Purpose, Meaning and Belief

The Perspective of One's Reality

Many people would be surprised to hear me say I don’t believe in a grand purpose for my life.

As a soul-based, holistic life coach, for nearly a decade I mentored clients on finding their purpose along with vibrant well-being. An operative focused on how I used to define soul: essentially, the unique blueprint for why a person is alive. If and when we finally discover and begin to embody such directive, even should the path prove challenging or seemingly risky—the case with most authentic, heroic ventures—one generally feels a sense of inner alignment. Something like, yes, this is who I am and what I’m meant to be doing.

For the record, rarely is such calling about making money. Regardless of millions of people finding inspiration in Joseph Campbell’s famous quote, “Follow your bliss,” a more appropriate descriptor of the soulful path is either devotion or dedication rather than bliss—because at some point (likely many), we face a challenging, uphill trek. Further, at risk of opening a larger conversation, without some measure of discernment, soul purpose blurs into ego purpose.

As my coaching work evolved—in no small part due to mysterious twists and turns of life’s journey—my tune about purpose changed slightly. What if one’s soul objective is simply to be the most radiant, luminous being possible, for no other purpose than simply being alive?

A higher calling (or searching for one) certainly feels like a worthwhile endeavor. Equally, one could make a fair point that for most of humanity’s evolution, and even today, soul purpose remains something of a grand idea. Few are those who have been able, inclined, and/or willing to hazard a path other than simply putting food on the table and making ends meet.

Yet almost anyone can choose to become a radiant, luminous being—your birthright. No soulful vocation required. That said, such transformation unquestionably demands a moderate degree of self-awareness and doing inner work, along with probably changing one’s diet, in addition to embracing wellness and lifestyle medicine, as I call it. Better toss devotion and discipline into the mix, too. Saying yes to such evolution—the way of metamorphosis—is radical (the theme of my video podcast for two years).

As shared in a couple of Radical Being episodes, beyond embodying inner radiance, these days I hold soul purpose as merely a belief—just like everything else. If a person believes a higher purpose exists, they will seek to discover it and, hopefully, eventually take up whatever such calling may be. On the other hand, if one doesn’t believe in a soulful directive, then quite simply there isn’t one for them. Belief in purpose initiates a pilgrimage or soul quest, yet both types of journey, soulful or not, have their merit.

Many have pointed out that we detect the pattern(s) and/or purpose in hindsight, but life happens moving forward. In the present, more accurately.

One may choose to follow a purpose, “spiritual” or otherwise—maybe making loads of money, chasing a notion of safety, being an activist for social change—only to later find such ideals (should they manage to be obtained) ring hollow at their core. Yet possibly even a non-soul-oriented objective imparts value to one’s existence amid our ordinary days. (In light of a spectrum of circumstances and motives, I’ll sidestep the matter of begetting children as one’s imperative or identity.)

Meaning, like purpose, remains inherently subjective.

Beyond reacting mentally, emotionally, physiologically and energetically to life, humans assign meaning to our experiences. Each of us decides whether our challenges possess significance and worth or constitute adversity. Does a purpose exist to our hardships and heartache, equally to our “wins,” or not? I have often pointed out in podcasts and writing, perspective determines everything.

If we imbue a spiritual or higher intention to our struggles, we could consider the trials of life as soul forging. Like base metal, our unrefined and inauthentic self, the ego, gets subjected to heat—the friction of challenges—to become malleable, then hammered and compressed; not merely to change our shape but to temper and make the soul stronger in unforeseen ways. Unbreakable. Admittedly, such a view does not make life easier or less excruciating at times. During more than one difficult passage, I muttered and moaned, “Enough soul forging!” Yet none of us can guess the form our evolution will ultimately take, nor what meltdowns may be required to embody our radiant blueprint.

Meaning and purpose aside, learning to recognize the gifts (and lessons) hidden within our challenges is one of the secrets to a rewarding life.

Twenty-five years have passed since I attended Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, pursuing Le Grande Diplôme, a dual certification in cuisine and pâtisserie (subsequently working as a private chef for the rich, politically influential, and Hollywood crowd). To this day, la France endures in my heart, along with a fondness for most things français. The French have a phrase, raison d’être, which basically translates as “reason for being.” Put another way, it’s the most important reason or purpose for someone or something’s existence.

The idea aligns with soul purpose, in my view, minus the spiritual trappings. Simply, why are you here?

The existential question, par excellence.

