Purpose

by Marco M. Pardi

“All of us are working together for the same end; some of us knowingly and purposefully, others unconsciously….To one man falls this share of the task, to another that; indeed, no small part is performed by that very malcontent who does all he can to hinder and undo the course of events.” Marcus Aurelius. Meditations. 6.42

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“Ours is a world where people don’t know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it.” Don Marquis

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“In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost. Ah, how hard a thing it is to tell what a wild, and rough, and stubborn wood this was, which in my thought renews the fear!” Dante Alighieri,The Divine Comedy

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CAUTION: The subject matter and the quotes rendered herein may strike some readers as intense. This blog is read in many countries. We hope to gain from the perspectives readers would care to provide. Thus we strongly encourage reader participation through providing comments. These place the reader under no obligation and will be deeply appreciated.

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I debated the title. Should it be Purpose or should it be Meaning? I don’t see these concepts as synonymous; to me, purpose implies forethought and design while meaning may be de facto and/or simply ex post facto. That said, I chose Purpose. But if you find that to be insufficient in Meaning, feel free to think as you like. I will say I recoil when I see book or article titles encouraging me or purporting to show me how to find my purpose in life.

Long time readers may remember I previously wrote a post about a prep academy paper I wrote, The Man Who Had No Purpose. Literary critics often say a writer’s work springs from personal experience. That paper ratified their point. In my formative years no one in my family expressed the slightest interest in what I would one day become. Thus, unencumbered by the expectations and sense of purpose imposed by others, I was free, perhaps freer than at any time since. Each time I slipped out late at night to lie on my back and ponder the limitless entity we call the “universe” I was in a time of my own making, more than just what some would later call the NOW, limited only by my growing understanding of how small and insignificant I seemed in this celestial organism which I was sure had no knowledge of my existence, and never would.

Later, in the military, I spent most of my free moments reading nonfiction books on a variety of topics and taking various college courses. Gradually I discovered my interests and capabilities merged better in some areas than others but a “purpose” to my efforts was still hard to define. In fact, it was still unclear why I had to have a purpose. I did well in the military and could have stayed as a career, simply following orders. But some serious consideration of the “lifers” around me quickly put that to rest. And the last thing I wanted was to ascend into a bureaucracy where I had to exercise power over others. Inside, I was still free. Those lifers I examined had lost their inner freedom long ago. How many others, I wondered, wittingly or unwittingly traded their inner freedom for the rudiments of survival, or even the glories of accomplishing what someone else had defined for them as their purpose.

Somewhere in those years I came across the writings of Abraham Maslow, best known for his Hierarchy of Needs. Though often depicted as a pyramid, his scheme simply ascended from physiological need; safety; love/belonging; esteem; to self actualization. To this day it is regarded as deeply insightful and is used in government and private industry in the shaping of personnel policies. Readers can easily Google the hierarchy for deeper understanding. Germane to this discussion is the following quote: ‘Do you want to find out what you ought to be? Then find out who you are! ‘Become what thou art’. The description of what one ought to be is almost the same as the description of what one deeply is.’ (The Farther Reaches of Human Nature).

At the same time I was reading Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki and others, including Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha – Sanskrit: One who has accomplished a goal. Siddhartha Gautama was born around 567 B.C.E. and founded the philosophy which came to be known as Buddhism. I adamantly declare it a philosophy, not a religion, though I accept that many have adopted it as a religion. The inherent aim of Buddhism is the attainment of Enlightenment, not the worship of some god. I found this remarkably compatible with the direction taken by Maslow, seeking self-actualization. But Maslow went off the rails with his “Eupsychian (society)— a society geared towards the creation of self-actualized people.”(Jules Evans)

Had I known Maslow I would have suggested he read Hesse’s Das Glasperlenspiel, a fictional case study of an Esalen type enclave detached from the people who support it, not understanding them nor being understood by the common people. Christian monasteries run similar risks unless they can keep people convinced that they serve a purpose, such as reciting prayers that obtain the benevolent attention of some invisible god. So are these Christian monks “lifers” who have sold their freedom for a place to live and food to eat? I don’t think so. I can’t imagine it is possible to live such a life if one does not believe in its central premise. Buddhist monks, on the other hand, devote their efforts toward guiding the population toward enlightenment. Here too their efforts seem to bear little fruit. Is anything worth the effort? The Dalai Lama has said all paths lead to the same place. If so, why strive to identify the “right” path? Or should we sit back and content ourselves with the idea that the universe is a purposeless entity and we, ultimately, are just another extremely short lived manifestation of bio-chemical-electrical processes? Remember the 1970’s mantra, Eat healthy, exercise regularly, die anyway? Why not join the Hare Krishnas, pick up a tambourine, a saffron robe, and dance ’til you die?

