Ikigai is wonderful, but is purpose needed at all??

Questioner: I just spent 3 hours in a wonderful workshop on Ikigai, and now you're telling me purpose in life may not be necessary. Who the f#%k are you?

GC: I'm no-one. Done. Next question. [Audience laughs]. No need to laugh everyone, really, I can’t prove I even exist. Who knows - you might have even created me just for the purpose of this discussion!

Questioner: How can one live without purpose in life? There is no meaning to existence. I just go through life and become depressed. Why do you say that life needs no purpose?

GC: Why do you want to know the answer to this question? Does it bother you that I said it, or that you disagree with it?

Questioner: Yes, it does bother me and that's why I'm asking.

GC: Could there be some truth in it - is that why you are bothered?

Questioner: I don’t know. I’m just annoyed!

GC: How are you going to find out?

Questioner: Ask you!

GC: No, hold on. When one nobly searches for truth, there are few things you need to be prepared for. Are you ready to find the truth of it?

Questioner: Yes, I want to know.

GC: Then I think it's very important to ask yourself, are you able to understand the truth? Is truth the search for an answer, or is the questioning more important? You see, when one seeks truth, they often look for something that satisfies them. They can google the answer, or look-up what some famous dead philosopher once said and repeat some words and then they are happy. Now you come to me, I tell you that purpose is not needed, and you are bother by that. You tell me you are not satisfied with something and you want to know the truth of it.

Questioner: Yes, I do want to know why I'm bothered with this. Do you not live with purpose?

GC: If I give you my answer, then you are looking to the outside to tell you the truth, and then it cannot be truth. It will be authority. Are you looking for an answer to satisfy your ambition? Or will this answer help you to be happy - is that it? In other words, why is it so important to know the truth of this, because what you are really asking, if I may, is what is the true purpose of living?

Questioner: Yes, which is what I had because Ikigai gave me a direction, a hope, a reason to get-up in the morning.

GC: Yes I understand - let's put Ikigai aside for the moment, otherwise we project the answer to the question through a theory, and again, that denies truth. When you want to find the truth of something, there must be freedom from purpose - the intent to know the answer is often very powerful, but behind intent is will. Will has a relationship with desire and desire will hinder you from knowing the truth.

So, if you want to know what is true, the mind must be without any comparison, it cannot be caught - now please listen carefully - in knowledge from the past or it is deemed, busy. A busy mind cannot see things clearly.

Questioner: Are you saying I need to reject all the knowledge I just obtained on my Ikigai?

GC: If the mind is not free to question, to discover something, can it give insight into truth - or will it try to constantly make conclusions with what Zen says about purpose, what ikigai say, what another theory or idea says...

Questioner: But it is not an idea, it is proven to work for many people.

GC: You see, if you hold-on to your knowledge to answer this question, you cannot see, because your knowledge blocks you from truth by protecting itself. You are done. There is no more inquiry here. Can there be any freedom to look at this as long as there is an entity that is protecting, judging, comparing, assuming. Then the mind is noisy - busy processing. It can't be quiet.

Questioner: I'm not sure if I can do that.

GC: It is because you are not sure that you can start! Use that doubt to find out. Yes, I'm not sure - I don't know! This simpleness already reduces the power of knowledge that blankets the truth - if you truly mean it. But if you are saying that to push it away, then you are caught in protection.

Does life have any significance at all? Who is the entity that needs to create a purpose for its existence? To observe the entity - the engine of creation - the truth of that separate entity viewing, creating, projecting into the world; to be aware of it - not accept it as answer but be actually aware of it. Can you?

Then one realizes that which is unmeasurable. uncomparable. Just as the wind caresses a beautiful green leaf, or an old withered leaf, it is there. It has no purpose to caress and yet the leaves may be enchanted by it. Perhaps what you seek, cannot belong in the process of seeking, and therefore the mind is never capable of capturing it.

Love and Light,
GC