The Deeper Meaning of Purpose
What if your purpose has very little to do with what you achieve in life, and everything to do with who you are?
There is a question that has occupied human beings for as long as we have been able to contemplate our own existence.
Why am I here? What is my purpose?
It's a beautiful question. But I wonder whether much of our difficulty in answering it comes from looking in the wrong place.
We have been encouraged to believe that somewhere out there is a special reason for our existence. A mission we must discover. Something important we must accomplish. Something that will finally give our lives meaning.
And so we go searching.
We explore different careers, chase opportunities, seek recognition, accumulate possessions and measure our progress against the lives of other people. Even our spiritual searching can become another version of the same pursuit.
We keep looking for something that will tell us why we matter.
But what if purpose was never something we needed to go out and find? What if it was something we came here to remember?
And perhaps there is an even more interesting question.
What if we have been searching for something we have never actually been without?
How we came to misunderstand purpose
Somewhere along the way, we began confusing purpose with achievement.
We speak of finding our calling, fulfilling our potential, making our mark on the world and leaving behind a legacy.
There is nothing inherently wrong with any of those things. They can be wonderful expressions of a life well lived. But they are not the same as purpose.
Your career is what you do. Your responsibilities are part of the life you are living. Your achievements reflect certain things you have accomplished. None of them can fully explain who you are or why you exist.
Consider how easily we attach our sense of purpose to external things.
A person who has spent decades building a successful career may suddenly feel lost when they retire. A parent whose entire identity has centred on raising children may struggle when those children leave home. Someone who has worked tirelessly towards a particular achievement may discover that attaining it doesn't bring the fulfilment they expected.
Why?
Because they have attached their reason for being to something that can change, disappear or come to an end.
And when those circumstances change, the identity they have built around them is suddenly called into question.
We see this everywhere. People who appear extraordinarily successful yet feel strangely empty. Others who have achieved very little by conventional standards yet seem deeply at peace with themselves and their lives.
Perhaps the difference has less to do with what they have accomplished and more to do with where they are living from.
Surely our purpose must be rooted in something more enduring than the circumstances of our lives.
The spiritual misunderstanding
There is another misunderstanding that I think deserves our attention.
Much of modern spirituality encourages the belief that we arrive in this world with a grand, predetermined mission.
We are told that we have something extraordinary to accomplish, a special destiny to fulfil or a unique assignment that the universe has prepared for us.
And if we can only discover this mysterious mission, everything will somehow fall into place. We will find abundance, success, fulfilment and perhaps even considerable wealth.
I find this understanding deeply unhelpful.
It can turn our spiritual lives into another endless search for achievement, with a different vocabulary.
Instead of pursuing a successful career, we pursue a spiritual calling. Instead of seeking professional recognition, we seek confirmation that we are fulfilling some divine assignment.
We have simply given the old search a new name.
And perhaps, without realising it, we have moved even further away from the very thing we are trying to discover.
The suggestion that everyone has some extraordinary personal mission can also leave people feeling that their ordinary lives are somehow insufficient. That unless they discover their special gift, build something remarkable or make a visible difference in the world, they have somehow failed to fulfil the reason they came here.
But who decided that the purpose of existence must be measured by the scale of our accomplishments?
Who decided that a life quietly and authentically lived is any less meaningful than one that changes the world?
I don't believe we need to become extraordinary to justify our existence.
Our existence is already an expression of something extraordinary.
The question is whether we are aware of it.
Purpose begins with remembrance
This brings us to the heart of what I want to explore.
Within The Sovereign Self, we speak a great deal about Return. About moving beyond the constant activity of the mind and returning to the awareness that is already present beneath our thoughts, beliefs, fears and conditioning.
Purpose is intimately connected with this Return.
When we become still enough to stop identifying ourselves entirely with the personality we have developed, something begins to change.
We start to recognise that who we are is much greater than the story we have been telling about ourselves.
We are not simply our roles, our history, our successes or our failures.
Each of us is a unique expression of consciousness.
I would like us to consider that statement carefully, because it carries a meaning that is easily lost when we reduce our spiritual nature to familiar phrases about being more than our physical bodies.
What I am suggesting is something considerably deeper.
Within the metaphysical understanding that informs The Sovereign Self, our individual existence is a unique expression of a greater consciousness. We are not separate entities who somehow acquire consciousness along the way. Consciousness is fundamental to our Being, and our individual experience is one of the countless ways in which it finds expression.
And here is something particularly important.
Our level of awareness does not change that fundamental reality.
We do not become an expression of consciousness when we awaken to it. We already are one.
We may spend much of our lives completely unaware of our true nature, but that lack of awareness does not make us any less an expression of the greater whole.
