Transcendental Quest: Unlock Your Life’s True Purpose through Spiritual Journey
Self Transcendence A Human Problem
The purpose of human existence remains a profound and complex question, with answers that vary across religious, philosophical, scientific, and existential domains. While there may be no single answer that applies to everyone, the quest for purpose is a fundamental aspect of the human experience. It drives us to seek meaning, connect with others, and strive for a life that resonates with our deepest values and aspirations. In embracing this quest, we honor our humanity and our capacity for growth, compassion, and understanding.
To seek purpose and meaning of life is man’s problem because he does not know his roots instinctively. All living organisms except the man pursue a way of life shaped by their evolutionary history, and they cannot change or shape it themselves. They cannot transcend the world of appearances and are slaves of their senses. However, animals know their roots, their specie being, what is true and what is false, what is good and what is bad, and do not need transcendence. Unlike other animals, human individual does not instinctively know his roots. He is a specie being, a member of homo species and does not get connected with it without socialization and learning.
Human Existence Has No Purpose And Meaning
Human existence and the world as we know it has no purpose. We have our own limitations. We cannot fully understand the human society and culture as far as we are inside it. As we live in it we cannot escape from it and cannot become a detached observer. Same is true of the physical universe that gave rise to man and human consciousness as far as we are inside the universe we cannot have an objective view of it completely. Our animistic and anthromorphmic tendencies force us to see a purpose outside, but it remains an illusion. As Tremlin puts it, all teleology in nature is merely an illusion. Natural selection provides design without the need for an intelligent designer. The evolutionary biologists tell us that there is no inherent direction or teleology in evolution that is capable of producing complex design, and it means is an adaptation through natural selection of genetic mutations, that result in changes in behavior or biology that better solve survival problems. None of this need involves oversight or foresight. (TREMLIN 2006)
From a scientific standpoint, the purpose of human existence is often explored through the lens of evolution and biology. The primary purpose, in a biological sense, is survival and reproduction. This perspective, rooted in Darwinian evolution, suggests that all living organisms, including humans, are driven by the imperative to pass on their genes to the next generation.
However, contemporary scientific thought also recognizes the complexity of human life and consciousness, which goes beyond mere survival. The fields of psychology and neuroscience explore how humans seek purpose through connections, creativity, and the pursuit of knowledge. Positive psychology, for instance, studies what makes life worth living, emphasizing factors such as relationships, meaning, and achievement.
Existential and humanistic psychology provide additional insights into the purpose of human existence. They point out that the primary drive in human life is the search for meaning. Even in the face of suffering and adversity, individuals can find purpose through love, work, and courage in adversity.
An integrative approach acknowledges that the purpose of human existence may not be singular or universally defined. Instead, it can be multifaceted, shaped by individual experiences, cultural contexts, and personal beliefs. For some, purpose may be found in religious faith or spiritual practice; for others, it may arise from relationships, creativity, or the pursuit of knowledge and understanding.
What Is The Purpose Of Human Life?
The concepts like purpose and life are very difficult to define. However, let us present here a definition of the purpose in cybernetics “an action directed towards a goal, and teleology as a goal achieved through a “circular causality’ requiring negative feedback. (Norbert Wiener, 1943) According to it, the purpose is a direction, a goal and destiny, for example, in physiology haemostat has a purpose of maintaining bodily steady states like temperature, blood pressure, etc., in ecology ecological balance can be said to be the purpose of an ecological community, and human society tends to restore balance of power and integrity of social structure. This is important to understand that it involves feedbacks and is not governed by a linear but a circular causality. There is a structural purpose of every manifestation of matter and energy that exists as a system or a structure. The purpose is the maintenance of structural stability and integrity by restoring steady states or equilibrium. Unmanifest process or matter has no purpose and no form. The purpose emerges only when it manifests itself in a form or structure with a steady state, invariant, stability pattern, attractor or equilibrium that is achieved through circular causality.