For the past few years I have been quite fortunate in being accepted into an on-line discussion group composed of scholars and achievers in various fields, living mainly in Canada and the United States. The discussions are often atmospheres beyond what I feel I could offer.

A few days ago I sent around an article on Abraham Maslow. The article is far too long to reproduce here, but for reference it is:
Abraham Maslow, empirical spirituality and the crisis of values | by Jules Evans | Mar, 2021 | Medium

Within hours group members responded and a discussion developed. With their permission I am providing salient examples thereof:

(Brendan. Canada) Marco, thank you for that article. Although I knew of Maslow’s theories, I hadn’t delved into his personal life and was unaware of some of the early factors that shaped his ideas and opinions. These are giant issues that I struggle with at an intellectual level, such as, the meaning (if any) of morality. It seems to me that the concepts of “good” and “bad” are completely artificial, and in many cases, different societies differ on what they assign to these categories. It seems to me that the tribal instincts that served our species well in upgrading the intellectual capacity of our species, is now threatening to destroy us. As Isaac Asimov observed, “Our technology is growing faster than our intelligence.”

It seems that as science frees us from superstition, religion, and other forms of wishful thinking, we are coming to realize that life has no “meaning” and the universe has no purpose. As John Paul Sartre observed, “Life is drained of meaning when you have lost the illusion of being eternal.” This requires that we find a new reason to wake up every morning and take a few more steps in our journey toward death. The pursuit of self-actualization as proposed by Maslow, can help us to forget, temporarily, that our lives are meaningless but, in the final analysis, we have to come to terms with the meaninglessness of existence. Theoretical physicist Brian Greene in his recent book, “Until the end of Time”* states: “I have come to see my own awareness of my inevitable end as having considerable influence, but not having a blanket explanation, for everything I do.” Perhaps the Epicureans were onto something when they said, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we will die.”

Excellent article that challenges us to evaluate our moral sense and its relation to our existence.

*Until the End of Time : Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe by Brian Greene

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(Mary Ann. Canada) Beating your existential bongos while pondering the meaningless of life… “we are coming to realize that life has no ‘meaning’ and the universe has no purpose”…

‘Philosophy is a bond between you, a logic and something existing in explanations, while spirituality is a bond between you, conscience and something beyond explanations.

Spirituality is a matter of heart culture, of immeasurable strength.’

In Maslow’s article, it stated that empirical spirituality dismissed religious traditions and communities, and created free-floating rootless self-actualizers.

We are complex, evolving human beings who find meaning and purpose in connecting with others.

and……….. to embrace all aspects of ourselves and approach life with an open mind,

Einstein once said of the God question: ‘the problem is too vast for our limited minds’.

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(John. USA) I think Viktor Frankll would have something to say about this – in fact, meaning is everywhere, you just have to look for it – ( Self-Actualization is not the goal:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL8DyVusLeE)

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(Mary Ann. Canada) Frankl tells us that life is to be discovered in the world rather than within man or his own psyche…’as if it were a closed system’.

(Mike. USA) I cannot understand why people get upset when someone contends that life and the universe have no larger purpose. (1) What larger purpose could they possibly have? Life, the universe and everything–in Douglas Adams’s phrase–may be sentient, but not in any way we could ever even begin to understand; the same goes for any larger “purpose” we might want to imagine for them. (I reject the notion of “for the glory of God”; any god we could possibly comprehend is so small, so limited, as to be imperceptible in the face of the infinite. (2) Existence is surely purpose enough, and attempts at self-realization for the self-aware inhabitants of the universe. The expansion and refinement of the mind and soul must be more than enough to keep busy anyone and anything who ever lived.

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As I was writing this I remembered the Headmaster at my prep school and how he would berate me: “When are you going to REALIZE your potential!?” Not a fan of being beaten with a cricket paddle I kept silent. But my unspoken response was, To what end, what purpose?

And so Dear Reader we invite your response, and your ideas of purpose. Please do inform us if you are a transient bio-chemical event, a meaningful shaper of cosmic events, or something in between.