“Life doesn’t need a reason to be. That is its beauty.”

– Jean Klein

“See, that’s the real issue,” I said as I heard my clients voice go silent. “You believe you need to have a set purpose for your life and you’re not even noticing that you’re making all of this up.”

I could tell she didn’t like that.

“Your sense of lack here is coming from the idea that something is missing in your life, this elusive thing you’re calling ‘purpose’ or ‘meaning.’ But purpose and meaning are purely in the realm of the psychological, not the existential.”

“Wait. What do you mean? Explain that.” she said.

“Take a moment to notice this. Ask yourself:

Without using thoughts, language, images, memories, perceptions, beliefs, feelings or concepts… what is purpose?”

She fell silent.

“Let’s go further. Ask yourself:

Without using thoughts, language, images, memories, perceptions, beliefs, feelings or concepts… is there such a thing as purpose?”

A lightness came over her.

“I see. Purpose is just an idea.”

“Yes!” I cried out. “Meaning and purpose are mind-made concepts. And when you start to take your ideas too seriously, you disengage from the fullness of your existence, you disengage from reality and obscure it with your thoughts.”

She took a deep breath.

“The truth is…

Life… this very moment …is beyond all the meaning you could ever come up with.

It’s so much more beautiful than any conceptual sense of purpose. Life is real. Your ideas about it are not. Your ideas about life can be anything you want them to be. But life is beyond all of that.”

I could sense her body begin to relax as most bodies do when unnecessary baggage is being dropped.

“You see, you aren’t missing anything. You can’t be lacking something that is imaginary. You don’t need to define life. You don’t have to give it meaning. Simply live it. Live it fully and as the free, unlimited Being that you are. Don’t create limitations where none exist, and your life will be a blessing to all.”

Her eyes sparkled. What more was there to say?