What is your Purpose?

Originally Posted by daisy

there's gotta be some reason/purpose to life, the trick is to find it and to stay as happy and fulfilled as you can whilst you're looking for it

I believe the soul grows not in the sunshine but in the storm!

sometimes when we're at our deepest and darkest times, the experience is making us much stronger and equipped to help and be of service to others who have been through the same thing

The purpose of everyone's life is to LOVE and be of service to eachother as we're all brothers and sisters and children of our father the great spirit/god

just my opinion

best wishes

Developing1

[chadley]

Originally Posted by developing1

I believe the soul grows not in the sunshine but in the storm!

sometimes when we're at our deepest and darkest times, the experience is making us much stronger and equipped to help and be of service to others who have been through the same thing

The purpose of everyone's life is to LOVE and be of service to eachother as we're all brothers and sisters and children of our father the great spirit/god

just my opinion

best wishes

Developing1

ewww....good point, Developing1, I'm trying not to comment because this triggers another question I have that really deserves its own thread and I would like to hear more from people on this one first. Darnit, I can't stop! .......Developing1's post bring's up the old "Dark night of the soul", Which simply means you must hit rock bottom before you can reach the top. Is it the opinion of the majority of the members that you must suffer to learn? Is suffering inevitable as a part of the process since all have to go through stages of consciousness that are not yet advanced enough to attract or learn by joy? Once past these stages, however, can you not find paths to enlightenment which do not pass jail on the way to Go via Boardwalk? Is the Dark night of the soul necessary in every lifetime?

Ok, Developing1, are you happy, you got me to totally change the subject LOL!

-Chadley Bear.

Enlightener - - if what you say is true - - then in the Huge Picture of Things - - we simply all turn out to be "experience junkies" just like most of us are "material junkies" here in this world.

Does that make sense to you ?? Do you really believe that's all there is to it all ??

Dev1 - - your first two statments are beauties ! ! I like you ! ! :->

Chadley - - what Dev1 has said has nothing to do with the Dark Night of Soul. It is a basic principle that there is no greater purifier and cleanser of Soul than hardship and pain. The Dark Night goes beyond that. In other words - - very few of us ever make real changes unless and until we are backed SO far up against the wall that we have to make *some* desicion just to continue existence. That experience is very rarely pleasant.

Notice - - I didn't say suffering. Living with the pain. Being stubborn in it all to just wallow in the mire and pound away against it all.

I simply said - - hardship and pain - - cleanse and purify. The extent and degree all depends on the individual. If we don't listen - - we shall - - um - - "suffer."

But - - I too - - am trying to stay out of this one a bit. I know I had a huge go-around on this subject somewhere - - with someone good - - like - - kundalini or peteyzen or dreamer or someone of high caliber. It might have been on another board - - so - - I might have to jump into this one again.

Few people know what the true purpose of Soul is. They accept it to be somewhat like enlighener does. But - - if you look at it all - - experience is cheap and easy. What we DO with it all - - now - - *that's* another issue altogether.

Get the picture ??

:->

[chadley]

yes, yes, very good. I read into Dev1's statement as you did. It just sparked the subject of the Dark night of the soul in my brain. I didn't necessarily mean that was exactly what he was talking about, it just reminded me that I was interested in bringing up the subject. I should have shown the restraint to bring it up as a separate thread. Is there a post that concerns the Dark night of the soul in this forum that anyone is aware of?

Alright alright...lets get back to the original "purpose" of this thread. While glorymist searches for a past thread for me. (I like to keep her busy), does any else have comments that pertain to one's purpose?

[daisy]

i've had my share of dark nights, that is why i see the sun in every situation now or try to anyway

Beyond the general purposes of personal and spiritual growth, yes, we can have purposes in life. And yes, we can have more than one, and more than one at a time, in my opinion. Close to 35 years ago, I was in a coma, not expected to live, and had what I believe was a NDE, but not the kind you often read about. My mother, who had died three years earlier, and who I did not have a good relationship with, visited my bed side. She told me I wouldn't die, because my purpose in life had not been fulfilled. Three days later I woke up, and during my recovery time, I began studying world belief systems, rather than religion, which I had rejected ten years earlier.

Twelve years later my father suffered a massive stroke, and since I had never married, and never had left home, I was able to care for him. Otherwise he would have ended up in a nursing home, since my brother's responsibilities wouldn't have allowed him or his wife to care for dad. That to me was clearly the life purpose I needed to fulfill.

In the 11 years since my father died, I've grown both personally and spiritually. I see my purposes in life as helping run another spiritual site, and running Word By Word, my site for inspirational poetry. So, yes, we do have to discover our purpose in life, which if nothing else, should involve helping others grow spiritually.

John

[chadley]

Originally Posted by tiltjlp

Beyond the general purposes of personal and spiritual growth, yes, we can have purposes in life. And yes, we can have more than one, and more than one at a time, in my opinion. Close to 35 years ago, I was in a coma, not expected to live, and had what I believe was a NDE, but not the kind you often read about. My mother, who had died three years earlier, and who I did not have a good relationship with, visited my bed side. She told me I wouldn't die, because my purpose in life had not been fulfilled. Three days later I woke up, and during my recovery time, I began studying world belief systems, rather than religion, which I had rejected ten years earlier.

Twelve years later my father suffered a massive stroke, and since I had never married, and never had left home, I was able to care for him. Otherwise he would have ended up in a nursing home, since my brother's responsibilities wouldn't have allowed him or his wife to care for dad. That to me was clearly the life purpose I needed to fulfill.

In the 11 years since my father died, I've grown both personally and spiritually. I see my purposes in life as helping run another spiritual site, and running Word By Word, my site for inspirational poetry. So, yes, we do have to discover our purpose in life, which if nothing else, should involve helping others grow spiritually.

John

this is the type of resoponse I was looking for, thank you John.

Well.. I don't have an experience as clear as John's, but I feel that I do have a certain path to tread. I was incredibly depressed and uncomfortable in my own skin, struggling against everything for years. A few years ago I decided to exorcise my demons by getting a high pressure corporate job and proving myself to the world - I thought that it would kill or cure me. I started to grow and become this incredibly different person - changing from laid-back creative type to intellectual, hard-edged businessperson. In the end I had a massive nervous breakdown and locked myself in the house, suicidal for about six months. Now I'm recovering, have had a spiritual awakening and am going back to my old self. It's crazy - I have reverted back to the exact person that I was before I decided to go on that massive journey. It was like I tried so hard and went so far to create another persona over those years, and now I've just shed it off again. That taught me a lot about nature I guess.

p.s: I don't feel quite wise enough yet to know what my purpose is.

Originally Posted by e-ma

p.s: I don't feel quite wise enough yet to know what my purpose is.

e-ma, I think what is considered wisdom is merely experience gained from being lucky enough to learn from a lifetime of mistakes. Sometimes it seems like I've made more mistakes than anyone in the history of the world, many of the same ones time and again so they would sink in my thick skull. So now some people think I'm wise, simply because I've lived long enough to have gone through the same things they're bothered with now.

It's a shame you suffered so to get back to your starting point. I have an idea that our individual life purposes might simply be to use whatever God given talents we have the best we can. Too often we look outward when we should focus inward.

John