Three questions came to me recently from three different readers:
What is success really?
Is life ultimately about making money and then dying, or is there a deeper purpose to our existence?
How do we remain faithful to the enduring principles of life in a world that is changing so rapidly?
Different questions. Different people. Yet, to my mind, they are asking essentially the same thing:
Why are we here, and what does it mean to succeed at being human?
That question deserves more than a motivational answer.
If we really want to understand the purpose of life, we must begin even further back. We must first ask:
What is man?
Because until we understand what man is, we cannot properly understand what he is here to accomplish. And until we understand what he is here to accomplish, we cannot possibly know whether his life has been successful.
WHAT IS MAN?
Man is not merely the physical body we see.
At his core, man is spiritual.
The physical body is extraordinarily important, of course. It enables us to function here on earth. Through it we work, build, experience, relate, learn, serve and make decisions. But the body is not the innermost man.
The human spirit began its journey like a seed, bearing within itself the potential for development but not yet the maturity that must eventually be attained.
Think about an ordinary seed.
Within the tiny seed lies the potential of the tree. Yet nobody points to the seed and calls it the fully developed tree. Something must happen. The seed must enter the right environment. It must experience conditions that awaken what lies within it. It must grow.
So too with the human spirit.
Earth-life is part of the great school in which we are given opportunities to experience, decide, learn, develop and mature. Through our choices and their consequences, something is being formed within us.
This immediately changes the question we should be asking about our lives.
Instead of merely asking:
What have I acquired?
Perhaps the deeper question is:
What am I becoming?
THE WORLD IS NOT WITHOUT ORDER
If earth-life is a school for our development, then we must understand the environment in which that development takes place.
And here lies something fundamental.
Creation is not chaotic.
It operates according to immutable Laws established by the Will of the Creator.
We encounter order everywhere.
Planting and harvesting. Cause and consequence. Attraction and repulsion. Growth and decay. Giving and receiving. Movement and development.
We may understand some of these processes scientifically and remain ignorant of others, but our ignorance does not suspend them.
You do not have to believe in gravity before gravity acts upon you.
In the same way, the Laws woven into Creation do not wait for our approval.
They work.
The great task before man, therefore, is not to invent his own truth and somehow force Creation to accommodate it. It is to recognise the Laws of Creation, understand them and live in accordance with them.
Therein lies one of the deepest purposes of our existence.
For these Laws do not exist to imprison man. Properly understood, they work towards his welfare and development.
When he lives rightly within them, he experiences their support.
When he persistently violates them, he experiences the consequences.
This is why life can be a remarkable teacher.
The consequences of our decisions are constantly speaking to us.
THEN WHAT IS SUCCESS?
This brings me back to the first question:
What is success really?
We live in an age in which success is increasingly measured by visibility.
How much money do you have?
What do you drive?
Where do you live?
How many people report to you?
How many followers do you have?
How important is your title?
How powerful are the people who take your telephone calls?
There is nothing inherently wrong with wealth, achievement, influence or material comfort.
Let me emphasise that.
Poverty is not spirituality. Wealth is not wickedness.
Money can build schools. Money can feed families. Money can create employment. Money can finance innovation. Money can support worthwhile causes. Money can give its possessor the freedom to accomplish tremendous good.
But money is a means.
The moment it becomes the ultimate measure of human worth, something has gone terribly wrong.
If the purpose of life were simply to accumulate wealth, then the richest person at the cemetery would have won.
But won what?
Everything material eventually remains here.
The mansion remains.
The bank account remains.
The titles remain.
The businesses remain.
Even the body through which we accumulated them remains behind.
What, then, has actually been gained by the human spirit?
That is the question.
A person may therefore be extraordinarily successful according to society's measurements and yet have failed in the central purpose of his existence.
Equally, another person may never become famous, never accumulate enormous wealth and never exercise political or corporate power, yet leave earth-life inwardly richer, freer and more mature than when he entered it.
Which of the two has truly succeeded?
REAL POWER
There is another misconception worth confronting.
Human beings have always been fascinated by power.
Some seek it through wealth. Others through political office, social status or control over other people. Still others imagine that spiritual power can somehow be acquired through elaborate acts of self-denial.
So we encounter the idea that if I fast on particular days, avoid my spouse for months, refuse to speak to anyone for weeks, deny myself water for an extraordinary period, or impose some other rigid regimen upon myself, I will somehow become spiritually powerful.
But what if such practices are merely unnatural?
What if spiritual development is much simpler and, at the same time, much more demanding?
Because it is considerably easier to abstain from food for a day than to master envy.
It may be easier to withdraw from people for a week than to treat them justly when our interests conflict.
