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Through reference to classical works of literature, an attempt will be made to define this author's understanding of the purpose of human life. The existential situation for all beings with the capacity for self-reflection can be full of wonder, fear, or any number of other reactions. Differing reactions lead to differing comprehensions of life's meaning, and thusly, there is no inherent or objective meaning of life. Each being has the freedom to choose its own disposition towards its perception of reality. This freedom allows the individual to create its own meaning for its own life. To arrive at a psychological or spiritual position where one is able to perform such a feat in the most pragmatic manner is the purpose of life.
To obtain the mind-frame of a self-realized being, one must transcend the egoic mind by first releasing itself of the death-terror found in all sentient creatures. This death anxiety is known as angst, an existential crisis where one becomes aware of the threat of non-being. After conquering this fear, one must begin to free oneself from past negative karmic ties. Only then can one completely, if only momentarily, touch the numinous. This moment of enlightenment is the endpoint of the drive of life's purpose where one finally has acquired the tools necessary to properly negotiate his or her own perception of reality and create the meaning of one's choosing. This process is allegorically expounded within Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, as witnessed through his travel through the Inferno (conquering angst), Purgatorio (the clearing of karmic debt), and finally Paradiso (transcendence). In Canto XXXIII of Paradiso, Dante says, "This is a man who from the deepest pit of all the universe up to this height has witnessed, one by one, the lives of souls, who begs you that you grant him through your grace the power to raise his vision higher still to penetrate the final blessedness." This is the purpose of life.
The writings of Michel de Montaigne exist due to his persistence in self-examination. As Zen Master Dogen said, "To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened." Montaigne is pursuing this path, and in Of the Power of the Imagination, he writes, "A strong imagination creates the events." As stated previously, the individual creates his own meaning in life. Stripped bare of all things, to choose one's outlook remains the only freedom. Montaigne concludes, "If I took a subject that would lead me along, I might not be able to measure up to it; and with my freedom being so very free, I might publish judgments which, even according to my own opinion and to reason, would be illegitimate and punishable." He acknowledges his freedom to choose, yet is wary to choose recklessly. This recklessness falls away with the completion of life's purpose, leaving one well equipped to make his choice.
Joseph Campbell believes the primary function of mythology is "the reconciliation of consciousness to the preconditions of its own existence." The reconcilation is the trip through Purgatorio, the cooking of subconscious seeds. Transcendence of the relative to the Absolute is the return to the preconditions of consciousness. One may only need give a cursory glance towards works such as Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Homer's The Odyssey, and Abul Hasan Ibn Al-Qabturnuh's "In Battle" to see this theme, this author's proposed purpose of life.
Viktor Frankl, concerning his time spent in an Auschwitz internment camp during the Second World War, wrote, "They may be few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Friedrich Nietzsche said, "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." The choice is the purpose, and the why is the meaning. Life's meaning is not an objective answer shared by all beings. Each must determine their own why. Only in this way does one live a genuine and authentic life. Each individual is free to choose his life's own meaning. To competently pursue this task unmediated is life's purpose.
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For more information on existential topics, such as how to discover the meaning of life, please visit Jared B. Hobbs at his blog Meditations and become a Scholar of Consciousness!
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