I’ve been teaching meditation all my adult life, but meditation is not the goal. Meditation is for you to fulfill your purpose in life. In this blog, I describe how you can use meditation to live the life you truly want. I call it Universal Manifestation.
It is Universal Manifestation because it’s based in the universe, for the good of the universe, and is done by the universe—with you as the instrument of the universe fulfilling itself. So you are the first beneficiary.
Over the years, many people have come to me looking to fulfill their desires. Often they have concrete goals, usually related to money, love, or health. Mostly money. I had one fellow come to me who wanted to learn the siddhis to get money, lots of it, for purposes he freely admitted were selfish. He said he wanted a yacht, houses around the world, and lots of beautiful women. Not just one or even a few. Lots! And they all had to be beautiful.
I told him the siddhis don’t work that way. You can’t desire from your ego. You must manifest from universal consciousness, which is your higher Self. He wasn’t interested in that.
Most approaches to manifestation I’ve seen cater to achieving specific desires. Desires, as we will see, are the product of the ego/mind and therefore are isolated from the wholeness of life. That’s why they are by nature difficult to manifest. They typically require considerable effort on your part. Even if you manage to achieve them, it will only bring fleeting happiness. Such systems of manifestation are therefore only partial solutions to gaining partial happiness and are only minimally effective.
Universal manifestation is wholistic in the highest sense: It not only considers you as a whole person, but you in relation to the whole universe, the wholeness of life. It is based on realizing your unique place and purpose in the universe. It is based on manifesting from your higher, universal Self. It also aligns you with the full power and intelligence of the universe. For this reason, Universal Manifestation is more than about satisfying desires, which can still leave you empty. It is about fulfilling you on all levels of your life. Sound too good to be true? I know. Read on.
Briefly, here are the steps of Universal Manifestation that I’ll be covering:
Universal Manifestation is not a chore. It’s not even something you do apart from the routine of your daily life. It IS your life, and it is pure joy. As the sages say, life is divine bliss. That means your life, too, is bliss. Universal Manifestation is the means to live it.
What is the relationship between Universal Manifestation and Meditation?
Universal Manifestation is applied meditation. It is making your life a profound meditation. In fact, the first 3 steps are explicitly rooted in meditation, in going deep within yourself to the core of your Being, your higher Self. That’s the basis of Universal Manifestation.
On this website, effortlessmindmeditation.com, you’ll find meditation courses that are especially effective and powerful tools that allow you to live Universal Manifestation.
What is your purpose? What are you meant to contribute to others? What is your unique role to play in relation to the wholeness of life?
Discovering the answer to these questions is the first step of Universal Manifestation. It is an important journey of self-knowledge. If you are one of the blessed few, you may already have a deep sense that you are living your purpose. You may already know what you uniquely contribute to others, to life, to the universe. If so, great! Most of us, though, are in the process of that discovery.
Either way, it is important to check in from time to time, as your purpose will almost surely evolve. The universe is not stagnant; it is ever expanding, and so are you.
Before going into step one in detail, it’s worth looking at a concept that I just love: dependent origination. It gives a beautiful foundation for understanding this first step of Universal Manifestation.
Dependent origination is a Buddhist concept. I’m not Buddhist, but I still love this concept. Essentially, it is that things don’t exist as we think they do, as having a separate independent existence. Take the example of a tree for instance. If it truly had its own independent existence, you should be able to imagine it existing outside the universe. However, the tree exists in complete dependence upon everything else in the universe. The tree needs soil, nutrients, water, air, and so on. These in turn originate from vast cosmic processes. In fact, the tree is actually made of stardust! (So are we!)
Of course this isn’t only true of a tree. Everything exists in relation to everything else in the universe. Everything is dependent upon everything else in the universe. Implicit within the existence of anything is the existence of everything. Every atom is an essential part of the wholeness of life, and the wholeness of life is implied in every atom of existence.
Now, apply this principle of dependent origination to you. You do not have an existence independent of the universe. The universe gave rise to you. You are a unique part of the whole of existence, and within you is implicit the whole universe.
What, then, is your unique role, your contribution to the universe? You have a unique role to play by the very fact of your existence as a point in the universe. What is it? What is your essence in service to the whole?
