What is my purpose? Why am I here? What is the point of it all? Those are some of the questions many of us ask ourselves as we journey through our lives. Some of us may realise that there is more to life than our physical senses show us. Some of us have an inner urge to seek a spiritual path, even though we may not know why this is so.

I came across the answer to that first question recently in A New Earth, a spiritual masterpiece written by Eckhart Tolle. This is what he said on page 258: “Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other person on the planet—because it is the purpose of humanity.” So that is why we keep on searching for the truth, reading, meditating, watching our thoughts, practising forgiveness, etc.

And in A Course in Miracles (ACIM) Jesus states our purpose or function like this: “Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the world. Through your forgiveness does the truth about yourself return to your memory. Therefore, in your forgiveness lies your salvation” Workbook, Lesson 62. Salvation, in ACIM, is the same thing as liberation, which is the same thing as awakening from the dream of separation.

According to ACIM, forgiveness means letting go of illusions. As we let go of our illusions, we remember our unity with God and with each other. These illusions are projections coming from our own minds, and Jesus asks us to train our minds (by doing the Lessons in the Workbook) to learn how to practise forgiveness and to correct our thoughts of separation from God, so that we can awaken. The Holy Spirit within our minds can help us in this regard, if we call upon Him and follow His guidance. This is how forgiveness leads to awakening.

There are many paths to awakening. It doesn’t matter if one path is different from another. What matters is the realisation that we are all working towards a common goal, whether we realise it or not. That should unite us all at some level.