Sifu Susan gives a spontaneous talk on the Purpose of Life as she sees it today and how Tai Chi illustrates the path toward transforming our life purpose.
The purpose of life is to journey toward transformation. We are meant to transform ourselves into something different, something better. That transformation is to move from external living to internal dwelling. Things such as moving away from the materialistic way of living and more into a place that is detached from the physical, the needs, the wants.
When we are born into life, we are bombarded by the physical world; the lights, the sounds, the physical items all around us. As newborn babies we learn through this 3D world. The physical and external becomes our reality. Our frame of reference. Then we experience life through this point of reference. We seek to obtain things almost to anchor us, because it is what we first experienced in life. We live in this external place; the materialistic. We seek and search, most times outside of ourselves for anything to bring us comfort and life meaning.
But the more we go internal, the less we become imprisoned by FEAR. Fear is a manifestation from the physical, external world. If we are external in our frame of reference, then we are always in a position of having risking LOSS. And Loss makes us fearful. Loss does nothing good for our mental health.
When we go internal (spiritual) we do not fear as much because we have less to lose. There is less, or no, loss.
Some call this enlightenment. But I think enlightenment suggests a goal or ending point. A place of arrival. Most people think enlightenment is so far out there that enlightenment must surely be unachievable for most mortals. This is such a disservice to humanity and our human potential.
What if enlightenment was a spectrum!? Light is a spectrum, so why not enlightenment? After all, God did not create one color of leaves, one color in a sunset, one color of a flower. No. He created a spectrum of everything. We have the permission and the ability to place ourselves anywhere on the spectrum and journey forward in that spectrum. So perhaps, there is a range; a spectrum of enlightenment. The more we get out of the way of ourselves, the more we move along that spectrum of enlightenment.
And in that space there is less sense of loss, less fear, less angst.
There are so many examples and overriding stories that illustrate this path of life from external to internal. The Bible is one. The Old Testament is external with its 613 laws, do’s and don’t and the sacrificing of animals to appease God. But the new Testament is the ultimate internal. It is in the New Testament that we are told about and given the Holy Spirit within us. Jesus’s own life is an extreme example of moving from external to internal. He gave his external body to be tortured and killed and then He came back rising from the DEAD (that is loss in the ultimate sense) and gave us the Holy Spirit. His internal presence. Transforming from an external understanding of God to an internal everlasting joining with God.
My own Tai Chi journey has moved from external to internal. At first I learned the 73 form, I set goals with dates for achievement, and how many forms to learn. I felt my Tai Chi externally and judged it externally. But I always felt and knew there was more.
As I have journeyed deeper into my Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong path, I am doing less and less Tai Chi and Qigong forms. They hold much less meaning for me. Instead, I might engage in just one Tai Chi Chuan or Qigong movement. In that single movement, or in just standing meditation which appears to have no external movement, I find such depth, such discoveries; more life energy and Qi. I find more peace, less judgment about myself and what I should be doing.
I find more purity of the original intention of Tai Chi and Qigong practice by doing less movements, less forms, less external. I think the ultimate formula is - less Tai Chi Chuan forms = more internal experiences; more transformation, less external focus, less fear of loss and oddly, more empowerment over myself and my life.
Once we have a bit of movement in ourselves toward the internal (or enlightenment), then what? What are we supposed to do with this life, even in that newfound place? I believe we are to do two things:
1. Pursue Joy
2. Help others. We should help others from a standpoint of love, from the inside out (internal). Not helping others to feel good about ourselves, or to look good for others, but because we have a deep internal desire to help someone else, to touch their lives in a positive way.
So that is it. That is Sifu Susan’s current thoughts (mental musings) on The meaning of life, the purpose of life and the journey toward finding that purpose.