What would here and now be if there were no problems to solve? — Repurposed
“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.”
— LAO TZU, TAO TE CHING, 20
If you do not have a life purpose, perhaps your purpose is to keep searching for one. There is value in the search. The search for a life purpose requires the necessary amount of self-reflection and contemplation needed in one's life. It is possible that there is no inherent life purpose. The act of searching itself may be the aim, without any end-product.
By internalizing this, you can let go of egoic attachment to finding your purpose. Contemplation and reflection become a 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 from 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 key to successful search is focusing on the process, rather than the end product. Your life purpose, sometimes also referred as "meaning", consists of the things that drive your everyday behaviors, decisions, and criteria for living. Articulating the why behind your existence is not a necessary step, and many individuals do not even consider it. This concept of life purpose may only arise once your basic life needs are met, higher up in the Maslow hierarchy.
As mindfulness teacher Sam Harris often instructs during his guided meditation sessions, "look for the one who is looking." This means detaching your self-identity and analyzing yourself objectively, from the outside in. Consider what the present moment would be like if there were no problems to solve. Perhaps the problems or novel situations you encounter in life are the very sources of your purpose. If you identify too closely with them, what happens when there is no problem to solve? How will you feel in such circumstances? While having no problems to solve may seem ideal, it may not be for the majority of us. Problems keep us busy and are a source of action in the physical world.
By letting go of identification with our thoughts and actions, we may unlock our life purpose. However, we should keep in mind that there is no inherent purpose in life unless we decide to give it 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.”
Prompt for DALL-E: Generate an image of a person meditating in nature, with a thought bubble above their head containing an abstract representation of the concept of "life purpose." The thought bubble should be filled with colors and shapes that evoke a sense of contemplation and self-reflection. The person should be shown in a relaxed and peaceful pose, with their eyes closed, and surrounded by natural elements such as trees, mountains, and water. The overall mood of the image should be calm and serene, conveying the idea of finding meaning and purpose in life through introspection and connection with nature.