Is there a purpose for my life?

Exploring your spiritual paradigm (Part 4)

“The Universe is saying: ‘Allow me to flow through you unrestricted, and you will see the greatest magic you have ever seen.’” — Klaus Joehle

Photo by Natalya Letunova on Unsplash

Note: If you haven’t already, you may find it helpful to read my previous posts in this series before continuing: “Your Spiritual Paradigm”,  “What is Responsible for All That Exists?”, “What Am I in Relation to All That Exists?”, and “What Happens After Death?”

In Search of Purpose

In this fourth step of our spiritual paradigm exploration, let’s begin where I ended my previous post – with the lessons shared from many near-death experiences. Specifically, let’s focus on the ideas of interconnectedness and love as fundamental to everything.

Along these lines, the Golden Rule is a common principle found among major religions worldwide and something many near-death experiencers consider a universal law. Simply put, it means that you should treat others as you'd like to be treated (which also suggests the importance of how a person treats oneself).

The Foundation of World Peace and Love (fowpal.org) states that, “The Golden Rule is not just a moral ideal for relationships between people but also for relationships among nations, cultures, races, sexes, economies and religions” . The organization paints it as a cornerstone for the promotion of peace, justice, and sustainability on a global level. So, what does this mean regarding your life’s purpose?

https://www.onegodsite.net/goldenruleposter.htm

In a recent Coming Home interview, author and speaker, Nancy Rynes, described what she now understands to be our common life purpose (at approx. 35:00). Her NDE taught her that physical reality serves as a crucible through which one learns many things contributing to their spiritual growth in a condensed amount of time. The one core purpose we all share, however, is to learn how to exist in this environment and still live from a place of love and compassion -- not just for one’s immediate family, but for everybody else as well. Sounds a bit like the Golden Rule. Would you agree?

When I think about life’s purpose, I am inspired by a Viktor Frankl quote which says that “Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone's task is unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.” Related to this, I often imagine myself to be a cell among an unfathomable number, each playing its unique role within creation. No matter how seemingly insignificant, each contributes to the existence and progression of the whole.

Though each person’s means may differ, their ends (as Rynes suggests) may have a common aim. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl offers us additional deep wisdom from his Auschwitz experience. As an Austrian psychiatrist, he lost his wife and other loved ones to the atrocities of the Nazi regime. While imprisoned at the camp, he began to notice that the odds of survival increased for prisoners who could move beyond their own interests to help others. This insight led eventually to his passionate pursuit of the role of meaning and purpose in life. Through this important work came the realization that “love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which Man can aspire.”

So, what is love -- and its frequent sidekick, compassion? The best and simplest definitions I have heard come from the written works of Dr. Edward Bastian. Regarding these two concepts, he shares the descriptions he once received from his Buddhist teachers. They taught that love is essentially the desire for the happiness and well-being of others and that compassion is one’s intention to remove the causes of the suffering of others. Furthermore, authentic love and compassion require no reward or recognition to arise. As related to oneself, other sentient beings, and all of nature, I assume these definitions of love and compassion apply as well.

If we can agree that the overarching purpose of one’s life relates to a sincere desire and concerted effort to embody love and compassion, at least two questions emerge for each individual:

1.     Where, when, and with whom (or what) am I being drawn to be the heart, head, hands, feet, and voice for love and compassion in my circle of influence?

2.     And how do I put that call into action?

The Questing Brain

Before we attempt to specifically answer those questions for ourselves, I’d like to circle back to Dr. Lisa Miller’s work (first introduced in the post, “What Am I in Relation to All That Exists?”). As you may recall, she is a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Through her team’s use of MRIs to study the links between the brain and spirituality, two distinct modes of perception were discovered that are available to us all at any time: achieving awareness vs. awakened awareness.

In her book, The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality, Miller explains that when we utilize achievingawareness, we perceive that our purpose is to organize and control our lives. She cautions that an overuse of this capacity, or an exclusive use of it, results in actual structural changes developing in the brain, which create pathways for depression, anxiety, stress, and craving to arise. If achieving awareness is the main or sole avenue through which we approach life, frustration or distress predictably lie in wait when our hopes or plans aren’t realized.

An overuse of achieving awareness also brings with it an inflated sense of control as well as a feeling of disconnection from others. Even when we perceive that we “have it all”, we are often left lonely and feeling empty. The common reaction to this is to simply desire more and work harder to get it. We become trapped in a motivation-reward cycle which, if we’re not careful, can morph into craving and addiction. As with any such tendency, one requires increasingly larger doses to satisfy the craving or addiction. Unfortunately, however, no amount of perceived control or success makes us feel any better.

Viktor Frankl again reveals his wisdom here: “Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself…” 

To counter the effects of too much achieving awareness, the use of awakened awareness is necessary, which taps into entirely different parts of the brain. The use of awakened awareness allows us to recognize an expanded set of available choices and opportunities, to feel more connected to others, and to appreciate the synergy among the events in our lives. It also opens us to creativity and insight, a feeling of meaning and alignment with our life’s purpose. “Instead of seeing ourselves as independent makers of our path, we perceive ourselves as seekers of our path. We look across a vast landscape and ask, What is life showing me now?”

With awakened awareness, we still have goals, but we loosen our tight grip around them. We experience life as a force with which we can align and interact. We begin to perceive things in a new way, becoming more able to let the flow of life be our guide and arbiter in times of disappointment and hurt. We more frequently notice the meaning in events, becoming more aware of serendipity, paying attention to the doors that are opening and closing for us.

