There's a lot of talk about purpose these days. Whether it's finding your purpose or defining your purpose, it is an idea that's gaining a lot of popularity in both traditional and non-traditional circles. From books to blogs to forums, this idea is getting a lot of airtime. And while I think the idea has a lot of merits, I don't buy into it the way it's most often used. There I said it. Let the lynching begin.
I don't like talking about it for that matter. I think that all the talk of "my purpose is..." immediately drifts away from the inspirational ideal that purpose as a concept aspires to be. What starts out as the elevated inclinations of spirit are translated into the terms of the material world, and so the purpose is reduced to a pursuit of the incarnate form, no longer inspired.
So if I don't like it as a spiritual meme, and I don't like talking about it, then why am I talking about it?
The answer is I think there is something underlying the idea of purpose that is very valuable. But we need to dig a little bit to find it.
Illusion In Purpose
As I began to describe, declaring a purpose is like a spiritual bait-and-switch. You start out inspired, literally in a state "in-spirit" in which your soul's greatest yearning towards the divine reveals itself in a desire to manifest some expression of divinity in the material world. But the mistake we make over and over in our spiritual life is to think that the spiritual has direct translation in thought and word. The taste of the divine is an inexpressible drink from an infinite draught. How can that be reduced into the mechanics of thought and language and not lose something in translation?
And that is fine; it's an inescapable fact of spiritual practice that the mystery still remains the mystery no matter how many tastes you've had. And it is helpful to have some articulation of that experience as a trail of breadcrumbs to help lead us back to the essence of the experience. The error is in mistaking the breadcrumbs for the experience itself. The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao.
What happens when we begin to see our description as the experience is the words become the meaning, not signposts pointing to the meaning. So the meaning of the words becomes the definition of the experience. The indescribable inspiration becomes an affirmation of a goal to be achieved.
Purpose as Ego Pursuit
This in and of itself is not inherently bad. Goals are useful tools, and they're even better when they come from inspiration. But goals are not the purpose. Goals are a tool to align the resistant ego with the desired end. Since the ego is motivated by accomplishment, a goal becomes a carrot for the gratification-seeking ego. So it starts to do some of the heavy lifting -- removing internal resistance, motivating you with guilt and fear and so forth. It is a very effective way to get things done by convincing the ego that it's in its best interest to do so.
The problem is, when a purpose falls into the realm definable as goals (and ego uses very broad definitions when it suits its purposes) it is likely to become an ego pursuit. As an ego pursuit, it will use the tactics of ego: conditioning, attachment, fear, guilt, etc. to motivate you towards the end. Any accomplishment, any progress towards the purpose strengthens ego and it ceases to be a spiritual pursuit. As such, it ceases to offer any spiritual reward. Jesus said:
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Matthew 6:1-6
What Jesus is teaching here is that the reward of ego and the reward of spirit are mutually exclusive; either our action strengthens spirit or it strengthens ago. And ego pulls away from spirit, away from the divine. Ego causes us to identify with the results of our actions, so we act towards the results that create an identity that we find appealing. Want to be seen as philanthropic? Give your money away where people can see you. Want to be identified as "spiritual?" Pray where others can see you. Do so, and that identity is your reward.
But expansion of spirit will not occur.
Expansion cannot occur because ego has created an attachment; and it fears loss of identity if that attachment is lost. Ego causes us to become attached to the words that we apply to the purpose; but those words are not the purpose. In fact, as we grow in spirit, our understanding of the purpose will grow beyond any words we could apply. And that will repeat over and over as we live an inspired life. Latching on to a snapshot of a glimpse at one point in time only limits any ability to continue to live and grow in-spirit.
Purpose of Our Purpose is to Have Joy
Whether your beliefs center around a diety or around some universal expression, it's hard to argue from the perspective of spirit that any cause for existence is greater than this: to have true, ineffable joy. Joy is what we experience in the expansion of spirit; it is the soul's truest expression, and the one that ego is least able to imitate or detract. What we seldom think about is how our actions allow or impede the flow of joy into our being beyond making behavioral prescriptions.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama said that, "The purpose of our lives is to be happy," and "happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions." Joy comes not by what we do, but by how we do it. That is why the Buddha talked about "right" action, and "right intention" rather than "good and evil." Right action is not motivated by attainment. It is motivated by the action itself, and so the action brings joy. When the mind and ego do not seek pleasure in an activity, spirit is free to express its joy in the experience. And there is no activity in which the spirit takes greater joy than the expansion of spirit's reach -- not just it's own, but the expansion of all spirit. That is why compassionate works are such an effective route to spiritual communion. But they must be performed without entanglement with ego, or they are lost to ego. This is the risk we run when we turn to a semiotic device to define our soul's direction.
The Work I Bring
So what's the point of naming a purpose? Is it to give us something lofty to hang our identity on? If so, we might as well choose something that makes a lot of money, because at least that's currency you can spend. Ego gives you no bang for your buck. We must take a view on this that keeps ego at bay, and gives it nothing to latch onto.
I attended a lecture this past spring by Malidoma Patrice Some, and this was a point he addressed from his own experience in tribal culture in Burkina Faso. He said that they believe that we all come into this world with a certain amount of energy--precisely the amount needed to accomplish a work that was chosen by the preexistent spirit prior to birth. However great or small is no big deal; it is simply the work I bring.
If you ask me the question like that, yes--I think I do bring a work. My understanding of that work has grown and changed as my capacity to understand and go about it has grown. And as a result, what I have done has changed; I expect it to continue to change even more in the future now that I have reached a point where I am capable of seeing down the road a little further. But you will not hear me declare my purpose. There is a work I bring, and it more than anything defines how I live my life. And that is beyond the reach of any words.
That's what makes it inspiring.