What changes as our awareness expands is our experience of existence.
When we begin to recognise and consciously inhabit our Being, rather than living entirely through the thoughts, identities and conditioning of the mind, our relationship with life can become profoundly different.
There is a quality of presence, an intimacy with existence, an experience of simply Being that is remarkably difficult to convey in words.
It is an ineffable experience, not because it is mysterious or reserved for a privileged few, but because words can only point towards something that must ultimately be experienced directly.
This is what makes the still point so important.
At the still point, where we are no longer being pulled in every direction by the mind, we begin to recognise the awareness that has been present throughout our lives.
We are no longer merely thinking about who we are. We are becoming directly aware of our own conscious existence.
And in that awareness, we begin to recognise the difference between the personality through which we have learned to navigate life and the greater Being that we fundamentally are.
It is here, I believe, that our understanding of purpose begins to change.
We stop asking, "What must I do to make my life meaningful?"
And begin discovering what it means to live as an authentic expression of who we already are.
Purpose is remembered through awareness, not manufactured through effort.
The deeper metaphysical understanding
Now we can take this conversation a little deeper.
In the understanding of metaphysical theology that informs The Sovereign Self, existence is not a collection of entirely separate beings who happen to share a universe.
We are expressions of one greater reality. One universal consciousness. What I refer to as All That Is.
I use this expression quite deliberately.
Throughout human history, we have reached for words to describe the ultimate nature of existence and the source from which everything arises.
Some call it God. Others speak of the Divine, Source, the Universe, the multiverse or Love.
These expressions carry different meanings for different people and traditions, and I am not suggesting that they are necessarily interchangeable.
But each, in its own way, can represent an attempt to give language to something so vast and fundamental that our ordinary understanding cannot fully contain it.
I use All That Is because I do not wish to confine this greater reality to a particular religious definition, spiritual tradition or human conception.
It is an acknowledgement that whatever the ultimate nature of existence may be, it is greater than our capacity to fully describe or comprehend.
And that includes us.
Within this understanding, each of us is an inseparable expression of that greater reality, experiencing existence from a unique perspective.
I sometimes describe this relationship as fractal in nature. Just as a pattern can reflect the character of a greater whole, we carry within our individual existence the nature of the consciousness from which we arise.
We are not separate from our source, searching for a way to reconnect with it.
We are already an expression of it.
And this brings us to a distinction that I believe is fundamental to the entire question of purpose.
If we are already an expression of *All That Is*, then we cannot ever truly be outside our purpose.
Consider that for a moment.
Even when we are completely unaware of our true nature, we remain an expression of universal consciousness.
We do not cease being what we fundamentally are simply because we have forgotten it.
We may live unconsciously. We may become so identified with our personality, our circumstances and our accumulated beliefs that we lose all awareness of our deeper nature.
But we have not stopped being an expression of the greater whole.
We have simply lost conscious awareness of that relationship.
And so perhaps our purpose is not something waiting to begin when we finally discover it.
Perhaps it is already present in our very existence.
The deeper invitation is to become conscious of that expression and to allow All That Is to unfold naturally through us, from our own unique perspective of universal consciousness.
This is why remembrance matters so profoundly.
We are not trying to become something we are not. We are becoming aware of what we already are.
And as we begin to inhabit that awareness, rather than living through the expectations and conditioning that have shaped us, something else begins to happen.
We become less inclined to interfere with the natural expression of our own Being.
We no longer feel compelled to manufacture an identity or force our lives into some imagined version of what we should become.
We begin to allow what is already present within us to find its expression.
Not because we have acquired something we were missing, but because we are no longer allowing everything we have become to obscure what we have always been.
Why life's challenges matter
This understanding also offers a different perspective on the difficulties we encounter in life.
Have you ever noticed how certain experiences seem to repeat themselves?
Different relationships, but the same conflicts. Different circumstances, but the same fears. Different opportunities, but the same reactions.
We may change our environment, leave a relationship, move to another city or begin a new career, only to find ourselves confronting something remarkably familiar.
We often assume that the answer lies in changing the circumstances.
Sometimes it does. There are situations we genuinely need to leave or change.
But sometimes the repetition is inviting us to notice something within ourselves.
Perhaps an old belief about our worth. A need for approval. A fear of rejection. A habit of surrendering our own authority. Or a deeply ingrained way of responding to life that we have never stopped to question.
Until we become aware of these patterns, they can continue shaping our experiences without our conscious participation.
This is where life's challenges can become extraordinary gifts.
Not because suffering is inherently noble, or because we must believe every painful experience was deliberately placed in our path.
But because even difficult experiences can reveal something about ourselves that has remained outside our awareness.
And when we begin to recognise what is happening within us, we are no longer condemned to respond in the same way.
