Is It Possible To Have A Life Purpose With Enlightenment?

[JevinR]

I apologize, but I am not sure where to find the answer to this question. If one were enlightened, would they not need a life purpose?

Edited March 15, 2016 by JevinR
Addition of a sentence

[Anton Rogachevski]

Being enlightened you do the most purposeful things without ever intending to.

You might say that seeking a purpose from spiritual point of view is clutching to certainty. (You want to be sure your have found your "life purpose")  

 

16 hours ago, JevinR said:

If one were enlightened, would they not need a life purpose?

There's a share of truth in this very statement. They realised their neediness, and therefor don't need it : )

[Zenrik]

 

 

[Ayla]

You mind is trying to bypass some steps here  

If you are on a path to self-actualization, do that, paying attention to obstacles. If they become unbearable, that might be a sign to revert focus on enlightenment work .

[Leo Gura]

Yes

[growthaboveall]

Try it out

[werlight]

On March 15, 2016 at 9:47 PM, JevinR said:

I apologize, but I am not sure where to find the answer to this question. If one were enlightened, would they not need a life purpose?

Hi @JevinR. I would say Enlightenment IS the primary (essential) life purpose of everyone.

After enlightenment what remains is acceptance, gratitude, balance and compasion and a deep desire to be present and enjoy the beauty of everything that IS.

This doesnt mean that you have to forget about everything else and live in a constant state of bliss.

Actually doing this would mean you are in resistance and still have not accepted your humanity completly.

You can be enlightened and live a normal life. You can still work, have friends, go to parties, play a sport, have a partner etc..

The difererence is that you know who you ARE in essence so you dont identify with your thought, your emotions, or your life situation although you accept and love all these things as part of who you are. You also recognize the inpermanence of form and learn to flow with what ever IS.

You can dedicate your life to teach other people how to find theselves (reach enlightenment) but only if you feel like doing this. If, when and how it makes sense to you ..

[WelcometoReality]

@JevinR Oh yes everyone has a life purpose, it's just that enlightened people (?) realize it's not up to them what that life purpose is. ?

[Guest]

@werlight You are probably the only enlightened person on here.  I've not heard anything else as down to earth.  Unless I'm projecting my own issues I see lot's of people imagining that these states are states of superhuman perfection.  

[SkyPanther]

The Buddha had a purpose... to teach others to "wake up".. But then that turned into a religion...

Yes, it is possible.

Though, there will come a time, if you understand that since everything in the universe is impermanent, (due to entropy, death, disease, age, etc) attachment even to "life" becomes uninteresting.  Or, a better way of putting it, you get disenchanted with the material world.   You also feel supremely free at the same time, because you realize you do not need "things" to make you happy.  Happiness/contentment has always come from you, not from the outside world. 

[werlight]

19 hours ago, Nomad said:

@werlight You are probably the only enlightened person on here.  I've not heard anything else as down to earth.  Unless I'm projecting my own issues I see lot's of people imagining that these states are states of superhuman perfection.  

@Nomad @JevinR

@Leo Gura Yes. Our purpose in life is to remember and experience who we are. That is the purpose of expression, of form, of creation. It is our ultimate gift of love.

To remember and experience the beauty that we ARE. 

It is so powerful that it generates an internal transformation that inevitably changes the way we perceive ourselves as well as the way we perceive the people and the world around us.

It is an extremely beautiful process.

Enlightenment is meant to be experienced by EVERYONE, not only a few luck or special people.

Humanity is finally starting to look inside instead of outside to find the truth. This is why enlightenment is accelerating. 

More and more people are looking inside and discovering the beauty that they ARE.

This is why your question becomes very relevant and very important.

There is a lot of confusion out there about what enlightenment IS and the impact it has in your life.

One misunderstanding comes from the fact that most of the enlightened people we know and read about have (or are) dedicating their lives to teach others. Which is great.

The problem is that now when we hear about an enlightened person we immediately assume he/she has to be a teacher. This is not necessarily true. 

The world needs enlightened teachers, but also enlightened fathers, mothers, executives, politicians, workers etc..

The world needs love, compassion, understanding and peace. Every single one of us needs to find this inside ourselves if we want to see this in the world. 

The reason is very simple. What we see outside is a reflection of what we have inside.

I have to run now.. but I will be here and continue to answer any questions that come up. I'm only here to help.

Edited March 18, 2016 by werlight

[SkyPanther]

1 hour ago, werlight said:

@Nomad @JevinR

@Leo Gura Yes. Our purpose in life is to remember and experience who we are. That is the purpose of expression, of form, of creation. It is our ultimate gift of love.

To remember and experience the beauty that we ARE. 

It is so powerful that it generates an internal transformation that inevitably changes the way we perceive ourselves as well as the way we perceive the people and the world around us.

It is an extremely beautiful process.

Enlightenment is meant to be experienced by EVERYONE, not only a few luck or special people.

Humanity is finally starting to look inside instead of outside to find the truth. This is why enlightenment is accelerating. 

More and more people are looking inside and discovering the beauty that they ARE.

This is why your question becomes very relevant and very important.

There is a lot of confusion out there about what enlightenment IS and the impact it has in your life.

