The Path is the Goal, This is Home

“See simplicity in the complicated, seek greatness in small things. In the Universe, the difficult things are done as if they were easy.”    ~Lao Tsu

As Gandhi put it, “The path is the goal.” Our destination is HERE, learning to be fully peaceful, loving, mindful and present. We arrive when we let go of society’s obsessions, becoming grateful for every moment of our lives. Awakening joyfully to the miracle of our existence here upon our planet.

“Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

There is no far off destination to be reached. The message of all great spiritual traditions and mystics is that the past does not exist behind us, the future does not lie ahead, all that exists is here NOW, living in the structure of our bones, the unfolding of flowers, the potential of our children and the spiritual wisdom available to each of us, within our hearts.

“If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.” ~ J. Krishnamurti

We are part of a vast Universe, 8 billion years in the making. Science has a story to tell, that your body is the result of hundreds of millions of years of creative experimentation and evolutionary design. This is the natural intelligence of the Universe, dancing and transforming as the great tapestry of life, expressing as all beings.

“I like to experience the universe as one harmonious whole. Every cell has life. Matter, too, has life; it is energy solidified. The tree outside is life… The whole of nature is life...”   ~Albert Einstein

Society tells us that we need MORE. That you need to be successful and respected, have a good career, get out of debt, own a nice car and a beautiful home. But, we already are home, where ever we are. And we are already wealthy beyond imagining, each of us.

“The kingdom of heaven is inside you and it is outside you. God’s kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people do not see it.”  ~The Gospel of Thomas

“Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream. I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been. To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen. They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed.” ~Led Zeppelin, Kashmir

The beauty that surrounds us– that mystics speak of, artists paint, musicians sing of and poets write about– calls to us, every moment. Asking us to silence our spinning minds, to become aware, to look up and really see where we are. To love and embrace the world, cherish every moment, every relationship, to recognize the miracle of every living being we come in contact with.

“Know what it is to be a child… To see a world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower. Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.” ~William Blake

Look around you, look deep into the eyes of those you love. Look up at the sky, at the stars. Feel the wind blowing over your body. Cherish the taste of water, the smell of freshly baked bread, the sound of rain. This is HOME.

“An epiphany enables you to sense creation not as something completed, but as constantly becoming, evolving, ascending. This transports you from a place where there is nothing new to a place where there is nothing old, where everything renews itself, where heaven and earth rejoice as at the moment of creation.”   ~Abraham Isaac Kook

“The beauty which the knower knows and the lover appreciates, the mystic worships. His God is Reality. To every question that arises in the heart of the mystic, he finds the answer in the life before him.”     ~Hazarat Inayat Khan

We are each and all a part of everything. The atoms in your body were forged in the heart of long gone stars and super novas in this sector of our galaxy. We are solar beings, energized by the power of our sun. “We are stardust, we are golden.”

“God is not some person outside ourselves or away from the Universe. He pervades everything… He abides in our hearts and is nearer to us than the nails on our fingers.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

Yes, there are problems in our world, and wanting to help, we wonder where to begin? People are hungry, suffering and poor. Some still drawn in by the insanity of politics, materialism, power games and war. There is much that needs to be changed and transformed. Yet, to really be helpful, we must begin with transforming ourselves.

“The only true joy on earth is to escape from the prison of our own false self, and enter by love into union with the Life who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls.” ~Thomas Merton

We begin with LOVE. We begin by freeing ourselves, by letting go of civilization’s false dreams, anger, hatred, stress, fears and illusions. Awaken to the miracle of our lives here. By being more grateful, peaceful, happy and loving we first “become the change” we wish to see in the world.

“In this world, hate never dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible.”  ~The Buddha

Like Dorothy in Oz, we wake up. We realize there is no where that we needed to go. We just needed to be fully present HERE, with our hearts and minds open. There is no place like home, and we have always been home.

~Christopher Chase~

“All major mystical traditions have recognized that there is a paradox at the heart of the journey of return to Origin. Put simply, this is that we are already what we seek, and that what we are looking for on the Path with such an intensity of striving and passion and discipline is already within and around us at all moments. The journey and all its different ordeals are all emanations of the One Spirit that is manifesting everything in all dimensions; every rung of the ladder we climb toward final awareness is made of the divine stuff of awareness itself; Divine Consciousness is at once creating and manifesting all things and acting in and as all things in various states of self-disguise throughout all the different levels and dimensions of the universe.” ~Andrew Harvey

“Love courses through everything. No, love is everything. How can you say, there is no love, when nothing but love exists? All that you see has appeared because of love. All shines from love, All pulses from love, All flows from love– No, once again, All is love!”         ~Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi

“To master ourselves is to arrive home- at the Center of Being- the Universal Mandala. What we seek we already are.” ~Lama Surya Das

“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as One.”    ~John Lennon

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.”  ~Albert Einstein

Related:

* The Global Butterfly Effect * Glimpses of a Creative Living Universe * Restoring the Soul of the World * Life in the Age of Shifting Paradigms * Twelve Principles for Understanding the Universe, by Thomas Berry * SPIRITUAL WISDOM: Recognizing the Sacred in Our World * Systems Thinking – Rediscovering Nature’s Paradigm * Love vs. Power: A Tale of Two Mindsets *  How We Participate in the Creative Life of the Universe  *  The Creative Matrix: Awakening to Find Ourselves Home * Regaining Our Sense of the Sacred *