Meditations on Purpose

Purpose is the antithesis of despair.

Whatever despair will tell you, purpose will say the opposite. And if you want to understand purpose, listen to the person in despair and invert his words.

Personally, I don’t know how a human being could have come up with this idea, this notion that life has purpose. Who first managed to look at life from beyond life and see that it is was made to go somewhere? Perhaps it could only have been through a Divine voice. Perhaps to Abraham. Perhaps it was known from the dawn of human consciousness, but then forgotten and rediscovered. Certainly, no idea is as empowering and as vital, as integral to the human psyche.

Without the idea of purpose, what is life other than a snare to escape? Why would we value the dignity of a human being if none of our lives had inherent worth? What would drive us to preserve our world and treasure its beauty if we believed that nothing is of lasting value?

Purpose is the idea that just as the universe appears intelligent within space -- with a oneness of design, an elegance of repeated patterns and symmetries, to the point that as scientists we are convinced there must be a single, unifying principle behind it all -- so too in time: with a beginning, a middle and an ultimate goal. That at the core of all that exists lies not a placid stillness; not an indifferent, transcendent Being contemplating his navel; but a burning purpose -- along with a boundless delight in seeing that purpose fulfilled. That every croak and buzz; every blade of grass; every planet, rock and sub-atomic particle plays a unique part in achieving that purpose. And that it is a purpose in which each and every human being plays the leading role; because we are the radical factor, the being that chooses the notes it wishes to play.

What is the purpose?

The One Above desires to dwell in those things below. The transcendent within the mundane.

Meaning that a breath of G-dly life should descend below, dressed up within a body and human personality. And they will negate and conceal the light of this G-dly soul.

And nevertheless, this soul will purify and elevate the body, the person and even her share of the world.

And what is the reason behind this purpose?

There is none.

That is why it is all-consuming and unbounded. For it is a desire of the Essence.

Before your soul descended to this world, it was determined she would succeed. If not in this lifetime, then in another, or yet another -- eventually she will fulfill her entire mission. And in each lifetime, she will move further ahead.

It was this knowledge that conceived her. It was this inspiration that brought the world to be. It is this vision of her success that lies at the essence of all things.

We were not placed here to do the possible. Let the heavenly beings bring cause into effect, potential into actual. He did not breathe from His innermost depths into flesh and blood to achieve the facile and the ordinary.

We are here to achieve the impossible: To teach the world tricks it thinks it cannot do. To bring into its boundaries that which it cannot contain. To make the blind see, the deaf hear, darkness shine. To make everyday business into mystic union. To rip away the façade of the world and cause it to confess its conspiracy with the Divine.

When they tell you, “You can’t go there! It’s beyond you!” - grab that path as your destiny.

The history of humankind is not about the rise and fall of empires, nor about their wars and conquests. It is about a different sort of battle, the battle of whether the Divine Presence belongs here below or in some heaven above.

Those who believe She belongs in Her heavens destroy the earth. Those who believe She belongs on earth, they build heaven here on earth.

That is the battle each one of us fights, and that is the story of all humanity’s journey. And that is all that really matters. For that is all there is to any human being.

Prayer, meditation, acts of kindness - those all fulfill our needs. We need air, we need water, we need to stay connected with our Source above.

Your work, your family, your path in the world - those fulfill a Divine desire. It is He that wishes to find a home in this world He has made.

There are those who chase the infinite - and find they cannot live.

There are those who chase all things finite. Their life is not worth living.

Redemption is when the infinite is at home within our finite world.

This goal, when will we reach it?

It was once far, but now it is near.

When will we hold it in our hands?

When we will open our eyes to see it is already there.