Maybe the last three-hundred and sixty-four posts have been leading to this exact moment and back to the beginning of what started this whole journey, the idea that all the answers are inside. Everything we’ve been searching for, wishing for, hoping for, and longing to be is already there, patiently waiting, within us to be discovered.
This came flooding back front and center about a year ago when I was visiting a friend of mine and packed light. For a ritual fiend and hardcore journaler I felt like I had nothing with me when I only took two journals. Honestly, I felt stripped down, like I wasn’t all there, like I needed all that stuff or a certain routine to be myself, to connect, or honor the moment.
That’s when the truth hit me with a superhuman punch, those feelings and connections are not out there, they’re in here. What I’m looking for is not something that needs to be created it’s something that already exists on the inside. That’s when it dawned, I am the altar, and the flame, and this fire is burning every moment of every day, inside of me. And the same is true for you. The tools we use on the outside are just that, a way to get to what we don’t understand yet. They may help us sort through or see more clearly, but they are not what we are searching for.
What we’re looking for is hidden deeper within, and we do not have to travel to the ends of the earth or follow the guru or teacher or sage. But we do have to listen to the voice inside that knows. It’s a learning curve to distinguish our soul truth from another diversion or what someone else thinks or wants from us, and that can only be done from the inside out. The truth is it’s always been and always will be an inside job. Figuring our lives out is not meant to be a trick question, or a Koan, although sometimes it can feel like it. It’s just that the secrets and beauty and magic we are forever chasing always seem to be hidden in the hardest place to find, within.
And for me this is the bone-shaking reality. It sums up everything I’ve ever said and everything a million others have said in as many different ways. Where we go the sacred altar goes. We are the temple, and it’s our deepening awareness, compassion, and reverence for our magnificent selves, every living creature, and this beautiful planet that bring us to life. It is our sensitivity and depth of insight that keeps that inner fire lit, and it’s living with greater gratitude and kindness that keeps the fire burning. The questions we begin to unravel and answer change us and that changes the world.
An expensive pair of jeans, a new phone, or a fancy car are not going to make you more you. You are already the youest you can be. All you need to recognize is what you’re really after, and this is a deeply personal realization and different for each of one of us. But what is the same is that the answers to our longings are found inside, not out there in some mysterious something you can’t articulate or understand or afford. All you need to do is give yourself a little more spaciousness and add some introspection and reflection.
Now all that’s left is to start honestly thinking about what feeds your soul, makes you joyful and fulfilled. Give yourself some space and time to see what comes, and enough curiosity to follow the unexpected threads that will inevitably arise. Let these thoughts, insights, or ideas trickle down, settling to their deepest point. What you’ve been looking for is buried there. You don’t have to take my word for it, take Buddha’s or Jesus’. Take the word of Hafiz or Rumi, or poets like Jimenez and Rilke, and deep thinkers like Jung and Woodman. They’ve done the hard work of clearing the path for us.
It’s all been said, all that’s left to do is listen more closely. Listen to our heart, listen to what bubbles up in the silence and bravely believe in our voice and ourselves. Remember, what you’re after is already inside. Take the time to worship at the altar of your soul every day.
I guarantee you’ll find what you’re looking for.
kb
