Physical World: its purpose

My dear friend, Mel, suggested that I’d endeavour to answer the following question “What is the purpose of the physical world?”. Let’s see what my intellect was able to produce.

We are born into matter. Since early age we learn that in order to get what we want, something must be given in return. We also learn what it is to want something, to truly believe that we need it, and see it denied to us. We grow up, we need things (many times, superfluous things) and we strive to get them. Most of the times we become obsessed with acquiring them...We work. We want to have a certain social status, we want power...and we want it so badly that we are willing to do just about anything to get it.

Now, the way I am exposing these simple facts may strike you as being too crude, too harsh...to the point where you may ask yourself “Is matter something bad, or even evil?” I reply: Not at all, as long as you do not get greedy. There is a purpose and a reason for everything to be. So what is the purpose of matter; of the physical world? Purpose: to put us to the test.

We are souls, with a specific mission on earth, that should never forget where we came from and particularly Who created us. Yet when “trapped” in flesh, in matter, many tend to forget (or neglect) this intrinsic and innate knowledge; since the concept of “need, want, must have” takes over their brain. We are here to build things, to create, to leave a legacy of any sort (so that other souls may come and, like us, go through a learning & evolutionary process in the midst of new challenges – the more sophisticated the physical world becomes, the more challenging it is to the soul) and for that to occur we have to make use of the “needs, wants, must have” (since it is what propels us to do all things). The challenge lies in balancing these “needs, wants, must have” with some sort of spiritual connection to the Source.

The physical world is alluring, seductive, distractive, poisonous and fatal. We are being tested: are we able to reach the Existential Equilibrium or not?

Existential Equilibrium: the balance between a Material life and a Spiritual one.
We need money to live; we need some sort of power in our lives; we need to feel like we belong to a social group (and for that we need to display exterior signs that are in concatenation with the targeted group). We like our material stuff: mp3, computers, laptops, plasma TV screens, Hi-fi stereos, walkmans; cars, houses, estates; design clothing and shoes, bags, sunglasses, accessories; perfumes, makeup; jewellery; art collections etc...but must we become material-slaves? Must we yield to greed?
We need to have a spiritual life. We can’t go on feeling empty; we can’t seriously believe that it is healthy to fight our essence and silence that voice within that keeps telling us what IS; we can’t keep wanting, in vain, to disconnect ourselves from the Source. We have to turn to Him...but must we metamorphose into absurd and judgemental fanatics?

The point of the Equilibrium is to be able to live in harmony with ourselves, so that we can better fulfil our mission (because if we focus too much on the material side we incur the risk of getting lost and becoming confused about our own existence; and there is no point to focus mainly on the spiritual side, otherwise what would be the point of incarnating? We could all just stay at Home).

Matter is not the enemy, but our mind may very well become our number one foe (if we allow it).

Image: "Landscape in Suffolk" by Thomas Gainsborough