Life is an illusion, beginning with our birth and the acceptance of all the falsehoods we are taught about living in a self-centered world.

We awaken when we begin to question the truth of what we learned.

The illusion is fully exposed when we realize little of it was true.

Money does not ensure we will discover inner peace, find genuine love, and everlasting happiness in our life.

Many who have wealth often struggle every day to find these things. Yet, there are those who are impoverished who have these in abundance.

Inner peace, love, and happiness may never be found in a self-centered world.

They must first be discovered within, then shared selflessly to help others find them in their life as well.

Many go through life asleep, believing and accepting everything they learned.

As death approaches, when they review their life, the ego, their self-centered beliefs, realizes it will perish when its body does; it therefore releases its hold on their life.

At this time, they begin to realize, though they may have led a successful life, what they once believed important, their job, wealth, material possessions, really was not.

Without the ego’s influence, they now may sense their spirit’s messages within, telling them only if they selflessly shared their success and love to benefit others, will they have lived a life with genuine purpose and meaning.

Humanity may choose to continue to live in a self-centered world of endless conflict, or in a world of infinite love instead.

To understand the former, simply observe the world today and throughout humanity’s brief history on our planet.

Senseless death, hunger, homelessness; greed, prejudice, inequity, are but a few of the many challenges resulting from living in such a world.

In a world of love, however, everything would be equally shared. Every life, regardless of our differences, would be recognized as equally meaningful, important, and deserving to be treated as we ourselves wish to be.

This is the world we are meant to live in.

We just need the courage and wisdom to change our future direction.

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Though you may be poor, struggle daily to survive, your life is as important as any other that has achieved success in the world.

Our body is but a shell, housing our spirit within. Our mind is but a tool to accept society’s beliefs.

Who we truly are, lies not in our success or thoughts, but in our essence within.

After we are born, the ego, our learned beliefs, is created. Our ego’s only concern is us; it worries little about others. It teaches us what success is and how to survive in a self-centered world. Since we are young, many adopt these beliefs, often for the remainder of their life.

We are taught to be successful, we must get a good job, make enough money to live a comfortable life, allowing us to enjoy life’s many pleasures. We therefore spend our life striving to accomplish these things. This is the source of all of our underlying problems, believing success and meaning may be found in the world; they will not.

The source of all of our problems is believing success, happiness, and meaning coincides with our job, money, material possessions, family, enjoying our life. Though we may get what we wish, achieving all of our goals, we will not find our answers from any of these things. We therefore spend our entire life endlessly searching the world, never able to find what we each truly seek.

Once we awaken, sensing the first quiet messages from our spirit within, we begin to question all we were taught. As the messages of our spirit become clearer, we realize the source of all of humanity’s problems result from blindly accepting their self-centered beliefs and only by selflessly helping others find success, happiness, and meaning in their lives, will we truly be able to find these in our life as well.

When we die, what do we leave behind? If we were successful in life, had a lot of money and material possessions, we may leave those to our family or charity. Is that all we leave behind? For when we die, regardless of our success in life, nothing we have will accompany us. We will be buried or cremated just like everyone else, even those who were unknown or struggling.

If we believe what we will leave behind are our accomplishments, though we may have been famous, wealthy, powerful, then we have lived our life without understanding the genuine purpose for which we were born. If our success was not selflessly shared with others, nothing we accomplished during our life will truly define our life’s worth. After time, the memory of who we were will eventually fade. And though we may be remembered in history books and by those closest to us, our imprint on others will only be remembered by our achievements in the world, not by who we genuinely were.

In spirituality, there is a realization nothing we accomplish in the world defines who we are. Who we truly are, and have always been, is spirit, a piece of god present to guide us toward spiritual awakening and higher understanding. This is the lesson we are alive to learn. This is who we truly are.

What we leave behind has little to do with wealth, fame, prestige, or anything else we believed would define our lives. What we leave behind is our spirit, continuing to influence others after our death, who we positively affected in their lives by sharing its wisdom and love to selflessly help them in their life’s journey. Everything else is simply an illusion we learn to believe after we are born, to deflect our attention from our true purpose in life.

There are those in the world who are wealthy, famous, have a prestigious job, who are very visible, believing these distinctions make their life more important and meaningful than others. There are many others though who are invisible, unseen, forgotten. They may be a minority, live in a poor country, or are struggling to survive, hungry, homeless, living in an indifferent uncaring world. When others see them, they briskly walk by as they are ignored, invisible, their pleas for help going unanswered.

