Tune into the Purpose of Life

A brief note before we begin

There are many true and meaningful ways of understanding and describing the purpose of life. The following is one way of articulating it.

Also, this topic, and the next one — Your Unique Purpose — may be questions you have already spent a great deal of time thinking about. If so, feel free to jump straight ahead to Section 3: MY IDEAL YEAR.

Have you ever had moments when you've found yourself rising above the noise of daily life and asking the question:

Why am I here?

This is actually not a complicated question. Our Torah, which our Jewish tradition refers to as the blueprint of creation and the instruction manual for living, is very clear regarding explaining our purpose.

So why are we here?

We are taught that the Creator made the world and everything in it for one purpose.

To give!

To give? To give what?!

The 12th-century sage Ibn Ezra points to two consecutive verses near the end of the Torah that read: "Choose life... in order to love." "Life is for love." he explains. We were created as an act of giving. And what we have been given is the opportunity to build and take pleasure in the most incredible relationships, with ourself, with others and ultimately with the Source of existence, in this world and ultimately in the next.

This world is our 2nd womb

Here's a great analogy to explain this a bit more. Our body was formed in our mother's womb - cell by cell - until it was complete and ready. The world that we emerged into, the world we live in now,  is considered our 2nd womb. In it we find ourself being given the opportunity to reveal our soul, our highest self, through the life we choose live. This constant opportunity to reveal our highest self takes dedication and courage but the result is sweeter than we can possibly imagine.

Our soul is our essence. As we manifest our true self, our true essence, we are able to tune into a relationship with our true selves, with others and ultimately with our creator on a level that can only be understood as it is experienced.

Here's how we manifest our soul and what it looks like when we do

The Creator gave us an instruction manual, called the Torah, to teach us how to manifest our true essence so we don't just live and be guided by our lower self. And as we learn and guide ourselves by the Torah and it's 613 pieces of advise (which is how the mystical work the Zohar refers to the mitzvahs), we will come to manifest our true essence and to see ourselves and know ourselves like we never have before and to love ourselves like we never have before. We will also learn to see and know and love those around us and ultimately our Creator too.

The mitzvahs describe to us how we would behave if we were manifesting our soul. How we would speak. How we would act. How we can see and understand reality as it truly is. The Torah, our guide for life, guides us to express and manifest our true self. The mitzvahs, such as don't kill, don't embarrass and return lost property to its owner, to name a few, guide our behaviour so it is the true expression of our soul.

Am "I" really an intended part of the purpose of creation? Me?  

The simple answer is yes!

If you have a hard time believing that, we can talk about it another time. But YES! YOU were created as an act of love! Your soul was put in a physical body so you could manifest it and earn your perfection, as an act of giving which you will benefit from in this world and the rest of eternity.

Can I just ignore all of this for now, and take it more seriously some time in the future? I'm not really that religious or interested to be so at the moment.

Yes. You can ignore all of this for now. You have free will. Each of us has this choice. We can choose to push off learning about and clarifying the purpose and practicalities of living our best life. But every day we go through without being conscious of why we're here until we do finally focus on it is a lost opportunity.

Also, if we're not willing to take to heart why we're here and what our opportunity is today, what makes us think we will tomorrow, or next year, or in ten years' time?

Please don't freak out!

None of us needs to do anything drastic that radically changes the comfort of our lives today, tomorrow, this month or next month. All we ideally need to do for now is to be clear about is why we are here and to accept it. To say "I accept that the Creator of existence created me as an act of giving so I could experience the most meaningful life in this world and the most pleasurable existence for the rest of eternity, and I'm in and I'm willing to take one teeny-tiny step towards manifesting my soul, as the Torah guides me to, more than I already am."

What does the smallest step actually accomplish?

So much!

Wherever you are right now — however far you feel from where you think you "should" be or "could" be, or from the truest expression of who you are — all that matters is right now, is your next step, because right now, all each one of us can do is take one step in the right direction.

None of us were put on the top rung of the ladder. Our job, and opportunity, is to climb the ladder, one step at a time. Some of us were placed on a rung that makes us feel higher than others, or lower than others. But our growth isn't measured against anyone else — it's measured against where we started and what we're capable of. The only comparison that matters is with who we were yesterday.

And if we continually fall and make bad choices? Amazing! King Solomon wrote it plainly, about 3,000 years ago, in Mishlei — the Book of Proverbs: A righteous person isn't someone who never falls. They are someone who falls seven times but who keeps getting up. The goal isn't to never fall and to never fail. Falling and failing, in fact, often shows we are trying and at the very least, recognising our falls shows that we care!

Our goal is simply to keep the truth clear, try and take one teeny-tiny step in the right direction, pick ourselves up when we need to, learn whatever lesson we can, refocus and try again.

That's why you're here. That's how you "choose" and thereby "earn" your greatness — by choosing, again and again, in the face of real challenges, to manifest your greatness, your true self, your true essence made "In the image of the Creator".

Where to go from here

ElulTime.com will walk you through simple, guided steps to help you get real clarity on what your most meaningful, most successful life could actually look like and to manifest that tiny step by tiny step.

If you're wondering how anyone can be confident that the above is actually true, you can take a look at some of the powerful evidence of a Creator and the authenticity of the Torah here. It's very concise, but a good first steps and there are links for further exploration.