieve things. We have a few basic concepts in our collective consciousness regarding our purpose:

Some say we are born in order to learn certain lessons and to grow.

Others maintain that life is a test - if we pass this test, we go to heaven, and if we fail, we go to a hell of eternal damnation.

Some say that we are born so that we can purge ourselves of karma (the effect of all our past actions in previous lives), and after many lifetimes, when we eventually 'wipe the slate clean', we liberate ourselves from the recurring cycle of birth and death.

Another theory is that life simply has no purpose, and that it is merely the result of some accidental process taking place in the universe.

When we start to analyze these theories and beliefs, we see that some of them are limited in their description, which is to say they are true, but only to an extent, and some simply do not stand the test of reason. They are erroneous ideas or mere myths that have crept into our current culture, into our minds, and thus into our collective experience. Beliefs color experience. And our belief systems can be accurate mental constructs of the way things are, or they can be quite inaccurate or mistaken. Erroneous beliefs can imprison us (as some of the above ideas do), while more enlightened beliefs can leave us in a more liberated space.

I'd like you to consider the possibility that your purpose for taking human birth is to experience qualities and aspects of who you are in essence, and to re-create yourself continually according to your highest ideas by experiencing, expressing, deciding and re-creating who you are, and who we are always becoming. As an extension of source energy you also take thought itself to new levels through your desires and choices. These experiences serve Ultimate Reality, the Divine Essence. And so you are continually fulfilling your purpose for being born, irrespective of what you are doing.

On the one hand we have the purpose of life which is always guiding the process forward. On the other, we have your beliefs about what your purpose is. These two can be exactly or closely aligned, and you will experience expansive power and freedom when they are. Yet even when they are not aligned, your beliefs serve your greater purpose. Even if your own chosen purpose is trying to gain entry into heaven, for example, or climbing Mount Everest, or even chasing maximum enjoyment, it is fulfilling your overall purpose because in and through these beliefs, you are experiencing, creating, expressing, and fulfilling who you are, and who you are continually becoming.

Your own chosen purpose (and in other words your intention or desire) may not right now be fulfilled, but your purpose for existing is always being fulfilled, in each moment of life.

So there is nothing more you have to do or be in order to be whole or complete. You are already so. And there is nothing that is required of you, other than that which you choose to require of yourself.

You can desire and choose to do certain things, and certainly you can do certain things which would improve the quality of your life and experience, or improve our world, but don't confuse this with any requirement - that you have to do something in order to fulfill some purpose which is imposed upon your life. Very simply stated: your purpose is to experience and create. Now, didn't you achieve a whole lot of that already today?

So I invite you to rethink the question of purpose, and consider the possibility that you are already complete and whole, and that the purpose for which life and the universe has been created is being fulfilled in every moment of time, and even right now. This idea will certainly bring you more freedom, for it is like removing a huge weight off your shoulders. And this is very empowering too. In truth you are always at choice and essentially free, except for the beliefs that we hold to the contrary. The only limitations you have are those which you choose to impose on yourself. Yet it is an inner knowing and decision to make, and when you make this decision, you can free yourself, and be your Self again.

About the Author

Article by Devin Iyer, a Spiritual Philosopher and Awareness Coach who was strongly drawn to the path of contemplation and spent 3 years in an ashram in India, where he studied the Advaita Vedanta philosophy. He shares deep insights on his website about life and the power of awareness.

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