Purpose is Profit, December 16, 2020

Purpose is Profit, December 16, 2020

That’s a very good question, whether the sense of purpose comes about through separation, through duality. When you look out into nature and you study other life forms you don’t see them asking about purpose. Their lives are inherently purposeful in the sense of having a way of living, a way of being, a way of functioning. But what the human being typically means by purpose is profit. It’s not always explicit this connection between purpose and profit. By profit is meant accumulation, the attaining of something specific, being able to make some claim that beyond existing there is something that makes existence worthwhile, full of worth.

Since the idea of purpose can be conflated to mean something heavy-handed, serious, about accumulation and so forth, I don’t see much value in responding to that concern as though we have to answer this question from within the idea of purpose itself, as though purpose dictates the question and then we have to accommodate ourselves to whatever loaded meanings and assumptions are inside of the concept of purpose in the way that human beings mean it, because it’s clear that human beings mean it in a way, if it is a universal occurrence, that birds and fish don’t use it. If purpose is intelligent functionality, human beings do not really live inside that idea, that nice idea.

So, to me the question around purpose becomes better understood through a consideration of beauty. Do you feel beauty in your life? Do you feel love in your life? Not, “Do you have purpose?” I’m hoping that you could see the stark contrast between those two approaches. Do you have beauty? Do you have Grace? Do you have love? Do you have intelligence? Do you have intuition and feeling? Do you have all or several of those things, where you notice them and they mesmerize you? They take you out of a merely functional perspective, merely purposeful viewpoint. To me this is a very important question. And if you have beauty, if you have love, are you aware of the context in which it arises? Do you understand why love arises and serious purposefulness does not arise as a substitute?

So, you have to ask yourself, “What is beauty? What is love? What is goodness?” not “Do I have a purpose?” To me that idea of purposefulness is a cover-up for things like anxiety. It’s a convenient scapegoat, which incorporates into itself things which we don’t really want to admit to ourselves like, “I am in a state of anxiety. I am in a state of disturbance. I am in a state of unhappiness.” Instead of facing those things and feeling into them we say to ourselves, “My life lacks purpose.” Someone has put those words into our mouth. A religionist or an economist has put those words into our mouths so that we can be dissuaded. We can be persuaded from asking the right question about living, about life, about living on a Planet which is alive, living in a Universe which is alive.

To be living is not to be situated in a position of duality, this kind of duality that is suggested by purpose, this profound separation from the human from the rest of nature. The human hardly reflects the way animals and plants and species function. In certain ways it does. It eats and it builds houses like birds build nests and birds eat. Fish have different homes in the sea. Some live in the open waters. Others live under coral beds, which are quickly dying out all over the planet due to human influence, human poisoning of the oceans.

But even though we resemble other species, which are not so dominated by this kind of intellectuality that demands reasons to live, we don’t resemble them enough to understand that everything operates and lives and breathes only in exhilaration, in thill, in love, in Grace and in beauty. We have forgotten that. So, we ask ourselves questions like, “Am I living according to someone else’s idea of meaning?” “What constitutes meaning in somebody else’s vocabulary?” usually provided by a culture, a religion, some authoritarian source that wants to make sure that we’re in line, that we’re kept in line, that we’re not really breathing freely and in open regard to one another and toward everything else. So, that to me is the way beyond the suffocation of duality, the strictness of purpose.

This is a wonderful talk, but it’s more difficult to bring into one’s life, into one’s moment-to-moment existence, to transcend the artificial solutions we are given, to actually turn away from them in intelligence. We’re always provided with quick fixes to our problems from somebody who’s making profit somewhere instead of actually finding the organic solution to a problem, which has to do with the cultivation of bodily happiness, intuition, pure knowledge, direct knowledge of life and so on. So, to talk about that is one thing. To do it is another. To do it requires that you understand your agony and suffering, that you understand it really and truly, not transcend it the way the Buddha said. No, that was all wrong.

