Food for Thought

Life’s Purpose.

I am frequently asked questions about the purpose of life. There must be some meaning to
it, but for many struggling with daily existence there seems little motivation to try and
live an unselfish life, while those who care only about themselves are enjoying a fun
time.

However, life does have a purpose, and if you have any concept of spirituality or a belief
in a life after death, you will want to know more about what it is we are expected to
learn while struggling through life, or worse, through many lives.

This is a huge subject and in this short paper I only touch on the basics, but first,
please understand that you are more than the physical which is identified as the ‘me’.

At the highest level, usually known as ‘the light’, we have awareness which is without any
physical or emotional form. We are the awareness of all that is, we exist in a state of
absolute awareness. Put another way, we are not aware of what exists, we are what exists
and how can we know of separateness if we are everything that exists? This makes it very
difficult to know ourselves; how can we know an energy source if we are the energy source.
Furthermore, that energy source contains all that is known.  Every answer to every
question is there before you think of the question. It can be no other way.  You are
omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. In this state awareness can’t exist as we
understand it.

Of course you will say: ‘but I know me, I touch and feel my body’.  But what you can touch
and feel is not you, the body is the carrier of the energy of awareness, and that
awareness which you are is only a very small portion of your potential awareness. A very
small portion of that awareness has separated to descend through many levels until it is
but a whisper of its original self. It is here that we come to know of the greatness from
which we have separated.  Now begins the task of reuniting with that from which we
originated. But until we can overcome the many emotional forms of selfishness we will
continue to be held separate from the greater awareness. This is a long struggle because
we have the subtle awareness of being the ‘all’ from which we separated. Until we can pass
this point with a feeling of humility, we will continue to be the lesser awareness rather
than the greater. To put it another way; the ocean is all-powerful, an incredible force
and nothing can stand against its power when it moves. Take a small drop of the ocean in
your hand and it is powerless when separated from the ocean, though it contains the force
of the ocean-power in its tiny form. This tiny drop has the power of the ocean in its
awareness.  Separated from the ocean of awareness, humanity lacks the power of full
awareness, but it feels the power in its awareness. This memory has caused humanity to
lose its humility. It acts with power and authority which it has in its distant memory.
How to again become one with the ocean of awareness is the purpose of repeated life times.
Only the consciousness is evolving, evolving to become what it was, not something that has
never been.

In order to become again one with the light, we go through a series of learning and living
experiences. The lessons we learn through these many lives enable us to overcome emotional
attitudes and re-enter the greater awareness.  The following are some of the lessons that
life is teaching so we may reunite with the greatness that is in all of us.

I have grouped the lessons into 7 categories. They are not new and other philosophies use
the same lessons but in a style of their own. This is more western style than the Asian
from which many of the laws of dimensional expansion come. They are: Acceptance,
Contentment, Self-Control, Adversity, Courage, Independence and Awareness.

Acceptance; this is the law of tolerance. There are many institutions, religions, cultures
and ways in which to learn and live, and at some point it will be necessary to experience
other situations which are very different to the one you are currently living.  You have
lived or have yet to live a skin colour, religion and culture very different to the one
you currently experience. How can you return to an awareness that is of everything if you
are unable to be (tolerate) everything?

Contentment; this is the law which allows you to know that all you need is on the inside
of your thoughts. Contentment comes from finding satisfaction in what others have without
the need to also have the same and to know that their happiness is your happiness. It is
learning to withdraw from desire, to live the happiness of others.  How can you reunite
with the ‘all’ if you cannot know that what they have you also have?

Self-control; is learning how to overcome the power of animal instinct, such as lust,
greed, domination and other such basic emotions. With these thoughts, you are held to the
basic energies which prevent thoughts being lifted into higher energies of light.
Self-control is such a basic lesson and one of the first that needs to be learnt. To hurt
another, you first have to destroy your own love which would have prevented you from
hurting another, and there can be no awareness without love.

Adversity; Nothing is achieved without a struggle from which determination and will are
born. We all have to face adversity in some part of our lives, and in some lives it is
very heavy. Through adversity we gain strength for our character and strengthen
determination to succeed and come through. Without determination and will, there can be no
creative force to help those in need.

Courage; to know you exist as an equal at all levels without the need to prove it to any
but yourself. Knowing that courage empowers and that fear enfeebles. You cannot love even
yourself if your heart is in fear of life. Love, as courage, is a coat of protection.

Independence; is knowing that no other can be responsible for the path you walk. You alone
are responsible for the ever-changing circumstances in your life. No other can be held
responsible for what befalls you. Only when you can recognise your independence from the
circumstances surrounding your life and live your own beliefs, will you begin to
understand that you and only you are responsible for whom you become.

Awareness; is the art of knowing that all of value is within and cannot be found in the
smaller world around you. It is knowing that all is illusion. To find the permanency of
happiness, beauty, contentment, security you must search inside your thoughts. To rely on
the outer world for such necessities in life will end in disappointment, only that which
is in the greater world of your thoughts is real and lasting.

These are some of the lessons of life which, when learned and lived, lift the individual
above the levels of fear and insecurity and into a state of happiness and love. A state of
love, free of its emotions, is non-selective and accepts all, knowing it, too, once
struggled with the uncertainties of life. Such love is not for the giver of the love, who
cannot know of the love they are until it is passed to another. Such love is experienced
as total happiness, a feeling of sublime ecstasy. It is in this state that love radiates.

The love you are is for others, the happiness you are is yours. Reality is only that which
you feel in your thoughts, That which you can touch or hold is never permanent.

And the Ocean whispered in the power of its Silence

Believe in Me as I believe in you.

Be Life in Me as I am life in you.

For I am the Ocean and you are the drops of water that cause the Ocean to be.

You have the power of the ocean in your soul but, separated from Me, you are no more than
a drop of water.

To have the power of the Ocean become one with every other drop that I give to fill the
Ocean.

As a drop of water, be life in Me

As I am life in you.

Believe in Me as I believe in you.

Malcolm Southwood.

More food for thought you will find at www.malcolmslibrary.com