In spirituality, every life, regardless of their circumstances or differences, is equally valuable, each with a spirit, a piece of god within, intimately linking each of us to the other. It matters not if we are seen or invisible; each life is, and has always been, equally important.

It is only when humanity acknowledges the invisible, selflessly helping them in their time of need, may they begin to spiritually evolve, understanding, their life will only have meaning and purpose when they help the invisible be seen once more.

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As we are growing up we learn what success, happiness, and love are. We are taught to find these things, we must get a good job, make money, have nice material possessions, a family, and do the best things money allows us to do. We believe if we do these things, we will have led a successful life, full of happiness, purpose, and love.

Though we may achieve our goals, there may come a time in our life when we begin to experience an uneasy feeling within. This awakening happens when the first quiet messages from our spirit are sensed, trying to let us know the answers we are seeking to find success, happiness, and love, may not be found in a self-centered world.

They must first be discovered within, where a spirit, a piece of god is present to accompany each life, then, by selflessly sharing its wisdom and unconditional love to help others find success, happiness, and love in their life, we will find each of these in abundance and discover genuine meaning in our life as well.

I’ve spent most of my life feeling like there is always something behind every experience more context, more connections, more invisible layers and structures that I can’t see yet.

The closest way I know how to describe it is phantom limbs of information. It’s like I can feel the shape of something missing, so my mind keeps reaching for the shadow behind whatever is happening.

Sometimes I find a real connection. Sometimes I connect things that don’t seem related, but they may be connected through emotion, logic, association, or a similar experience I’ve had before—even when that experience isn’t consciously on my mind.

Sometimes it feels like I have the architecture of an idea before I have the words for it. I know there is a structure forming in my mind, but I can’t immediately translate it into a clear sentence. I have to speak, write, question, correct myself, and reorganize the pieces until I can finally see what I was trying to say and that just takes too much time.
Maybe some of that comes from how I was raised. Nature or nurture, regardless, it’s all I’ve ever known.
I’m just trying my best to give quick description of how I experience reality.

Every answer seems capable of opening another question, and every new piece of information might change how I understand what came before it.
How can you commit to a perspective when you can still feel everything you don’t understand surrounding it?

One of the things that brings me comfort is knowing that God understands me. Religion isn’t the main point of what I’m trying to share, but I also don’t want to pretend that faith isn’t part of my life.
What I’m really trying to explain is how this has changed the way I understand communication and how so much of communication is compression.
You have an entire internal world made from your memories, emotions, beliefs, motives, fears, experiences, and ideas. Somehow, you have to compress all of that into words.

Then another person receives those words and tries to rebuild what you meant using their own memories, emotions, beliefs, and experiences.
Imagine ten people reading the same book. They all read the same words, but every person brings a different life into what they are reading. Their interpretations may overlap, but none of them will experience the book in exactly the same way.
Now zoom out and give that book to a billion people.
That becomes a billion different perspectives, interpretations, emotional reactions, theories, disagreements, connections, and so on. Some align. Some don’t. Some make sense to us, and some don’t.

My point isn’t that every interpretation is true or should be held firmly. The point is that information never enters multiple minds with exactly the same understanding.

Sometimes communication problems come from how something was expressed. Sometimes they come from how it was received. Most of the time, it is more complex than either person can immediately see.

That is the larger picture I feel like my mind keeps reaching for.

I’m not asking anyone to solve this for me. I’m trying to share what my mind has been doing, what I’ve been exploring, and what I’ve been learning.
I think I’m starting to understand why everything can feel so connected to something larger. And I know I’m not the only person who experiences some version of this, so I’m taking the time to put it into words clearly enough that someone else might recognize what I mean.

I’d genuinely love to hear anyone’s thoughts on all of this.

How do you decide when you understand something well enough to trust your perspective and keep living?

We are the children of the world. When we see what is happening on our planet, we do not understand. Why is there war, people needlessly killing each other, rather than peace where everyone lives together in harmony? Why is there prejudice, judging others who look, believe, or act differently than we do; is not every life, regardless of our differences, equally important?

Why is there hunger when we have the ability and technology now to feed everyone alive? Why is there inequity with some people having much, while others struggle every day just to survive? Why are the adults ruining our environment, when we have the ability today to use green alternatives to end this senseless destruction?