The purpose or reason why any of us are here, our raison d’être, just as with the meaning of life, arises from an individual’s perspective and belief matrix. Initially shaped by family, culture, and society, our beliefs frame the reality we inhabit—at least until we examine them carefully. Inasmuch as one perceives personhood, per the beautiful paradox of being yet nothing existing separately. [Read “Losing Identity, Becoming Coherent”]

Irrefutably, a greater and unnameable force has guided my life—evidenced by uncountable serendipitous events, synchronicities, and million-to-one seeming “chances.” Mystical encounters and magical happenings, too. Yet I cannot say with real conviction (read, belief) my existence has a specific purpose other than striving to actualize what I hold as the higher invitation for humanity, to create goodness and beauty in the world. Note the keyword, create (much of a new book I’ve written focuses on this subject).

Over the years, I have spent thousands of dollars to put my offerings into the world, without any intention they earn back the investment. Radical Being podcast does not contain advertisements (same with my websites), and my respective blog doesn’t sit behind a paywall—not now or ever. (I’ve penned a couple different e-columns since becoming a public writer, a portion of which are collected in a double-award winning anthology of the Soul Artist Journal.) Confessedly, my books have never recouped their cost either, but so it goes; I wrote each of them with a different objective than profit, and achieved a more meaningful sort of success.

While they are aspects of a platform, these things I create comprise part of my giveaway, as Indigenous cultures call such action. Soulful offerings engendered with a quietly hopeful thought that someone may find them nourishing, thought-provoking, inspiring or otherwise worthwhile. Yet none of such work constitutes my raison d’être, nor did working with clients and coaching, back when that stood as my primary vocation.

Through two decades of a soul quest, having navigated an existential crisis or two (more like a dozen), I have whittled down the matter of purpose to its essence (for me): making a positive difference in the lives of those I immediately touch. Keeping things radically simple, that means my long-term partner, Robert (now that our two English Whippets are gone). Anyone or anything beyond our little household is icing on the proverbial cake.

Recognition is nice when it occurs, of course, but if such is our motive, we're not really coming from a place of altruism.

Whenever I catch myself in thoughts about a greater purpose as an individual, I reel myself back to the present. Just this moment exists. How will I choose to inhabit it? May I practice relaxed breath and an unlocked, compassionate heart. Drop any shred of identity, attachment, or expectation that life be arranged to suit me. Instead, holding the view that my being-ness interacts and influences everything else in a sea of energy, like ripples in consciousness.

As expressed in a previous Soul Compass post, “Intentional Participation with Life”:

“You’re not just having an experience of life. You are participating in the boundless co-arising; a staggeringly complex, evolutionary emergence inseparable from who you are. Indeed, it IS who you are.”

Treading the path of ordinary days, the purpose and meaning of life is what you choose. (Read, believe.) Though one builds their reality upon such, any belief is merely a thought—an electrical impulse of energy—not an absolute Truth. The second we believe in something, we effectively restrict our worldview and preclude all other possibilities, including more expansive ones.

Considering my journey, the uncountable touches and influence of a mysterious force guiding everything easily leads me to construe a greater purpose. I’m not saying one doesn’t exist, simply that I don’t take on such as belief. Even as an artist with the awareness something greater works through me, for which I am simply a conduit, I refrain from interpreting through the lens of destiny.

Enlightenment is the destruction of personal identity and all beliefs—including the belief of enlightenment.

In life, I’ve taken my hands off the rudder, so to speak, no longer trying to reach a certain point or distant shore, other than daily choices which support vibrant wellness. Letting the deep currents guide my vessel of bodysoul while trusting—knowing—I will neither sink nor run aground. Letting go, too, of the oars—effort, determination, visualization—surrendering to the flow, ferrying me toward the misty horizon.

Cliché as it may sound, the journey or voyage isn’t about a destination but one’s manner of traveling—finding and creating goodness and beauty along the way.

Friend, here’s hoping you have a raison d’être, something that makes the ordinary days seem richly worthwhile, even in modest ways. Like standing outdoors at sunrise or sunset, the crisp air of autumn on your tongue, and a prayer of gratitude in the heart. In dozens of posts I have offered we are here only a short while and everyone is merely passing through. The world has enough darkness, hatred and vitriol from those who haven’t done their inner Shadow work—the transmutation of personal evolution. Leave a positive imprint wherever you can, I say.

A grander story plays out. For those who recognize it, beauty exists everywhere. The light is not less than the darkness. Whether as purpose or a lodestar, shine a little illumination—because at the core, you are a radiant, luminous being containing the light of constellations.

Amid a spectacular and immense universe of galaxies, we are scarcely more than stardust. Yet still, we can shine.

Every word, action and creation sends a ripple through consciousness. Believe it or not.

Did you miss the previous post of The Soul Compass? Read “Ordinary Magic”