According to this definition, human existence does not have any purpose. Life on the unique planet Earth might be a single event in the cosmos, but is an accident. Any cosmic event or environmental change can destroy all forms of life on Earth including that of a man once for all. Recently, as reported by Reuters on 15th February 2013, a meteorite streaked across the sky and exploded over central Russia, raining fireballs over a vast area and causing a shock wave that smashed windows, damaged buildings and injured 1,200 people. (Reuters 2013) Simon Goodwin, (2014) an astrophysics expert from Britain’s University of Sheffield, has said that roughly 1,000 to 10,000 tonnes of material rained down from space towards the Earth every day, but the most of it burned up in the atmosphere. If you do not want to believe that man can become extinct by accident. See the fossil records of giant and magnificent animals that lived on the Earth and had dominated the planet once. They are no more on the scene. So can happen to human existence on planet earth.
Does Human Life Has A Meaning?
The human life has no meaning outside itself, and every one of us has the freedom to give it a meaning within the limits of his biographical history, the history of the epoch and society and culture that gave him birth. Eagleton puts it this way; human existence is contingent – that it has no ground, goal, direction, or necessity, and that our species might quite easily never have emerged on the planet. This possibility then hollows out our actual presence, casting across it the perpetual shadow of loss and death. (Eagleton 2007)
Human society can only manifest itself through human individual who deems himself having an independent existence that has nothing to do with society and humanity. However, human individual is not born as a human being but has to become one. Man’s purpose is determined by his specie being (phylogenetic history), biographical history, social and cultural evolutionary history of the epoch he has taken birth in. Thus man has a choice to write his own history and destiny and create himself the way he wants to become within these limits. Religious faiths and genetic nepotism of selfish genes (Dawkin 1989 ) impede his understanding that he is the master of his own destiny, a link in a vast chain of individuals.
Unlike other animals, Man is not the slave of his senses and can master these. Here where self emancipation and transcendence comes in. He lives in a cognitive world that is his own creation, and he can make it the way he wants it to be through science or animism and anthropomorphism. He can go beyond his sense perception through imagination and creative thinking or sheer myth making. Thus, he has to shape his own way of life, write his own history and destiny, transcend the world of appearances and seek highest principle governing him as a species on the planet earth by becoming specie being. Man is the only animal that is his own creation. In essence, to live is to engage fully with the world, to connect with others, and to appreciate the simple yet profound gift of existence. This perspective reminds us that life’s true purpose is not found in distant goals or abstract ideals, but in the vibrant, dynamic reality of living each day to the fullest.
The Primary Purpose Of Life Is To Live
The universe does not have a permanent form or manifestation. The order it exhibits hides chaos rather than revealing purpose. It is a process which manifests itself in all kinds of forms and structures that are transitory, evolving and impermanent. It is in its historical evolution that gives it a structure or organization, order and a purpose. In this way the purpose is a structural necessity. From a biological standpoint, the idea that the primary purpose of life is to live is rooted in the principles of evolution and survival. All living organisms, from the simplest bacteria to the most complex mammals, are driven by the imperative to survive, reproduce, and ensure the continuation of their species. This survival instinct is hardwired into our DNA, guiding behaviors that promote health, safety, and procreation.
The structural purpose of life is to live, and every living organism knows it. The purpose of a tree is to produce seeds, spread these everywhere and the purpose of the seed is to become a tree. This cycle is fixed, and there is no escape from its destiny. If we take life that of man as well as that of animals as a cybernetic process, it has only one purpose, that is to live. Technically it is to maintain its structural integrity, and in poetic words, it is to create an island of harmony and peace in the ocean of chaos. This urge is built-in all forms of life on the Earth. Life is a self-preserving, self-propagating, self-determining and self-perpetuating process. It stands for stability, growth, creativity, renewal, form and structure.
The proposition that the primary purpose of life is to live invites us to embrace existence in its entirety. It encourages us to value the act of living itself, with all its beauty, complexity, and unpredictability. By appreciating the richness of human experience, being present in the moment, and navigating life’s challenges with resilience, we can find profound meaning and fulfillment.
