Module 11- Incorporation Using Purpose Statements

Introduction

To be human is to become visible

while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.

To remember the other world in this world

is to live in your true inheritance.

– David Whyte

Please listen to the module introduction.

Welcome back to the middle world – You have returned from the Sacred Mountain. Warm welcome back to you, soul-sister. Warm welcome back to you, soul-brother. No matter what occurred (or didn’t occur,) you took a stand for your life. You followed the impulse to be still, to listen and to be open to soul. You initiated a conversation, in a language that is fresh, vivid, and completely unique to you and your soul. No other person on Earth speaks to soul and hears soul exactly the way you do.

What occurred for you on the Sacred Mountain was perfect. Really. This isn’t one of those Zen aphorisms that is meant to trick you, or a serving of New Age prattle. What occurred for you on the Sacred Mountain was perfect. Why? Though we travel to the rim of Soul Canyon with the intention of a thorough dissolution (followed by Soul Encounter), we end up receiving what soul wants to give us. While it is desirable to quest with the specific intention of having our purpose revealed to us, we are humble enough to know that soul may have something entirely different in store for us.

Your Threshold experience will look almost entirely unlike that of everybody else. Comparing your experience to other Questers or measuring your experience against others, is not only unprofitable, but entirely against the spirit of the Quest. Further, your Quest was perfect. Did wind/cold/rain drive you from your sit spot early? Perfect. Let that sink in. What I’d like you to do, right now, is this: let go of your picture of a “good Quest” and instead, embrace the Quest that Mystery gave you.

There are multiple scenarios for understanding where your Quest was located psycho-spiritually. I’ll (partially) follow the work of Bill Plotkin to describe some of these locations.  

The center of gravity of your SoulQuest could have been about realization and experience of: 

    1. Innocence and/or Wonder,
    2. prioritizing Authenticity over Social Acceptance,
    3. the necessity of doing more Preparation Work on the aspects of wholeness that need to be embodied, 
    4. a partial or complete Dissolution of your old identity, 
    5. Soul Encounter, to learn your personal Myth, your “Mythopoetic Identity”,
    6. working with your Core Wound or Loyal Soldier or Default Purpose, or… (the possibilities are endless…), 
    7. the experience of a “molting” or Eco-awakening, rather than a Soul-awakening.

Please know this: your Quest may have had several of these elements, or a different element altogether. Your task now is to review your experience over the period of the Threshold Ceremony, and see what the major theme was, along with any minor themes. To support you in this process, we will dive into some practices to distill the core insights from your experiences in the Threshold Ceremony, as well as leading up to it.

Module 10 Practices

Practice 11:1 – Categorizing Core Insights

In this exercise, you will distill into a single edited document the core insights you received from soul during the entirety of this program. You will cut and paste the core insights recorded from your soul encounter notes (these are the notes you recorded during the first ten modules, including the SoulQuest) into the appropriate Octagon basket (there are eight of them: Vision, Core Powers, etc…).

You will want to have two handouts nearby as you do this:

    • Modules Table – This handout (found HERE) will help you identify the twelve soul-encounter practices, which are marked in blue.
    • Purpose Octagon – Use the last half of the introductory essay “Discovering Purpose” to help you understand the eight facets of purpose.

Note: We will be using these three terms, Purpose Octagon, eight facets, eight dimensions more or less synonymously to refer to the way purpose looks from different viewpoints.

Step 1 – Procure a warm beverage, some soft lighting, a comfy chair, and immerse yourself in your notes. Let yourself sink into your connection with Soul. Take your time until you feel the connection. If needed, use one of the recordings to facilitate this connection. Then, with the “eyes” of Soul, go through your notes, line by line, pulling out the most lively, psychoactive, and transmissive core insights.

Step 2 – Search the Modules Table to identify which practices in blue indicate a Module’s soul-encounter practices. Begin the process with Module 1 where, for example, the soul-encounter practice you engaged in was Evolution’s Purpose (1:6.)

