Finding my purpose ...

[vapourmile]

I don't really wish you have a rubbish time. I was just being sarcastic. That's me, the joker. I know you know I didn't mean it. I'm going to plant a chrysanthemum in your honour. Then I'm going to do what everybody else does, spend the rest of my life trying to locate the daisy that lays the golden egg. it seems completely pointless, but that's what hope makes people do. And without it, then, well there's no point. End of.

[Angela]

Thanks, but I hate chrysanthemums.

Actually, I didn't have a very good time, and it's all your fault. And I mean that only as much as I know you meant your wish for me to have a rubbish time.

I did sit next to an elderly holocaust survivor ("I'm a people person!!" he said three times) who dispensed some wisdom, including, "Don't let anyone **** on your head. **** stinks." and also: Don't make friends with your neighbors; you will only inherit their problems.

[vapourmile]

Hey, plants have feelings too you know. I didn't say I was going to give you a chrysanthemum or even make you look at one. I just said I was going to plant one. What happened to that free flowing love thing? It obviously doesn't flow freely to some things like flowers right? Jeez, you love conduit types are a mighty nasty bunch. As a friend of mine once said to me "Why not forget about being Jesus in the long run and just try to be a nice person right now?". You love conduit types are a vicious bunch!

Well, having a bad time is a cool thing. As the saying goes, "A fine sailor is not made on calm seas". You what it's like? You get the "Whoo, now I meditate I'm such a calm person", yeah, when you're sitting around not doing much yeah, Hitler was quite calm too. It's when things aren't going so good that your true spirit is tested. So, celebrate crap times come on! Of course, the whole point of tough runs is that's when you least feel able to celebrate.

Why don't you try listening to Kaskade and see if you like it?

People don't always access the love and joy I'm generating? That's like walking off stage after the comedy routine flunked and saying "I don't think they were accessing the humour I was generating", and not, "I need to work on my attitude".

PS, that thing you wrote earlier, the bit about understanding what I was saying about not getting cocky about having a purpose, yes, bang on.

That living on purpose vibe, that's cool too.

No matter how grand people's plans are they usually have to develop them in the context of ordinary life. Spider man was as newspaper hack. The guy delivering the milk in the morning looks tired because he's been up all night protecting the world from giant radioactive alien squid. Just ask him about the squid and see what reaction you get.

What is it about old people and advice? Get over yourselves and do something interesting to talk about or listen to Richard Cheese's cover of Creep.

[vapourmile]

PS. Yeah, this guy's in love with you, I, like, totally, get, the, reference, nice song, sort of.

[vapourmile]

Put another way, it's cool to have an extraordinary purpose, so long as you don't make the mistake of thinking others don't.

My purpose is to be the next Jesus Christ, the one who enlightens everybody on the planet to experience the limitlessness of it all, including themselves. But before I can get to there, I have to be able to respect everybody I see, meet or hear of, no matter what have done, and understand why, and also realise that my own purpose, in the scheme of things, is microscopic, and respect the fact that everybody I meet may well have a purpose far, far greater than mine. I can hardly yet throw a piece of litter in the bin and get it right.

[Angela]

Originally Posted by vapourmile

As a friend of mine once said to me "Why not forget about being Jesus in the long run and just try to be a nice person right now?".

.......................

[Rapid]

Following Louise's suggestion, I calculated my numbers. Here are their descriptions (from her website):

"If your destiny is a 7, you are here to discover truth and trust so that may share this with others.

You are a seeker of truth. The 7 is like the wise man, bended over and carrying his lantern. He desires to light up the way with what is real, and what is not. The 7 is often referred to as a spiritual number, for many reasons including the desire to ‘know’ could lead you into metaphysical areas.

You are here to learn the truth that resides within yourself and as such will benefit from time spent alone. You are equipped with a fine mind that enables you to discern illusion from reality. Be careful to not depend entirely on your intellect for the greater wisdom of the world, cannot be mastered and controlled with our rational thinking. You are required to find faith and trust in things that are of the heart and soul - that brings meaning, not explanation.

Bring more ceremony and sacredness into your life. You will benefit from any activity that celebrates and honors the divine spirit of who you are, and your place as one with the universe. Giving thanks before eating, enjoying the sunrise or sunset, taking time to be quiet, or observing the cycles of the moon are such examples."

"2 Life Path - Balance & Co-operation

Your Life Path is to learn how to work in harmony and partnership with yourself and others, allowing your sensitive nature to fully express itself outward.

In Balance 2 – Supporter, diplomat, sensitive, perceptive, harmonious, patient

Out of Balance 2 – Resistant, reactive, avoidance, withdrawn, angry, overwhelmed"

The destiny # definitely fits me. I've been reading and studying mysticism and meditation, even though I also have an analytical/scientific mind.

Life path 2 seems to fit, although when I used the calculation method in Dan Millman's book, I got Life Path 1, which is "Creativity and Confidence."

I re-did Steve's life purpose exercise (again!) and didn't come up with anything useful. So I will stick with the one that I came up with for now.

In terms of making this purpose more concrete, here are a few possibilities:

(fitting the theme of "truth seeker")
- some sort of consumer advocate
- college professor. Drawbacks: Would need to go to school to get a Ph.D. Getting a teaching position is very competitive. The salary will not make me rich. Plus, I will have to move to where the school is. Not sure that I want to relocate.
- creativity consultant - creativity is an interesting topic, but I have no knowledge of how to help people be more creative, even though I am a creative person with different present and past creative pursuits. "Creativity" feels like a pretty nebulous subject. I like data.

As a seeker of truth and a teacher (broad sense of the word), I love to learn and impart knowledge. One thing that really bothers me is that many people are taken advantage of by charlatans (individuals, corporate media, and so on) every day. I also find it distressing that people are often set in their thinking and refuse to listen to others who may have different ideas. I've had the fortune of meeting a variety of people in my life. I'm pretty open-minded and love to learn about different point-of-views, why people act the way they do, etc. It's not always good to only hang around people who have similar backgrounds as you do, in my opinion. You will miss out a lot.

I had originally thought about being a professor so that I can introduce different ideas and encourage students to learn, think, and grow. But as indicated above, there are restrictions in terms of location, time, and money.

Do you think that I could be some sort of consultant and author?

I'm trying to come up with a theme for my Site Build It! website as well.

[Rapid]

I guess I've been torn between 1) being a person who advocates a certain point of view ("the truth") and 2) being a person who is a facilitator/nurturer/peacemaker/harmonizer (pushing my views onto others is not my agenda. Helping to establish mutual understanding is).

It's tough because there are world issues that I deeply care about.