Do you sometimes struggle to be in the world? Do you feel that you are not of this world, that it seems to confront you at every turn, and yet you have to find a way to exist in it? Do you yearn for more, but can’t seem to find what you’re looking for in the world? I often feel like I’m a stranger here, that I don’t belong, and yet I’m here. I have to find a way be in this world, this world that feels too hard, that often grinds against the self that feels so sensitive, so tender, so alien to this world.
Why do I feel like I don’t belong? I am scared of the competition, the fight and the conflicts that dominate the world. Whenever I can, I withdraw from the hustle and bustle of a world that is clamoring for my attention and making empty promises about products and experiences that it thinks I must have…for what? Be popular? To have what everyone else has? To respond to the latest trend? Feel a sense of accomplishment? To achieve external measures of success? To find meaning? To import?
For a long time, I sought to quench my inner thirst within the outside world. I thought I had to search harder, longer, in different places with different people. It was only when I realized that what I was looking for existed within me and that I had been looking in all the wrong places that I found comfort and fulfillment beyond anything I had ever fleetingly experienced in my life. I realized that the outside world could not provide anything that could satisfy my inner yearning for more. The “more” he sought could not be found in any “thing,” any new emotion or experience, or indeed, any achievement. You might experience a brief sense of euphoria or triumph, but the feeling never stayed. It never really quenched my inner thirst for more. Rather, the feeling faded and I found myself looking to create another experience where I could feel so “high” again. The feeling could not and would not remain because it was based on the acquisition or realization or experience of something external. The only way to feel it again was to look for the next best thing to acquire, achieve or experience, and it became clear that it would be a never-ending cycle. Nothing that arose in the external world could truly answer my inner longing for more, because that call comes from my soul, my spirit, my true Self.
Do you feel an inner call? Do you feel a longing deep in your soul? You are paying attention? That inner call asks us to remember who we really are, to remove the blinders that prevent us from seeing our true identity as spiritual beings. It asks us to look beyond the appearance that we are separate individuals because we inhabit bodies during this life experience. It asks us to realize that without the inner light that our spirits bring to our bodies, they are nothing more than empty shells. We are the vital energy that we can feel beating within us, the wise, calm and loving presence in which we find ourselves, when we become still and focus inward.
That inner call reminds us to seek more than what we can see and experience with the five senses of our physical body and to begin to open ourselves to deeper levels of meaning, interaction and communion. That yearning calls us and asks us to pay attention to what has lasting meaning, to what speaks of our inner truth. As our consciousness opens up to the truth of who we really are, the outside world loses its appeal. We begin to realize that we cannot find the meaning we seek in the empty promises of the egoic world because it exists outside of our true nature. Rather, the meaning we seek can only be found within, in the still and silent presence that is our soul. It is there that we experience the peace we have longed for, the knowledge we have felt, and the love and meaning we have sought in the outside world. It is there that we find our truth.
With the purpose of be In this world, I have to spend “soul time” every day. I have to still myself and go into the still presence that awaits my return. I have to spend time in reflection and prayer so that I can stand firm in a world that is based on the belief that we are all separate, all in competition for scarce resources, all striving to get ahead and succeed. Isn’t it all based on an inner longing to find meaning, to matter, to be someone? That meaning and knowing that we matter unconditionally can only be found from where the call originated…on the inside. The source of the call tells us where to look, and as soon as we are willing to do so, we begin to find our way back to the Divine, to God, our true Source and Home.
How do you find your “land” so that you can be in this world? How do you respond to your inner longing for more? Please share in the comment box below so we can connect as the spiritual family that we are. Namaste, my dears. I send you great love.