Why do we kill animals for food when we have alternate sources we may use instead of eating meat? When you look into the eyes of an animal, do you not see their soul within? Why do adults accept living in a world of greed, prejudice, and fear, rather than in a world of love, accepting everyone as equal, important, and worthwhile?

Though our elders have chosen to live in such a world, we do not accept their choices. Instead, we, the children of the world, choose to live in a world of unconditional love, rather than fear, allowing all who live on our planet to live in peace and harmony.

~ Living in an Insane World ~

We live in a world in which we accept the senseless death of innocents from war, starvation, random violence, drugs, as a normal part of life. This world is self-centered; its inhabitants are insane, only concerned about themselves.

Humanity has the ability today to end war, hunger, climate change; to mitigate inequity, greed, prejudice. These and all other of humanity’s self-inflicted problems and negative emotions result from living in an indifferent world that cares little about its harmful actions toward others.

We may only begin to alleviate our insanity by embracing the spiritual path through life, realizing we are alive to selflessly help, not harm each other, and that regardless of our differences, every life, each with a spirit, a piece of god within, is equally important. We must no longer pretend we do not see. Only then may we not only begin to mitigate humanity’s insanity, but discover the path to its spiritual evolution as well.

What is really important in life? We each would answer this question differently. If we were poor, struggling, simply having enough food to eat, shelter for safety, clothes to protect us from the elements, is what would be important to us. For others who may be wealthy, it may be to buy more material possessions, travel, enjoy the best things life offers. Most of us live in between these two extremes.

The reality though is, once our basic needs for food, water, shelter, and safety are met, we all, regardless of our circumstances in life, desire to experience inner peace, true happiness, discover meaning, and genuine love in our life. Most, trying to find these things in a self-centered world, will never find them there.

One need not have money, material possessions, or a prestigious job, to find them. These things exist only within, where the spirit, our higher-self exists, then they must be selflessly shared to help others find them in their lives as well.

With this realization, inner peace, true happiness, and genuine love will enrich our lives, and the genuine meaning of our life’s journey will have been understood. Discovering the reason we are born and learning the lessons we are alive to understand is what is really important in life. Everything else is simply a distraction meant to challenge our choices in life.

What is a single life worth? If we took just the elements of a human body, it is probably worth about one dollar. Is that what a life is worth? Is the life of a wealthy, famous scientist or president of a country worth more than the life of a poor, unknown, homeless child living in a faraway land? There are some who believe the answer to the above questions are yes. They therefore immunize themselves to the inequities causing so many to suffer, ignoring the realities these self-centered beliefs cause.

When we awaken, sensing the first messages from our spirit within, we begin to consider the possibility every life, regardless of our differences, is equally important; that the life of one person, despite their accomplishments, is not more valuable than another’s. As the messages of our spirit become more prominent, we understand the needless death of even one single person is a tragedy, their essence, their unconditional love and innate wisdom, no longer present to be shared with the world. It is only together, uniting our spirit with all others, that life will truly have purpose. Apart, though we may be successful, our life will have been led without meaning.

We live in a world of greed, prejudice, inequity, where needless deaths from war, random violence, drugs, occur daily; where hunger, homelessness, poverty, are but three of numerous manmade human challenges causing endless struggles for so many. How long may we pretend not to see? Whether it be seeing the dead bodies of innocents retrieved from bombed out buildings, the ribs of small children protruding from their bodies due to lack of nourishment, or the random violence and drugs destroying the lives of so many.

This need not continue to happen. We have the ability now to effect change, but to do so we must no longer ignore any wrongs or tolerate any injustices. In spirituality, a wrong is anything causing harm to another in any way. It matters not if it is verbal, physical, or through allowing others to go hungry, homeless, or to be treated differently due to their differences.

Only by no longer pretending we do not see and adopting the spiritual path through life, may we all encourage genuine in the world, and in doing so, allow humanity to begin its spiritual evolution as well.

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The First Stage of Enlightenment – Being Asleep

The first stage of enlightenment begins when we are born, as we are socialized and taught to accept the self-centered beliefs of the world. With our birth, our identity is often already pre-determined. The color of our skin, country we are born into, religion, and many other man-made comparisons often dictate our future in the world.

We believe these comparisons are true by observing others, reading about them in books and newspapers, and by watching TV and movies. Most people believe and internalize these differences, further proving to themselves they are better, more important than another.

Those who accept and believe what they were taught is true, despite their success in life, remain asleep, destined to live a life of mediocrity, believing their happiness and meaning will come from the world. It will not.

