Who Am I? What Am I Here To Do?

Fern

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How does one figure out the answers to these seemingly simple questions? For the last 13 years or so I have struggled to raise kids alone, put food on the table & keep a roof over our heads. Well, considering I have done that, I am at the top of Maslow's heirachary of needs... self actualization... and I'm sad to say I can't answer these basic questions...

Anyone out there want to share how you answered these questions? It's kind of scarry to realize that you don't even know yourself...

Fern:confused:
 
I have a funny suspicion that many people know - at least, suspect - why.

If I ask you now "Who are you, Fern," and "What are you here to do", what are the first thoughts to come into your mind?
 
I said:
I have a funny suspicion that many people know - at least, suspect - why.

If I ask you now "Who are you, Fern," and "What are you here to do", what are the first thoughts to come into your mind?

Perhaps that is the scariest part - Who am I? A working mother. What am I here to do? Raise my children to be strong, faithful members of God's world.

My problem is, my youngest is 16 - almost raised! And as a child, all I every wanted to do was be a wife & mother... Not a bad dream if I hadn't gotten divorced! LOL...

So now, I need to look for dream & purpose # 2...
 
Ah, I see - you're talking about how you need to re-evaluate to aim for new goals?

What would you most like to do in life after raising your children?
 
Namaste fern,

thank you for the topic and welcome to the forum :)

who am i?

well... that's a darn good question. there are two ways in which i can answer this question... a secular way and a religious way. in a secular sense, i am me.. that's it. nothing more or less. in my religions view, there is no "i" to be considered "me". "me" is an imputation of my ego and does not, in and of itself, constitute any part of my being.

in my tradition we engage in a type of practice where we rigiorously investigate these aspects of self to see if we can find anything that exists independently and permently.

why am i here?

another good question. does there have to be a reason? does the rose need a reason? does an ant need a reason?

in the Hinyana teachings of Buddhism, this is what is known as an "unthinkable" question, which really means that no proper answer will be able to be discovered and rather than waste your time in fruitless intellectual pursuits, one should devote themselves to the practice.

it is my own belief that i, as the person known as Vajradhara, am here because i chose to be reborn. this is a feature of the Mayahana and Vajrayana teachings that beings, known as Bodhisattvas, vow to help carry all sentient beings to the other shore and as such, through their compassion, they choose to be reborn in various locations to proclaim the Dharma. it is my belief that this is why i am here... to help every other sentient being in existence to reach the other shore... .to escape the cycle of old age, sickness, suffering and death.
 
Hi, Fern! Welcome to the Comparative Religion board!

Your questions are only among the deepest and most important of any we can ask ourselves. As such, I'd shy away from easy or superficial answers and from religious dogma.

One problem within this western culture of ours appears to be a tendency for us to confuse who we are with what we do. I'm a father, a husband, and a writer, but none of these separately or together tells me who I am.

"Why am I here?" is equally problematical. If we buy into the notion that what we do = who we are, then the answer is superficial and unsatisfying, i.e., I'm here to write more books and you, at least until now, were here to raise your kids.

And, unfortunately, for the majority of folks in the West, equating doing with being is just fine. Go to work to pay the rent and buy the groceries to shelter and feed the kids . . . it works for millions of people.

A few of us go deeper than this, however, and this is where our personal and individual concept of the Divine comes to the fore. Having a purpose in life implies that we either were put here for a reason, or that we chose to be born for a reason. Learning what that reason might be is the point, it seems to me, of our life's path, and goes a long way to answering the second of the two questions.

Who are you? I would say that you are an expression of the Divine on this world, here to learn, to grow, and to manifest the Divine in your life; you might say roughly the same thing by saying that your are a child of God.

Where you go from there, of course, is up to you!
 
WHKeith said:
Hi, Fern! Welcome to the Comparative Religion board!

Your questions are only among the deepest and most important of any we can ask ourselves. As such, I'd shy away from easy or superficial answers and from religious dogma.

One problem within this western culture of ours appears to be a tendency for us to confuse who we are with what we do. I'm a father, a husband, and a writer, but none of these separately or together tells me who I am.

"Why am I here?" is equally problematical. If we buy into the notion that what we do = who we are, then the answer is superficial and unsatisfying, i.e., I'm here to write more books and you, at least until now, were here to raise your kids.

And, unfortunately, for the majority of folks in the West, equating doing with being is just fine. Go to work to pay the rent and buy the groceries to shelter and feed the kids . . . it works for millions of people.

