You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher than your own soul. – Swami Vivekananda

Often we feel the need to look outside ourselves to find what we are searching for. Inner peace, continuity, happiness, and fulfillment all feel like a distant dream rather than our natural state of being. I’ve been on the spiritual path since high school, for me it has always felt like second nature, but in the beginning I was looking for THE thing, the right teacher, a flashy experience, or a big revelation. I had to have the right clothes, the right accessories, and the right look. I had to visit the right ashram, eat the right foods, well you get the picture, everything I did to cultivate that inner experience was outside myself and had nothing to do with what was I was really looking for.

The truth is it can feel as if something other than our direct, authentic experience holds the key. Of course this is the farthest thing from the truth, the spiritual path can never be materialized but something in our human nature wants to believe what we need is outside ourselves and the ordinary moments we find ourselves in. We ignore what we find inside and keep searching or trying to purchase that illusive something that doesn’t really exist. This kind of search is just a cheater short cut. The truth is much simpler and somehow much more difficult. What we really need is an open heart and open mind. We are the key to the locked door, it’s our honesty and willingness to surrender to the mystery that lets us inside.

The only true path is found within. When we faithfully search our soul we find the answers we’ve been looking for all along. It may not be flashy but it is real and it has the power to change the way we look at and live our lives. In the end all the teachers, gurus, and illuminated ones are talking of their direct experience and the only way to know what they are talking about is to take our own journey inside, obtain our own experiences, and sort through what they mean for us.

I wish I could tell you the steps but there are none. There is only your authentic questioning and following where it leads. Stepping onto your path and staying with it is what unlocks the magic and mystery which tends to look very much like compassion, love, and wisdom. We can be sure we are onto the truth because with it comes a quietness, peace, and an ease that is unmistakable.

So open to where you are lead, be patient, and pay attention. This is the nature of communing, being still enough to hear the inner voice that speaks your truth. That’s how we are shown the way. All the effort and training comes in learning how to be quiet enough to hear our own soul. Then all the outside stuff can be a spark of inspiration, uplifting, or just plain fun. But always we have to be able to make that inner connection and put it together in a way that is ours alone. No one else can do that for us.

Begin communing with yourself. You already have all the answers you’re looking for.

kb