89 Discovering Your Life's Purpose

Many have been and are interested in the purpose of their life. Is there such a thing? Bhagavan has said that "Life is for living" "Life is relationships" and "To see is to be free". Joseph Campbell suggests that we match our heartbeat with that of the universe, match our nature with Nature. Bhagavan feels that whatever is destined will happen regardless of your efforts. Jesus and Buddha have their perspectives as well. We look within to find our own answers.

These podcasts are here to support your personal path of awakening whatever that might be. I feel they are most powerful when listened to in sequence from podcast one forward because each is built on the last. Though they, also, all stand on their own. If anything does not resonate, please disregard it and follow your heart. All are free. Enjoy!

Though I am a psychotherapist, and these podcasts are offered to be spiritually helpful, they are not psychotherapy. If needed, please reach out to a psychotherapist.

Transcript

Hello,

This is William Cooper.

Welcome to Awakening Together,

Relaxing into Happiness.

I trust you're having a good week.

Today,

Let's talk about the purpose of life.

Many people wonder what is the purpose of my life?

How can I live to my fullest purpose?

I remember there was a time in my life where that was an agonizing question for me.

I really,

Really struggled,

Pondered,

And worked on achieving the purpose of my life.

I think many people feel that way.

So let's look at what is the purpose of my life closely.

There are many ways to look at the purpose of life,

And you'll get many different opinions if you read different books or philosophers or wise people.

I think the reason why there are so many differing opinions is that,

Much like awakening,

The purpose of life has a different perspective depending on from which angle are you looking at it.

I remember my main guru and friend in India,

Bhagavan,

Used to chuckle sometimes about the fights that awakened people would get into about the nature of awakening.

And he would laugh and say,

Well,

What they don't realize is depending on which chakra or energy center you awaken through,

That colors your perspective on awakening.

For instance,

If you awaken in your heart center,

You see awakening as founded in love.

If you awaken in your crown center,

You see awakening as a deep knowing that existence is beyond creation and doesn't exist while at the same time is everything in creation.

If you awaken at your root chakra,

The one at the bottom of your spine,

You feel very deeply connected and supported by all of creation.

We'll look at the various chakras and what they might mean during your awakening process in another podcast.

But I just wanted to bring up that they can color our view of awakening.

Now,

Eventually,

We awaken through all of our chakras and we experience life through all of our energy centers.

So it becomes a very full experience of awakening rather than a partial experience of awakening.

Well,

The purpose of our life is much like that.

We're like a rainbow.

At least that's how I experience myself.

At one end of the rainbow,

I'm beyond all existence.

And because I'm outside of existence,

There's nothing to feel or see because only those things are felt or seen using the five senses.

And you have to be in existence to use the five senses.

That's at one end of the rainbow.

And as it arcs into creation,

There's great light.

I experience great light and then I experience sound.

I hear sound,

Ohm,

And a high pitched sound.

And then as it slows down into creation,

I experience slow moving,

Infinite energy,

Which is bliss and wellness and peace and love and then down into atoms and molecules.

So it's a long arc and all of it's happening at the same time,

That which is beyond creation and all of creation at the same time.

Strobing in and out of existence all at the same time.

So I am everything and so are you.

So what does that have to do with the purpose of our lives?

Well,

Just like Bhagavan used to laugh at how the energy center through which one awakened primarily would affect how one saw their awakening.

So does the lens of our life affect how we see the purpose of our life?

Remember in a prior podcast that I described that when Jesus came to me and lived in my body along with me,

He showed me my life and he said,

You're the same as I am and because we were both in the same body and using the same nervous system,

I could feel and see everything he felt and saw.

And he showed me an image of his body,

So to speak,

His nervous system,

And it was completely clear.

And then he showed me an image of mine and it had four or five little black dots.

And he said,

The only difference between you and me are those four or five little black dots.

What happens when we come into this existence,

Into this creation,

Is things are very slow moving.

And although Jesus didn't tell me what to do with the four or five little black dots,

I knew that it was time to release them.

And because I'm in this creation,

The slow moving creation,

I have time and focus to see and to work with those four or five little black dots and let them go.

So do we all.

I think as we work through the purpose of our life,

We start to release these black dots.

That's what gave us the four noble truths and very simply,

They can be looked at as one suffering exists to it has a cause three,

It has an end and four,

There's a process to bring about its end.

It's healing.

As we've talked about in our other podcasts,

It's the separation from ourselves.

It's so painful when we're not with ourselves,

When we're separate from ourselves,

That creates pain.