A few of us go deeper than this, however, and this is where our personal and individual concept of the Divine comes to the fore. Having a purpose in life implies that we either were put here for a reason, or that we chose to be born for a reason. Learning what that reason might be is the point, it seems to me, of our life's path, and goes a long way to answering the second of the two questions.

Who are you? I would say that you are an expression of the Divine on this world, here to learn, to grow, and to manifest the Divine in your life; you might say roughly the same thing by saying that your are a child of God.

Where you go from there, of course, is up to you!

Thanks for your response. As I travel down my own faith journey, I have often found it important and necessary to ask others how they got 'there' from 'here'. To that end, I have met a woman who appears to be content with the life she has chosen (or as she would say that God chose for her). I intend to ask her how she got 'here'.

I guess I am more interested in how one determines what their life path is - as I have in some ways felt over the last 20 years that I had no true choice in my path... for instance, I could be a working mother or my children would not eat - for me all choice was taken away.

I understand what you say when you mention that I am a 'child of God' & yes I do believe that - however for me right now, I need something more. I need to understand what God wants of me - of how I can contribute to this world... I am searching for some semblence of purpose I guess.
 
Hm, interesting philosophical questions. I'll try to answer them the best I can. :)

1. Who am I?
A1. Depends on who you ask and when. My particular pov changes with who I'm with, where I'm at and what is going on inside and around me. I'm a different person when I'm conversing with Yuri (an instructor here at school) than when I'm "conversing" with my brother, and still another when I'm conversing with Mary (another instructor here at school) or Oak Bear (a Druid I met through a local pagan "pub moot") or even Rabbi Pontos (his title says it all. ;))

2. Why am I here?
A2. Again, depends on who you ask and when. My personal pov is that I'm here to learn something, and (hopefully) to teach someone else what I've learned through experience or to show somebody else a different perspective on what s/he sees as "truth" (not that I believe in forcing my perspective of "truth" down someone else's proverbial throat, but :shrug:.)

Has that been of any assistance, Fern?

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
If you're a Christian, which it seems you are, you are a creation of God. You are part animal and part divine, and you are here to shed as much of the animal as you can, and embrace as much of the divine as you can.

As a Christian, I think our purpose is to align our will with God's will as much as possible, and to actualize Agape as much as we can. For it is only by enacting God's will, and aligning our happiness with our love of god, that we can be truly happy.
 
Good answer, Clive Staples.

Fern, you and I are on very different life paths, and I hesitate to give any specific advice for fear of giving offense. I used to be Christian; now I'm Wiccan.

There. If THAT hasn't scared you off, let me say that my world view is such that I try to be in tune with the world around me, believing that Deity--however we perceive Him/Her/It--quite literally shapes the universe around us, and that we have a very large hand in that shaping. From this standpoint, we hear Deity's voice through Jungian synchronicity--coincidence if you will--as revealed through the fall of a card in divination, or the sign given through nature at a key instant, or in the words of that person who just happened to walk into our life at that moment and tell us what we needed to know.

That's less than helpful for a Christian, I know. When I was a (somewhat fanatical) Christian, I spent a lot of time wondering how to know God's will. (And, yes, I was known to play Bible Roulette at times--flipping the Bible open at random to see if God would speak clearly to me in that fashion--a thoroughly pagan way of thinkiing, I fear!)

How do we truly know God's will?

With respect to Clive Staples, that, it seems to me, is the one problem here--how do you know what God's will is specifically for you?

I like what he says about actualizing agape. Show your love by loving in a tangible way--what James refered to as being justified by works, and not by faith alone. But to know God's heart? To hear what he has to say to you alone? We're pretty much left to that "still, small voice" of Elijah mentioned in I Kings.

If I may so presume, I think Clive Staples and I are on the same frequency in an important respect. Both of us seek to align ourselves with Divine will. In my experience, sincerely asking the Divine to reveal that will, and then seeking to be open yourself to hearing what He has to say, is the only way we have to go. Opening yourself means, in part, being aware of how God MIGHT be speaking--in the words of a trusted friend, in the stirring in your heart, in a feeling of rightness and peace. Sometimes, we need to make up something we think is right and take a bold step of faith in that direction . . . trusting that if we're wrong, He'll show us where to go.

And often it turns out that the journey is what's important; it's not that God NEEDS us to be a missionary in Africa or a preacher in Idaho or to convert to another religion entirely . . . but what we learn and how we grow along the way.

I wish you glorious success and happiness in your quest!
 
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