The Purpose of Life — Explained
When you truly understand the purpose of life — for you — everything will change.
As the ‘purpose of life’ can be considered from different conscious perspectives — the relative and the absolute, let us first be clear that this article will consider it from a relative ‘human perspective’. I will address the absolute perspective at a later date.
To appreciate the relative purpose of life, you first need to consider the general movement or direction of life.
The Direction: From simple to complex design.
Take a moment to consider how LIFE is a process which is designed to progressively move from the simple to the complex…and ultimately back to the simple. It’s a circular process.
When a biological life form transitions from a simple to a complex design, we sometimes use the word ‘evolution’ to describe this process.
The planet Earth was originally formed from ‘simple’ gaseous matter and asteroids which coalesced over time due to the influence of gravity and other cosmic energies. These core building blocks eventually evolved into a more ‘complex’, albeit primal planetary environmental system. Ultimately, the planet’s environment achieved the ideal womb-like conditions which allowed it to support organic life.
This is one reason why some people intuitively recognise the planet as being representative of the feminine aspect, and so refer to it as ‘Mother Earth’.
Since that quintessential moment when organic life first burst into existence on this planet, the DNA building blocks of various simple life forms have been slowly evolving in complexity.
Similar to the origin of life on the planet, a human being will begin its biological journey as a single-celled embryo in the protective amniotic womb of its mother.
During the very early stages of its fetal development, it will also exhibit genetic traits similar to other life forms on this planet. This highlights our common ancestry.
However, during the following 9 months as it continues to grow, this simple life form will take its own evolutionary path and evolve into a multi-billion-celled complex organism capable of sensory intelligence and awareness.
Life uses a ‘carrot and stick’ approach
To encourage each life form to adapt, evolve and learn from its experiences, life adopts a ‘carrot and stick’ approach. It utilises the tools of ‘pleasure and pain’.
Pleasure
Pleasure is the primitive reward mechanism of life. It is the feeling that you can derive from a range of ‘simple’ experiences— like the tastes from different foods or having sex. However, it is also important to recognise that life utilises pleasure stimulation for a reason; it helps to ensure the survival of individual species.
Bare in mind that this reward system has nothing to do with ‘artificial’ pleasure fixes— like social drugs. Such drugs are not trying to preserve or support life.
In a more profound sense, life is also trying to draw you closer to the very heart of what it is, so that you will know the ‘nature’ of what you are. An intense feeling of powerful pure energy can be experienced if you become open to the ‘heart of life’.
Pain
At the other end of the spectrum, life will also use ‘pain’ to help us question and learn from our experiences. Some lessons are just common sense. Here are a few examples.
On a personal level:
- You eat too much food and suffer stomach pains. This one speaks for itself. Don’t eat so much.
- You stub your toe and experience pain. You decide to pay more careful attention in future.
- You get drunk, fall over and injure yourself. Were you behaving responsibly? Maybe you shouldn’t be drinking to excess.
- You lose your temper and yell at your partner, which results in emotional pain. Why did you lose your temper? What can be learnt from the experience to avoid repeating it?
On a global level:
- Due to political aggression and the stresses of economic competition, wars have erupted and millions have died. Have we learnt from the significant pain of these experiences?
- Economic greed and self-interest results in major wealth inequality and poverty within society. This leads to significant pain and suffering throughout the world. What do we need to change to address this problem?
- The demands of global human consumption escalates with the ever-increasing rise in population. This leads to an increase in habitat and environmental destruction. This results in the extinction of many species. Will we learn and change our ways?
While it is clearly important that we learn from our experiences, it is by no means guaranteed. Due to human intransigence, we have a bad habit of repeating the same mistakes. If we are not willing to learn from our experiences, the problems become worse and the level of pain and suffering intensify as a result.
Life is infallible. You cannot cheat the system. If we insist on doing the ‘wrong’ thing, there will always be consequences to our ignorance.
SUMMARY
Let’s now summarise these key points to ensure that the ‘purpose of life’ is fully understood.
The Direction
The direction of life moves from the simple to complex. This is evolution. Evolution is integrated into the intelligence and design of life. It cannot be changed. LIFE wants its design to grow and evolve. It wants ALL life forms to evolve and become the best possible versions of what they are.
Pleasure and Pain
Life uses these two tools to encourage all living beings to evolve and become more perfect according to their unique design.
Pleasure and the more profound quality of love, help to draw us towards the ‘heart of life’. They encourage us to look deeper into who and what we are.
Pain encourages us to question and learn from our experiences so that we will make wiser decisions and evolve towards greater intelligence and love.
What is the ‘human purpose of life’?
Effectively…LIFE wants you to be the BEST human being that you can be.
To ensure that you fully appreciate the significance of this statement and what it actually means, I will write a follow-up article.
It is important to recognise that the purpose of life is NOT happiness or love. These are merely by-products of living a more intelligent life.
The purpose of life also has absolutely NOTHING to do with making money or buying things. LIFE is not interested in humanity’s capitalist concepts.
Nor is the purpose of life to spend it worshiping a god or some other supreme being. A God or supreme being does not need you to worship it. It does however want you to become a wiser human being!
Your purpose in life, my purpose in life, our purpose as a species in life — is to bring out the very best in our true potential as human beings.
Does the world today reflect our very best?
No. It’s an absolute shambles!
It mostly reflects our lack of intelligence. As a people, we are capable of doing so much better!
We all have an individual responsibility to lift our own game and a collective responsibility to help make a positive difference in the world.
The article, ‘This is the most powerful idea for positive change in the world’ explains how a simple decision is all that is needed to solve the world’s problems.
