Purpose of Life

Life is one, has always been one. It is a single, living, organic wholeness and everything in creation is a part of it, as vitally and inseparably related to the whole of life as an individual cell or organ is related to the larger organism of which it is a part. Life is alive, with its own intelligence and purpose.


And that purpose, which is our own purpose because we are not separate from life, is to bear witness to its Creator, to know and love and praise Him. “I was a hidden treasure and I longed to be known, and so I created the world” (Hadith): the world is God’s revelation, His knowing of Himself.

(Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee)

Path of Love

This sermon is based on a poetic excerpt from Ibn Arabi (1165‐1240). He was a Sunni Sufi Muslim mystic and philosopher who was born in the Muslim‐controlled Iberian Peninsula and lived in Spain from the ages of 8‐35, when he made a pilgrimage to Mecca. The poem is in Arabi’s book Tarjuman al‐Ashwaq or “Interpreter of All Desires.”

The poem:



My heart has become capable of every form
It is a pasture for gazelles,
And a monastery for Christian monks,
And a temple for idols,
And a Ka'aba of the pilgrims,
And the tablets of the Torah,
And the book of the Koran.
I follow the religion of Love:
Whatever path Love's camel takes