Aim the light of your life! Each morning spend time remembering, awakening, activating the mission, the greater purpose you are here to serve. Renew this aim each and every morning with conscious breath/inspiration and throughout the day when we find ourselves overwhelmed, forgetful and mired in the lassitude of wayward directions or even tempted to compromise our virtuous self. We pull all of our essence into this laser-focus of truth in constancy. We are here for the greatest of heroic adventures. Don't let the mundane wiles of this world diminish the valorous quest. We need you...
 
What is the mission? What is the great purpose of our life? This is one of the most significant questions to posit to oneself and essential if we are to live lives of powerful fulfillment. This needn’t be answered quickly. If this question feels daunting to you, even intimidating, that is well and good. It suggests that there may be a lack of purpose in your life and you now have the GLORIOUS opportunity to create this for yourself. It may take days, weeks or even months to clearly define. Moreover, this sense of purpose is up for constant revision and renewal.

Some people rarely ask themselves this question and it’s one of the great tragedies of modern culture that great purpose is often lacking from our lives. And I don’t mean the selfish, little aims, such as I wish to make x amount of dollars or I aspire to get such-and-such job (and by selfish I don’t mean anything negative but literally aims that only deal with our self). I mean the big purpose, like I’m here to be a beacon of goodness; to serve the upliftment of humanity; to face every challenge with the inspiring willingness to express more of the best of me, to help restore balance in the environment, to create true equality among all races, etc.
 
This purposing needn’t even be filled with words. One of the greatest ways to set the frequency of one’s day at a very rich vibration is to sit and simply imagine uniting with the cosmos, opening the infinite petals of the crown chakra; the centre where great, divine purpose ignites. This prayer of devotion opens one’s Heart, creates a sacred space where we are self-ritualized, our body sacralised as temple for the spiritual shimmer of consciousness. In such grand purposing, we are diminished in a healthy way before the massive spectre of an ultimate reality; our ego ‘scared sacred’ and brought down to a size to integrate and serve with its powers of individuation a healthy mission of co-creation with cosmic zest, not just a selfish purpose of self-gratifying aims.
 
Fostering a sense of purpose with constant cultivation is also cutting-edge skillful living, drawing from both ancient mystical wisdom and modern science. It’s a how we hack the narrow purpose of our modern culture which, upon even superficial analysis, reveals tame aspirations of a well-paying job, nice house, raising a family, retire somewhere warm, financial security... There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of these aims. Yet, I believe many of us live lives of quiet desperation because we feel, perhaps as an unconscious itch, that we are made for something so much more as well, something HEROIC (see my article on The Heroic Journey at Waking Times).

Consider the tremendous times we live in. It’s clear a massive awakening of consciousness is inspiring us to become creators of a new world of peace, equality and ecological harmony. As the great masters have affirmed, we ourselves can embody these noble changes and play significant roles in the way the world is shaped.
 
“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world”
Buddha
 
Ask yourself: are you playing small ball? Is boredom an issue in your life? Are you lacking a daily dose of inspiration that, when the going gets rough, can be called upon to pick us up with every fall with the forward fury of fulfilling the mission NO MATTER WHAT?
 
It needn’t mean our purpose be grandiose, such as I’m going to single-handedly end war. In fact, as we awaken more to the miraculous potentials of consciousness as a highly intelligent, subtle energetic force of dynamic creative power, we’re realizing the butterfly effect in immense and consistent ways: small acts, even the vibration of thoughts themselves, have a bigtime effect on this co-created reality of ours. Moreover, as consciousness awakens, it’s revealing an attribute that many of us are starting to live: it wants to unify. In fact, unity is an essential aspect of consciousness as it grows. Thus, much of our greater purpose involves aiming us toward co-creation as we realize more and more our great, heroic dreams are no longer for the realm of egotistical, individual glory but something to be manifested in passionate teamwork. We can still be our own visionaries and shine our own light but to steward the necessary changes needed to save our world, we need to act interdependently. As I ironically wrote in a poem once, this is the war of interdependence, which is an oxymoron: beings that realize interdependence as the inherent truth of how life functions CANNOT BE AT WAR WITH ANYTHING for to do so is to live in falsehood; to transgress the way of the universe. 
 
Science has now started to understand this whole notion of purpose as a characteristic of the universe itself. All living things (even what is deemed ‘inorganic’, which seems to be harder and harder to pin down) exude what’s called telos—having an end in mind, a goal or purpose. This purpose is driven by an attractor—all life seems to have a point of higher development that it can become aware of (or even create) and then strive toward meeting. The great scientist, Rupert Sheldrake, discusses the idea of telos and attractors in depth in some of his works. (Check out an amazing interview with Rupert HERE to learn more about this amazing genius who is changing our understanding of science and reality profoundly!).

The ancients knew this only too well: the indigenous pagans of Europe had a title for those initiated into their Mysteries or schools of wisdoms--telestai which means “those who are aimed”. It was seen as one of the highest orders of individual development to inspire a great, divine aim in all peoples so they would all be driven toward a noble goal that would draw all facets of their life into this profound attraction toward serving something good: “In the ultimate sense initiates aimed to guide humanity to become self-guiding…In order to promote self-direction with the intent of leading a consecrated life, the telestai introduced their student neophytes to a narrative framework, a guiding story. Within the story each individual found his or her sacred calling and became self-directed, a free agent. The essence of the telestic program consisted in a deep understanding of what it means to be instruments for coevolution..." John Lamb Lash (from "Not In His Image", one of the best books ever written).

Even whole ancient cultures would foster such collective aim/purpose, such as the Egyptian concept of Ma’at or the Tao of the ancient Orient. These were immense, universal purposes that everyone would be directed toward fulfilling, giving society a noble collective thrust toward following “the way of the universe”. This is the great hope of our era: that we are creating a united humanity aimed toward a common goal of honouring all creation, uplifting all in need to an equal commons of respect and love where all life can thrive in the freedom of exploring and activating the fullest potentials of the evolutionary pulse at the essence of all…
 
AIMING PRACTICE: I encourage you to explore placing the context of your life into greater context for 30 days and to take note of what happens. As I’ve insinuated, my experience has taught me that morning is the best time to do this practice as it sets up an inspiring energy that will pervade potentially all of your day’s activities. I find myself perpetually acknowledging and empowering this purpose, as I walk to get groceries, as I take a little rest after lunch, and before I settle in for sleep. The practice needn’t be intricate: simply sit with yourself and begin to “imagineer” a greater purpose for yourself. Be receptive and open to a dynamic and changing vision. Let it be playful. Allow yourself to gradually feel that each morning you are setting forth on a noble adventure or quest and that you are the hero. Feel free to email me any questions or comments: dhbodhi@gmail.com.