Buddha said: “There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.”

It is so easy to fall into the trap of looking at the world and finding fault.
When we look, we find what we are looking for—every time. Because we are creators. We create our reality in the form that we choose. We are all-powerful.

If you want to experience peace in the world around you, there must first be peace in your heart.

If you would like to experience abundance, you must first find abundance in your Self.

If you would like to know more joy, seek that place inside yourself where joy comes from.

The world around us is perfect. Do you see it?

Through a telescope: All the galaxies expanding and contracting in the eternal rhythm of life (universe)…the planets dancing round each other in their perfect orbits.

Through a microscope: all the internal systems expanding and contracting in the eternal rhythm of life (breath)…the electrons and neurons and atoms and molecules dancing round each other in their perfect orbits.

(I am not a scientist, forgive any factual errors!)

But the fact remains that on looking up, we see macrocosm; on looking down, we see microcosm. There is a perfect symmetry to the world around us, a perfect order. This is the truth behind the ancient Hermetic law:

“As above, so below; as below, so above. As within, so without; As without, so within.”

When we see chaos, it is because we have created chaos. When we experience suffering, it is because we have attached ourselves to suffering. When we find we are without, then it is time to look within!

Then it is time to learn from our mistakes, to ask ourselves “what am I trying to teach myself?,” and to re-learn to see the world as a child does.

A child sees through eyes that are untainted by expectation. It sees things as they are.

Let us see things as they are. Without fear. Without expectation. Without judgement. Without shame.

Don’t look. Have the courage to see.

It means that we must open ourselves completely.

It means that we must not hold on to what we think we know.

It means letting go of all that is comfortable.

Sound scary? It is, I know.

But the trade-off is this:

We step out of our little bubbles, our little comfort zones; and into a whole new world of beauty and joy.

We realize that we are infinitely connected to all that is, in unimaginable ways—unimaginable because we cannot experience that reality with our imagination, with our thoughts, or with our ideas. Only through being, can we come to know that bliss.

A student asked me:

“What about war? What about rape? What about all the suffering in the world? How can you say that is perfect?”

It’s a good question, and not one that is easy to answer!

But the answer is this:

All human suffering is caused by our belief in duality. When we believe that there is suffering, there is. When we believe that the world is a hard place, it is. When we look for problems, we will certainly find them. And that is what we have been doing for a very, very long time.

Now, in this age, on this day, at this moment, you and I can change all that.
At any moment, any one of us, no matter our circumstances, can change. We can always look inside ourselves and choose a different way. We can always look inside ourselves and let go of the pain, the suffering, the depression, the anger, the lack.

We can always see beauty, joy, and love, within. Because that is where it comes from. And if we all do that, then war, rape, and suffering itself, will disappear. We, mankind, create them with our negativity.

We are perfect as we are. God, whether you think of him/her/it as a being, or an energy, or nature herself, doesn’t make mistakes.