C01-What does Life Purpose mean Flashcards
How does purpose relate to religion and spiritualism?
The desire to know our purpose in life is a call that transcends religious and spiritual boundaries
What does it mean to be “agnostic”?
Answered by ChatGPT …
Being “agnostic” generally refers to a philosophical position or belief regarding the existence of a deity or deities, or more broadly, about knowledge and certainty in general. Here are the main ways the term is used:
1) Religious Agnosticism: In the context of religion, an agnostic is someone who believes that the existence or non-existence of a god or gods is unknown or unknowable. They do not claim certainty about the existence of a higher power, unlike atheists (who disbelieve in gods) or theists (who believe in gods). Agnostics often maintain that it is impossible to know with absolute certainty whether or not any deities exist.
2) Epistemological Agnosticism: Beyond religion, agnosticism can refer to a general stance on knowledge, where a person believes that certain truths or knowledge are inherently uncertain or unknowable. This can apply to various aspects of life or specific questions outside of theology.
3) Practical Agnosticism: Some people identify as agnostic more as a practical approach to life, meaning they may not concern themselves with the question of a god’s existence because they don’t believe it can be answered or because they feel it is irrelevant to how they live their lives.
In essence, to be agnostic is to acknowledge the limits of one’s knowledge, particularly concerning metaphysical questions, and often to refrain from making definitive assertions about those questions.
Where does “Sustained Happiness” come from?
1) Sustained happiness cannot come from money , or from the things that money buys.
2) Sustained happiness comes from meaning. It comes from growing, developing, and having a positive impact on the lives of others
Purpose answers which 3 questions?
1) Why are you here?
2) Who are you meant to be?
3) What are you meant to do?
What is the definition of “Ego”?
- Every day we wake up, make decisions, accomplish things.
- We think, feel, eat and so on
- We experience desires, fears and reactions
- The part of us that does these things is called the ego
- Other terms for ego in some traditions are called “persona”, “personality”, the “conscious” or the “self” (with a small “s”)
What is the “ego”? And what is its role?
The “ego” is the sum of an individual’s conscious thoughts, feelings, memories and bodily sensations.
“Ego” is Latin for “I”, and that is exactly what it means: the individual sense of self. Other names for this aspect of the psyche include “persona,” “personality,”“conscious,” or “self” (with a small “s”).
The ego’s role in the psyche is to fulfill individual needs (e.g. survival, safety, relationship, esteem, and self-actualization).
This includes maintaining a sense of individual identity.
Some traditions work to expand and empower the ego; others seek to diminish its influence or eradicate it altogether.
What are the 3 important functions of the “Ego”? (p24)
Function #1: Maintaining our identity through filtering and interpretation
* Establish and maintain our identity: We create answers to the question “Who am I?”
* Interpret information from the world around us: the ego filters and interprets the data in a way that reinforces our sense of identity
* Filter out any information that does not agree with our belief about ourselves and the world around us
Function #2: Keeping us safe
* Keeping us alive and healthy
* Prevents us from doing things that will lessen our friends’ and co-workers opinion of us, thereby protecting our image
* It may discourage us from revealing embarrassing details from our past on a first date in order to decrease our chances to be rejected
Function #3: Getting our needs met
* Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
What are the 5 levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a psychological theory proposed by Abraham Maslow in 1943. It is a framework that outlines the stages of human needs, which he suggested people are motivated to fulfill in a specific order, from the most basic to the most advanced. The hierarchy is typically depicted as a pyramid with five levels, though Maslow later expanded it. Here are the five original levels:
1) Physiological Needs: These are the most basic, fundamental needs necessary for survival. They include things like food, water, shelter, air, and sleep. Maslow argued that these needs must be met first before individuals can focus on higher-level needs.
2) Safety Needs: Once physiological needs are satisfied, the next level concerns safety and security. This includes physical safety (protection from harm), financial security, health, and a stable environment. People need to feel safe in their surroundings to progress further in the hierarchy.
3) Love and Belongingness Needs: After safety needs are met, social needs become important. These involve relationships, friendships, intimacy, and the need to feel part of a community or group. Love, affection, and belonging are crucial at this stage.
4) Esteem Needs: This level focuses on the need for self-esteem and respect from others. It includes the desire for recognition, status, self-worth, achievement, and independence. Maslow divided these into two categories:
Lower Esteem: The need for the respect of others, including status, recognition, and attention.
Higher Esteem: The need for self-respect, including feelings of confidence, competence, and independence.
5) Self-Actualization: This is the highest level in Maslow’s original hierarchy, representing the fulfillment of one’s potential and self-growth. It involves personal development, creativity, problem-solving, and the pursuit of inner potential. Self-actualized individuals are those who feel they are becoming the best version of themselves.
What are the 3 additional levels added later by Maslow?
Maslow later added three more levels above self-actualization:
1) Cognitive Needs: The need for knowledge, understanding, and exploration.
2) Aesthetic Needs: The need for beauty, balance, and appreciation of aesthetic aspects.
3) Transcendence Needs: The desire to connect with something beyond the self, often spiritual or altruistic in nature.
How is the “Unconscious” defined as opposed to the “Ego”?
The ego contains everything we know about ourselves (thoughts, feelings, beliefs, memories, desires, fantasies and plans which we are aware of)
So if the ego contains everything we know about ourselves, then what remains is the things we don’t know about ourselves:
All our thoughts, feelings, and memories that don’t match our belief system are edited by the ego and relegated to another part of our psyche that we call the “unconscious”
Other terms for this part of us include the “subconscious”, the “shadow”m and the “Self” (with a big “S”)
Why is it difficult to talk about the “unconscious”?
A properly functioning ego is masterful at turning our attention away from things that don’t match our belief system.
Everything in the unconscious is something that our ego already decided we are not supposed to know.
The process of moving something from the ego into the unconscious is often called “disowning”
What are the 3 main responsibilities of the soul?
The 3 main responsibilities of the soul:
1) The soul is the keeper of our purpose.
It knows everything about who we are, including the things we have disowned and forgotten
It knows who we are meant to be and we are meant to do.
It makes decisions about how much of our purpose we are ready to know
2) The soul is charged with our growth and development.
Our soul isn’t concerned about how much money we are making at work and whether or not we like our job
It cares whether we are learning, growing, and transforming from the experience
3) The soul is responsible for steering us along our path.
There are many paths that lead to our purpose, and the soul is generally not attached to which one we take.
Some of us have a very open relationship with this process. For example they pray and receive guidance. Many others are steered and guided in secret.
Many adults have had moments of connection with their soul. It can happen at any time: while starring at a beautiful vista during a hike, in church, in prayer or meditation, during sex, watching a child being born, or during intense moments of crisis
