A Letter to Neale

Reader Question:

Dear Neale....I do not know my "purpose" in life, and it is driving me crazy. What am I "supposed" to be doing here? What is the point of all this? I've been trying to figure this out since I was 21. Now I'm 36 and am no closer than I was before. I mean, I know it can't just be about "work" (I have a pretty decent job), so what is it about?


Thanks for giving me your (and CWG's) "take" on this...

Love, Janette G

Neale Responds

Well, my friend, your question could not have come at a better time—although I would like you to know that I receive this exact question probably three or four times a month in some form or another.

Everyone wants to know the answers to the fundamental questions of life. Who are we? Where are we? What is this place in which we find ourselves? Why are we here? What is the purpose of this entire adventure? Is there a God? If there is, what do we owe God in thanks for our existence? What happens after we die? What does what we are doing during our life have to do with what happens after we die... if anything?

There's not enough space in this Weekly Bulletin for me to answer all those questions here. In truth, that is why I have written 27 books. If you have time, I would strongly urge you to read at least the nine of those books that make up the Conversations with God cosmology.

Having said that, let me see if I can provide at least a short answer to your very big question...

Conversations with God says that the purpose of life is to re-create yourself anew in the grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about Who You Are. Every aspect of life is a manifestation of Divinity, demonstrating its identity in a particular form. This is what you, as a human being, are. You are a manifestation of Divinity. It is your desire to express and experience your True Identity. You are using your physical life as a way and a means with which to do that.

The secret is to know and to understand that what you are doing has very little direct connection with this purpose. The "doingness" of your life is simply a tool with which to achieve a state of "beingness." It is "beingness" that your soul is after.

The term "beingness" refers to a state of being. For instance, right now you are perhaps "being" happy. Or, you could be "being" tired. Or bored. Or excited. There are as many individuated states of being as there are hairs on your head. Some of them are states that you would call "positive," and some of them are states that you would call "negative." You are using this lifetime to achieve, to express, and to experience the highest state of being of all: God Itself.

You are using your life occupation, as well as every other aspect of your experience here on earth, as the tools with which you seek to fashion this Divine expression. And so, in a sense, it really doesn't matter what you "do" for a living. What matters is how you are in the doing of it.

The trick is to translate what I would call "are-ness" into "doingness." That is, to find a work in the world that demonstrates and expresses the highest state of Who You Are.

That is what we teach in the spiritual renewal retreat that I present once a year. I've also written a little booklet on this subject called Bringers of the Light. It explains one way to achieve what I call Right Livelihood.

For now I can offer you this shorthand hint: how do you feel when you go to work? How do you feel when you come home? Do you feel excited when you leave the house for your job? Do you feel fulfilled and deeply grateful for what you are being allowed to do when you leave your workplace and head back to your living space?

Remember, feelings are the language of the soul. You will know if you are engaged in Right Likelihood if you look at how you are feeling about your present job, and the way you are living your life. If you're not feeling good about it, stop doing it. Find something else to do. Find something that ignites your soul. You will know exactly how that feels when it happens.

I know that you will say, "But how can I make a living doing that?" To which I would reply: Seek to make a life rather than a living.

I hope this is a help. The subject is very large. Read the CWG series in its completion. Also try Neale Donald Walsch's Little Book of Life. It has lots of helpful hints.

Finally, check out The Storm Before the Calm. It contains a deep explanation of the greatest secret of all: most people are "after" the wrong stuff!

What most people are wanting in their life is not what spiritual masters want or seek. Most people are looking for safety, security, peace, prosperity, opportunity, health, love, and happiness. The human race collectively has been seeking these things for thousands and thousands of years. And yet, as involved as we imagine ourselves to be, we have been singularly unable to achieve these goals. Is it possible that there is something we do not fully understand, the understanding of which would change everything? Of course it is. Yet all of that, too, is far too much to get into in a short Weekly Bulletin. May I humbly suggest that you find The Storm Before the Calm, and read it from cover to cover? There you will find a far more detailed answer to your question.

I fear that this all may be starting to sound like nothing more than a big "commercial" for my workshops and books. I hope you don't think this is my intention. It is simply that this is, as I have noted, a very large question, and I have had to create large formats in which to provide the fullest answer. Thanks for understanding.


I send you Pure Love,