If only we could understand the purposes of life. Of course first, one has to believe that there is a Purpose of Life. Many people don’t. But let us ourselves if there is a purpose to our own life. What is the purpose of my life? If we want to get on track, if we want to do what we are meant to do here in this life, then we would need to know about the purpose of our life. Also, our own individual purpose can best be known if we first know the larger Purpose of Life. Some insights on Purpose are presented here, but it is better that you yourself realize what it is.
Most essentially, the two great Divine Purposes are experience and expression. This is God experiencing and expressing through us and all of life. This is also what time and evolution are all about, because experience and expression require time to unfold, towards the all of divine potential. That is, for the fullness of Divine Potential to be experienced and expressed (or manifested), this requires a great Process, Unfoldment, or Evolution. Thus, the Divine is in process – of being experienced and expressed – in ever-ascending and finer degrees. We each can be a conscious participate in this, in some degree.
Our Purpose of Life is to realize and reveal the Divine in oneself and in all others.
This statement should be used for contemplation. The key words here are realize and reveal. Realization is the knowing that you seek. You want to know what is really True, but you need to realize this yourself. The Divine in you needs to be realized; otherwise it is hidden and stagnate. The Divine Itself, God, also wants to be realized; otherwise, God remains hidden and unknown.
There is a mystical phrase, “I am a hidden treasure and I long to be known.” When we perceive beauty and realize love, then God is known. You don’t even have to believe in God; it is good enough to realize beauty and love in yourself and in others. Also in this realization in an experience a Joy, which happens to be another quality of the Divine. Life's Purpose is to realize the many Qualities of the Divine, such as beauty, love, and joy, to just name a few.
Now, besides realizing the Divine, we also want to Reveal the Divine. Or we could also say that the Divine wants to be realized and revealed through us. Revealing what is supremely Divine in you comes usually after realizing it, though at times it is possible to reveal the Divine subconsciously or without first realizing it. The saying, “I am a hidden treasure and I long to be known,” also means that God wishes to be revealed -- and not just in mind but also in manifestation.
To reveal is to uncover, to show forth what has been hidden. It is to unveil. It is also said in mystical tradition that God is hidden by seven-thousand veils, but the mystic uncovers these one by one. So the mystic is unveiling God. But also significant is the revealing, and what really is meant by this is expression. God longs to be revealed in creation by expression. This is the real spiritual meaning of beauty; that when the Divine is revealed or expressed, this is beauty. Yet it might also be love or wisdom, or the wisdom of love. These are ways that the Divine reveals and expresses, and we are meant to be a mind, emotion, and body-activity for expressing this Divinity. We are meant to be the individuated expression of this Divine and these Divine Qualities.
Another way to understand is this. The purpose of life is to protect, nurture, and reveal the Divine Immanent -- or that which is good, beautiful, loving, and best in us. Our ideal, then, is to manifest the love and goodness of our inner divinity, yet also nurture others and the environment to bring forth the divinity inherent there.
Our purpose is to realize and express the possible within us.
This is a good meditation to reflect upon. What is possible within me? What is the possible me? This goes along with a question about what is our soul within us. Our soul is our inherent potential, or what is possible in us. Previous teachings on the soul were vague and not very useful for understanding. So, many people will say they believe in a human soul, yet know nothing about what it is, besides maybe that it lives on. It either lives on in heaven or it reincarnates, depending on what one believes. But knowledge about the soul does not have to be so vague and nebulous, because we can gain knowledge of our soul by just realizing the best potentials within us. For our soul contains all that is good, beautiful, loving, and best in us.
There is a Divine Purpose. We have a Divine Purpose. We are here to do good things, to be creative and to bring forth the finer qualities of our being. We are God, microcosmically and reflectively, experiencing life and acting creatively on Earth. We are the descension of Divinity, the emanation and expression of the One Creative Loving Being. This is who we really are. So we have the same great Purpose as the One Being Itself.
We are the Divine being, God, here to fulfill this Purpose, which is service, the serving of life. This is God’s Purpose for creation – to bring about Love, Light, Wisdom, Justice, Peace, Harmony and Beauty. This is what we are here to do, once we wake up; that is, once we wake up to being the Divine Being in expression and realize our purpose for being here.
This is the Divine Work. But it doesn’t always need to be like hard work or a difficult struggle. Often the expression and fulfillment of Divine Purpose is like play, enjoyment and having fun. Ultimately all divine expression is joyful, even if sometimes it is physically or mentally difficult. It is joyful because it is fulfilling. Also remember that God is here conscious, right in this very present moment, to experience this life expression and manifestation. God is here to experience being alive as plant, animal and human; and hopefully this experience will involve an opening of love and a joy of being.