By now, you’re probably starting to glean that Universal Manifestation is about manifesting your essence in service. That can mean almost anything that makes a positive contribution to other people, other beings, to our planet perhaps. It’s completely open-ended. Bottom line, though, this means that Universal Manifestation is an expression of love—love for yourself and for the world, love for others, love for life. So Universal Manifestation could also be called Loving Manifestation or Compassionate Manifestation. It’s manifestation in harmony with the wholeness of life. It is the universe manifesting through you. That is the ultimate secret why Universal Manifestation is fulfilling.
So whether you know it or not at this point in your life, your purpose is not only for your own happiness. Your purpose is much more profound than that.
Here’s the reason your purpose is not really about your personal happiness. Once you’ve realized your higher Self, you are established in eternal bliss consciousness. At that point, you need nothing more to add to your happiness. But strangely enough, there is more…
As you begin to fulfill your purpose in relation to the universe, the universe starts pouring divine intelligence, bliss, and love into the world through you. This is far greater than just sitting in bliss consciousness. It is living a blessed life.
So how do you find your unique contribution in service to the universe? It’s going to be the great, joyful, intuitive challenge of your life. It requires that you go to a subtle level of your being to profoundly connect with yourself, the universe, and the divine. Only then can you discern your unique gift and purpose that you can bring in service. You must become a seer, a rishi, of the essence of your own life in relation to the universe.
Yet that is only the beginning. Any inspiration you receive in meditation as to your purpose will be refined as you take action (step 4 of Universal Manifestation). In fact, your purpose is revealed over time in the interplay of all 5 steps. It is revealed as you live Universal Manifestation. In fact, though you may think you see your full purpose, do not be surprised if you only realize your purpose fully as you approach the end of your life.
But you must begin somewhere. Why not now? Use deep meditation, prayer, vision boarding, whatever it takes. Put the question into your consciousness and the universe and see what comes back to you. Your purpose won’t become clear in one sitting, but that’s okay. Take your time. Let any initial inspiration that comes incubate and mature. When it seems appropriate, act and see what life reflects back to you. Finding your purpose is a continual discovery of the journey that is your life.
Step two, manifesting from the finest level of consciousness, is closely related to step one. Here, though, the universe starts to give rise to the creativity that will give birth to your purpose. Where does that creativity come from? From your higher Self. From the infinite Source within you. From the universe within you and around you. That creativity is not generated by your desires. It is the inspiration of the universe flowing through you.
This is a fascinating and critical point to note: You don’t manifest desires from the finest level of consciousness. You can’t. Why? Because at the finest level of thought, you are already fulfilled.
The finest level of thought is on verge of transcending individuality and abiding as the universal Self, which is pure bliss consciousness. When you are bliss, you cannot experience personal desire. Instead, what you experience are flows of creative intelligence emerging from the infinite ground of pure Being.
Because these particular currents of creative intelligence are flowing through you, they are aligned with your purpose in the universe. They are your purpose taking shape at the inception of thought before manifesting in the world. They are inspirations, not desires. You could call them the desires of the universe through you, but there is no personal need or grasping. There is only the inspiration of the universe coming through you. It is fair to call it Divine Inspiration.
Think about your own highest, clearest moments. Were they guided by your personal desires? Or were they guided by inspiration springing from the depths of your soul in relation to life? There is no reason you cannot always live from that clear place of your higher Self fully connected with the universe.
The conscious thinking mind is the weakest level of thought. Trying to manifest anything from the conscious thinking level is fairly useless because there’s so little power there.
By the way, it’s at the conscious level of the mind that you desire, that you are needy. This is the level of mind where the ego desires. Desires require effort to fulfill, because to one degree or another, they’re isolated from the wholeness of life. That’s the very nature of desire: isolation from the wholeness of life. That’s why it’s desire. The wholeness of life is ever fulfilled. There can be no desire, per se, when you are that wholeness. There is only the flow of inspiration from the Source of the universe through you.
So there are 2 reasons why manifesting from the subtlest level of thought is essential:
Ultimately, step two of Universal Manifestation works because you have within you the same Source of creation that gave rise to this whole universe. You also have access to the same mechanics of creation that gave rise to the universe. Bring your awareness to that fine state, at the cusp between that eternal silence of pure Being and the inception of thought. From there you can create anything by the power of consciousness. This is not by your personal power; it is the creative power of infinite pure Intelligence (pure awareness) at the basis of all creation.
You cannot actualize your purpose alone. In fact, ultimately you are not the doer that accomplishes your purpose. You need the intelligence of the universe to fully participate with you. The universe will accomplish your purpose through you and through many others.
