The Answer Is You

I have good news and I have bad news:

The bad news is that we have lost the key to the door
behind which the secret of life is hidden.

The good news is that it was never locked.

— Swami Beyondananda

As the story goes... when human beings appeared on the planet, a group of gods got together and decided to play a game. “Let’s hide the secret of life!” one suggested.

“Great idea! ” another agreed. “Where shall we hide it?”

“Let’s plant it at the top of the highest mountain,” one proposed.

“No,” responded another, “people will even climb to Mount Everest.”

“How about at the bottom of the ocean?” asked another.

“No, they will invent submarines.”

On and on the gods pondered, trying to find a suitable hiding place. Finally, one god had a bright idea: “I know!” he exclaimed. “Let’s hide the secret of life inside each person, they’ll never think to look there!”

We remain in darkness when we seek external solutions for internal needs. We believe our problems exist because of causes outside ourselves, and then seek to rearrange the outer world. Even when we succeed, we feel empty because the external situation was not the cause of our pain. To truly be healed we must deal with our experience at its source; our own beliefs, attitudes, and actions.

In their important book, Conscious Loving, Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks put forth the core principle that each partner must take 100 percent responsibility for everything that happens in their relationship and their world.

Empower yourself by identifying yourself not as a victim of circumstances, but as the source of your experience.

The whole game changes when you realize the answer is within you.