Some reflections on the purpose of my life and my beliefs about the meaning of existence
This couldn’t be more perfectly timed for the Gregorian date of Bahá’u’lláh’s birthday.
I have 125, 000 ideas brewing for 125, 000 posts about 125, 000 different things, but my life is too poorly organized right now for me to have been able to write them. It’s a frustrating business. But there’s no way in hell that I was ever possibly finna let the 12th of November, which is the Gregorian date of the birth of the Prophet Bahá’u’lláh (the Man I believe to be the return of Jesus the Christ of Nazareth in the glory of the Father) pass without a post. I hope this reflection on my worldview, which I wrote back in October in response to an inquiry by a friend of mine named Bartlett, will do.
Bartlett was so moved by the message I left him for his birthday, in which I went on at length about how wonderful I think he is, that he asked me, “How is it possible that you’re so loving and cheerful all the time? How can it possibly be the case that people like you exist?”
I decided to give him an honest answer! Here’s what I said:
“Bartlett, the answer to “How do people like me exist?” is actually very simple.
I’m very flawed, and sometimes I can be an asshole, just like anyone else. But for the most part, my belief is that love, warmth, affection, tenderness, compassion, radiance, goodwill, joy, and light are the correct direction in which to orient a human soul. I believe that the purpose of human life is to develop virtue, and to learn to be kind and loving. I think every human being has the capacity to be honourable and virtuous – we are all born with it. My attitude towards other human beings comes from the baseline assumption that every person has the capacity to be wonderful, if only they cultivate and develop those qualities. In theory, every single person is a beautiful soul – every person in the history of humanity. I happen to believe in God, Whom I believe wants His creatures to be omnibenevolent and to treat each other with tenderness, and the Bahá’í Writings talk a lot about how important it is to treat other people with such total lovingkindness that they’re astonished by how good you are to them. They also contend that love is literally the reason why the universe exists, in the sense that on some cosmic level, love is the substance that knits the atoms together, and is also the nature of the Holy Spirit. Here’s a relevant passage from the Bahá’í Scriptures:
“Know, O thou who art inebriated with the wine of divine love and affection, that the station of these – love and affection – soars above the world of computation and description. Even those who understand the hidden secrets and those who know the symbols of primary oneness have not breathed nor drunk one particle from the reality of this divine subtlety, this eternal mystery. This love and affection are identical to the essence of the Absolute, and are not separate from or additional to it. And it is this love and affection which, as a result of the effulgences of this hidden divine love, have been kindled in the hearts and souls of the lovers of the Glorious Perfection, and have burned away all veils and hindrances with their radiant heat, to the extent that nothing – nothing! – is left of the reality of the lovers except the remembrance of the Friend. And thusly the banner of power and might is elevated upon the hills of these evanescent shadows.”
Here’s another:
“Love is heaven’s kindly light, the Holy Spirit’s eternal breath, which vivifieth the human soul. It is the cause of God's revelation unto man, the thing which assureth the progress of every illumined soul, the living link that uniteth God with humankind. Love is the vital bond inherent in the realities of things, the supreme magnetic force which revealeth, with unfailing and limitless power, the mysteries latent in the universe. O ye beloved of the Lord! Strive to become the manifestations of the love of God, the lamps of divine guidance shining amongst the kindreds of the earth with the light of love and concord. All hail to the revealers of this glorious light! Know thou of a certainty – love is the secret! Love is the secret! Love is the secret!”
But I’ve believed all of this on secular principle since before I became a Bahá’í! Love and kindness and compassion and tenderness and related virtues are the purpose of human existence, the reason why consciousness is even a thing at all, on both an ontological level and a moral one. And it also happens to be the case that I don’t consider anything to be more fun than to glow with love and affection for pretty much anyone who is willing to accept it! I try to be maximally kind and loving, all the time, under as many circumstances as I can possibly get away with! That is the purpose of my life, and that is the essence of the way I have chosen to live. That’s how people like myself exist.”