The Purpose of Life
Is the Expansion of Happiness

Aristotle: Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. (See Happiness Quotes )

The source of life

The very source of life itself is - according to human understanding, experience and insight - a field of pure bliss. In Vedic wisdom it is described as Sat Chit Ananada, which can be translated into English as Absolute Bliss Consciousness.

That source of all that is has also been called the unified field of pure potentiality and natural law. Many would refer to this source as God.

Others have used other names to label that which is impossible to describe, such as, for example: All That Is, Pure Being, Source Energy. (But let’s not get bogged down with semantics and labels. Use whatever name works for you.)

The impulse of Source to manifest and create

From that undifferentiated source – 'is-ness' – emerges the impulse to expand the is-ness and therefore to expand the bliss of pure Being.

From a human perspective, Source manifests and creates ‘form’. It does this from its own ‘Beingness’, with the express purpose of expanding its own nature, which is absolute bliss consciousness.

This is, indeed the purpose of life itself, right from the 'beginning' of manifestation.

So those words of Aristotle's have a much deeper meaning than may first be apparent.

Analogy: taking a warm bath

Have you ever been lying in a warm bath, quite still, just enjoying the quietness and the warmth of the water? Then you notice that you can’t actually feel the warmth anymore; you’ve been lying so still.

The water touching your skin is so still that it feels as if it has almost blended with your skin so that there is no longer that feeling of separation.

Your skin is here, and the warm water is here, and you can ‘sort of’ feel the difference - or the warmth of the water. It is almost as if the water in the bath has cooled a bit and you wish to feel the warmth again.

So you stir a little: you move your arms and perhaps your legs too. You want to experience your warmth more. You want to feel the warmth that you know is already there. And so you do. The pleasure of the warmth expands as the movement and aliveness add to your joy and pleasure.

That analogy may help – in a rather basic, ‘crude’ way - to clarify how and why the source of life stirs to expand its own nature, bliss.

How do we humans fit into this?

from The Purpose of Life to
The Purpose of Human Life

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