We have a choice.
Each moment of genuine awareness allows us to move beyond an unconscious pattern and respond from a deeper place within ourselves.
In this way, the experiences of life can bring us to the threshold of remembrance.
They can help us recognise where we have been living from conditioning rather than from our true nature.
Many of these patterns are expressions of contraction. We withdraw into fear, defend an identity, seek approval or attempt to control circumstances because we have come to believe that our safety, worth or fulfilment depends on something outside ourselves.
Our experience becomes inverted. Instead of living outwardly from an awareness of our true Being, we look to the outer world to tell us who we are.
And the more we do so, the further we seem to move from an awareness of our source essence.
But the source itself has not disappeared.
What has become obscured is our awareness of it.
When these patterns become conscious, their hold on us can begin to loosen. We are no longer automatically governed by the beliefs and reactions that have shaped so much of our experience.
And every such recognition offers another opportunity to Return.
Our challenges do not make us more worthy of our purpose, nor do we need to overcome a particular number of difficulties before becoming entitled to it.
The challenges can help us become aware of the Being who has been present through all of them.
And it is that awareness, rather than the suffering itself, that holds the possibility of transformation.
When purpose becomes expression
There is something wonderfully freeing about this understanding.
If we are already expressions of All That Is, and remembrance allows us to participate more consciously in that expression, then purpose is no longer confined to a particular occupation, achievement or stage of life.
It is present throughout our existence, and the opportunity to experience it consciously is available in every moment.
It may express itself through the way we raise our children, the care we offer another person, the way we conduct our business or the honesty we bring into a difficult conversation.
It may express itself through creating something, teaching someone, building a company, tending a garden or simply being fully present with another human being.
The outward activity is not what makes the moment purposeful.
It is the awareness from which we participate in it that changes our experience of purpose.
Two people can perform exactly the same work while experiencing life from entirely different places.
One may be driven by fear, approval, competition or the need to establish personal worth.
The other may approach that same work with presence, integrity, care and the freedom to express their natural abilities.
The activity may look identical, but the experience of Being is profoundly different.
And this is why purpose cannot be measured by wealth, status, recognition or the applause of others.
Those things may come. They may not.
Neither outcome determines the worth or purpose of our existence.
But there is something even deeper to recognise.
As we become more fully established in the awareness of our true nature, purpose ceases to be something we are consciously trying to express.
It becomes the natural consequence of living from our Being.
Think about that.
We do not need to continually ask ourselves whether our actions are fulfilling our purpose. We do not need to construct a grand vision of what our unique expression should look like.
As the fears, contractions and unconscious patterns that have interfered with our natural expression fall away, we begin to live more freely from our source essence.
And what emerges is uniquely ours.
Not because we have designed it that way, but because no one else can express existence from precisely the perspective that we do.
What changes is not whether we have a purpose, but how freely and consciously we allow it to find expression through us.
The still point and the unfolding of life
We speak about the still point so often because it is where we begin to recognise the difference between the constant demands of the mind and the quiet awareness of our greater Being.
The mind is forever trying to work things out.
What should I be doing? Where should I be going? Am I doing enough? Am I falling behind? Have I missed my opportunity?
It wants a plan, a destination and some assurance that its efforts will be rewarded.
And while the mind is extraordinarily useful in helping us navigate the practical realities of life, it cannot manufacture the awareness from which our deeper purpose is recognised.
That awareness is already present.
At the still point, we begin to recognise it.
And as we learn to inhabit that awareness more consistently, something rather beautiful can happen.
Our choices begin to change.
We become less governed by fear and the need for external validation. We are better able to recognise what feels authentic and what merely satisfies an expectation. We begin responding to life rather than constantly reacting to it.
This does not mean we stop making plans, pursuing ambitions or taking responsibility for our circumstances.
Quite the opposite.
We become more conscious participants in our own lives.
But as we become increasingly aligned with our source essence, there is a further change that goes beyond making more conscious decisions.
We begin to recognise how much of our striving has been an attempt to force life into a shape determined by our conditioning, our fears and our expectations.
How often have we tried to make something happen because we believed that achieving it would finally make us complete?
How often have we insisted that life should unfold according to our plans, rather than allowing ourselves to recognise what is naturally seeking expression through us?
When we are living from the still point, free from the contractions and inversions that have governed so much of our experience, that interference begins to fall away.
We are no longer trying to direct the expression of our Being from the limitations of the conditioned mind.
We allow it to unfold.
And this is not some passive surrender in which we withdraw from life and wait for things to happen.
We remain fully engaged. We make decisions, take action, meet challenges, create, contribute and accept responsibility for our lives.
But our participation arises from a different place.
