Many people spend years asking the same question: What is my life purpose?
The question often appears during moments of uncertainty, after loss, during transition, or when life no longer feels aligned with expectations.
For some, purpose is tied to achievement. For others, it is connected to helping people, building something meaningful, or leaving a legacy behind. Yet even those who accomplish their goals often find themselves still wondering if they are living the life they were meant to live.
Part of the confusion comes from how purpose is usually described. We are taught to think of it as a destination, a role we must discover, a mission we must complete, or a singular path we must follow correctly. When life does not match that image, it can create frustration, guilt, or the sense that something has gone wrong.
Another way to understand life purpose is to step away from outcomes and look instead at experience.
Rather than asking What am I supposed to become?, a different question emerges:
What am I here to experience?
From this perspective, purpose is not measured by success, recognition, or permanence. It is shaped by the emotions we encounter, the conflicts we face, and the awareness we gain through living. Joy, loss, confusion, love, fear, and even regret all become part of the experience rather than signs of failure.
This understanding helps explain why people can live very different lives and still be aligned with their purpose. Some find fulfillment in quiet routines. Others are drawn to challenge, risk, or deep transformation. There is no universal template that applies to everyone.
It also explains why purpose is often unclear while we are living it. When life is focused on experience rather than explanation, clarity does not always arrive immediately. Meaning tends to emerge gradually, sometimes only after we have moved through difficult or confusing periods.
This view of purpose removes the pressure to “get it right.”
It allows room for uncertainty, contradiction, and growth. Instead of asking whether we are succeeding or failing at life, we begin to ask whether we are present within it.
Purpose, in this sense, is not something to chase.
It is something that unfolds through experience.
These ideas are explored more deeply through the dialogue between Richard and Master Chan in Under the Moon’s Shadow: The Teachings of Master Chan, where questions of purpose, guilt, free will, and meaning unfold through reflection rather than rigid answers.