An integration of these two modes of awareness is key, however. We need to be able to toggle between the two -- a condition Dr. Miller calls a quest orientation. We can ask a pointed question through our achieving awareness, for example, then eventually receive an answer through awakened awareness. Conversely, we can be moved by an awakened experience, later discerning its significance to our lives through achieving awareness. It can become an interchange that simultaneously supports ingenuity and effective problem-solving.

Dr. Miller’s team found, in one study, that subjects who reported living in a state of quest had better connected right and left-brain hemispheres than those who didn’t. Their quest orientation was characterized by an openness to perceiving unexpected answers for themselves within the context of their lives; in turn, there was a willingness to re-examine and possibly change previously held views in response.

Dr. Miller states that, “In quest, life itself becomes a creative journey full of unexpected surprises and buoyant with love, connection, and direction. We just need to choose to engage what moments of awareness we already have, take seriously our flashes of intuition or insight, and honor the ongoing interplay as it yields fresh meaning and direction.”

As I’ve learned about the “questing brain”, as described by Dr. Miller, I grasp the divergent and convergent aspects of this orientation. (awareness vs. achievement awareness respectively). Working in concert, these two modes allow someone to be spiritually inspired using their awakened awareness, and then go on to utilize achieving awareness to bring definition and action to the vision perceived. This toggling between modes of awareness (aka the questing brain), calls to mind an approach offered by spiritual teacher and ordained minister, Rev. Michael Beckwith.

Life Visioning

Rev. Beckwith developed the Life Visioning approach many years ago. He originally designed it in response to his need to create a new professional direction at a pivotal point in his life. He later expanded its scope to help other people discern and allow visions for their lives that were beyond their own limited imaginations and abilities to independently create or perceive.

Life visioning may result in a short-term vision for one’s life or perhaps a longer view. I’ve facilitated the process with a number of spiritual direction clients, and I engage in it myself at least yearly. It allows me to spend dedicated time in inquiry regarding my life’s next steps at any point in time. I experience the process as a connection to Source for guidance in how to best use the pieces of my earthly identity -- my interests, skills, talents, credentials, circumstances, and lived experience -- to further engage with the world and serve those within my circle of influence.

The Life Visioning process involves a series of questions, presented one at a time, for internal contemplation and meditation.  The potency of the process lies in the depth to which a meditative state can be reached that then leads to unlocking a person’s intuition.  Here you’ll see a place where the degree and depth of your spiritual development and practice may affect the ease with which you are able to access the wisdom that lies within you and beyond you.

Beckwith states that this not a process of visualization, which uses the power of imagination – for example, seeing an outcome in your mind’s eye, or using a vision board depicting something you desire. Those are doing processes. The visioning process, instead, is a knowing process arrived at by a direct, intuitive realization.  Keep in mind that we cannot force intuition to happen, but we can place ourselves in an allowing state.

The visioning process is based upon inner surrender, which creates space for an Inner Voice to be heard. It can be thought of as a direct tapping into Universal Mind (something transcendent) -- not reliant on anything you’ve been taught, anything you’ve read, or anything you’ve experienced.  Here, your skill of deep listening is directed, not toward another person, but inward for guidance.

Many indigenous cultures consider intuition as a sixth sense, as natural as one’s other five. In our culture, we tend to rely on sources outside ourselves for our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being.  But we have the capacity to use and trust our intuitive guidance as a source of Truth as well.

Any vision that arises could be in relation to an overall direction for your life, a relationship, a next step of some sort, or the perfect idea around something important to you. A vision can be about anything really.

Keep in mind that, depending on your level of spiritual development, the vision will likely serve to move you further and further beyond your ego.  At the same time, Spirit will work through your life in ways that tap into your unique personality, interests, desires, aptitudes, and circumstances to make an impact in the larger world around you. It can be a bit of a paradox.

As a vision begins to arise, you may experience it as an intuitive “hit”, a flash of insight, an image, seeing or hearing a word(s), etc. The more you hone your intuition, the more familiar these signs will become for you as an individual.  And you will, over time, better be able to discern their authenticity.

If what initially arises seems a little cloudy, know that over time it will become clearer as you are able to increasingly relax in an attitude of openness. Also, the process need not be a one-shot deal. You can revisit Life Visioning at any time.

The four questions in the process are these (or some version of each), approached slowly, one at a time. The Life Visioning process can occur within a single sitting, or over the course of two or more sessions:

1.     What is the highest vision for my life?

·      Your response could be broad, detailed, or yield very little. Any of those is OK, especially the first time you engage with the practice.

2.     What must I become to realize this vision?

·      This asks about your related areas for growth.

3.     What do I need to release to realize this vision?

·      This asks about the potential obstacles that could impede your progress.

4.     What do I already have that can be in service to the vision?

·      This asks about aspects of your life that could serve as assets along the way.

If you haven’t already, you might consider giving Life Visioning a try using this brief, guided version (featuring Michael Beckwith himself). At meditation’s end, you may find yourself echoing the spirit of Beckwith’s sentiments below, aimed at something larger than yourself:

“I’m available to what wants to evolve and emerge through me, and I’m willing to practice and embody what that takes for it to do so.”

Final Thoughts

As I bring this post to a close, I reflect again on what Nancy Rynes shared about our common life purpose, gleaned from her near-death experience: that we are charged with learning how to live from a place of love and compassion in this environment we call life on Earth.

May we each discover how to do that in our own unique way.

“Within our core self is an indelible blueprint of unrivaled individuality — the singular being that each of us exists to express.

In this three-dimensional movie called “Life” there are no stand-ins, body doubles, or understudies — no one can fill in for us by proxy!”

— Rev. Michael Beckwith