We are no longer attempting to impose an imagined purpose upon our existence.
We are allowing our existence to express its own inherent purpose.
There is a profound simplicity in this.
A tree does not have to discover its purpose before it can grow. It does not compare itself with the trees around it or devise a grand plan to justify its existence.
Given the conditions that allow its nature to express itself, it grows according to what it is.
Perhaps our own relationship with purpose is not so different.
As we become free from the conditioning that has constrained our natural expression, and increasingly inhabit the awareness of our greater Being, what unfolds through us is no longer something we have to manufacture.
It is the natural expression of who we are.
And because each of us is a unique expression of universal consciousness, no two lives will unfold in quite the same way.
Our individuality is not something to be overcome in order to experience our relationship with the greater whole.
It is the very perspective through which that relationship finds its unique expression.
This, to me, is the beautiful relationship between awareness, free will and the unfolding of All That Is through each of us.
What if you stopped searching?
So perhaps the next time you find yourself wondering about your purpose, you might consider asking a different question.
Rather than asking, "What extraordinary thing am I supposed to accomplish with my life?", ask yourself:
"How much of my life am I actually experiencing from an awareness of who I truly am?"
When you look at the decisions you make, the relationships you maintain and the patterns that continue to appear, are you acting from your authentic nature? Or are you still responding to the fears, expectations and beliefs you have accumulated along the way?
And perhaps most importantly, can you allow yourself to be still long enough to recognise the conscious Being beneath all of that activity?
You may discover that purpose has very little to do with finding the right career, meeting the right person, acquiring sufficient wealth or making some remarkable contribution to humanity.
You may discover that these things are simply some of the many ways in which life can express itself.
Your purpose is far more fundamental.
You are already an expression of the greater consciousness of which you are an inseparable part.
You always have been.
And whether you recognise that relationship or remain entirely unaware of it does not change the nature of your existence.
What awareness changes is the way you experience and participate in that existence.
When we remember who we truly are, we can begin living with a freedom, authenticity and depth of presence that the mind, with all its searching and striving, cannot manufacture.
We begin to experience life from our Being, rather than simply through the identity we have constructed around it.
And in that awareness, something that once seemed distant and mysterious becomes wonderfully simple.
There is no grand performance required. No extraordinary status to attain. No secret mission you must uncover before your life can begin to matter.
You are already here. Already participating in the unfolding of All That Is, from a perspective that is uniquely yours.
You cannot lose your purpose, because you cannot cease being what you fundamentally are.
You can, however, lose awareness of it. You can become so absorbed in the circumstances of your life, so governed by your conditioning, fears, expectations and the constant activity of the mind, that you no longer recognise the greater Being expressing itself through you.
And yet, that Being has never gone anywhere.
This is why Return is so fundamental to The Sovereign Self.
When we return to the still point and begin to live from that awareness, the contractions that have kept us living in fear, separation and the need to control can begin to fall away.
The old inversions, through which we have looked outside ourselves for identity, worth and direction, no longer need to govern our experience.
We are no longer trying to become someone. We are inhabiting the Being we already are.
And when we are fully aligned with our source essence, free from the interference of these unconscious patterns, our purpose unfolds naturally through the unique expression of who we are.
We do not have to work out what that expression should look like. We do not have to manufacture it, direct it towards some imagined destination or measure whether we are getting it right.
We simply allow it.
This is not about becoming passive or withdrawing from the world. Quite the opposite. We remain fully engaged with life, making decisions, building relationships, creating, contributing and meeting whatever circumstances arise.
But something fundamental has changed.
We are no longer participating in life primarily through the demands, fears and expectations of the conditioned mind.
We are responding from the stillness and awareness of our true nature.
Our actions become the natural expression of our Being.
And because each of us is a unique expression of universal consciousness, what unfolds through one person will never be quite the same as what unfolds through another.
There is no comparison to be made. No particular outcome to achieve. No grand mission to fulfil.
There is simply All That Is, finding expression through each of us in a way that is entirely our own.
Perhaps this is the greatest misunderstanding surrounding purpose.
We have spent so much of our lives searching for something to do, when the deeper invitation has always been to recognise what we are and allow that to find its own expression.
We do not have to make our purpose happen.
In fact, so much of the searching, striving and trying to make something happen may be precisely what has been standing in its way.
When we return to the still point, inhabit our true nature and allow life to unfold from that awareness, purpose ceases to be something we are trying to discover.
It becomes the natural expression of our existence.
And perhaps that is the beautiful simplicity of it all.
Our purpose is not something we have come here to accomplish. It is All That Is expressing itself through the unique Being that each of us already is.
We need only remember, get out of the way, and allow what we are to unfold.
We are not the architects of our purpose. We are its living expression.
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