So, when we look at this topic we can really go into it sincerely if we say no to all the quick explanations that are offered by human beings who are confused, and we begin to look directly at our moment-to-moment existence. Make sense of it, not necessarily fix it, but make sense of it so that we can move toward an understanding, resurrect our understanding in Grace, intuition, but not just our understanding. The body, the emotions, the senses follow. And so, one is at least invited into this miraculous viewpoint, which brings exhilaration just to consider and itself is the open door into the reality that we are speaking about now.

89 views

You may also like

Heart-Felt Abidance, March 9, 2010
18:39
David: Namaste. Sitting here just saying nothing would be the optimal teaching. Language creates a whole series of unsolvable dilemmas and problems that are built within communication itself. Those dilemmas have to do with mainly the mind ...
67 views
Revolution In Consciousness, March 12, 2010
14:27
David: Now what? What’s next? Where are you now? Participant 1: Just happy. David: Why are you happy? What is the nature of this happiness? Is there anywhere to go? P1: No. David: Is there anything to do? P1: No. David: Is there anything to know ...
58 views
Grace and Surrender, February 27, 2010
15:27
David: We think we’re in a position to enlighten ourselves, but just the opposite is true. We’re only in a position to recognize where we are. And then in that recognition, there’s an easy movement that happens, an organic movement that unites ...
71 views
The Final Stroke of Bliss, February 26, 2010
10:36
Moderator: The viewer further comments, “I am melting into you, into us.” David: Right, and what more can you say beyond that? And what more clarification do you need? That’s everything that dissolution into Unity. And when you refer to me ...
46 views
Shakti's Waves Of Realization, February 17, 2010
2:00
Feel the power of the Shakti, how it moves in to usurp the ego center. It displaces the center of attention as the ego mind into the felt deepening of Being. In this way, the Shakti can produce Self-realization. It directly confronts and then ...
64 views
The Interiority Of Felt Being, February, 16, 2010
6:00
In meditation, whether it is a formally eyes-closed kind of meditation or whether it is an open-eyed tuning into the present or into what is, beckons us into the interior of quiet Consciousness. It dissolves the I. Meditation dissolves this ...
34 views
Absolute Enjoyment, February 13, 2010
5:43
David: When you’re doing sadhana and your mind is opening up to the Bliss of the Absolute and you’re still practicing within it you will do anything to maintain that. You look to maintain, you’re living for it. It’s like the long-lost friend ...
60 views
Talking About Avatars, February 13, 2010
4:37
David: But Avatars come into this world. They descend into this world. That’s what Avatar means. It means descent. So, it takes on the connotation of a descended human being, that is right out of the Absolute, just poof, with no karma, no real ...
74 views
Mind After Realization, February 13, 2010
6:15
Participant 1: [Comment inaudible.] David: Yeah, look at a lot of flowers. P1: I guess it kind of takes the edge off of it basically and makes it funny. David: Yeah, you’re supposed to take the edge off your suffering. That’s why you were given ...
74 views
Talking About Blacky, February 13, 2010
5:41
David: The guru is That. There’s no person in the guru no matter how he behaves, no matter what indication he may give that there’s a person operating. There’s no person. There’s just that Reality. Yet that personhood that appears to be seen, ...
39 views
Going Beyond Realization, February 12, 2010
7:32
Participant 1: Praying for help to God doesn’t feel real anymore. I feel stuck in my patterns. Oneness has disappeared. David: You can feel your patterns without feeling stuck in them. P1: I definitely feel my patterns. David: Okay, but I just ...
48 views
Love Is An Organic Force, February 05, 2010
12:07
David: The sun loves you. The sun loves you. The moon adores you, only as long as you’re here to experience it. This is not a rejection scheme. I’m not suggesting that you’re unloved in the Universe, precisely the opposite. You can’t live ...
69 views

Page 1 of 20

Easy Grace

Easy Grace
Meditations on Love, Awakening and the Ecstatic Heart

Newly Released DVDs