So at one level of meaning, we are servants of God, serving God’s higher Will and Purpose. Yet at another level of meaning, we are God serving life. The different meanings depend on how we understand ourselves. We are as servants to that Life/Being and Purpose, which is Greater than this meager instrument [of body/mind] that we call our self. Yet, if we shift perspective and see from the Depth, we are this greater Life/Being moving through and expressing through this instrument of body/mind, and also moving through life. This is the deeper realization of being God incarnate.
This is the realization of Jesus, as he realizes 'I am God incarnate', which is Christ consciousness. Jesus realizes he is the lover, the healer, the teacher, the savior. He realizes his true identity and his true destiny. Now without taking anything away from Jesus; we can each have the same realization, if we can get into such a pure inner space and loving heart. We can realize that we are God incarnate as well; probably not as perfectly expressed as with Jesus, but at least gradually coming into this. He got here, consciously. We are just now getting here, consciously. So don’t be too critical of yourself. You are just getting here, even though physically you have been here for awhile. But now we are getting here spiritually. It is a good day to incarnate. Now is always the best time.
So Jesus realized he is Christ, or God incarnate, and that he is here to bring love, wisdom and healing. But we don’t want to just focus on Jesus, for Jesus is meant to be an example for how we can be, as God incarnate – consciously and with purpose. We can acknowledge the spiritual specialness of Jesus, and sing all sorts of praises if we wish, but let us not merely proclaim our faith and reverence in Jesus, and then say “end of story,” going on to forget that we, our self, are meant to come into this realization as well and also be a revealing light of God.
Thus we might ask: How can I be of service today (and tomorrow as well)? How can I serve God? How can I serve life? How can I love and heal, and bring more joy and beauty into the world? How can I clear away dishonesty and deception, and live truthfully and in Truth? How can I incarnate Divine Being? How can I express love and understanding? How can I accomplish good? How can I experience the Divine in life? And how can I share divine experience with others? These are many possible questions; and certainly there are many other significant questions one could ask in any moment.
There are three very important goals for the human being in spiritual evolution: love-unity consciousness, integral intelligence, and a will-to-serve.
* Love-unity consciousness is a consciousness/experience of life’s unity and the divine love pervading it. This is a love that embraces everyone and everything. So one embraces all beings and includes all beings in the consciousness of unity. One might emotionally feel this unity, as well as mentally realize it. One might realize that all is really in and of One Being. One might realize that a common unity exists at the deepest level of everyone; even though disharmony or argument may be present on the outer levels. In other words, there is a real unity underlying all people and everything, but this unity may not be realized. This is the unity of Being. There is only One Being, at the deepest level of who we are, so we are all united in this One Being that is common to all. So very often, though, decisions and activities in the world do not reflect our core unity, because the unity has yet to be felt and realized. Once a realization of unity occurs, then disharmony will turn to harmony.
A related mode of consciousness is the we-consciousness, which is how we experience each other when in the love-unity consciousness. So one can realize the unity of Being and thus one’s unity with the One Being of God. But even prior to this, one can realize the unity of people and of all beings in life, which is the we-consciousness. The we-consciousness is very important, because it shifts a person’s point of perspective from the typical individualist I perspective to an inclusive we perspective. So whatever is going on involves all of us, not just me or you. If more of us, as humanity, would shift our consciousness to this we perspective to include all people, then decisions would be made to benefit the whole and not just parts of the whole. Thus, this is also called the Holistic perspective. Moreover, ‘we’ness is really what love and unity is all about.
* The next goal, or quality of experience, is integral intelligence. This is an intelligence that works for an integrated purpose, or harmony. The natural intelligence of the body is integral because the parts work for the good of the whole. It shows integration and common purpose. Integral intelligence is the higher intelligence we can be conscious of and a participant in. We can tap into this greater Integral Intelligence, and we can become an integral intelligence in practice.
The first step is realizing that Divine Integral Intelligence already exists; most evidently through our bodies and in nature. Next realize that we can be guided by this Greater Intelligence, this Intelligence of integration and harmony. Next, realize that we can be integrally intelligent beings. That is, become an active intelligence working for integration, harmony and health. Be this for yourself and the world.
* The third great Goal and quality of ideal-being is a will-to-serve. Service and giving become our most dedicated intention, and this becomes a stronger motivation within us than ordinary selfish desires. This involves a real transformation of self, rather than superficial changes in self. A change from selfish desire and self-priority to a selfless will-to-serve others and life in general is quite a dramatic transformation of the usual human being.
This will-to-serve is actually at the deeper core of our being, at the soul of being, but too much social conditioning and selfish ego desire obscure it. So most importantly, we need to find this will-to-serve within ourselves, and then nurture it so it does not merely get trounced on by other desires or external forces. Nurturing and giving positive agreement to this will-to-serve, both in ourselves and to others, is certainly important in its development. Finally, know that the will-to-serve is giving whatever you can and working for the highest good in any situation.
