Connecting the Dots

Ok, let me back up and see if I can make my posts on meaning and purpose string together in a coherent pattern. (There's a chance they may not.)

I started by saying, essentially, that I didn't know my life's purpose -- or, at least I didn't know it's final goal, a satisfactory end-point.

I then went on to consider that, "Well, maybe that doesn't matter, because meaning may come from the present moment instead of some final outcome."

Either way, the frustration (for me) comes from the not knowing how to answer the question . . . but that ambiguity is built into the process . . . and tolerating that ambiguity is the only way to arrive at a true answer.

I anticipate that some people will find "I don't know" to be a wholly unsatisfactory answer. The only way that "I don't know" can be satisfactory is if you invoke process: "I don't know, but I'm going to find out, because the process will take me there." We use processes all the time to move from the unknown to the known. Science is a process that leads to objective truth. The legal system is process that leadds to justice. The democratic process leads to good governance. And spirituality is exactly the same way: we shouldn't be asking for the answers, so much as asking for the correct process to arrive at the answers.

So, as an exercise for the reader (to be explored in future posts):

• What is best process for arriving at spiritual truth?
• What process will you use to evaluate that process of truth seeking? (ooh, recursion, wince . . . )