Man's Search for Purpose: Hacking Spiritual Technology To Illuminate Your Life Path

In a moment, I'll be sharing my screen and going through a presentation, 30-minute presentation, and tonight's topic is on purpose. Purpose. This is something that gets talked about a lot in men's work. It's something that we struggle with a lot. I've had a very fortunate experience of being exposed to certain teachers, to certain work, and having certain life experiences. That have taught me a lot about this. And I'm really honored to be able to share my experiences with you tonight in hopes that you can take maybe one or two of these pieces and apply them to your life and create radical change. You can certainly do that with what I'm going to give you tonight. So tonight's talk is Man's Search for Purpose: Hacking Spiritual Technology to Illuminate Your Life Path. Hacking, you know, that was a word a lot of men— you know, you can go one of two ways with that word. Serious spiritual practitioners don't like that word hacking, and there's a whole hacking culture that loves that word. I don't mind it. I'm a very serious spiritual practitioner. I believe putting in years of hard work to get the rewards, because that's what's required to really gain the fruit. Of this type of technology. And at the same time, you can learn bits and pieces and apply them to your life and have profound results. So tonight it's going to be your opt-in, how you want to utilize the information that I'm presenting to you. First, what is purpose? What the hell is purposeful? When we use that word, what does that even mean? Are we talking about our career? Are we talking about our job? Are we talking about our life? Are we talking about writing books? Talking about earning money? Are we talking about falling in love? What are we talking about? What is purpose? So rather than simply trying to find this very precious, very profound word myself, I'm gonna pull from 3 individuals who do have an idea of what purpose is. And I'd like to quote them. First, starting with a gentleman who's been a significant mentor in my life, um, his name is David Deida, and he says about purpose is this: Men who have lived significant lives are men who never waited, not for money, security, ease, or women. Feel what you want to give most as a gift. To your woman, into the world, and do what you can to give it today. Every moment waited is a moment wasted, and each moment wasted— and each wasted moment degrades your clarity of purpose. So what David's telling us is that there's no excuse, and men who live significant lives don't wait for the money to be there, the security to be there, the ease to be there, or the woman to be there. They give today, they give now, and it's the gift that you want to give most to your woman in the world. So that's one perspective. And there's 3 books I'm going to be recommending to you guys tonight, and this is David's book, and that's where that quote comes from. Way of the Superior Man. If you haven't read this book, read this book. Out of all of my mentors and life experiences, David has been one of those people who've taught me more about purpose than any other. And in this book you will find the core concepts that he speaks to. But it's very different reading it and living it. And this call tonight, I'm going to talk to you about what it means to live some of these principles. Another quote that I have for you is from Viktor Frankl, and this gentleman wrote a book that inspired the title of tonight's talk. And he says that man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain, but rather to see a meaning in his life. It's a very simple quote, but there's a lot of profundity embedded in that idea. Because how much of what we want to do or think about doing is about gaining pleasure or avoiding pain? How much of our daily activities or pursuits in life about that game of gaining pleasure and avoiding pain. When we make that our fundamental concern, it becomes nearly impossible to find the core of purpose. Instead, we have to look for a deeper meaning. We have to see a meaning in life beyond pleasure and pain. So this is that book, Man's Search for Meaning, and Viktor Frankl was a Holocaust survivor, Austrian psychologist who survived 3 years, and his life work was about how do I find meaning in the most horrific of situations, the most horrific of environments. How does life still have purpose, still have meaning in here? And what he discovered was that it was through finding meaning, it was through having purpose, that those individuals were able to survive because they were able to find the meaning no matter what situation was presented to them. And this is a profound idea that every man needs to embrace fully if he's serious about knowing his deepest purpose in life. And finally, a third gentleman who I look to to speak into purpose: A.H. Almaas. Whatever is happening at this moment Right now, that is your life. The future is not your life. It never arrives. What is actually here is always only this moment. What Almaas is speaking to is a deeper layer of growth, of spiritual growth, of realization. It goes beyond past and future. It's this realization that your life, the purpose that you will find, is inside of this one moment. It's not in the future. The future doesn't arrive. And a book that I recommend from Almas is Runaway Realization. And this doesn't deal specifically with purpose, but it does deal with the purpose of spiritual practice. What is the pursuit of spiritual practice? And what he offers in this book is a very unique and beautiful perspective. Highly recommend it if you're interested in learning more about spiritual practice and purpose. So with all those beautiful words and descriptions of what purpose is, how come for most of us it looks like this? How come this is what purpose feels like and looks like more on a daily basis? This is how we know purpose of our friends and our family and of our own lives. What, what happened? Where, Where's the depth that we're really seeking?