Humans have a capacity for imaginative creativity. This is the imaginative creativity of God. It is not that God has an imaginative creative idea, and then transmits this or commands this to humans. Rather, we are the imaginative creative capacities of God. It’s not a matter of God having an imagination of something new and then telling us about it. Rather, think of Divine-God’s Creative Power as that imaginative creative power-capacity in ourselves.
We are the capacity within God that performs this imaginative creative function. You see? We need not think of God and human as separate in the usual religious way. So instead of envisioning God as the Creative Artisan, while we are merely following directions; it is truer to realize that we are the divine capacities/abilities for creative thinking and art, and as such, we perform this function within the overall God-unfoldment. So when we are being creative, in the best sense, we are functioning as the creative capacity of God. That is, we are this functioning part of God. We are this function of God. We can still affirm, metaphysically and theologically, that God is the Creative Power, even saying that God is the Only creative Power; however, we are in this and part of this, not separate from it.
Creativity is a bringing forth, a giving birth, and being the medium for the Divine seeking to enter this world. We are the creative innovators of life. Creative innovation is often needed in the process of divine revelation and manifestation. Rather than continually repeating a traditional or routine structure, change and synthesis over the course of time is often needed. But creative innovation needs to be within a Greater purpose, or serving a Greater purpose, or in alignment with a Divine Will.
One of the great divine purposes is enjoyment. Life is to be enjoyed. Enjoyment is spiritual. And who is the divine medium for enjoyment? You are. I am. We are. Enjoyment is meant to flow through us. We are here to enjoy life. God is here to enjoy life – through us. If there isn’t some degree of enjoyment streaming through life, then something must be wrong, there must be some obstruction; if this is the case, then something needs healing. Healing might be needed in body, mind, emotion, or attitude. Or maybe one just needs to relax, let go of worries and stresses, and simply enjoy being present and alive.
So we need to move beyond a simplistic notion that self-fulfillment and enjoyment are always in opposition to spiritual service. Each of us needs to realize that we each are central in the divine purpose. In other words, I am centrally important in the divine purpose. Some might argue that this view appears to be quite egocentric. But it does not have to turn into a narcissism.
Also, this view of our self-significance is part of a larger purpose of divine unfoldment. We should accept our own self-importance, even when contemplating the vastness of divine purpose in creation. This acceptance and reverence for ourself is indeed spiritual, providing one is also accepting and revering the divine importance of everyone else as well.
So meditate on your own self-significance. For this is the place of God. You are a conscious instrument for spiritual awakening in life. You are a medium for God to experience and enjoy life. You are a medium for God to Self-realize through this body, this place, this time. You are the eyes for God to see, the ears for God to hear, the mouth for God to taste and speak. You are legs for God to walk about and dance. You are the hands for God to work and feel.
Imagine sitting quietly by a stream, just listening to the sounds and enjoying being there. Is this enjoyment self-serving? Is this activity serving life in any way? Or is it serving God? We can affirm yes to all of these questions. There is no logical necessity for an either/or answer. The answer can certainly be both or all together. One is serving God, because one is fulfilling divine purposes such as: consciousness of creation, recognition, appreciation and enjoyment of life.
Even deeper, one may be experiencing an interrelated unity with the stream or the natural world in general. This is a furthering of our Self-realization, in the recognition and experience that I (myself) am more than this little body and personality. So one can become more consciously and empathetically in unity with the natural world of creation, which is a great joy.
This serves God in two significant ways. First, the natural world is loved and appreciated. The world of nature and the lives within it need recognition, love and appreciation; just as we do. Second, we ourselves awaken to and in a wider presence of being. We break out of normal ego boundaries and expand our self-realization; thus realizing more of the Being who we are. In other words, more of God is being self-realized, through ourselves, through our experience. So, the divine purposes of expanded consciousness, recognized relatedness, conscious unity and love are being served and fulfilled.
Also, we can be in service to nature. This can of course be on the physical, practical level. Yet we can also serve nature on a psychic, spiritual level, and we do this by consciously interacting with nature mentally and emotionally, making a relationship with the nature around, recognizing the spiritual soul and beauty of nature, and also communing in love with nature. This conscious recognition of nature is serving to Her, because any recognition of spirit and beauty in life is serving to that life, on a spiritual level. This kind of service is in relation to the spiritual soul of natural things, because the spirits of nature need recognition and love, just as we do.
The spirits of nature awaken from slumber when we become conscious of them, and they feel our sincere love and appreciation. Once we understand this, our way of being in nature changes, because now we are consciously interacting with these spirits of nature, we are recognizing these presences of nature, and by our love and appreciation we are serving them spiritually, in addition to nature as a whole. The nature around us is enjoying our presence of recognition, and we are enjoying the spiritual presence and beauty of nature. So it is a mutually beneficial service. Therefore, this is an example of serving God, life, and oneself, all together integrally.