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	Rex Ballard - Director of Electronic Distribution
	http://cnj.digex.net/~rballard

On Tue, 26 Mar 1996, Caligari wrote:
> JeffGrip wrote:
> >
> > >< > >fade, you don't have to worry about retaining it or "being supported in
> > >it" because it is real and it is yours and it is self generated.>>
> > >
> > I don't remember who said this and who agreed but I certainly disagree.
> > The world being the uncertain place that it is there is nothing that might
> > not either suddenly or gradually change. This includes a "real life
> > purpose".

When designing a life based on future as a possibility, it is important to
recognise that most of our culture, our media, and our past argues for
cynicism, resignation, and complacency.  Even in some of the most dynamic
corporations in the world, there is a culture among the line workers and
middle management that argues for the status quo.

Fulfilling a possibility requires rigorous actions that are almost always
initially uncomfortable because they are unfamiliar.  It is useful to
create a foundation of support.

> > There are those whose religion is such a hugh factor in their lives that
> > circumstances might not effect their purpose. But it would take someone
> > with the conviction of Job to make this statement (I think).

Fulfilling a religeous commitment taken on as a function of devine
inspiration is another form of fulfilling the future as a possibility.
True devine inspiration rarely looks familiar.  God can be an important
ally in fulfilling such possibilities.  When I am in the space of
possibility, there is nothing, nothing but me and God.  I ask God to show
me what to put in the space of nothing.  Even as that space is filled with
some new possibility, I am confronted by my own inadaquacy.  I can see
that it appears to be beyond my reach, which is what makes it a
possibility rather than "business as usual".

> > When you define a "real life purpose" as self generated to then say that
> > it doesn't change is to deny that we as people grow and develop. Its
> > probably obvious from what I'm saying that I don't believe in an "ultimate
> > life purpose" or anything that can't change.

Unless you live in an meditative vacuum, you are surrounded by people who
either support you and your "real life purpose" or people who don't.  You
tend to gravitate to those who tend to support your possibility and listen
to you as someone who could actually fulfill that possibility.  You tend
to ignore, avoid, or even discredit those whose cynicism causes even you
to doubt.

> > Jeff Grippe
> > jeffgrip@futuris.net (please don't email to me at AOL, I rarely read mail
> > there)
>
> I can say that I spent 3 years around 1979-1982 clarifying my
> life purpose.  It has not essentially changed since then.  I
> also have not been involved in est, Landmark or any other group
> and have lived my life without a group specificaly designed for
> my life purpose.  My life purpose lives inside of me, and even
> when I've denied it and moved away from it, it has always been
> present for me.

Many people create and choose their life's purpose without the aid of
Landmark.  For someone like you, you may want to see whether Landmark can
further that commitment.

> Now, you're probably wondering what my life purpose is.  It is
> to communicate (the medium of choice is cinema) an experience of
> life, adventure and humanity to people.  It is a bit broad an
> amorphous and not clearly stated (I haven't completely stated it
> in those words.), but I think that is part of the nature of
> an uncovered quality and purpose in life.

In the Advanced Course you could focus on the possibility and distinquish
it from the projects which express or fulfill that possibility.  For
example; "I am the possibility of life, adventure and humanity", you might
create a project to communicate this in the form of a film or video.  In
the Self Expression and Leadership Program you would be coached in
enrolling a team of other players, including other leaders into your
project by enrolling them into the possibility of your project.  Telling
someone you want $20,000 for a film doesn't enroll them.  Telling someone
you want to communicate life, adventure, and humanity in a film would have
them listening from a possibility that exists in their world.

Guess what.  NOBODY wants to do a course where they sit in a room for 16
hours/day for 3 days and listen to the Forum Leader speak and dialogue
with a participant.  Everybody who does the Forum does so because they see
some areas of their lives where they want to have a breakthrough.  If they
don't come to the room with that, they will end up sitting in a room
listening to a bunch of people speaking into a lousy PA system instead of
doing the Forum.

> I think a life purpose is a natural quality that people have and
> once they've become clear and conscious, it remains available
> for them to create.

Actually, most people do not have such a clear life purpose.  Most people
are unclear about their goals.  They want "more, better, less bad" all of
which is relative to the past.  It's mostly to compensate for something
that is missing, or to fix something they percieve as wrong.

When people can actually begin to put the past in the past, they can
see that they are commited to serving others, to making some sort of
contribution to the world.  When they begin to see a "No Limits" future,
they begin to see that they really can alter the quality of life on the
planet.

It sounds to me like you have a possibility that really lights you up,
turns you on, and makes you want to get out of bed in the morning even
when you know it's going to be a rough day.  It keeps you inspired even
when you've been at it for 16 or 18 hours.  For you, the value of the
Forum might be more oriented toward how you can enroll others into the
projects that are generated by your possibility so that you don't have to
suffer through the "grunt work" that might actually really "turn on" some
other person.

Or, you could just continue what your doing and getting what your getting.
(and there's nothing wrong with that either :-).

	Rex Ballard.


From rballard@cnj.digex.net Mon Apr  8 09:50:50 1996