We have separation anxiety.

We feel separated from ourselves and therefore have abandoned ourselves.

And that's very painful.

And we're frustrated and angry about it,

That we're separate from ourselves.

And that creates anger and frustration.

So that suffering does exist.

It has a cause,

Which is our separation from ourselves.

It has an end.

If those four black dots could disappear,

There wouldn't be a separation.

And it has a process to bring about its end.

And that is the awakening process included in that awakening process.

Is us solving some of the questions about the purpose of our lives.

One of the ways that reflects our awakening process and deepens it is solving the purpose of life in our life.

So let's look at that more deeply.

Our life in creation is very complex.

We exist as a physical body,

As a mental body,

As a spiritual body,

As a cosmic body,

As a causal body,

As an energetic body,

As a karmic body.

We have so many different bodies and aspects.

This rainbow that I described is very complex and beautiful.

All of creation is a diversity.

That's what makes the beautiful artwork,

The beautiful painting that we call creation.

It's the infinite,

Slowed down and captured in an ever evolving creation of finite matter.

But is that matter really finite?

Not really.

You hear all the time,

Well,

Something that we think is solid,

Suddenly physics determines it's not solid.

If we think electrons are there,

Suddenly physics says that no,

Electrons are simply a locus of probability.

And when you focus on an object,

That's when it brings it into existence.

So all of creation is strobing in and out.

And I see that through my inner eye.

I can see creation strobing in and out of existence a million times a second.

Well,

So do we.

We strobe in and out of creation.

And different parts of ourselves,

These different bodies,

As they clarify,

As they become very clear and the black dots within them dissolve away into clarity and beauty,

We evolve and we open up and we awaken.

So depending on which body within all of our bodies we're talking about,

We define our purpose of life.

And just as our process of awakening shifts around as various parts of our deep self open and awaken,

We might move on to a different process or a different way of awakening.

So does our purpose of life shift around during our lifetime.

Now,

Haven't you noticed that it used to be that people would define their life as one lifetime?

And now these days,

Our lifespan is longer and so much happens so quickly that it feels like we've lived many lives during our one lifetime.

Doesn't it?

Doesn't it feel like you've lived many lives all at once,

Many different chapters to this particular life?

I think it's true.

And so therefore,

Each life may have had a different purpose.

So you might be going up and down your rainbow,

Cleaning and releasing different little black dots in various places.

And you've defined it as a different purpose of life as you've gone through the work to release these various black dots.

In your rainbow.

And that's called awakening.

Bhagavan used to say the purpose of life is to live.

Life is for living when we're living in a free flowing way.

Aren't we guided to various parts of our life as needed or as desired?

I guess is a better way to say it.

Our heart guides us.

So at certain times in our life,

A relationship might be very powerful and important.

Perhaps we're resolving some things in our karmic body between ourselves and others.

Or perhaps our heart chakra is opening and we're learning about love and how to give and receive love.

At other times in our life,

Perhaps survival is very important.

We learn how to have a business or support ourselves and support our families.

I remember when I was much younger,

I always had a deep fear of dying under a bridge,

Destitute with no money.

So even though I had a deep psychological and theological background,

I went into financial planning.

I became a partner of a financial advisory firm and a certified financial planner so that I could earn money.

I did well.

I did earn money.

And once I did,

Suddenly that lifetime was over.

And I shifted back into my heart and got back into my psychology background.

I became a psychotherapist and evolved into another lifetime.

At an earlier time in my life,

I became a board president of a unity church and I would also give sermons.

And that spiritual pursuit continued all the way until this day.

So that is an opening that keeps continuing in my life and could be looked at as yet another lifetime,

Another purpose of life.

Each one of these purposes has been very important in my life.

Without solving the survival issues,

It would have been difficult for me to go on and have that support underneath me,

My root chakra,

And move up into an area where I could pursue psychology and deeper spirituality.

So we all can drift up and down our rainbow and loosen these black dots at different parts of our rainbow and in different bodies,

Karmic bodies or mental bodies or spiritual bodies.

Follow your heart.

And so often when somebody says,

What is the purpose of your life?

You'll hear somebody say,

Follow your heart.

Well,

What does that mean?

It means,

Yes,

Go up and down your rainbow,

Be guided intuitively.

And as you move up and down your rainbow,

You might find yourself living many lifetimes at once,

Living many purposes of life at one time.

At another time,

Bhagavan defined the purpose of life as life is relationships.

And just like we talked about before,

Yes,

We open up the heart chakra.

