To The Zoo Fence: Why are we here? Is there a purpose to life?

E-mail

Editor's Comment: Your question goes to the heart of it all. Our answer, in a word: To know God. Which requires, to know one's self. Which, in our experience, is to become a seeker, to undertake a spiritual path, a sadhana.

What path to take will vary with each of us. It may be active or contemplative; for example, in Christian terms "Mary" or "Martha" (about which, please see here), and in the Hindu tradition karma yoga or jnana yoga or bhakti yoga (please see here), and so on. Whatever it is, do it with enthusiasm, confidence, and earnestness.

But, and here's the inevitable paradox, do it without purpose.

That is, be a seeker "simply because I am a seeker", not for any other reason, not with any anticipation of accomplishment, not for any expectation of reward. To do otherwise reinforces our current separative egoic condition ("I am me, and you aren't"), the sense that we would rather be at some "there" than "here". And in a Universe in which God, the Infinite One, is all there is (about which, please see here), any sense of preference ("better me than you, better that than this") clouds our knowing.

Thus, to achieve our purpose we must commit ourselves to it while at the same time we must abandon it. Seek without seeking any thing, know without knowing any thing, be without being any thing.

In the end, your question elicits a koan: Can a purpose have no purpose?

To The Zoo Fence: I have heard and read terrible things about what is happening to many of the children left orphaned, homeless, and alone after the earthquake and tsunami in South Asia. What can one person in America do to help?

E-mail

Editor's Comment: As undoubtedly you are aware, there are various funds being generated to provide financial support. For example, at Amazon.com's home page, there is a link to the American Red Cross Tsunami Disaster Relief effort. Likewise, UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, is actively involved. A visit to their website might suggest how you could help. If you belong to a religious group, a church or a temple, you will surely find ideas there.

While you are doing all of that, try this, too. Sitting quietly in your room, bring an image of the children into your mind and into your heart. Do this with as much determination as you can, until what you see there truly is real to you; feel the children, hear them, smell them. Then, with enthusiasm, bless the children. See them bathed in light, happy, and nourished. Whatever you may believe, heartfelt thoughts are a very powerful phenomenon.

Much foolishness is spoken and written and sung about love, so that it becomes a cliché; but the fact is, even though most of us do not understand the least of it, love truly is the most powerful force on earth.

Will your one effort fix the problem? Maybe not. But believe this, the love and the light-filled thoughts you project from your most inner self may reach one child, even just one child, and he or she will feel it, a chill up the spine, a sudden unexplained warmth, and that changes the whole world. Not by giant steps, to be sure, but bit by bit. In the end, that is probably the only way that truly fixes anything.

To The Zoo Fence: I have found my guru at The Zoo Fence

E-mail

Editor's Comment: Every seeker experiences, in one way or another, an inner desire for a Guide or a Teacher. Happily, the Universe always responds to that call.

The answer may not always be what we expect, and it may change shape as we grow and mature along the way, but always the answer will be provided.

Consider these lines from one of our favorite Teachers, Sri Nisargadatta, whose name appears frequently on The Zoo Fence: "Life itself is the Supreme Guru; be attentive to its lessons and obedient to its commands. When you personalize their source, you have an outer Guru; when you take them from life directly, the Guru is within. Remember, wonder, ponder, live with it, love it, grow into it, grow with it, make it your own -- the word of your Guru, outer or inner."

Or, in the words of another favorite Teacher, Sri Ramakrishna: "God alone is the Guru"!

If you have not already done so, you may wish to read TZF's essay Guru Who? at Consider This.

As you proceed along your own way, please remember to do so with devotion, joy, and enthusiasm. Doing so, you will succeed.