Soul Perspectives On ...

Life Purpose

There are three fundamental purposes to everyone’s life. One general purpose is on the personality level. The other is on the soul level. And the third is on the level of spirit. No matter how one’s specific purpose is described or expressed, it must come down to one of these. On the personality level our purpose is to learn. On the soul level our purpose is to express love and thereby to serve. Our third purpose is at present very elusive - to be.

Our three purposes are related to our threefold nature as spirit, soul and personality. To understand life and to live effectively we must increase our knowledge and expression of this triune nature. At the present time our collective development is focused on understanding and expressing our soul nature and integrating our personality nature with it. We can only do this if we understand the purpose of each.

Purpose is so essential and basic because it is the underlying motivation, attraction or urge that moves us to do what we do. It is also what gives meaning to what we experience.

When a person has a difficulty of any kind in terms of the physical, emotional or mental realms of functioning, feeling or thinking, the issue must ultimately relate to purpose. Either the soul purpose is not being expressed or the individual is not learning what needs to be learned in order to express one’s purpose. The ultimate solution or healing cannot be found without referring to purpose.

This implies that in order for one’s experiences to be understood or related to in terms of meaning, one must be able to relate to purpose, for meaning is always found in relation to purpose.

There is a principle that governs purpose which is that the greater purpose of anything is beyond itself, and must serve some greater reality than itself. It can only do this, however, to the extent that it is true to itself, expressing who or what it really is.

As the soul increasingly influences the personality through our growth, we must share what we learn - i.e., our learning must serve the greater good. The soul makes us more inclusive, therefore our learning must be shared in a way that reflects greater inclusiveness. When it is shared, others are assisted or empowered to be more true to themselves and to be able to increase their ability to fulfill their needs, and in turn assisting others.

The two purposes that we are capable of responding to are on the personality level, where learning is required, and on the soul level where service is the purpose. Learning requires becoming more aware. Serving requires becoming more conscious.

Learning is not just growing in awareness, although that is usually the expression used. There are actually three aspects to learning which we must always remember, and use practically. Learning involves one or more of the following:

1. Becoming more aware (mental) - This involves overcoming ignorance. As we do this, we develop understanding.
2. Becoming more open (astral/emotional) - This involves overcoming selfishness. As we do this we develop love.
3. Becoming more willing (physical) - This involves overcomin inertia. As we do this we develop the capacity to make choices and act in ways that empower ourselves and others.

Serving is often understood as doing something for others. The emphasis on service, however, must be service as a state of soul consciousness. This may, and usually does, result in doing something for others. But the beneficial effect on others, even when action is involved, is not primarily due to what is done, but to the loving state of soul consciousness that the doer has.

Service is an emanation of soul qualities. It therefore only exists when one is soul conscious. This means that the service is understanding, loving and empowering. These qualities make connection with others and resonate those same qualities in others. Service therefore is always a soul support or a soul awakening.

From this you can see that in order to serve by emanating these three qualities (understanding, loving and empowering), learning in the three ways described above is essential. The degree of our service is therefore limited by the degree to which we have overcome ignorance, selfishness and inertia. The overcoming of these three limitations automatically purifies and refines our mental, astral/emotional and physical bodies through which service is expressed.

Our third and highest purpose is to be. Being is the state of Spirit within. Being implies wholeness, being all. Until we build the higher bridge of consciousness, integrate soul and personality, we do not know how to just be. When people say ‘just be,’ they often imply an unconscious avoidance of effort, striving, thinking or responsibility - almost a state of inertia.

In order to be, we must first master learning as we here describe it and become fully soul conscious. These are our current tasks. However, we do experience indirectly the presence of Spirit as being within each of our bodies, and through that experience we grow toward being whole.

1. In our physical bodies it is present through the animal soul which has the natural intelligence of the physical world, embodied as instincts. It is important that we do not attribute to this body an intelligence that it does not have. It cannot tell us anything about our higher purpose, either as human being or as a spiritual being.
2. In our astral bodies it is present as our ability to feel other energies that are present, to feel our own energies, and to relate the two.
3. In our mental bodies it is present as our capacity to think. It is present here through our human soul.
4. In our soul bodies it is present as our soul purpose and manifested universally as Intelligence, Love and Power.

Let us determine at this stage in our life what specific opportunities for learning are presenting themselves to us, and how we are responding to them.

Let us also focus on the soul qualities of understanding, love and empowerment and deepen our consciousness along these three lines of connection to the universal.

And finally let us be more frequently sensitive and open to the presence of Spirit in each of our bodies.

Exercises: 1. What are you currently doing to overcome some specific ignorance and gaining understanding? 2. What are you currently doing to overcome some specific selfishness and becoming more open? 3. What choices are you currently making that serve to empower others? 4. How would you describe your current service in life?

***The above newsletter is one of over 50 archived at The Soul Journey web site. Explore the 50 Soul Perspectives on many topics.