A student traveled for years to reach a renowned Zen master, desperate to find his life’s purpose.
“Master,” he said, “I’ve studied with teachers, read every text, practiced every method. Please, tell me my purpose.”
The master poured tea until the cup overflowed, tea spilling everywhere.
“Stop!” cried the student. “The cup is already full!”
“Exactly,” said the master, still pouring. “You came seeking purpose, but you’re already overflowing with it. You’re like a wave asking the ocean for water.”
The student protested: “But without purpose, what’s the point of anything?”
The master laughed. “Does the sun need a reason to shine? Does the rain need permission to fall? When did you decide that existing wasn’t enough?”
In that moment, something shattered in the student. Not broke—released. Like a fist that had been clenched so long it forgot it was holding nothing.
He looked at the spilled tea forming patterns on the floor and saw the entire universe pouring itself out, purposelessly perfect, needing no justification for its overflow.
9 Insights on Transcending Purpose
I.
Here’s what no one tells you about the spiritual journey: Every stage you’ve passed through—seeking, struggling, discovering, embodying—was perfect and necessary.
You couldn’t have skipped ahead to this recognition. The seeking WAS the finding. The journey WAS the destination.
Consciousness needed to dream it was separate to experience the joy of reunion.
II.
Maslow discovered something near the end of his life that changed everything. Above self-actualization, he found another stage: self-transcendence.
At this stage, the “self” that was actualizing dissolves into something infinitely larger.
You don’t lose yourself—you discover that “yourself” was always a convenient fiction, a temporary costume consciousness wore to experience being “someone.”
III.
Watch what happens: First you think purpose is “out there” (career, achievement, contribution).
Then you discover purpose is “in here” (alignment, authenticity, values).
Then you realize you ARE purpose (embodiment, expression).
Finally, you see that purpose itself was just another concept, another story, another game consciousness plays.
IV.
This is the ultimate paradox: Your highest purpose is to realize you never needed one.
Like a medicine that cures the disease of needing medicine, purpose dissolves the very seeking that created the need for purpose.
What remains isn’t emptiness—it’s freedom. The freedom to be exactly what you are: consciousness playing at being human.
V.
At this stage, something breathtaking occurs: The separate self that was seeking purpose is seen to be another appearance in consciousness.
The seeker, the seeking, and the sought are revealed as one movement—consciousness experiencing itself through the illusion of separation.
You don’t HAVE consciousness. Consciousness has you. Actually, even that’s not accurate—consciousness IS you, playing every role in this cosmic drama.
VI.
When this recognition dawns, you understand why the mystics laugh.
All that searching for meaning, and you WERE the meaning. All that longing for God, and you WERE what you were longing for. All that pursuit of purpose, when purposelessness was the ultimate purpose.
The cosmic joke: You were looking for your glasses while wearing them.
VII.
But here’s the beautiful twist—this recognition doesn’t make life meaningless. It makes EVERYTHING meaningful.
When you’re no longer a separate self desperately trying to matter, every moment matters infinitely because there’s no “you” separate from it to judge whether it matters.
The rain falling, the coffee brewing, the heart beating—all of it is the universe purposelessly purposing itself into existence, and you’re not witnessing it. You ARE it.
VIII.
The final stage isn’t sitting in a cave in blissful transcendence. It’s coming back to the marketplace—enlightenment shopping for groceries.
Chop wood, carry water, but now you know: The chopping IS the universe chopping. The carrying IS existence carrying itself.
You still live, work, love, create—but without the desperate need for any of it to mean something. It already means everything by simply being.
IX.
Your individual purpose? It was always just consciousness evolving, using your form to know itself more fully.
Every struggle pushed consciousness forward. Every question deepened its understanding. Every moment of suffering and joy added another note to the infinite symphony.
You were never separate from the whole. You were the whole, pretending to be a part, so it could experience coming home to itself.
5 Quotes
I.
“The question ‘Who am I?’ is not really meant to get an answer.”
Ramana Maharshi
II.
“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”
Zen Proverb
III.
“Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the two my life flows.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj
IV.
“You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.”
Teilhard de Chardin
V.
“The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.”
Meister Eckhart
Questions
What remains when the seeker disappears?
My father told me about Ramana Maharshi and how he spoke with Zen Buddhists in India, in his early 30s.
He was very much into Zen, even though being Jewish, he believed more in Zen.
He had a book called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
I remember he and my brother, who was admittedly much smarter than myself, during his life, talked about it at length on several occasions.
I also remember reading the story about the Zen master, the student, and the tea before, somewhere, but I don't remember where.
Thank you for this!
Edit: Here is the Wikipedia page for the book I mentioned:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance
And a link to the book so you can buy it yourself:
https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry/dp/0061673730