When I ask myself what does it mean to have a purpose (big or small life mission) - it means to me to have a kind of feeling that I need to do something to get somewhere in the future. Do something to satisfy the purpose so that also I can feel satisfaction.
When I ask myself what does it mean to feel freedom - it is something I would call to feel complete.
That is why I find freedom and purpose contradictory
I need to do something when I'm not complete, so I am not totally free. And especially if there could exist any big ultimate purpose of life it would mean there is no real freedom - because until I satisfy it I cannot feel complete.
On the opposite if we assume life has no purpose, you do not need to do anything to be complete or to satisfy some external purpose - it means you are absolutely free - because nothing really make sense, and you don’t need to satisfy anything or anybody.
It’s sounds like a bitter freedom though since I’m used to have motivation for “my life actions” from believing in purpose. That’s why freedom is so hard actually. When people or nation get more freedom many times they get into troubles. Maybe we are not prepared for the absolute freedom? Freedom without purpose? But might be it seems bitter only because of our conditioning and what we get used to in life.
The source of needing purpose
Where does this feeling to need a purpose come from? To me is seems to be logic transferred from “operating life”. “Operating life” are all "small" things we do to support living conditions, like getting food or shelter or support in life. To get such you need to recognize a chain of actions and elements composed in a logic order. If there will be no logic order it will not get you to whatever you need to support your life. And this logic order means that every element, every action got its purpose - to prepare for the next action or fit the next element. The logic is = action is good (make sense, serves purpose) when it fits the next element. If something satisfied purpose - it is good. If it does not - it’s no good. This seems to be the source of purpose and source of what is ultimately good or bad definitions at the same time. And what we do is we get use to this so much that actually believe it’s The Truth and we transfer this logic of “life operations”, of what is good and bad, to our existence. This means we believe our life will be good if it got a purpose, because without a purpose it cannot be good.
So what you pick? The “bitter” freedom or the life of purpose?
