You need nothing outside
yourself to take your next spiritual step. You already have everything
you need.
Your next step is the one that's right in front of you, the one you can
take right now. If you let your inner knowing guide you, you can't go
wrong. Your next step almost always feels simple, natural, even
ordinary. We sometimes expect great changes to happen in our lives
instantly, in some dramatic fashion, with a bang, but that rarely
happens. More often it is simply putting one foot in front of the other
until inevitably some momentous event occurs; it looks like a miracle from
the outside, but your personal experience of it most likely feels quite
normal and natural. We're always looking for some breathtaking,
heart-stopping spiritual event to know we've arrived, when in fact it is
most often as ordinary as exhaling.
All it takes is an understanding of a few basic truths: we are far greater
beings than we think we are. We have a vast and eternal spirit as well as
these physical bodies. Where we are at this moment, how we are, who we
are, is perfect as it is. There is no secret recipe; there is no magic
formula. It is all as it should be, a perfect and gentle unfolding of
your soul. If it feels difficult, it is only because you have become out
of touch with your true self; you are out of flow.
When we are out of flow,
we're out of sync with our soul. This creates a feeling of separation
that in the moment feels real and true. When we feel separate, we are
suffering from the painful illusion that we are unworthy in some way.
This is a fallacy perpetuated by our smaller self, or by what is often
called the ego. It can throw us off course and confuse our sense of
direction.
Meditation is a direct route
to inner harmony, balance, and peace. There are many methods that can take you
where you want to go, but meditation is by far the quickest and most precise.
Its effects are cumulative and lasting. You can stop meditating for years and
pick up right where you left off.
When this life is over, you
won't take your possessions, your degrees, or your deeds with you, but you will
take the consciousness you have built up from your meditation practice. Through
your meditation, you consciousness changes and evolves. You become aware of who
you really are. The consciousness you build in this lifetime is your
ever-increasing legacy.
This
consciousness is who you are.