Step 3 – Read through your notes and recall what you discovered during your engagement with Evolution’s Purpose (1:6). Line by line, as you read what you wrote, determine which of the eight facets of purpose Soul was communicating to you about. Use the “Purpose Octagon” description (in the last half of the Introductory Article) to help you recall definitions of each facet.

Step 4 – Cut and paste each core insight from your Evolution’s Purpose practice (1:6) and paste it into the appropriate basket in the Core Insights Page Summary Worksheet.

Now, repeat this process for each of the other Modules, incorporating all other blue soul encounter practices. You will be complete with this exercise (11:1)  when you have gone line by line through all your soul encounter notes up through Module 10. You will be left with a Core Insights Page that represents a fully sorted Purpose Octagon, which may be quite lengthy.  

Don’t move on to the next exercise (11:2) until you have given a few hours to this sorting process. Don’t rush through it. Notice when you switch into a rational editor’s mode, and then come back to seeing your notes through Soul’s eyes. Ego will naturally want to do the editing for you. Don’t let it. This is a job for Soul. Trust yourself, you can do this. Let the act of reading and sifting through your notes awaken, affirm and inspire you to boldly move forward into a life of deep purpose.

Note: If you can’t find the notes where you recorded your experiences from the soul-encounter meditations, just do them again. Simply start with the Evolution’s Purpose Meditation (1:6) and write down what you recieve from Soul in the “Core Insights Page” below. Even if you have a good set of notes, you may want to revisit some of the meditations and then directly enter what you receive from soul into the “Core Insights Page.”

Summary Worksheet – “Core Insights Page”

    1. Vision: Your soul’s dream (or imagining) of an ideal/evolved world, were you to embody your deepest aspiration and purpose. 
    2. Values:  The soul-level principles (core ideals or beliefs) that support your purpose and give shape to your efforts.    
    3. Core Powers: The soul’s purpose as expressed, manifested and supported through your inherent strengths and talents. Your Core Powers are your natural soul-level abilities or genius that are native to you.  
    4. Essence: What your mere presence does to people to transform them. The effortless radiance of your being. The core of who you are without doing anything. 
    5. Giveaway: What you actively do to people to transform them. This is your soul-level offering, process, or gift. It is vital to understand that the giveaway is the unique way to “give away” your gift to life, not a job (that is the delivery vehicle). 
    6. Task: A calling, assignment, or mission that you undertake to support your Vision.
    7. Message: A single fundamental truth you were designed to propagate.
    8. Delivery Vehicle: The visible system (career, profession, vocation) through which you offer your giveaway to the world. 

Practice 11:2 – Composing a Multi-Sentence Purpose Statement

Now it is time to glean from the jewels you gathered in your Core Insights Page, two polished purpose jewels: a single-sentence Purpose Statement and a multi-sentence Purpose Statement. Optionally, you can also create a multi-page Purpose Statement. Let’s start with the multi-sentence Purpose Statement.

Step 1 – Set aside a few hours to meditate on your Core Insights Page. Don’t rush through it.  Procure a warm beverage, some soft lighting, a comfy chair, and immerse yourself in the page from exercise 11:1. Let yourself sink into your connection with Soul. Take your time until you feel the connection. If needed, use one of the recordings to facilitate this connection. Then, with the “eyes” of soul, go through the Core Insights Page, facet by facet, beginning with Vision, pulling out the crown jewels that are lively, psychoactive, and transmissive. Notice when you switch into a rational editor’s mode, and then come back to seeing your Core Insights Page through soul’s eyes. Ego will naturally want to do the editing for you.  Don’t let it. This is a job for Soul. Trust yourself, you can do this. Let the act of reading and sifting through the page awaken, affirm and inspire you to boldly move forward into a life of deep purpose.

Step 2 – Spend about 10 minutes reading, contemplating, re-reading and contemplating the core insights under “Vision” some more. Next, let intuition/Soul guide you to compose a single pithy sentence that contains the essence of your Vision.

Step 3 – After you complete composing a single sentence for Vision, move on to Values, then Powers, until you have a shimmering sentence for each of the 8 facets of purpose. Copy them below.