The primary purpose of life is to live also involves acknowledging life’s challenges and uncertainties. Human existence is marked by impermanence and change, and our experiences are often shaped by unforeseen events and circumstances. Yet, these challenges also offer opportunities for growth, resilience, and transformation. By focusing on the act of living, we can develop a more adaptable and resilient mindset. We learn to navigate difficulties with grace and to find meaning in adversity. Each challenge becomes an integral part of our journey, contributing to our understanding and appreciation of life.
Death Existential Riddles Of Man
Life and death are the destiny of all living organisms. The problem is that animals are not aware of their death, but man is painfully aware that one day he has to die, and knows he is alone in this vast universe. There is no one with whom he can share his awareness of his existence. Man’s greatest tragedy is that the human individual forgets that he has to die and the only way to live after death is to become part of humanity by transcending his individual existence. If we seek ourselves in others and consider ourselves a part of them, death can have a different meaning for us. As Bateson puts it this way, “and last, there is death. It is understandable that, in a civilization which separates the mind from the body. We should either try to forget death or to make mythologies about the survival of a transcendent mind. However, if mind is immanent not only in those pathways of information, which are located in-side of the body but also in external pathways, then death takes on a different aspect. The individual nexus of pathways which I call “me” is no longer so precious because that nexus is only part of a larger mind. (G. Bateson 1972)
The death is chaos and disorganization. However, without change and death (extinction) there would have been no biological evolution, and natural selection would not have operated. Instead of understanding the role of death in the renewal of life, man has created religions and the concept of life after death as his terror management exercise out of fear. Terror management is the simplest way that the fear of death can be controlled and overridden, and it is called “immortality projects”. (Volk 2002) Volk tells us about his terror management theory: According to terror management theory, there are other forms of immortality projects that are purely symbolic. These operate through identifying and seeking ongoing life in one’s words, or the spread of one’s personality and beliefs. Seeing your progeny to carry on, or writing books, or thinking, for example, that one’s words will resound in future years, are forms of symbolic immortality projects. (ibid)
Zen traditions have taught us if death does not frighten us we always remain cognizant that we have to die. It will change our lives and the lifestyle. Eagleton tells us how to live authentically is to remain mindful of death, “to live in an awareness of our mortality is to live with realism, irony, truthfulness, and a chastening sense of our finitude and fragility. In this respect at least, to keep faith with what is most animal about us is to live authentically. We would be less inclined to launch hubristic projects, which bring ourselves and others to grief. An unconscious trust in our own immortality lies at the source of much of our destructiveness. (Eagleton 2007)
Attain Highest Position On Maslow’s Pyramid
Living, however, transcends mere survival. Human beings are unique in their capacity for self-awareness, reflection, and emotional depth. The purpose of life, therefore, can be seen as embracing the full spectrum of human experience. This includes moments of joy, sorrow, love, and loss. It encompasses our relationships, aspirations, and the simple pleasures of daily life.
The act of living fully involves being present and engaged with the world around us. It means savoring a beautiful sunset, finding delight in a child’s laughter, or experiencing the thrill of new discoveries. By appreciating these moments, we recognize that the essence of life lies in our experiences and interactions. Each day offers opportunities to connect, learn, and grow, reminding us that life itself is a precious gift.
In psychology, motivational theories view man as a closed system concerned primarily with animal needs and in pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain. Nevertheless, primary human striving is directed toward finding meaning and purpose in life. This is what Maslow’s theory is all about. Maslow talks about five fundamental human needs and their hierarchical nature. The hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid with the largest, most fundamental levels of needs like need for food, shelter, sex, etc., at the bottom, the need for self-actualization and urge to become fully human at the top. The lower needs in the hierarchy, the more fundamental these are and the more a person will tend to abandon the higher needs in order to satisfy the lower needs. However, an individual has the innate urge to move up the hierarchy toward a level of self-actualization. One way to become fully human is to climb as high as one can on Maslow’s pyramid of needs and get rid of narcissism, selfishness and envy driven by real or artificial scarcity.
