21) How Do I Connect with My Real Purpose? - Meditate Now
Audio Version - Guided Meditation
Written Transcript of the guided meditation
I think that's an interesting point. Like, if you're going to engage something, especially like this. Show up, be here, be present, invite yourself into this moment, because so often as we engage things, we can engage them from a very scattered place where we're here, but we really want to get to the future or we're here, but we're thinking about yesterday. So we're not totally here, which means we're not totally open, which means we can't totally receive the opportunity.
So before we dive into this, let's just be here for a second.
Honor the decision or the appearance to be here.
This is where I am.
Of course, this is the beauty of meditation, is that it is a doorway into this moment, into our openness to reconnect with reality and ourselves.
Welcome to the podcast Meditate Now. I'm your host, Tiger Singleton.
All right. On the episode today, I believe the title is "How Do I Connect with My Real Purpose?"
We're going to spend some moments together in somewhat of a meditative space. I'll guide a bit of a spontaneous journey, sharing some insight and wisdom that points to a discovery. As usual, beforehand, I like to say a few words about the topic.
Subject: “Meaning”
I want to approach this in the same way that I would approach the subject of meaning because I think they're tied together.
If we are looking for our purpose, maybe we're looking also for some sense of meaning that makes sense. As it relates to the topic of meaning, what does something mean outside of your creation of meaning?
The answer is nothing.
What is, is, and you can create any meaning about it, and it's still not that meaning, which shows us in a way that it's a bit of a blank canvas.
You get to give it whatever meaning you'd like to give it.
On the same note, with purpose, sometimes we might think that there's something outside of yourself that has dictated your purpose, and you need to find out what that is as if it doesn't come from within what you are.
The Idea of Our Purpose vs The Reality of Purpose
Also, as it relates to purpose, there's a profound difference between our idea of our purpose and the reality of purpose.
So often as human beings, we're looking to collect more thoughts, more ideas, more stories. So we're ultimately trying to tell a story about ourselves in our purpose that can somehow be captured as a reality. Like, "I want to find the right sentence about me, and that will be my purpose. I'm this or that. What am I really? What's my purpose?"
Of course, all of this is taking place in the imagination of the mind, seeing what it imagines, which isn't to see what's real.
So I invite us to kind of step back from that sort of search. Like, I want to find my purpose in the form of a sentence I can hold on to and be open to connecting with something that's much more substantial and real as it relates to purpose.
Maybe we'll dive into that in the meditation.
But I'm happy you're here. Thanks for joining me. Let's dive in.
Start of Guided Meditation
The Purpose of the Breath
We can take a moment to ground into the present moment.
Of course, the breath is a great doorway to just recognizing that the breath is happening.
We're not doing anything. We're just noticing.
You can observe the breath as it goes in and out. Just put your attention there for a moment.
In a funny way, as I'm here with you, there's this question that playfully arises. And that is, "What is the purpose of your breath?"
Just sit with that for a second.
Do you see, in a very simple and practical way, the purpose of the breath is to be what it is?
In being what it is, its purpose is fulfilled.
Its purpose isn't to get to next week.
Its purpose is to be the breath.
Why is it doing what it's doing?
So that life might be life.
It serves the reality of this moment.
Without it, there would be no this moment.
Likewise, we can look at nature and we can ask the tree, what's your purpose?
"Well, silly, my purpose is to be a tree."
What's the purpose of a flower?
To be a flower, to be what it is.
Do you notice the flower couldn't even begin to comprehend its impact in just being what it is?
The flower isn't trying to spread its pollen. That's just what happens.
The flower is being a flower and it contributes to the whole damn thing and just being what it is.
Oh, my goodness. Could you imagine if the flower looked up at the tree and said, "Oh, my goodness, you're so big! Why can't I be like you? You have a better purpose than I do."
Then the tree looks at the bird being a bird, and the tree says, "Oh, bird, look at you, you're so free you can fly. I wish I had your purpose.”
Then the bird looks down at the flower and says, "Oh, my goodness, you're so beautiful. I wish I could be like you."
You see, all of these things simply don't see what they are.
Maybe too busy comparing themselves with something else.
What’s Your Purpose?
What's your purpose?
Not in some grandiose way that tries to compare yourself to other people.
Not a purpose that lives in the mind, not a story being told.
But what's your purpose?
Could it be as simple as to be what I am?
Could you breathe in for me the possibility of that simplicity?
My purpose is to be what I am, not who you think I should be. That's another comparison.
Not better than this or that, but to be what is real, what is true, what is sincere, what is authentic, what is really you.
Real purpose. Not the imagination of purpose that tries to imagine yourself as being liked and approved of, loved by the world.
But to come home and see that the reality of what you are is all that life is asking you to be.
In the same way, the flower looks up at the tree and says, oh, my goodness, I wish I could be like you. Life says, "My dear child, I made a flower, not a tree."
"Please see what I've made."
"Please see how beautiful it is."
Your Real Purpose
It's amazing how beautiful things become when you don't compare them to something else.
It's amazing how beautiful things become when you see them as they are, rather than through a filter of judgment.
What's your real purpose?
This presents a fantastic opportunity. Because if your real purpose is to be you, do you see how this is an invitation to get in touch with you?
It's quite fascinating in our journey of being human, how out of touch we become with the sincerity of our own hearts.
As we've spent a life doing what the world wants us to do. Trying to be who other people want you to be, rather than fulfilling the purpose of just being you.
Maybe it's time to unravel the nonsense of who you think you're supposed to be and truly see what you already are to come home to you.
Love or Fear
You know, regardless of the journey we've traveled, whatever situation we might find ourselves in, we can either meet those things with love or meet them in fear.
So often, we can see these things as in the way of some future purpose. Like, "If only I didn't have this experience.." Or "If only I didn't have that experience, then I could be who I'm supposed to be."
Do you see how that withholds love from your journey?
Look at that for a second.
Without the comparison.
One person says, "If only I was taller, then I could have a real purpose." "If only I wasn't like this and more like that, then I could have a purpose."
This is an innocent misunderstanding.
It's not seeing the truth of things.
The Purpose is to Be You
Just breathe. Please.
Relax into this space where the purpose is already done.
You're not separate from it.
It's not lost. It's not destroyed.
It's just not seen.
It's not seen because we are not looking where it actually is.
That is here, and now.
As you come home to this space, as you give yourself back to yourself, we remember that the purpose is to be you.
So we discover what is sincere about you.
In this discovery, you see what you are here to do.
Not do forever in an imagined future. But what speaks to you now?
What beauty have you discovered?
What beauty have you discovered on the inside of what you are that you are now ready to share with the world?
This is the thing about purpose.
The flower on its journey looks within what it is and it blooms, sharing its aroma with the world.
It's what it does naturally, effortlessly. Everything does this.
It's actually quite simple.
Discover something beautiful on the inside of what you are, and then give that beauty to the world.
But you have to get in touch with what is sincere, what is authentic, what is real, what is true.
Stop trying to be what the world wants you to be, what the world has told you, you have to be. It's all nonsense.
This is your journey, this is your purpose.
Honor What is Real and True
You can spend your life denying the sincerity of your own heart.
Or you can give yourself back to yourself and honor what is real and true within you.
Breathe into that yes, that wants to come home.
Take some time, be still.
Listen to what is true.
And this will be the easiest thing you've ever discovered.
If it's hard, then you're looking in the mind. You're comparing yourself with other people. You're not looking at what's real and true.
Come back to reality.
Thanks for meditating with me today.
Cheers.