It may be easier to perform an impressive religious exercise than to control arrogance when power comes into our hands.
Real spiritual development cannot be reduced to outward performance.
Nor does worldly authority make anyone invincible.
History is littered with people who once commanded armies, controlled nations, accumulated enormous fortunes and appeared untouchable.
Where are they now?
Go and ask the tyrants of history how permanent earthly power proved to be.
Real power lies somewhere else entirely.
It begins when the human volition increasingly comes into harmony with the Will of the Most High.
That is power.
Because the person who willingly aligns himself with the Laws of the Creator is no longer struggling against the order that sustains Creation.
He begins to move with it.
WHAT, THEN, ARE WE HERE TO BECOME?
We are here to become true human beings.
Not merely successful professionals.
Not merely wealthy men and women.
Not merely respected religious people.
Not merely influential citizens.
True human beings.
Human beings who stand awake and alert within Creation.
Human beings whose thinking, speaking and acting increasingly accord with what is right.
Human beings who use wealth without worshipping it.
Who exercise authority without becoming intoxicated by it.
Who can achieve without becoming arrogant.
Who can suffer without becoming bitter.
Who can disagree without becoming unjust.
Who can lose something material without losing themselves.
Who recognise responsibility alongside every privilege.
Who understand that every decision sets something into motion.
And who therefore move through life consciously.
Such a person gradually becomes inwardly free.
And this brings us to something remarkable about genuine success.
It is not entirely dependent upon circumstances.
A person can have money and possess it.
Another can have money and be possessed by it.
A person can have little materially and still carry peace within.
Another can possess enormous wealth and live in constant fear.
One person can enjoy excellent health yet be inwardly tormented.
Another can pass through illness while remaining inwardly luminous and composed.
One can be surrounded by people and still live in loneliness.
Another can experience conflict around him without allowing hatred to take possession of his spirit.
This does not mean that pain ceases to hurt or that difficulty becomes pleasant.
It means that our innermost state is no longer completely at the mercy of external circumstances.
That is a different kind of wealth.
AND WHAT ABOUT A RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD?
This brings us to the third question.
How do we remain faithful to enduring principles when everything around us appears to be changing?
Technology is changing.
Business is changing.
Artificial intelligence is changing work.
Social conventions are changing.
Institutions are changing.
The ways we communicate, learn, trade, travel and form relationships are changing.
And they will continue to change.
But here is the distinction we must make:
Forms change. Principles do not.
We should not confuse faithfulness to eternal principles with resistance to progress.
Use new technology.
Learn new skills.
Build businesses.
Create wealth.
Travel.
Innovate.
Explore.
Compete.
Write books.
Develop artificial intelligence.
Build cities.
Enjoy the legitimate fruits of human ingenuity.
But while doing all these things, remain anchored to what does not change.
Honesty does not become obsolete because technology advances.
Justice does not become old-fashioned because society becomes more sophisticated.
Responsibility does not disappear because an algorithm makes the decision easier.
Love of neighbour does not become irrelevant because communication has moved online.
The Laws of Creation do not require updating because humanity has invented faster computers.
The world may change around us, but the fundamental task of the human spirit remains.
To recognise what is right, to choose it freely, to live it, and thereby to mature.
THE QUESTION TO CARRY WITH US
Perhaps, therefore, the question we should ask at the end of each day is not simply:
What did I achieve today?
Ask also:
What did I become today?
Did today's success make me more grateful or more arrogant?
Did today's disappointment make me wiser or more bitter?
Did I use the power entrusted to me responsibly?
Did I act fairly when I could have taken advantage?
Did I recognise an opportunity to help?
Did I correct something within myself?
Did I bring peace or disturbance?
Did I move a little closer to living in accordance with the Will of the Creator?
These are not small questions.
They go to the heart of why we are here.
Make money, certainly, and use it well.
Build.
Create.
Prosper.
Serve.
Love.
Learn.
Enjoy the beauty of this world.
But never mistake the instruments of life for its purpose.
For ultimately, success is not merely about what we manage to gather around ourselves during our brief years on earth.
It is about what awakens and matures within us.
The truly successful human being is one who increasingly learns to recognise the Will of the Creator in the Laws that govern life, willingly orders his life accordingly, and stands ever more freely, brightly and joyfully within Creation.
Such a person possesses something that circumstances cannot easily give and cannot easily take away.
Whether rich or poor.
In health or sickness.
Applauded or misunderstood.
In comfort or adversity.
He carries peace where peace matters most:
within his spirit.
And perhaps, when everything else has been stripped away, that is the success that truly counts.
