Modest Proposals

August 11, 2002

A Modest Proposal - Question #3: Why am I here?

Hello again,

Thanks once more for the responses to last month's article about the second of three questions used by shamans to assist someone in healing: "Where did I come from?" There were a LOT of interesting answers proving through their variety and ingenuity that there are no "wrong" answers. To all of you who answered the question in whatever fashion, I honor you for taking the journey.

I promised that I would provide my own answer to the question. At first reading, my answer may seem a cop out. "Where did I come from?" Answer: "I have always been." The question seems to me be one of misdirection in assuming an origin. I am, as are you, pure energy existing at this time in the vibrations that constitute a human being. I got to this by simply backtracking my human existence from adult to child to infant to embryo to unmated sperm and egg to cells to genes to DNA to… energy that forever was, is, and will be. I think that the design of the question by ancient shamans was to create an exercise that takes a person back to this conclusion. To have always been places each of us in a perspective that transcends our humanness and surely calls forth the fact that we are all the same, all connected.

Please once more remember that any answer you make is the right one for you for now. It may change tomorrow or the next day, or the next… The value lies not in the answer but in the process of getting to an answer. If you want to really get the meat (or vegetable for vegetarians) of all three of these questions, examining how you get to the answers is it.

This brings us to the third and final question, "Why am I here?"- to be wealthy, handsome, powerful, and admired? I don't think so. There is nothing "wrong" with any of these. Having any or all of these qualities is not unspiritual either. It is what do we do with these gifts or attributes when we do have them. That is the nature of the inquiry, I think. You have whatever you have in terms of physical, intellectual, and emotional attributes. They largely define our lives. I ask you, "What do you really do with them?" What have you accomplished in this life? What remains undone if anything? What are your true passions, the ones that are in your highest and best interest? These are the kinds of follow-on questions that will help answer why you are here. The two givens in life are birth and death. All that lies between defines who we are/were in life.

The awesome demands that our bodies and our humanity placed on our consciousnesses make it difficult, sometimes very difficult, to have awareness of why each of us as individuals IS here. I can tell you why I am here, and I will do next month once again in the spirit of not influencing your answer. Why I am here has nothing to do with why you are here even though the two might end up at the same place. Why is this? We each have our own path, and some of our paths may end up at the same destination. We are told time and again that it is not the destination but the journey that matters. For me this is easy to understand for the simple reason that placing attention on the destination is to live in the future while the greatest satisfaction in living is in the awareness of the moment.

Think about this. How many times in your life have you said, "If I could (be, do, have) "something," then I will truly be content and happy?" So, you plan, work hard, stay focused on the goal, and achieve whatever it is. There is a brief orgasmic moment of satisfaction and then what happens? There is another goal to achieve, and the one just accomplished no longer has the appeal that it had before its achievement. There is another saying something like, "Anticipation is greater than realization." I think that it is also true and part of the same phenomenon - when anticipating, the outcome is always perfect, and the longer it takes to get there, the more pleasure in imagining what the end result will be. When the end result occurs (if it at all), then it is over and done with (and the result may not be what was imagined), and the "what's next" question arises.

Before I published my first (and only to date) book, I was full of anticipation and daydreams of what it was going to be like to be a "published" author. I wrote query letters and proposals, researched possible publishers, did mass mailings, set up a tracking log for the materials that I sent out, and haunted my mailbox. After months of rejections and seeing the Result column of my log filling up with "Rejected," I got a phone call from a publisher who wanted to publish the book. Out came the champagne, phone calls were made to close friends and family, I had arrived. The euphoria lasted for a few weeks (this was a lifelong ambition so it took longer to dissipate) then the reality of the process of publishing set it. The book did come out, much later than promised, and although it sold a few thousand copies, I never received a penny in royalties as the publisher embezzled his own company of royalty accumulations and fled the country. Believe me the anticipation was much sweeter than the reality.

Had I been in the moment with all of the activities associated with writing and publishing the book, the same chain of events with the same conclusion would have resulted in a much different experience for me because of being in the moment and not being attached to the outcome. I suggest that if you answer the question, "Why am I here?" from the perspective of how you spend your moments rather than focusing on future goals, the process of answering the question will yield a lot of insight into you.

Once more, I cop out until next month to give you my response to the question. Ah, as for you, give it a go. I guarantee you that if you fully put yourself into the following exercise, then you will derive a lot of value from doing so. Here are a few guidelines.

***Answering: "Why am I here?"***
1. Any answer is correct and write your answer down so you can compare it to the next time you answer where did I come from?
2. Take a few deep breaths. Ask yourself aloud (if not environmentally embarrassing), "Why am I here?"
3. Take whatever comes and write it down. Look at the words. If you described that you are here to have as many toys as you can before you die, then that is a correct answer.
4. You can keep playing with this and getting more answers until at some point, you may shift to considering how you spend your moments: are they in appreciating the here and now, or are they whispers of what might (or might not) be.
5. The key here is to get to how you relate to the Universe, and maybe you are relating to the Universe as the greatest toy collector in history. If you are, that's OK, because that's how you define yourself at the time. It may also motivate you to be more in the moment and simply appreciate it for what it is and not what it promises.
6. Repeat every few days, weeks, or months until your answer keeps coming up the same. Then you will know why you TRULY are here!

Comments and counter proposals are welcome. Please email ron@RonMcCray.com.

In the Light...Ron

 

Email Ron: Ron@RonMcCray.com

© Ron McCray 2002 - 2004