Those with a developed sensitivity to the demands of the world can find it all very disheartening, and become cynical in their day-to-day disappointments, expecting – as a way of life – to be displeased.

What remedies this is a broad and deep participation in everyday and ordinary activities of the general population. It is then seen that in fact there is no generality within the population; everyone’s life and circumstances are uniquely poignant and when properly seen, stimulate wisdom.

The very act of sharing one’s gifts and rewards imbues them with their special value, and so one’s most precious gift is the ability to relate deeply with another. This requires heart as well as mind.

Humanity’s penchant for self-obsession is not wholly without grace or spiritual importance, yet the self must assimilate itself within the higher vision of self in order to find peace. This is done secretly. For example, whilst in the company of others whose problems reach out with and an unsettling influence, one remembers grace, and all is well.

Accomplishment does not require us to deal with others’ issues; the opposite is the case. By deepening our own convictions, we find such a profundity of inner stillness that serenity becomes the constancy of our being. This is what leads to success in all endeavours.

Our passions are records of the gap between what we experience and what we truly know. Turning from them, we demonstrate that we have learned from them, and found a place of peace where knowledge and experience are in constant dynamic harmony. The self is this refined more and more, inner rewards become so much more valuable than the outer success that, unsought, nonetheless follows.

One absorbs oneself into this place of peace, detached from externals, yet quite capable and willing to serve selflessly, giving the appearance of as a thoroughly integrated unit of society, despite being almost completely free of it.

Mind is the cornerstone of humanity’s supremacy on earth, and one invests hugely in the intellect in order to develop and maintain the self assurance that is required to function with effective certainty of purpose.

There is a voracious appetite for experience, an insatiable well of curiosity for knowledge, and a constant yearning in the mind to get to the bottom of things, which propels individuals to seek answers to inner questions.

What springs forth spontaneously, in response to such persistent questioning, is an emanation of new ideas, each one a butterfly in its ephemeral transience. Some of them trickle forward and, without the force to survive, are lost; others grow like streams that become rivers feeding the ocean of humanity’s collective conception of the nature of existence.

The root of this activity is the elemental self-regeneration of mind. At a personal level and at the universal level, Mind needs to go through a process of constant renewal in order to purify itself – so that its outpourings are sparkling and clear.

We understand somehow that the degenerative aspect of Mind – to be utterly sluggish, lazy and crystallized into hard opinion, staunch belief and unwillingness to learn – can be used as a springboard. Pushing away from such dysfunctionality to affirm our unwavering faith in life’s promise, we awaken to a dream of great joy.

There is then the sense of continually being reborn – to an even greater expanse of awareness that has the eagerness of emergent new life – with a thirst to grasp and assimilate every scrap of knowledge from all perspectives.

We are all co-creating Creation in each moment. The feeling we get when we remember this – and fervently participate with it – is a blend of incomparable keenness, wonder and amazement.