Yes,

We work out karma.

But as we explored in a past podcast,

In deep relationship to all of life,

There's a oneness and we flow from all objects,

All entities,

All beings.

We relate to everything.

There's the interconnected web of life,

Which we're a part of.

We're one.

So in deep connection,

There is an inevitable awakening because in deep connection,

You can't have any black dots that are separating you from everything around you.

It's all very clear and free flowing.

So another deep purpose of life is connection.

The purpose of life is connection or relationships.

Life is relationships.

Others have said that the purpose of life is to use your skills,

The skills that you're born with,

That your God given gifts that you've brought into this life.

And sometimes they're more pronounced than others.

For instance,

Perhaps you've heard about the child prodigies that can play the piano when they're two years old or they're amazing math wizards.

They're born with that ability.

Some would say they develop those abilities in past lives and in past lives because you take with you what you are.

You also appear with what you have.

And so you are born into the next life,

Into this life with those great gifts that you've developed in the past.

Some people find great joy in expressing these abilities in this life.

Full awakening is knowing who you are on an infinite level and flowing down through your body,

Mind,

And having the tools to express yourself fully in this creation.

You give and receive love on so many levels through all of your bodies,

Mentally,

Emotionally,

But also with your skill set.

You have the ability to really reach out and help people with your skills.

And it's so,

So fulfilling.

So for some,

That may be the purpose of their life,

To express and to give what they have.

For others,

It may be to develop a new skill set.

It all comes down to listening to your heart and following your heart.

For instance,

Somebody could be born as a child prodigy.

They can play the piano so well,

But they have no desire to play the piano.

Their heart calls out to do something different.

So if they're listening to their heart,

Even though there might be tremendous pressure,

Hey,

You've got this wonderful gift to give the world,

You have to play the piano.

They might listen to their heart and say,

No,

I'm not called in that direction.

And so they learn perhaps a completely new skill,

A new way to express themselves in this creation.

And that's the purpose of their life.

That's a difficult crossroads to give up something that you have in order to go in a direction that your heart calls out to go.

Loving yourself despite having to give up something.

Joseph Campbell,

Famous for working with archetypes and myths and relating them to our lives,

Said,

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe,

To match your nature with nature.

Nature is so complex,

Yet it flows.

It doesn't think and hold itself back.

It just evolves into the form that's necessary.

The next obvious step.

And isn't that what we're doing in our life when we flow the next obvious step and then we move into the next obvious step up and down our rainbow,

Letting those little black dots go and relax out of us?

Isn't that the nature of our lives?

Isn't that actually what we're doing?

Our life purpose?

And it shifts up and down.

Sometimes we find the purpose of life in a particular relationship or in the awakening process or in learning or becoming very clear,

Mentally clear.

Our intuition sharpens.

We can see very clearly to see is to be free or perhaps like awakening through the throat chakra.

We feel the infinite creation,

A deep trust,

And we submit to the infinite creation because it is us.

Deep awakening,

Deep trust.

Others find the purpose of life through love,

Opening their heart,

Following their heart.

Others through ending suffering.

Others through knowing where they are in the universe,

That they're one,

That they don't have existential angst.

Instead,

They are one.

They are the universe.

Learning that,

Experiencing that fully is the purpose of their life or at least one chapter of their life.

We talked about working out our karma.

That might be a chapter or chapters of our life.

And that might include learning how to forgive,

Learning how to let go so that we're no longer embroiled and stuck to a particular situation or person.

We learn to be at peace and flow and let go.

We forgive.

Forgiveness,

That must have been one of the black dots that Jesus dissolved out of his being.

That ended up being one of his main tools that he gave us,

Forgiveness.

When we let go,

When we forgive,

We can flow.

We're at peace.

We all have our different purpose of life.

But another that Jesus felt was important for him and all of us was the father and I are one,

Oneness.

He would say that all the time.

Also,

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Love,

Love,

Forgiveness,

And oneness.

He also spent his so-called lost years in the desert,

Working very deeply with his sufferings and letting them go.

Seeing through them also to see is to be free.

So he believed very deeply in letting the stuff,

Letting the black dots dissolve out.

And he himself worked with that.

I suppose that's why in our limited time together,

He showed me my black dots.

So for him,

One of the purposes of life,

Perhaps one of the big ones,

Is to let your black dots go.

Each of us are different incarnations and we have different purposes of life,

All up and down our unique rainbow.

So you listen to yourself and see what your various purposes of life are.

