The Tibetan Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rinpoche has an interesting concept called 'Western laziness', which basically describes the clever way in which we burden ourselves with so many things to do and obligations to fulfil so that we will never have a moment to question what it is all about. Because the truth is, facing that question can be one of the scariest things of all.

However, the main reason the question is so scary is that we try to approach it with our mind. The French philosopher René Descartes is famous for his statement "Cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am). However, what is less known the means by which he arrived at that conclusion, and which definitely gives a more incisive view into what actually goes on in our minds every day. Descartes started his enquiry by doubting everything - in fact the only thing he was sure of was that he doubted. From that he drew the conclusion that he thought, and hence he came up with his famous statement (this line of reasoning seems more than a little shaky to me, but that's a subject for another article). But this line of thought does illustrate one clear fact - the thing that comes most easy to the mind is not thinking, it is doubting. And no matter what idea we have as regards what the purpose of life might be, the mind is always on hand to analyse it, chop it up into categorizable pieces and then chuck the pieces in the garbage bin.

And yet, there is a little voice inside us, deep inside our hearts, which knows this life is so much more than mere eating, working, procreating and dying. As a child we have this innocent trusting faith in the world and human goodness, which slowly recedes as our mind becomes developed, and gravitates towards a more negative view of the world (as newspapers know all too well) that makes it very hard to see the vast amount of human kindness and empathy and love that is actually out there. But still, buried under layers of scepticism and suspicion, a spark of that inner voice lies inside every one of us, which knows such things as happiness and peace and perfection are absolutely possible, which somehow yearns for utopia and knows about it at the same time. Many different cultures have given different terms to this reality inside us - the higher Self, the soul, the inner buddha, the message of God inside us - but no matter what term you are comfortable with, it's certainly a good place to start embarking upon this journey of finding your purpose in life. "Your vision will become clear only when you look inside your heart", Carl Jung once wrote. "Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens."

The process of getting in touch with this inner being is called meditation. We have all had meditative moments in our lives - if you are a musician, you probably have had that experience where the music just takes you completely beyond the the mind; similarly top athletes talk about a zone where all the mental clutter stops and they can feel what it is like to just be in the moment focusing solely. Or perhaps it was looking at a sunset or a beautiful child that made the mind just stop, so this beautiful inner reality could come to the fore just even for a moment. What meditation does is enable you to access this inner reality on a more frequent, and ultimately continuous basis. "When we go deep within, we approach our true existence and that existence is in our soul, in the inmost recesses of our soul", explains meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy. "When we live in the soul, we feel that we are actually, spontaneously doing meditation."

There is almost certainly a meditation group near you if you are living in a town of any size which might hold introductory meditation classes, and there are many sites dedicated to meditation (including this site, which has quite a few meditation articles). As your meditation deepens, you learn to trust this inner voice more, and take decisions according to the feeling you get from it. As opportunities arise in life, this inner voice will be able to tell you if this opportunity is the right one for you.

But sometimes following this inner wisdom can take you out of your comfort zone - perhaps suggesting a job change, or a course of action which involves jettisoning some of the security you have built up - in these cases, you really do have to do the brave thing and take the side of your dreams against your hesitating mind. As former Czech president Vaclav Havel once said "Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture". We are all unique, and similarly the purpose our life is supposed to have is unique too. If you don't find your purpose in life and live it out, no-one else will be able to manifest that purpose in the unique way that you would have. The dream simply remains unfulfilled, and the world is a poorer place for it.

Our purposes may be unique, but there is one unifying factor they all share - true happiness comes when in some way we work for the happiness of others. "The only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found how to serve", wrote Albert Schweitzer. When we look around, we see the happiest people are those who offer their talents to others through creativity or sport or just plain giving their time. When we give to others, our heart expands and our faith in human goodness is restored. A life based around giving takes us outside the realm of the self-centred mind and makes us connect with the world around us in a way that offers real meaning to life.

(Photo of Iguazu Falls, Brazil, taken by Kedar Misani)