Musings: On Purpose: Finding Your Unique Path to Peace and Fulfillment
“Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” – Helen Keller
All cultures, all nationalities, all people suffer losses and hard hits. Some painful experiences are totally devastating such as losing a child or a loved one. Many people are not able to bounce back from these hits. But does this have to be the case? I think not.
In my own devastating experience, I was inspired in a discussion with my friend and spiritual mentor Azim Jamal who started me on my comeback journey when my son Tariq passed. More specifically, his advice was to create spiritual currency for Tariq by doing good and compassionate deeds in Tariq’s name, which became the inspiration to start the Tariq Khamisa Foundation. My friend explained that these compassionate deeds would provide high-octane fuel for Tariq’s journey in the next world.
When my friend and I met last April in Vancouver, he suggested that my 22-year journey inspired by Tariq’s passing would provide much solace, healing and potentially purpose to others who may be looking for a meaning within their loss or hits. This culminated in an idea to create a talk on the topic of supporting others into their higher purpose. That talk topic is called: “On Purpose: Finding Your Unique Path to Peace and Fulfillment.”
In my book “The Secrets of the Bulletproof Spirit,” Chapter 5 focuses on “Hits are what it’s all about.”
We all experience hard hits in life, but are we truly prepared to see these phases in our lives as an opportunity for growth and a chance to increase our spiritual resiliency. In that chapter I wrote:
“No matter how things seem on the surface, heartbreak and loss are integral part of the universe’s benevolent unfolding. The key word here is integral – bullets are built into the very fabric of life, and they are an essential element of the human experience and not, as many people believe, an aberration from the normal course of events. They are as necessary to the wholeness of life as are blessings – spiritually resilient people understand that hits are not just things that get in the way of ‘real life;’ they are really what life is all about. On the other hand, spiritually fragile people are often shocked and resentful when life disappoints them. But expecting to go through life without facing serious hurdles or heartbreaks is like trying to play football and not get tackled – it ain’t happening.”
The Tibetan Buddhists espouse the concept of the Bardo: a transition or gap between the completion of one situation and onset of another, from “bar” meaning “in between” and “do” meaning “suspended” or “thrown.”
There are many Bardos in life: birth, adolescence, graduation, fist job, first car, first love, first heartbreak, getting fired from a job, marriage, divorce, loss of a loved one and many other tough spots in one’s life. Every saint has had a dark night of the soul.
When you look back at your life you might find that during these tough spots you experienced the most real growth. In these moments, you maybe even found your purpose. Spiritually evolved people understand that everything that happens to you – you attract! In other words when life hands you a hard hit – the question you must ask is NOT “why me” but rather “why did I attract this to me?” Of course, the answers you get to the later question will be where you find spiritual growth and meaning.
I believe we all have a spiritual purpose, and sometimes it is through these hard hits that we are able to discover our life purpose. The key is to make the right decision. We all experience joyous and sad events in our lives. At these defining moments in our lives if we are able to make the right choices we literally manifest transformation in ourselves and others. So how do we make the right choice?
Relying only on the intellect – it is difficult to make the right choice as the mind will often justify most anything. A good friend of mine warns that a mind is a dangerous place to go by yourself. Those more evolved will include the heart when making a decision. While this is better approach, it is still not in my view complete because the heart is where emotions reside, a place where we all can get carried away.
So when I have a difficult challenge to navigate, I seek internal spiritual guidance. We all have access to the Universe that resides within – that loves us, protects us and upon invitation guides us. In life, you will get problems that your intellect will not be able to solve or your hearts will not be able to heal. Einstein said, “We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality – it cannot lead; it can only serve.”
However, there are NO problems you will encounter that your spirit cannot solve or heal – if you have a strong spiritual foundation. In my Bulletproof Spirit book, there are 30 chapters that teach how to beef up your spiritual resilience.
A quick exercise when you are faced with a difficult decision to make is to employ this helpful process:
- First go to your intellect and ask the question, “Does this make sense?” – the intellect is an analytical faculty and can look at the pros and cons of any situation.
- If it makes sense go to your heart and ask the question, “Does it feel right – does it feel fair?” We all have a sense of what is fair
- If it does feel right and fair go to your spirit and ask the question “Is it inspiring?” In other words, will others follow my example? This third step is what many of us do not do. We all have made decisions that we thought made a lot of sense and felt good, but later asked, “Why did I do that?” If you get in the habit of doing the 3rd step – which is seeking internal guidance – I believe that decision will always be the right one, as spirit does not make decisions that are not in the highest good for you, the other person and the universe.
To strengthen the internal guidance is to create a daily practice of stillness and meditation. In the stillness, there is clarity and wisdom.
For those who want to create a daily meditation practice there is a free guided mediation download on my website (LINK). My own daily practice is to meditate for two hours wherein I get my guidance, inspiration and answers. (Full meditation practice explained in “Preamble” link HERE.) With daily practice, this practice will strengthen your spiritual resiliency and may also help you discover your purpose. It did for me!
And since I was given such a gift, even through the painful Bardos, I wanted to make sure others were supported as well in finding their light in the dark, their strength through the struggle and their purpose through the pain.
Blessings on your journey to manifest your highest intentions and purposes.
Azim Khamisa
Posted in Monthly Musings, News
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