Are we here to Get or to Give?

Why are we here and what is the purpose of our human experience?

After a life-long search for the answer to that question, I boiled it down to a simple choice; are we here to get something or to give something?

Are we here to be Consumers or Contributors?

Everywhere I look, I find religious and spiritual teaching primarily focused on what the individual supposedly gets out of their human experience.

Christians want to “get saved” so that they can “go to heaven”
Buddhists want to “get enlightened” in order to “escape Samsara”
New Agers want their soul to “learn something”.
Name any religion … and tell me what you get.

None of this teaching ever made sense to me except possibly in the marketing appeal to Consumers, where gaining market share is the name of the game.

The only exception who might seem justified in getting the most out of their short existence are atheists who have no belief or hope in an afterlife. Even then, I would argue that an atheist could enjoy a more emotionally rewarding life by giving than getting, by being a contributor and not a consumer.

If you are wondering about your purpose, check out my article “Four BIG Questions Everyone Should Ask” (link to follow);

Who am I?
How did I get here?
Why am I here?
What is my purpose?

Then decide if you are a Contributor or Consumer.

A longer view of life.

What are your beliefs about your purpose?

As I often mention, "what we believe is more important than the truth" because what we believe determines how we live; beliefs are our personal truths even if they are completely wrong! No doubt, the closer our beliefs align with absolute truth, the greater our freedom.

Here are a few of my core beliefs.

I believe in a supreme GOD. Not the God or god of any particular religion but a supreme, consciousness who is the source of everything.

I believe that we can gain some understanding of the nature of GOD by contemplating our own nature; I address this in more detail in my article, “My Understanding of the Nature of GOD”.

I believe that our human experience is one phase in a much bigger scheme of things and that our spirit is indestructible; whatever happens to the body in this life, our spirit lives on.

Although I don’t pretend to understand why there is a human experience, I do believe that we are nonetheless,

“perfect Spirit enjoying an imperfect human experience”

And, having been granted the privilege of this human experience, I believe that our purpose, both individually and collectively, is to,

“lift humanity to a higher level of goodness”

That is, we are here to contribute to the advancement of humanity in the hope that humanity will eventually become wise stewards of this planet.

What are the implications of such beliefs?

I imagine a world in which a significant number of awakened people (it doesn’t need to be ‘everyone’) dedicate their lives ‘to lift humanity to a higher level of goodness’; the Spirit’s goodness flowing through their lives, to their families, their communities and to all the world.

Not a human-construct or organised goodness, which is bound to fail, but rather the simple act of pure goodness flowing from GOD through each awakened contributor into their local community.

What could happen?

The first question we must ask is;

“How many awakened contributors are needed to lift humanity to a higher level of goodness?”

The answer is simple, one human being seeking to ‘lift the level of goodness” in their own life, will contribute to lifting the level of goodness of all humanity; granted by a mere one eight billionth but one eight billionth is an important start as you will soon see.

The next question we need to ask is;