What on Earth Are We Doing Here?

Chapter 1 The Intellectual Journey "I set out to learn what I most needed to learn." Thomas Edison Thomas Edison was the inventor of the light bulb. He was also afraid of the dark, which was the inspirational force behind his ingenious invention. His dilemma was similar to my own experience regarding organized religion. As a young child attending a mid-western Catholic school, I remember feeling as if I was being forced to live under some enormous dark cloud. The religious beliefs that were recited to me daily held no sense of belonging for me. I was unable to wrap my mind around what I was being told and I was unable to make sense of the anguish that religion brought to the lives of those around me. Church became an intimidating setting, a place filled with fear and doubt, rather than a place of joy, admiration and praise. I remember the looming thought that one lifetime was all we got, one short, unexplained, often miserable lifetime and it either lead directly to heaven or directly to hell. This was a very damaging way for a young child to view the world, a world that I later discovered holds so much beauty and so much joy. I felt so out of place during those years and I held inside so many unanswered questions. What is the purpose of life? Why do humans inhabit this planet for such short periods of time without any explicit instructions or concrete guidelines? Why do we possess an innate drive to feel connected to each other, to nature and to the divine? Why do we suffer so much and love so little? Is there truly an afterlife? If so, what is it and is it our only chance for pure happiness? And, if true bliss is the ultimate goal, why then is happiness so elusive to us on Earth? Happiness and a sense of purpose are synonymous and it is no mystery why we spend so much time and effort seeking either one. The search for happiness has been at the root of all human activity throughout the ages. Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion and knowledge. When you review the intention or motive behind most human action, the underlying desire is for one to be happy, or at peace. Curiously, we often begin this search for happiness outside of ourselves, from an external locus, rather than from within. One of the finest gifts you can give yourself, or anyone else, is peace and forgiveness. "When you are able to find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others," taught Mildred Lisette Norman, aka the Peace Pilgrim. You no longer feel the need to compare or judge yourself or others and you learn to value each person's contribution to the whole. "You will have great difficulty achieving peace of mind and joy unless you respect how others choose to live their lives. That means respecting everyone's choices: the drug dealer on the street, the Pope, a homeless person, the president of the United States." James Blanchard Cisneros In our current society, we commonly derive our self-worth from what we do for a living or how much money we have in the bank, rather than from the good deeds we perform or the amount of love we share with others. Imagine if, instead of asking first, "What do you do?" upon meeting someone new, we traditionally asked, "What was the nicest thing you did today?" Our focus and perception of what is truly important may significantly change for the better. Achieving happiness, or a true sense of self, requires great patience, continual practice and keen personal awareness. Great diligence must be maintained while searching for and attempting to understand the elusive answers. Practice must become part of your everyday life, where you practice living your values, and finally, personal awareness is required in order to explore and fully understand your own actions and the role you play in creating the life unfolding before you. This joy, this purpose, comes from within and it lies inside each one of us, simply waiting for us to notice it. The central goal of self-study is to discover why we are given the precious gift of life and what the reasons are behind everything that happens to us. Great confidence comes from understanding our purpose and this understanding allows us to move forward to live life without fear. Every single thing in this universe has a higher meaning. Everything speaks to us and, as I have grown in this awareness, I have learned to surrender to the magical, purposeful flow of life. I now see the perfection and the message in everything around me. I now see the brilliance in how each of our lives unfolds just as we have planned. I now see the divine order in all that I had previously questioned and I wish for this same trust to develop inside of you. The question then becomes, "Who really has the power?" Life can often feel meaningless, cruel and unforgiving, but, what if I told you that you were responsible for every minor detail in your current life? That no higher source had solely selected this path for you, but that prior to birth you personally pre-determined the challenges you are experiencing and that you made a contract to live out that arrangement? That essentially, this contract was a blueprint for your life and an overall plan for the evolution of your soul? What if I told you that understanding this agreement could lead to boundless personal growth and freedom, including an understanding of why humans endure so much suffering? Acknowledging our blueprint is the difference between expecting God to handle the details and realizing we actually possess the power to design our own lives. What would be the point of human life if some higher source truly controlled it with puppet strings? The moment you realize that no one is going to rescue you is the moment you become empowered to rescue yourself.