Do you have a purpose? Part 1 & 2

Have you got a purpose? Do you need one?

Well obviously, it’s good to have a purpose isn’t it?
We get things done, achieve things, small or large, find happiness, feel proud, feel more positive about ourselves.

Is there a downside though? It may be sacrilege to suggest that for some.
Sometimes needing a purpose is more about fending off the fear of not having one, and the resulting negative thoughts about ourselves, negative self image, low self worth.
Some aspects of marketing and social media, even spirituality, play on people’s fear of feeling ‘purposeless’ and hurry people into finding one.

It can make it feel like if we haven’t got a purpose there is something wrong. It can cause a frantic search to find one at all costs, purely to combat the negative self worth. To fill a hole, to avoid something. For me that’s not a healthy starting point.

This journey of fulfilling the self can actually further enhance a sense of separateness. It can even unleash a torrent single-mindedness, where others and their concerns become invisible. And, if it is a journey of goal-achieving the end result of which is to make us feel better, then the journey never ends. What can sometimes be behind a whirlwind of willpower and achievement can be an unchecked pit of fear about the meaninglessness of existence itself. Sometimes the goal we concoct when in this place, even when we achieve it, can turn out to be something we didn’t want after all. That’s not to say that some of the worlds biggest achievements haven’t been brought into existence by this very fuel. But I would like to encourage we inspect what we take for granted.

It may not seem obvious but there are other modes of being which can unlock immense amounts of human potential and also cause incredible feats to be done, and more importantly, achieve the thing we were always looking for – the feeling of fulfillment.
But strangely it comes from an almost opposite approach to the one we would usually adhere to.
There are many, but let us consider Daoism, the philosophy of the East on which the practice of Qigong rests.
It’s a philosophy that acknowledges we are more than just an individual. We are part of an ever expanding, ever-evolving, fluctuating web of phenomena that is all intrinsically linked. Separating from this and building a mini universe of our own, flavoured by our own small mindedness and inadequacies, goes against the natural order and can be harmful, if not ultimately unfulfilling.

If we know what we are genuinely good at there will be people who appreciate what we do, who value it. It brings value to them. These are the very acts which can bring us into service of this greater whole. And then to be in service to something greater than you, you are connected to and powered by the something that is bigger than you. These will be acts done ‘in alignment’.

The currents and fluctuations of the interconnected universe are so vast, with an infinite amount of factors. We are part of this, according to these traditions and philosophies. The promotion of self is seen as going against the natural order, by dividing oneself from it, creating boundaries and limitations and creating a mini universe of willpower that is going it alone. ‘The Way’ is the term for the direction we walk in when we switch our individualistic point of focus 180 degrees and act as if a sub unit within a much bigger system, responding to its guidance.

Ok, maybe you think this sounds a little too grandiose, and a tad abstract and impractical?
And, doesn’t removing the need for the goal render us blank, unmotivated, stuck or even debilitated? Well, It doesn’t have to be this way at all.

When considering ‘what shall I do?’ ‘how can i feel fulfilled?’ we can start from some very simple questions like ‘what do I like?’ and ‘what am I good at?’

These questions, combined with the lack of a goal allow for total freedom to explore, freedom to find ourselves. The start of a journey or adventure.
If we undertake this process, a fixed goal would not allow for all of the many wonderful fluctuations of life that may unfold. We are cut off from anything new. Sometimes things change or take a different path because once again the nature of reality is that it unfolds in a completely unpredictable manner.
Notice that this system does not mean we are a passive player. It’s a system of feedback meaning everything acts – we have agency – but every action is informed by everything else in the system because of the inter-connectedness.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to tap into the power of the whole of this natural system in order to find our purpose, our meaning?

Nature is not goal-orientated. This is a system, a movement we cannot comprehend and attach fixed points to. We can only remain open to its perturbations and respond accordingly. Isn’t this what they call being ‘in the moment’?

I appreciate there will be problems for some with all this.
This can seem very abstract for some people.
How do you ‘connect to the power of the universe?’ What would that mean? Like, channeling the force of a volcanic eruption, or something? Well, not quite. That would hurt. Words sadly do a poor job of conveying universal phenomena of this scale and complexity unfortunately.

Also, we are so conditioned to see ourselves as a single entity that has to strive for meaning and purpose that we think there will be nothing remaining if we entertain ‘self-forgetting’.

Another problem is that this approach is surely easier said than done? Well I’d agree. Even when starting with those simple questions, we still have a lifetimes worth of cultural conditioning, and maybe some characteristics that interfere or sabotage our good intentions. The fears we have for our security and health in a complicated world can draw out the corresponding fear-based behaviours which may bring us back to square one or not allow for the unknown to unfold naturally.

There are of course much lengthier and intensive methodologies that aim to renounce the self or release us from our conditioning. People spend many years in various forms of therapy or spiritual practice aiming for that.

Without having to resort to that, we CAN make some use of these ideas. The concepts of interdependence and interconnectedness may seem too abstract but if we entertain them their usefulness is apparent. The notion of interdependence does amazingly well when scrutinised by logic. In fact the more you scrutinise, the more it becomes apparent. There is nothing that isn’t connected. This gives us a foundation of trust rather than one of fear which for me is a much healthier place to begin asking those simple questions again: ‘what do i like?’ ‘what am i good at?’ ‘how can I be of service?’ If we combine those questions with an experiment in resisting the urge to set definitive long term goals it may yield interesting results. Plus we may be able to shed the pressure created by the weight of the burden of the question ‘what is my purpose?’!