inner and outer purpose

[iss100]

I recently finished reading chapter 9 of "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle, in which he talks about life purpose. 

According to E Tolle, "Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary".  The outer purpose can change over time and is different for each person. The inner purpose however is the same for everyone, that is "awakening". 

Per E Tolle, "Awakening is a shift of consciousness, in which thinking and awareness separate". "Another word for awakening is Presence: consciousness without thought". 

Also, "Without living in alignment with your primary purpose, whatever purpose you come up with, even if it is to create heaven on earth, will be of the ego or become destroyed by time. Sooner or later, it will lead to suffering. If you ignore your inner purpose, no matter what you do, even if it looks spiritual, the ego will creep into how you do it, so the means will corrupt the end...In other words not your aims or actions are primary, but the state of consciousness out of which they come"

More, "I am not saying that helping others, caring for your children, or striving for excellence in whatever field are not worthwhile things to do. They are an important part of the outer purpose, but outer purpose alone is always relative, unstable and impermanent. This does not mean that you should not be engaged in those activities. It means you should connect them to your inner, primary purpose, so that deeper meaning flows into what you do". "Whenever you become anxious or stressed, outer purpose has taken over, and you lose sight of your inner purpose. You have forgotten that your state of consciousness is primary, all else secondary". 

 

What do you guys think? 

 

I find it hard to grasp, yet some part of me find this very meaningful. 

I have been trying to find my life purpose for some time now and my quest has not resulted in finding anything meaningful in the long term. All of my endeavors ended up causing me suffering at the end. I always wonder if I am doing it all wrong, that I am missing something fundamental...

 

[cirkussmile]

"The inner purpose however is the same for everyone, that is 'awakening'." 

Read the quotes again and again. The answer is right in front of you.

Awakening should Always be priority number 1. When that happens, every other purpose will relieve itself to you. 

Look inside, continue questioning, keep on meditating and this will get clearer and clearer. 

 

[Huginn]

One line of self-inquiry that I believe has given me some progress of figuring out this "inner purpose" is to regularly think of myself at the end of my life, dying slowly until I'm nothing. I see the life I have lived, and am simply aware of where my human nature wants to go, be and do, especially when I'm nothing.

[Nahm]

@iss100 every ‘thing’ including every thought, is relative. The difference in experiencing the  ‘tasks’ of life, no matter how big or small we are imagining them to be, is that separation from thinking & awareness, the transition from thinking to awareness, from me to the paper cup, from man to no-man, from mind to no mind.  The sense of struggle disappears because no relative result could possibly feel as good as the One experience / perspective. Adults all turn back into kids, work becomes play, challenge becomes opportunity & expansion - when infinite potentiality perceives it’s own matrix of relativity for what it isn’t, “my life” is not at all what it appeared to be. It is simply an entry point into nothing. 

IMO, you are creating your life.  Be patient and stay on the path you’re on. What you want is happening. Be sure to be honest within regarding any resistant thought. Honest in identifying it. What you want, your life purpose, that’s your dream, and there is nothing (which is everything) and there is your thinking, which it self is the resistance, the distinctions, that allow for a ‘life’ and a ‘life purpose’. I think one day you will have an experience that reveals the ego can indeed die, and yet here you will still be. I have had that experience, and everyday when I wake up, I am alive and I am not alive. I died, so I can’t be alive. I’m alive, so I can’t be dead.  I get to experience the rest of this life, dead. It is impossible, yet it Is. There is no suffering - I’m dead!!

“Anger is a gift” -Zack De La Rocha

(It shows me my resistant thoughts.)