Have you ever noticed that some people work very hard and get little result? Others might do just a few things and get great results. Sometimes you may work hard for little results and other times you get great results. What’s the difference? There are forces at play other than your own effort in bringing results. Primary among these other forces is the divine intelligence of life.
At the basis of all existence is pure consciousness–infinite, divine intelligence—the ground of Being. That infinite, pure intelligence is eternally silent and unmanifest. When that silent infinitude stirs to begin the process of creation, then unmanifest, pure intelligence becomes intelligent in order to create through finite impulses of creative intelligence. Those omnipresent impulses of creative intelligence are responsible for all order and activity in the universe. They govern every cell, molecule, atom, subatomic particle in creation, both within you and without. The Vedas refer to them as the Devas.
Now, what if you could fully align with these omnipresent impulses of creative intelligence? What if you could even employ them to help you actualize your unique purpose, your contribution to the universe? Well, you can, and it makes life so much easier. You will find things miraculously falling into place. You’ve activated the source of all synchronicity. It is a great secret to living a blessed, miraculous life.
How do you employ the help of those omnipresent impulses of creative intelligence? First and foremost, you nurture them with Soma, the nectar of immortality, which is produced in your body during deep meditation. So again, it’s all about meditation. I go deep into this in the Blessings of the Devas course, which helps you to accelerate the process of nurturing and strengthening the impulses of creative intelligence in your life. Or, for a basic introduction to Soma and the Devas, check out my Devas YouTube Playlist.
I should add that you don’t need to believe in the Devas to activate synchronicity. That’s just a name one tradition gives to the impulses of intelligence at the basis of the universe’s order and activities. Obviously, that order exists, whether you believe it or not. Obviously, there is intelligence functioning in the universe’s activities, within you as well. It’s not really a matter of faith. The universe will go on without our approval.
Since that intelligence is inherent in every atom of the universe, again, why not fully, consciously employ it to fulfill your purpose in service to the wholeness of life? It will save you tons of time and effort.
As for Soma, that is a name the Vedic tradition gives to the biochemistry of bliss consciousness. (You can read a bit about it more in my blog, The Ultimate Plant Medicine.) Mystics and contemplatives of all faiths who directly experience the infinitude of the Divine produce the same biochemistry. Regardless of their faith, they live similar blessedness and experience similar miracles of synchronicity in their life. They just frame it within the particulars of their faith. A rose is a rose by any other name…
Some say that you can manifest your desires without acting. Good luck with that. It’s a fantasy. It may work once in a great while, but we want our life’s purpose to be realized consistently. So take action to implement your purpose as discovered in step 1 and the inspirations that arise in step 2. As you put yourself out there in the world, your action becomes the catalyst for the support of the Universe to rally around. New possibilities open to you. As you act on those, even more new possibilities open.
In a word, the more you put yourself and your purpose out there by acting, the more opportunities you create for the universe to organize things and events to support you. By inaction, you limit those opportunities. It’s really that simple. By taking action, you will also gain feedback, make new connections, get new ideas. That’s how you really get the ball rolling to realize your life’s purpose.
There are two things to note about this:
One of the great flaws with many approaches to manifestation is the assumption your ego can properly determine the outcome of your life. Not so. As John Lennon put it, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” He’s speaking of the ego there.
You are not omniscient. You never will be. Surrender must be part of your process, part of your relationship with life. We are humbled before the infinitude of life. As you act to live your purpose, the universe will respond, and you must listen. You may need to:
Surrender is also a willingness to accept life’s gifts that may be beyond your expectations or imagination. As Wallace Stevens put it, “The actual is a deft beneficence.” Grace will ever exceed your expectations. To receive grace, we must be open, and that openness is by virtue of surrender.
Living your purpose is entirely rooted in your relationship with the universe. As I mentioned, it will almost surely evolve over time. When you’re 30 years old, you may have one vision, one conception of your purpose, but this will modify as you age and gain new experience and knowledge. So keep checking in at least once a year to make sure your vision is on course. Update it as needed.
Heed the feedback you get along the way. I’d advise against borrowing on all your credit cards and mortgaging your house to take a huge leap of faith right off the bat. Test, take small steps, gauge the feedback you get from the universe. When you get a clear green light, clear signals from the universe, you’ll know you’re on the right track, and you’ll know when to take risks. Work with the universe, be fully awake, and let it guide you on the amazing journey of actualizing your life.
And don’t forget to meditate…
If you prefer to watch a video, see my YouTube video, below. This blog is more complete, but the video hits the main points.