One misunderstanding comes from the fact that most of the enlightened people we know and read about have (or are) dedicating their lives to teach others. Which is great.

The problem is that now when we hear about an enlightened person we immediately assume he/she has to be a teacher. This is not necessarily true. 

The world needs enlightened teachers, but also enlightened fathers, mothers, executives, politicians, workers etc..

The world needs love, compassion, understanding and peace. Every single one of us needs to find this inside ourselves if we want to see this in the world. 

The reason is very simple. What we see outside is a reflection of what we have inside.

I have to run now.. but I will be here and continue to answer any questions that come up. I'm only here to help.

I agree with what you have said here, but kind of wanted to "chime in"...  for a lot of people, when they meet someone that is actualized, or on the path to being enlightened, or someone that already "gets it", etc, (also depending on the path, for instance in Buddhism there are 4 stages of "enlightenment", starting with Sotapanna,  even though all 4 are technically also already "enlightened" when you are talking about the secular version of it as "self-actualization")  they will think you are nutty, or "new agey".

Now, note that these labels won't bug you, but it makes it a bit hard to "fit in".  You essentially have to put on a hat/concept/label that most people would be comfortable with. 

There is a quote I really like "All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players;" - William Shakespeare

This is how most people live their lives...  the ego creates a character, and the person thinks that is who they are.  So they act accordingly.  Re-acting instead of responding to life.

Once the self is seen as an illusion, you see this, and Plato's Cave intimately. You start to see things as funny....  Because you see people acting these things out as if they are characters in a play, where you become the observer. (And the Observer gets more and more pronounced as you do (mindfulness) meditation, either sitting or in everyday life.)

[werlight]

10 minutes ago, SkyPanther said:

I agree with what you have said here, but kind of wanted to "chime in"...  for a lot of people, when they meet someone that is actualized, or on the path to being enlightened, or someone that already "gets it", etc, (also depending on the path, for instance in Buddhism there are 4 stages of "enlightenment", starting with Sotapanna,  even though all 4 are technically also already "enlightened" when you are talking about the secular version of it as "self-actualization")  they will think you are nutty, or "new agey".

Now, note that these labels won't bug you, but it makes it a bit hard to "fit in".  You essentially have to put on a hat/concept/label that most people would be comfortable with. 

There is a quote I really like "All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players;" - William Shakespeare

This is how most people live their lives...  the ego creates a character, and the person thinks that is who they are.  So they act accordingly.  Re-acting instead of responding to life.

Once the self is seen as an illusion, you see this, and Plato's Cave intimately. You start to see things as funny....  Because you see people acting these things out as if they are characters in a play, where you become the observer. (And the Observer gets more and more pronounced as you do (mindfulness) meditation, either sitting or in everyday life.)

Hi @SkyPanther Thanks for your comments.

I actually wrote something similar about this character- observer thing.. I wrote this months ago, funny how we all use similar analogies.

----

Imagine our life is a big play. There are many actors playing different characters in the play. However, we are so immersed in the play that we forget we are actors and we actually believe we are a character. The main problem with this is that characters are bounded by scripts and in this play there is no script so characters follow the scripts written by others.

One day we look inside ourselves and we realize that we are not a character, we are actually the one who is aware of the character, in other words and following with the metaphor, we are an actor. In this play actors can decide and change almost any aspect of their characters including their story because as I mentioned before, there simply IS no script. In fact, once you become aware that you are an actor you don't need to act, you can just be.

As long as we see ourselves as characters and not as actors we will be bounded by the scripts written by others. To see ourselves as actor we must look inside ourselves and find our essence. The only thing that is fixed is who we ARE, in essence. We have the power to decide everything else. This can be incredibly powerful and liberating.

[SkyPanther]

2 minutes ago, werlight said:

Hi @SkyPanther Thanks for your comments.

I actually wrote something similar about this character- observer thing.. I wrote this months ago, funny how we all use similar analogies.

----

Imagine our life is a big play. There are many actors playing different characters in the play. However, we are so immersed in the play that we forget we are actors and we actually believe we are a character. The main problem with this is that characters are bounded by scripts and in this play there is no script so characters follow the scripts written by others.

One day we look inside ourselves and we realize that we are not a character, we are actually the one who is aware of the character, in other words and following with the metaphor, we are an actor. In this play actors can decide and change almost any aspect of their characters including their story because as I mentioned before, there simply IS no script. In fact, once you become aware that you are an actor you don't need to act, you can just be.

As long as we see ourselves as characters and not as actors we will be bounded by the scripts written by others. To see ourselves as actor we must look inside ourselves and find our essence. The only thing that is fixed is who we ARE, in essence. We have the power to decide everything else. This can be incredibly powerful and liberating.

Heh... yes, this is exactly what I mean.

Once people realize this part, the ego disappears. And that is really, really freeing.  You respond to life, people, events, and so on, instead of reacting to stimuli, which, as you noted, is a queue (or line) you take from an outside "character". 

Some people think that losing the ego is scary, but it's not.  The "hole" most feel, that they try to fill with sex, "things", drugs, etc, etc, gets filled, and you become content;  You can sit staring at nothing and remain content, or equanimous.