Don't worry if it at first seems a little bit muddled because to see is to be free.

And at first,

There's a lot of stuff going on,

A lot to release.

And sitting still like we do in meditation,

We can let the silt in the dirty water kind of settle until the water clears.

And we can see what calls out to us.

Do the next obvious thing,

Because at one time,

One purpose may call to you at another time,

Another,

Sometimes more than one at the same time.

Right.

Hey,

I have to survive.

I have to get good at making a living.

And at the same time,

I want to pursue my spiritual process or my emotional awakening.

Or I want to study and get some answers to some things that I've wondered about or need to know.

Perhaps a purpose of life is a physical healing.

Maybe that's on another level,

My physical body.

So all these things can exist and call out to us at various times of our life.

At times,

It might seem to be a daunting task to sort all this out and as if we have to get it all just right.

But another teacher,

Very powerful in southern India,

Named Ramana,

Had a perspective on this.

Ramana said that whatever is destined not to happen will not happen.

Try as you may,

Whatever is destined to happen will happen.

Do what you may to prevent it.

This is certain.

The best course,

Therefore,

Is to remain silent.

In the end,

There is only one and that one is you.

And you know exactly what to do,

How to do it.

And you are doing it.

Even if your mind isn't aware of what you're doing or how you're doing it.

Have you noticed in your life different events will occur or people will show up in your life that change your life and move you along,

Even though you had no apparent hand in it.

What Ramana would say is that the infinite,

Which is you,

Knows exactly what your timeline is,

What you need,

How you need it,

And it's making all that happen.

Why?

Because it is you.

There's only one.

You and the infinite are one.

So it's taking care of itself,

The part of it that is incarnated in creation.

So it's all going to work out.

The purpose of life,

According to Ramana,

Is not so pressing.

You can relax.

It's all going to work out.

Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen.

Try as you may.

Your mind might jump in and try to make something happen.

But if you're one,

Your infinite self knows that it's not best for you.

It will stop it.

Try as you may.

Whatever is destined to happen will happen.

Do what you may to prevent it.

You can't stop goodness from happening to you.

This is certain,

Ramana says.

So the best course,

Therefore,

Is to remain silent.

In other words,

Trust.

That doesn't mean sitting still,

But it's just silent on the inside.

Trust.

You can stay in your center.

All is well in the universe and in your world.

You can take a breath.

You can relax,

Release,

And let go.

And when you fully experience that,

Isn't that what we call awakening?

I think so.

So the purpose of your life is simply another way to look at how you're unfolding,

How you're awakening.

And you listen to yourself and follow your heart.

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe,

To match your nature with nature.

Joseph Campbell.

It's all one.

We let go of the clutter and to see is to be free.

Okay,

I've enjoyed talking with you and I look forward to next time.

Have a great week.

Take care.

Bye.

Reviews

I never thought that awakening can happen and be closely connected to one of their chakras. I think as I awaken, it’s closely connected to my crown chakra. But I have a girlfriend that has a hard time connecting with God, she is more awakened in her heart chakra. She’s all about love.

i also appreciated our lives have many chapters, different purposes at different times. i know deeply that im supposed to be here and my husband in the spiritual realm. and more will be revealed to me in time what im supposed to do. in the meantime i keep helping and being of service to others and spend a lot of time with God 🤍🙏🩵🙏🤍🙏🩵🙏🤍🙏🩵

Great topic. Yes, I've lived several lifetimes in 54 years. Each time period a part of this tapestry called life. Similar stories, I started out as a financial advisor driven to "not end up living under the bridge" Then switched gears in my 40s going back to school for an MA in counseling. Spent a decade in the treatment field. Currently deciding what's next after having stepped down to care for my mom during the last months of her life. Been engaging in self care and honoring the grief and spending time in reflection and contemplating some additional loss. Hence, the extra time for listening to podcasts and re-establishing a meditation practice that had been neglected. I had a spiritual teacher one time tell me to practice being grateful for that which I wasn't grateful for. For all of it.. I understand that. I'm glad my HP led me to your series. Good stuff for the broken heart.

Well everything you said is this podcast is exactly what I was speaking about with my husband BEFORE I listened to it! 🤩Seriously, every single point you discussed was exactly what we discussed! Trust the universe to show me exactly what I need support with .. . And I mean EXACTLY! 🤯

Great messages William! I love the concept of “the interconnected web of life” shared. Thanks for bringing Ramana in as well. Safe travels, peace and love.
Absolutely beautiful! 🙏
~ Jennifer Lea