What is that inner longing for more?
Do you sometimes struggle to be in the world? Do you feel like you are not of this world, that it seems to confront you at every turn, and yet you have to find a way to exist in it? Yearning for more, but can’t seem to find what you’re looking for in the world? I often feel like I’m a stranger here, that I don’t belong, and yet I’m here. I have to find a way to be in this world, this world that feels too hard, that often grates against the self that feels so sensitive, so tender, so foreign to this world.
Why do I feel like I don’t belong? I am afraid of the competition, the fight and the conflicts that dominate the world. Whenever I can, I remove myself from the hustle and bustle of a world that is clamoring for my attention and making empty promises about products and experiences it thinks I should have…for what? Be popular? To have what everyone else has? To respond to the latest trend? Feel a sense of accomplishment? To achieve external measures of success? To find meaning? To import?
For a long time, I sought to quench my inner thirst within the outer world. I thought I had to search harder, longer, in different places with different people. It was only when I realized that what I was looking for existed within me and that I had been looking in all the wrong places that I found solace and fulfillment beyond anything I had fleetingly experienced in my life. I realized that the outside world couldn’t provide anything that could satisfy my inner longing for more. The “more” he sought could not be found in any “thing,” any new emotion or experience, or indeed, any achievement. You might experience a brief feeling of elation or triumph, but the feeling never stayed. It never really quenched my inner thirst for more. Rather, the feeling faded and I found myself looking to create another experience where I could feel so “high” again. The feeling could not and would not remain because it was based on the acquisition or realization or experience of something external. The only way to feel it again was to look for the next best thing to acquire, achieve, or experience, and it became clear that it would be an endless cycle. Nothing that arose in the external world could truly answer my inner longing for more, because that call comes from my soul, my spirit, my true Self.
Do you feel an inner call? Do you feel a longing deep in your soul? You are paying attention? That inner call asks us to remember who we really are, to remove the blinders that prevent us from seeing our true identity as spiritual beings. It asks us to look beyond the appearance that we are separate individuals because we inhabit bodies during this life experience. He asks us to realize that without the inner light that our spirits bring into our bodies, they are nothing more than empty shells. We are the vital energy that we can feel pulsing within us, the knowing, calm and loving presence in which we find ourselves, when we become still and focus inward.
That inner calling reminds us to seek more than we can see and experience with the five senses of our physical body and begin to open up to deeper levels of meaning, interaction, and communion. That longing calls out to us and asks us to pay attention to what has lasting meaning, to what speaks to our inner truth. As our awareness opens up to the truth of who we really are, the outside world loses its appeal. We begin to realize that we cannot find the meaning we seek in the empty promises of the ego world because it exists outside of our true nature. Rather, the meaning we seek can only be found within, in the calm, quiet presence that is our soul. It is there that we experience the peace we have longed for, the knowledge we have felt, and the love and meaning we have sought in the outer world. It is there that we find our truth.
For to be In this world, I have to spend “soul time” every day. I have to still myself and enter the still presence that awaits my return. I have to spend time in reflection and prayer so that I can stand my ground in a world that is founded on the belief that we are all separate, all in competition for scarce resources, all striving to get ahead and succeed. Isn’t it all based on an inner longing to find meaning, to matter, to be somebody? That meaning and knowing that we matter unconditionally can only be found from where the call originated… on the inside. The source of the call tells us where to look, and as soon as we are willing to do so, we begin to find our way back to the Divine, to God, our true Source and Home.
How do you find your “land” so that you can to be in this world? How do you respond to your inner longing for more? Please share in the comment box below so we can connect as the spiritual family that we are. Namaste, my dears. I send you great love.