I wish to realize my potentialities to the full, and free myself from all restraints to my self-actualization. Nonetheless, I am fully aware that self-actualization is not an individual enterprise but a collective endeavour. My freedom and self-determination are not possible unless the whole society becomes free and to realize my freedom I have to side with weak and resist domination of oppressors. I have to strive to create conditions so that the people around me become better human being than I am. There is only a collective solution to our problems of existence and these problems do not have a personal solution. To seek meaning, purpose and transcendence is not a private affair and it not an end in itself. The positivist sociology, behaviorist psychology, Cartesian clockwork world view and Newtonian cosmology do not offer modern man transcendence.
I think about human life like“a jazz, musical performance in which I am just one of the performers in which each one is free to express himself the way he likes, not in competition with other but in harmony with them, drawing inspiration from one another. The song of life which we are singing belongs to each one of us as we all find expression in it. It is a collective achievement and pursuit.
The notion that the primary purpose of life is to live resonates deeply with the principles of mindfulness and presence. Mindfulness, a practice rooted in ancient spiritual traditions and embraced by contemporary psychology, emphasizes being fully aware of the present moment. By focusing on the here and now, we cultivate a deeper connection with our thoughts, emotions, and surroundings.
Living mindfully allows us to appreciate the beauty and complexity of life as it unfolds. It encourages us to let go of past regrets and future anxieties, and to immerse ourselves in the richness of the present. This approach aligns with the idea that life’s primary purpose is to live—to experience each moment with awareness and gratitude
Can A Non-Religious Person Be Spiritual?
Religions have exaggerated claims of giving the man his spirituality that separates man from animals. However, all organized religions are devoid of any spirituality. By spirituality, I mean the man‘s urge to seek meaning of his existence, certainties in an otherwise uncertain world, coherence in the otherwise incoherent world, order in an otherwise chaotic world, his place in this determined chaos, to seek transcendence and his roots, his purpose of life and all that he lost by separation from the animal kingdom and from nature. Laing argues how our society represses all forms of spirituality: our civilization represses not only ‘the instincts, not only sexuality, but any form of transcendence. Among one-dimensional men,* it is not surprising that someone with an insistent experience of other dimensions, that he cannot entirely deny or forget, will run the risk either of being destroyed by the others, or of betraying what he knows. (R.D.Laing 1990) Hawkins tells us about the danger of loss of humanity: when an individual has lost or lacks those qualities we term spiritual, he becomes devoid of humanity, love and self-respect, perhaps selfish and violent. When a nation veers from its alignment with the spirit of man, it can become an international criminal.(Hawkins 1995)
For me, spirituality refers to man’s capacity to view life in a holistic and objective manner beyond the physical limits of time and place, biological mortality and confines of individual existence. It means one’s capacity for creativity, imagination, art, literature, growth and development. It means wholeness, multiplicity, compassion, love and relatedness. Hawkins explains it: we can say that the spirit is equated with life; the energy of life itself can be termed spirit. The spirit is the aliveness that accompanies and is an expression of alignment with life energy. The power of high energy attractor patterns is anabolic, sustaining life; their opposites are catabolic, eventually leading to death. True power equals life equals spirit, whereas force equals weakness equals death. (Hawkins 1995)
What Is The Purpose Of My Life?
Honestly speaking, I cannot reconcile with unreal and stagey nature of human life. I feel senselessness and purposelessness of my life. Eagleton argues, “ life is senseless because it is stagey, unreal, stuffed full of portentous rhetoric, which is really no more than hot air.” (Eagleton 2007) When I think over about my purpose of life as an animal and a biological organism, genetic nepotism tells me to replicate my genes and colonize the mother earth by making every woman pregnant and to ensure the replication of my genes is done at a massive scale. As an animal, I tend to promote kinship and nepotism, and would not waste my resources over those who are not genetically related to me. Under the influence of “selfish genes”, I am supposed to indulge in a resource war and kill or destroy anyone not related to me genetically including other forms of animals and plants that compete with me for resources available on the Earth, including water and sunlight. When I use pesticides and insecticides to kill insects and pests eating crops and you de-weed my field. I want to allow only eatable and useful crops to grow for me and my children. The capitalism has made this resource war more bloody as it includes carpet bombing of villages and cities of the enemy country and killing every one of them, including children and woman to grab their resources.