    • My Vision is   
    • My Values are   
    • My Core Powers are 
    • My Essence is 
    • My Giveaway is 
    • My Task is 
    • My Message is 
    • My Delivery Vehicle is  

Step 4 – Using the Octagon Sentence, drop each of your pithy sentences into the appropriate places below. Take your time with this. It may take awhile to integrate all your pithy sentences into a powerful, well-written Purpose Statement. Some people have created two versions of their statement: the first cleaves closely to the Octagon Sentence, the second is a more poetic rendering.  

Octagon Sentence:
I support my [Vision], through: 

    • (a) my conviction that life is [Value]
    • (b) my proclivity for [Core Powers] and
    • (c) my essential nature as [Essence].

I fulfill my [Task] through: 

    • (a) my [Message],
    • (b) the [Giveaway] process, and
    • (c) through the [Delivery System].     

Octagon Example:
I support my vision of a consciously evolving world through (a) my conviction that life is a precious growth opportunity, (b) my proclivity for organizing philosophical, psychological and spiritual systems, and (c) my essential nature as wholeness.   

I fulfill my task of inspiring humanity to actively engage conscious evolution through:  (a) my message, “that you are the evolutionary impulse wanting to bring more Goodness, Truth and Beauty into the world,” (b) the whole person midwifery process, and (c) through delivery systems such as Spiritual Teacher, Purpose Guide, Psychotherapist and Integral Mentor.

Practice 11:3 – Composing a Single Sentence Purpose Statement

Now it is time to create a single sentence that unlocks the mystery and power of your purpose.

Step 1 – Again, repeating the same instructions for Step 1 as earlier (because that is how important we think this step is!) Set aside one hour to meditate on your multi-sentence purpose statement.  Don’t rush through it.  Procure a warm beverage, some soft lighting, a comfy chair, and immerse yourself in your multi-sentence purpose statement from Exercise 11:2. Let yourself sink into your connection with Soul. Take your time until you feel the connection. If needed, use one of the recordings to facilitate this connection. Then, with the “eyes” of soul, go slowly through the multi-sentence purpose statement several times. Let each word wash over you. Notice when you switch into a rational editor’s mode, and then come back to seeing your multi-sentence purpose statement through the soul’s eyes. Ego will naturally want to do the editing for you.  Don’t let it. This is a job for Soul. Trust yourself, you can do this. 

Step 2 – Now, write from the heart. Write with emotion, longing, and poetry. It might happen that a central image (along with the feeling surrounding it) might draw you in. This image may be the image of your personal myth or mythopoetic identity. Allow non-language based wisdom (images, symbols, sensations, etc) to inform your writing. Better yet, allow the image or sensation to do the writing.  Let the multi-sentence purpose statement coalesce into a single pithy sentence that connects you to your life purpose at a soul level. Write 5, 10, 15 or more versions of your purpose statement. If needed you can edit, refine and polish what you have written.

Step 3 – Now, go through each written purpose statement and rate each on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being a statement that hits total “bull’s eye” and 1 being a statement that evokes very little energy or feeling.

Step 4 – After 24 hours, come back to your 5-15 statements and repeat step 3.

Step 5 – Let one of the statements choose you. Allow/invite one sentence to act as the psychoactive poetry that will connect you to your purpose. Remember: the purpose statement is not your purpose any more than the words “I love you” are love. The purpose statement is, a rendering (in human language) of that which you received during the last 11 modules.  The purpose statement isn’t your purpose, anymore then a map of Mumbai is Mumbai.  That said, a good purpose statement can help your intellectual mind have something to hold as it metabolizes what has transpired over the last few months. 

Module 11 Summary

Written Reflections

    • 11:1 – Categorizing Core Insights – Spend 3+ hours slowly going through your notes from the soul encounters from previous modules to glean the core insights.
    • 11:2 – Multi-Sentence Purpose Statement – Create a full purpose statement (about two paragraphs).
    • 11:3 – Single-Sentence Purpose Statement – Create a pithy purpose statement.

Soul Circle

None.

Reading

No further reading requested for the Purpose Discovery Program.However, there are some incorporation-related chapters at the end of Soulcraft that you might wish to consult.