What would here and now be if there were no problems to solve?
““Renounce knowledge and your problems will end. What is the difference between yes and no? What is the difference between good and evil? Must you fear what others fear? Nonsense, look how far you have missed the mark.””
If you don’t have a life purpose, maybe your purpose is to keep searching for your life purpose. There is value in the search. Ask and you shall receive. The search for a life purpose covers the necessary amount of self-reflection and contemplation needed in one’s life. Probably there’s no life purpose. Searching in and of itself is the aim, without any end-product.
If you internalize this, you can let go of egoic attachment to finding your purpose. Contemplation and reflection become the means to no end. When you live for the sake of it and drop expectations, you liberate yourself from the chains of the expectation gap and unhappiness.
““In pursuit of knowledge, every day something is added. In the practice of the Tao, every day something is dropped. Less and less do you need to force things, until finally, you arrive at non-action. When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. True mastery can be gained by letting things go their own way. It can’t be gained by interfering.””
The search corresponds to focusing on the process, instead of the end product. A life purpose may also be referred to as “meaning”. The thing(s) that drive your everyday behaviors, decisions, criteria to live. Figuring out—articulating—the why behind your existence is not necessary. It seems to me that most individuals do not even think about it. The concept of life purpose may be something coming up once your basic life needs are met—higher up in the Maslow hierarchy.
Look for the one who is looking, as Sam Harris would often instruct practitioners during his guided meditation sessions. Looking for your face—the looker—means detaching your self-identity and analyzing yourself objectively, from the outside in. What would here and now be if there were no problems to solve? Maybe the problems or novel situations you encounter in life are the very sources of your purpose. If you identify with them, what happens when there is no problem to solve? How will you feel in such circumstances? You may believe having no problems to solve is an ideal situation. It may not be for the majority of us. Problems keep us busy, so to speak. They are a source of doing in the physical world.
When we resolve to drop identification with thoughts and actions, we may be able to unlock our life purpose. The purpose is that there is no purpose unless you intend to decide to have one, or more than one.
““Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. He who looks outside, dreams. He who looks inside, awakens.””
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