The Meaning of Life - Part I By Ross Bishop

If you ask people why they are here, they really can’t tell you. We do not understand what we are doing here or why we have come. We go through our days doing the best we can, with little connection to our sense of purpose. It seems futile to put people here to be unhappy and stifle their passion, yet that is what happens.

First, as science maintains, did humans just develop on Earth through cosmic happenstance? Were we just incredibly lucky hunks of protoplasm that happened to develop an incredibly complex and integrated system of life, along with the millions of other creatures and the whole interrelated bio-system on this one remote planet? Doesn’t that seem a little implausible? Or, as Hindus maintain, is there a greater purpose to our being here? We are going to explore that question, and the answer is not what you probably think it is. 

To understand LIFE, we have to shift our perspective and see things from a much wider frame of reference, i.e., The Creator’s point of view. The human outlook is simply too limited and fear-based. A puzzle or a riddle is baffling until you figure it out. Life is puzzling until you see it from that broader perspective.

In that same light, becoming enlightened is perplexing, largely because we do not understand it. The Creator created LIFE as a workshop - an environment - that would challenge us to find the truth about ourselves. That is what LIFE is about. The Creator has enrolled us in a unique learning environment with a remarkable curriculum and an unconventional learning process. Nothing about the process is accidental. Nothing is random.

In our “undeveloped” state, we have a tendency to get pulled off center. You see, you do not know who you really are. And because you do not know, that void becomes filled with self-doubt and insecurity. You embrace “dark” thoughts about yourself such as unworthiness, un-lovability, etc., which stands in stark contrast to the truth. 

The conflict between what we believe and the truth causes us no end of difficulty. It makes being at peace very difficult. It is tiring to stay calm when life constantly pushes on you. And the process of resolving that conflict can be difficult, but it plays an essential role in our development. It will eventually lead to our (understanding.)

If you feel you are unworthy or unlovable, it is difficult to stand in the sunlight when you don’t feel that you deserve it. You have to constantly be on the lookout for the next insult or put down.

Why are we so powerless against these forces that so profoundly affect and, in many cases, control our lives? We are told that being happy is possible, but, as I say, we find that achieving it can be quite difficult. We would be happy to become enlightened if it didn’t require us to go through the dark swamp of our shadow selves, and that is where things start to come apart.

Most people settle into a marginally satisfying routine and get by as best they can, blaming themselves for their inadequacies and failures, filling themselves with self-condemnation and self-criticism and creating lives that fall far short of their potential.

People don’t want to believe that happiness is a choice because that then makes them responsible for the outcome. And living from their false beliefs gives them an out. You don’t have to step up if you are defective. You get to duck from having to expose your vulnerable places. And if you believe that you are unworthy or unlovable, you certainly would not want to put your worth to the test because, after all, what if your belief turned out to be true? The thing is, those vulnerable places exist only in your mind. They are fictions created by your beliefs!

Adding to the confusion is our free will. Because of free will, The Creator could not simply give us worthiness or self-love. As a result, anything you achieve must be accomplished through your conscious choice. You have to make the choice - decide for yourself - that you are worthy and lovable.

Whether you realize it or not, each step of your life process has been carefully designed to nudge you to find your way home. You are being helped to find the place where your truth and happiness reside. It is a bumpy path because we primarily learn by making mistakes!

More in Part II.

About Ross Bishop: I became a healer as an outgrowth of my own need for healing. My pain and dissatisfaction with my life brought me to leave the corporate world and begin a journey to find and root out the sources of the considerable pain I carried within myself. I found western psychology to be woefully inadequate to help me and so I set out to find more meaningful answers. 

My teachers all encouraged me after working on my own stuff to go outside myself and help others to heal, not as a humanitarian service but as a way to deepen my own healing process. I found that I had a gift for the work and that my teachers were absolutely right. Serving others is a remarkable learning process. My clients over the last 25 years have taken me to places I could not have gone on my own. I am deeply grateful for the gifts of personal growth that our work together has given me. 

In a former life, Ross was president of an advertising agency and a communications executive for the former Northern States Power Company (NSP) in Minneapolis. After leaving NSP, with a colleague he founded Creative Power Workshops and traveled the country teaching creative thinking to advertising writers and art directors. Seeing the limitations fear placed on people’s creative passion led Ross to undertake a spiritual journey in search of answers. That journey covered many miles and several years and brought him to many teachers. Finding some answers, Ross also found he possessed a natural gift for shamanic healing. He returned to this country and conducted vision quests for spiritual pilgrims throughout the Southwestern United States. Today he concentrates his energies on writing and on an active healing and counseling practice in Santa Fe. 

Ross Bishop’s website: https://www.rossbishop.com/