Lots of questions about purpose at the moment - I think it must be the moon or the alignment of the planets poking you or something. (Porpoise?)
But it’s a great question: “What am I doing here?”, everyone asks it at some stage. Since I believe that what I'm doing right now IS my purpose, here’s my experience of coming to this point:
I was told early on to follow my bliss. Do what I loved doing as much as possible because life was short. It made sense, so I did. Even though I had a heavy study programme at university, I tried to balance it and so I went out and listened to bands as much as possible and kayaked and snowboarded my little patootey off.
So Passion is important in life. Doing stuff you love. Now maybe you need to get a job so you can take care of your responsibilities while you do that, earning those fun tokens, maybe if you’re lucky you can find a way of being paid to do what you love. Just be careful you don't turn what you love into a work drudgery.
In living your Passion you also realise that it only increases when you share it, when you help others, and that's nice too - they win and you win and they win in an ever ascending spiral.
Then there’s Presence. If you’re aware, doing your Passion, what you love, it makes you Alive, it immerses you in the moment easily. You soak in Presence more and more and that bleeds out into even your most mundane of tasks. Wonderful! Presence will also give you Patience, contentment, full enjoyment of each and every moment. It will help when you are in those times when you don’t understand why, as in why is this happening to me? Why am I doing this? Why am I here?
More importantly, Presence means you are centred. That is the core of all Purpose - you are most effective and Alive when you’re centred. Without centre you can rush around all you like and have little influence. Presence means your words and actions become aligned with your own innate wisdom. You already know what you want to do or say, many times you doubt it - that you’re good enough, that it’s the right thing, that it's worthy enough, and “who am I to say/do that any way?” The more centred you stay, the more doubt just evaporates and you're no longer afraid just to try, to experiment.
The more centred and filled with Presence you are, the more you are a lighthouse for anyone seeking the same truth within themselves. Your centred Presence is a balm for any troubled soul, and you won’t get lost in their suffering. It truly is, and that is before you say or do anything.
Be guided by Passion and Presence. You will find that Passion and Presence begets your Purpose.
Following those two brings you clearer and clearer to understanding what you’d like to do, what you’re here to do, but most importantly how you’d like to be - and that is the most crucial thing, I think, because the internal is your foundation for what you do. Get the internals right and the externals follow nicely.
I’m rapidly typing this because it's coming out faster than I can write, and so I hope you get what I mean. Let me know if you have any questions at all.
Go well! Arjuna
PS. Presence, Passion and Purpose - meditation can be more than “just” a meditation, it can be an enhancer of all of these things. It allows you to tap into your own innate wisdom more and more, so you truly live the life you were born to live.
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