Purpose and meaning – these are currently big topics in our modern society, and with the explosion in popularity of the self-help and new age movements over the past few decades, it’s clear that people are searching for both in their lives.  It appears that we have an almost endless array of options to pick from when it comes to purpose.  Could it be to master the art of manifesting an extraordinary life?  What about harnessing the flow of universal energy?  Or is it my destiny to discover what special and unique contributions I am here to bring to the world within the brief time allotted me?  So many choices!  

 

What if I told you that although it appears that the choices are many, the truth is much, much simpler.  A Course in Miracles teaches that when it comes to purpose, there are only ever two options available to you – The ego’s purpose, or the Holy Spirit’s.  Do you know what each of these options are?  Whenever you are faced with a choice, it’s probably a good idea to know just what it is you are choosing between.  So, let’s take a closer look at both the Holy Spirit’s and the ego’s ideas of purpose.

 

Currently, the predominant purpose behind our world is that of the ego.  Practically everyone is blindly assigning the ego’s purpose to just about all areas of their life, and they don’t even know it. So, what exactly is the ego’s purpose?  Quite simply, it is to keep you asleep and dreaming of a world of bodies and separation.  It is to keep you believing that the projected images you are seeing are real, and that this is who you are.  How does it do this?  The ego, being the thought system of separation and illusion, uses all events and situations in your life as a means to testify to the reality of the illusion.  It would perpetuate the belief that you are an individual body, living in a world amongst other individual bodies, and that this experience is your reality.  Its aim is to keep your belief in separation alive and well, in turn keeping you asleep and dreaming of a world that isn’t really there.

 

The Holy Spirit is the ego’s opposite in every way.  His is the thought system of unity and truth, and he uses all situations and events in your life for the purpose of gradually awakening you to your real identity as Spirit.  His goal, in any and all circumstances, is to teach you to overlook the illusion of the world and bodies in favour of the truth in you.  He turns the tables on the ego by using the world it created as a classroom to awaken you from the dream of separation.  While the ego’s purpose keeps your attention rooted on your worldly concerns, like your physical needs and desires, material goals, grievances and judgements, the Holy Spirit’s purpose takes your awareness away from the body and brings it back to the mind, where your real power is.  It’s only when you begin to learn that you are a mind, and not the body that you thought you were, that you can actively choose a different purpose to the ego’s one.  

 

A favourite playing ground for both the Holy Spirit and the ego is in your relationships.  These can be as menial as casual, everyday encounters, longer, more intense relationships, or all the way up to lifelong ones.  It doesn’t matter.  When it comes to other people, this is where your purpose really shines through.  In relationships, one of the ego’s favourite tools is guilt.  It sees it in everyone and everything.  If you are seeing guilt in any circumstance, situation or person, even if that person is yourself, you can be sure you are identifying with the ego and using the situation for its purposes.  

 

To counteract the ego’s belief in guilt, the Holy Spirit deploys just the opposite tool – innocence.  He, too, sees this innocence in everyone and everything, because he knows the truth behind the body’s false facade.  Where the ego sees separate people, the Holy Spirit sees only the one, unified inner light of Spirit.  He knows that because bodies are illusory, then the guilty things those bodies appear to do is also illusory.  His purpose is to teach you to overlook these stories of guilt in others and see only their perfect innocence as Spirit.  Seeing this innocence in everyone is what the Course calls forgiveness.  It’s not the world’s kind of forgiveness that says you have done something wrong, makes it all real, and then forgives it.  This is true forgiveness.  True forgiveness acknowledges everyone’s reality as the One perfect Son of God and sees any other perception as simply not true.  Forgiveness is the antidote to all the ego’s illusions.

 

So, how exactly do you choose the Holy Spirit’s purpose over the ego’s?  It requires looking at every little thing that happens in your life, good or bad, happy or sad, pleasant or unpleasant, and making a conscious choice for what you are going to use it for.  The Course says, in any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider, very simply, is “What do I want to come of this?  What is it for?” (T-17.VI.2:1-2).  Do you want to use it for the ego’s purpose of keeping you asleep and dreaming, or do you want to use it for the Holy Spirit’s purpose of waking you up?

 

An example could be something as simple as going to the shops.  The ego would have you believe that the purpose of you going to the shops is to buy food for your family.  This purpose is all about fulfilling your bodily needs – I need food to survive.  Don’t get me wrong here, there’s nothing wrong with doing this.  Everyone needs to eat and look after the body while they think they are here, but there is another way of looking at it.  The ego’s purpose in this situation is concerned only with the continuation of the physical body.  As the body is just an illusion, the ego’s purpose is only about perpetuating the illusion.  

 

The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, may see the purpose of going to the shops as to overlook the bodily images of everyone you encounter and see them as the pure Spirit they really are.  He would use all situations in your life, no matter how seemingly small and insignificant, as a means of remembering the truth, while at the same time still fulfilling all your worldly needs.  Choosing his purpose doesn’t take anything away from you on the bodily level.  It is applied only on the level of the mind.  

 

Both the Holy Spirit’s and the ego’s purpose will produce very different outcomes for you, sometimes in the world of form, but most importantly at this mind level.  Say you are about to line up at the check-out and someone rudely cuts in front of you.  If you are following the ego’s purpose, then you will have an ego response, if not outwardly then at least through your inner thoughts and feelings.  You may be angry and frustrated at their ‘unfair’ treatment of you.  The ego’s version of events tells you that you are in competition with this person, that their behaviour is an attack on your needs, and that they are guilty for their inconsiderate actions.  Above all else it tells you that the two of you are different from each other.  You have just used the situation as a means to fulfill the ego’s purpose.

 

If you are following the Holy Spirit, however, and catch yourself before you get swept away by the ego’s interpretation, you can remember to adjust your thought processes, so they are in alignment with his purpose instead.  You can decide to see the other person, not as the guilty body they appear to be, but as innocent and perfect Spirit.  You apply the Holy Spirit’s tool of forgiveness.  Your inner thoughts and feelings, and any outward responses you may have, will now reflect, love, unity, inclusiveness and peace.  This brings about a totally different experience to when you let the ego guide your purpose.

 

Over time, you learn to generalise and apply the Holy Spirit’s purpose to more and more areas and situations in your life.  The amount of time you spend chasing the ego’s purpose will gradually slip away.  It’s all about practice and consistency.  There will come a time where it becomes easy and natural to use everything in your life only for the purpose of awakening.  Your purpose will shift from the outer goals of getting and achieving in the world, to the inner goal of remembering your true Self, and the only value the world will have for you is as a classroom for fulfilling your inner purpose.  As the Course says – forget not that the healing of God’s Son is all the world is for.  That is the only purpose the Holy Spirit sees in it, and thus the only one it has. (T-24.VI.4:1-2.)