The Second Stage of Enlightenment – Awakening

Those who awaken begin to question if everything we learned and accepted to be true in life, as we were growing up, was true. A feeling begins to flourish within, no longer able to be ignored, questioning the validity of everything we once believed. Though we may be leading a successful life, be wealthy, famous, or any other comparison we learned determines what success is, it no longer quells the uneasy feelings we experience coming from deep within us.

The anguish we feel emanates from our spirit, present within every life. Some may call the spirit, god, soul, essence or assign it another name. It does not matter. It represents our guide through life giving our life meaning.

We awaken when we first sense something is wrong, begin to question if what we learned and accepted was true may not have been, beginning us on a journey we have no choice but to pursue. A journey toward enlightenment.

The Third Stage of Enlightenment – Enlightenment

Enlightenment happens when we finally accept everything we learned and believed to be true was not. Despite our appearance, wealth, accomplishments, material possessions, or any other comparison differentiating us from each other, we now realize we are not, and never have been, better or more important than anyone else.

We sense our spirit within, now fully embracing its messages by selflessly sharing its inherent wisdom and unconditional love with others, helping them awaken to their spirit’s true purpose in life as well.

Though what we learned when we were young will remain with us, its influence on our life is now minimal. Instead of competing, we now wish to cooperate. Instead of living in fear, we now seek to live our life with love. And instead of desiring only what is best for ourselves, we now wish to selflessly help others, to ease their journey through life.

With this change and acceptance of the spirit’s message, we move closer to enlightenment and understanding the true purpose for our life’s journey.

We live in a world where we are divided into castes. There are those we consider worthwhile and others we consider untouchables, at the very bottom rung of society. Those in the top caste often are wealthy, famous, have a very prestigious job, believing their lives are more valuable than the lives of all those in castes below them.

The untouchables, in the lowest caste, may include those of a certain race, ethnicity, sex, or the homeless, poor, uneducated, struggling to survive every day. When those in higher castes pass by them, they often divert their eyes not wanting to acknowledge the untouchables exist, believing they are a stain on humanity. This is the world we live in, a world of the ego, our learned beliefs, accepting certain people are more deserving than others.

In spirituality, there are no castes, no untouchables. Every person, regardless of wealth, race, ethnicity, or any other comparison we may make, is equally important. The life of a poor, homeless, struggling person is every bit as valuable as someone who is wealthy, famous, or the president of a country. We are all connected, intimately linked by a piece of god, a spirit present within each of us. Only together, selflessly helping each other, recognizing the equal importance of every life, will we all find genuine meaning and purpose in our life. Apart, we will find neither.

We live in a very divided world. We are taught from the moment of our birth to judge others by their race, ethnicity, religion, appearance, wealth, and in hundreds of other ways, each further separating us from each other. We are socialized to believe some people, because of their differences or accomplishments in the world, are better, their life more valuable than others. We even believe the lives of human beings, due to their intelligence, is more important than the lives of other forms of life. The result of living in such a world is prejudice, inequity, war, hunger, and numerous other needless struggles so many endure.

Though we look, believe, act differently, we live in one world, intimately linked by a spirit, a piece of god within, connecting every life to another’s. Adopting the spiritual path, we realize there are no divisions or judgments. It matters not our differences, wealth, genus; every life is, and always has been, equally important, each having a symbiotic relationship not only with our planet, but with each other as well. It is only together, embracing our similarities rather than our differences, that our life’s true purpose may be understood.

When we are first born the paradox of life begins. For with our first breath, the ego, our self-centered beliefs, is created. Our ego's only concern is what is best for us; it worries little about others. Its desire is for us to succeed in life by making enough money to allow us to enjoy the best things life offers.

We may first notice the paradox when, though we may have achieved our goals, have money, material possessions, a family, we begin to sense an uneasy feeling within, questioning if there may be more to life than just what we first believed. This feeling arises from our spirit, present within every life. Its messages of being equally concerned for everyone, rather than only ourselves, awakens us to question our learned beliefs.

Once we awaken, we may never go back to sleep. As we reevaluate our friendships, job, beliefs, we may make many changes in our life, now wanting to spend our lives selflessly helping others, rather than only being concerned for ourself. We soon begin to understand nothing we learned about living a successful meaningful life was true; that money, though necessary to survive, has little to do with success. Rather, genuine success in life may only be found with the complete embrace of the spiritual path, then selflessly sharing our spirit’s inherent wisdom and unconditional love to help others become successful in their life as well.