However, as a human being, my purpose of life is to become fully human, to attain individuality and to create conditions that enhance life and strengthen the values favorable to life, to coexist with other forms of life and live in harmony with all earthlings even with poisonous snakes and crocodiles, seemingly very uphill task. One biggest challenge and purpose of my life are to become complete and authentic human being. As a social creature, my purpose of life is to enhance life on the earth in general and the life of man, in particular, and seeking my best in the good of others, including all earthlings.
As a social being, I can make efforts to get rid of genetic nepotism and prove Dawkin(1989)wrong by transcending my individual self. It is only possible if I free myself from the influence of all dispositions, cognitive programs and neural devices I got from stone-age man like nationalism, tribalism, casteism, racism and all bonds of blood and soil.My purpose of life should be to live in society as its renewable part and to let others live with freedom and mutuality, and without putting unnecessarily restraint to their freedom and that of mine, and to seek my transformation and that of the society the way I want it to be. However, I cannot do that without plugging those loopholes of the neural architecture and cognitive predisposition of my Stone-Age brain that may threaten man’s survival and contaminate my social life. I have to develop ideas and ideational products that may induce behavioral dispositions favorable to human survival and enhance human life in accordance with the present conditions of man’s social existence. Here Zen practices of mindfulness, meditation, minimalism and holism can help me to transcend myself and transform me to become a good human being.
One of the purpose of my life is to free myself from all constraint, external and internal, physical and cognitive. I want to become a master, not the slave of my own perception and thought process, and seek freedom from all inhibitions, self-censoring, biases and prejudices. I want to generate ever new descriptions and ways of looking at things, becoming always willing to update, revise my experiences and unlearn what I had learnt in the past. I want to attain knowledge not from learning but from unlearning, and creatively and freely organizing my experience to be aware of my true self. Above all, I want to make pregnant the minds of millions of people with my ideas of love, altruism and freedom. This is what I try to do with my writings. For this, I have to imbibe ideas that make optimum use of all of my mental hardware devices, behavioral dispositions and potentialities, and that plugs the loophole in my mental architecture that is suitable to present mode of existence and conditions of life of the present-day man. I want to seek my share in co-determining lingual world, and art and literature. I want to create new meanings, search new perspectives, and create dreams, imagine of new possibilities and opportunities. Zen’s non-doctrinal philosophy with its emphasis on social practices and mindfulness.
How To Attain Transcendence And Transformation?
Engaging in artistic creation or experiencing art can lead to transcendent moments where individuals feel connected to something larger than themselves. Artists often describe their creative process as tapping into a source beyond their conscious mind, leading to a flow state where time and self-awareness dissolve. Immersing oneself in nature can evoke a sense of transcendence. The vastness of the ocean, the majesty of mountains, and the tranquillity of a forest can make one feel both insignificant and profoundly connected to the universe. This experience, often referred to as the sublime, transcends everyday concerns and invokes a sense of awe and reverence. Deep, meaningful connections with others can also be a source of transcendence. Love, in its purest form, allows individuals to transcend their own needs and desires, fostering a sense of unity and oneness. This transcendent aspect of love is celebrated in literature, music, and art, reflecting its universal significance.
Transcendence is a multifaceted concept that permeates human thought, culture, and experience. It embodies the human longing to go beyond the ordinary, to connect with something greater, and to find deeper meaning in life. Whether through art, nature, love, or spiritual practice, the pursuit of transcendence reflects a fundamental aspect of the human condition—the desire to transcend the limits of our existence and touch the infinite. In embracing this quest, we affirm our shared humanity and our connection to the larger tapestry of existence.
The search for purpose is a deeply personal journey, and it is one that evolves over time. It may involve periods of questioning and doubt, as well as moments of clarity and conviction. Ultimately, the purpose of human existence is a tapestry woven from the threads of our aspirations, values, and experiences. What are your thoughts about transcendence? What you think is your purpose of life? Please write in comments below.