Buddhists who follow the Lotus Sutra have the idea of a Bodhisattva of the Earth [0]. Very briefly, we are all endowed with Buddha nature, but most do not realize it. Bodhisattvas are people like you and me who realize not only their inherent Buddhahood, but who vow to help others as equals.

So much so that they incur a little karma in order to return to this "mean streets" world in the next trip and do even more good.

Such "mission and purpose" in life is really uplifting, and if you ask people their misson and purpose, their answers might range from "I don't know," to "To go to somewhere else much nicer" to the Silicon Valley goal of "Whoever dies with the most toys wins"

I have no recollection of any past lives :-) but I wish to do good while I am here, and like Pascal's wager [1] I figure that as I strive to do more good in this life, past failures being learning moments, not guilt trips, it wouldn't hurt me to increase my "faith, study and practice" [2] just in case I get to do it all over again. I was gifted with intelligence to seek out truths, and did so as a scientist and engineer. It took me a very long time to find this Lotus Sutra Buddhism, which I finally did when I stumbled upon a book by Richard Causton, "The Buddha in Daily Life" (formerly "Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism") at Half Price Books. So be it. Buddhist concepts are analogous to modern scientific concepts, first made known in "The Tao of Physics", Our understanding of the universe has advanced and harmonizes more over time.

Unfortunately for your premise, we don't seem to remember previous lives, but I am grateful for being so gifted entering this one, and if I or some other person with no recollection of me benefits from my karma, great.

What I find depressing is that notion that life is a zero-sum game, which leads to the insane concentration of wealth, something that you can't "take with you" and the "creative destruction" (or uncreative destruction) that abounds because "It doesn't matter, there's a better world "somewhere else", which is life-denying and the results of such thinking are evident. [3]

I'll keep trying, even if I have only one shot at it.

[0] https://www.manifestwithdaimoku.com/study/topic/who-are-the-...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_wager

[2] http://www.buddhaindailylife.com/

[3] Buddha at the Apocalypse, by Kurt Spellmeyer.

Thank you