Mark Twain once said, "I've had many worries in life; most of them never happened." Indeed many of our worries are projections into a future that never occurs. In the early 1960's social analysts were predicting that due to automation, within a very few years, there would be a major societal upheaval because of the vast amounts of leisure time most people would be experiencing. As current statistics show, many of us have less leisure time then we experienced in the 1960's. Not only are many of our worries about things that never happen, they are about things over which we have little or no control. We come to realize that there are vast segments of life over which we have no say. And worry itself does not seem to change anything for the better. In fact, we find that the less we worry about things, the more likely things are to come into balance, harmony and order. Releasing worry frees up tremendous energy and vitality from within ourselves, and we are able to see solutions where previously we only saw dilemmas and contradictions. So we can choose not to worry and let a new way of life begin for us. 

As we celebrate this 4th of July with outer displays of fireworks symbolizing the freedom of our nation, let's also remember to recognize and give thanks for our inner freedom, our freedom to choose to transcend the limitations in our lives. This 4th of July, we can choose to realize an inner skyrocket to joyous freedom launching us beyond the bounds of a restricted sense of purpose. We are each in this life to pursue a profound and limitless inner spiritual fulfillment that will outpicture in the transformation of our society and our world. We are here on this earth to demonstrate our freedom to be all we can be, to reach beyond the humdrum routine of our days and discover a deep truth and beauty right in the midst of our being, call it God, or the oneness of all life, or what you will. As we watch with widened eyes and joyous hearts the outer display dazzling our city's sky this 4th of July, let's also, with equal amazement, wonder and appreciation, realize the hidden splendor within each of us, the skyrockets of freedom within our hearts. 

When our hearts are anxious, when we don't know how things are going to work out for us, we can always turn within and find the place of peace inside ourselves. We don't have to hunt for a needle in the haystack. The peace we seek is already here. We just give our attention to it, be aware of it, let it fill our minds, hearts and bodies. We can't find peace because we already are the peace we seek. So, let's take a moment to let go to this peace now. Let's allow the deep, abiding peace within each of us to spread throughout our whole being: let our bodies, our minds and our hearts be at peace: let our thoughts be at peace: let our concerns and cares be infused with peace. We can let the power of peace bring each of us clarity and joy. We can release ourselves to this peace; we can trust it to guide and direct our steps now and always. We are grateful for this new feeling of well-being, and we accept this peace for ourselves, for each other and our for world, this moment. 

Where are we grounded? Many of us rest on a foundation of anxiety and worry. We find that underneath, deep down inside of ourselves, no matter what is happening in our lives, there is always a subtle feeling of worry. lf we are too anxious, we can decide to change the resting place inside of ourselves from worry to peace. We can relax our fearful hold on life and decide to trust this universe. This world grew each of us as surely as it grew the tree in our backyard. There is a wisdom, intelligence and goodness in this life itself that will take care of each of us. So we can let go and let our hearts, our minds and our bodies be at peace. 

During those "dog days" of July, as the temperature climbs over 100°, we can sometimes feel worn down as if the heat is too much for us. Yet we have the capacity to let go of our need to mentally resist the heat—instead we can let go to the heat itself and feel an instant sense of relief. I once spent a very hot summer in a part of South India where there was almost no air conditioning. Some days the temperature would reach 110° or 115° with 100% humidity and I would feel like I was melting into the pavement. One day, I just quit fighting and let go to the sheer oven of heat— as I let the heat penetrate my every pore without struggle or protest, I suddenly felt in harmony and at peace in the midst of that tremendous warmth. So, too, with our spiritual life. Sometimes we are resisting a spiritual breakthrough because it feels uncomfortable. And when we finally decide to just relax and let go, suddenly we find ourselves inwardly in harmony and at peace. Let go to a spiritual heat wave and be at peace. 

Sometimes, it seems that no matter what we do, it's not enough. We feel like we are pedaling backwards. Nothing seems to be happening; nothing seems to be working. We all go through these times when everything in our life seems on hold. And we don't quite know how to get things moving again. Perhaps we need to just not do for awhile. As I like to say to my students about meditation: "Don't just do something, do nothing." When things in our life seem to have come to a standstill, maybe we just need to stand still too; get quiet inside, let go of our needing to make it happen, relax and listen. This may just be a time to rest, release and let go. During these times of rest from outer effort, we can begin to feel a profound sense of inner renewal; a new energy begins to magnetize a new outer momentum, and soon we find ourselves back on track and moving forward with new enthusiasm and joy. 

When we go out into nature into a forest somewhere far away from the noises and sounds of our usual everyday city life, if we are far enough away, the silence we experience in such a setting is almost palpable. It's almost as if we are actually hearing the silence itself. There may be bird sounds and insect sounds, but underneath we hear a deep stillness, and this stillness of nature is so very peace-filled and soothing to us. Yet that same quietude and soothing stillness we experience in the depths of nature also exists deep within ourselves. While it's healing and uplifting to go into nature and feel the stillness of the forest or the desert, it can be equally healing and uplifting to turn within and discover that stillness within ourselves. Just take a few moments each day to settle down, relax the body, release all our cares and concerns and turn within, resting in inner peace, calm and serenity. That's all we need do to feel that same peace we felt in nature. 

How do we accept guidance in our life? We receive many offers of advice; everything from TV commercials to our fellow workers to our close family and friends. Whose advice do we take; whose guidance do we follow? Some people have earned our trust, and we tend to seek them out when we need advice. Yet other people are not always able to give us advice— there may be issues that only we can decide, and perhaps our decision comes only after we allow ourselves to get in touch with our own inner guidance. While outer advice is at times necessary and very helpful, there are these other times when we may need to turn within and listen to our hearts and accept inner guidance and direction. It's interesting that while outer advice is usually very specific and direct— do this or don't do that— inner guidance is often much more subtle and non-directive; so we need to listen that much more intently and patiently to receive inner direction. Regardless of situations, we can always listen inwardly and receive and accept the guidance of our hearts. 

Sometimes for us silence isn't listening; it is waiting, waiting for the other person to quit talking so that we can talk. We listen when we really want to hear what someone is saying. When someone who is very important to us is telling us something that is of burning interest to us, we are very intent on hearing every word. If our boss is saying something about a promotion, a raise or a transfer, he or she has our total attention. When we go to a concert or play, or poetry reading, we become very still so that we can hear and absorb every sound, every word. We can also allow ourselves to be silent and listen to what our insides— our deepest thoughts and feelings— are telling us. We are important enough to learn to silently listen to our own inner voice. 

My wife took our gray cat to the vet recently. When the vet started to give him some shots, the gray cat hid his face in my wife's coat— he just didn't want to see what they were doing to him. Sometimes, in our lives, we are overly-sensitive and aware of what 'they' are doing to us. We become conscious of the smallest imposition or slight; we bristle at the tiniest carelessness when it is directed at us. If we are too aware of the frictions of this life, we can find peace and ease by taking time to turn within, get quiet and release our connection to the outer world for a while every day. Turning within daily gives us a feeling of inner calm and clarity, a sense that we are in control of ourselves and our lives. When we are feeling too sensitive to the outer world, let's remember to take the time to find peace and harmony and order from deep within ourselves— and then we let this inner peace out-picture into our world. 

Lao Tzu once said, "Who would prefer the jingle of jade pendants if once he has heard stone growing in a hill?"-- meaning that as we come to realize our capacity for profound inner, spiritual experience, the outer experiences of life no longer exercise so much fascination for us. As we see into the depth of our inner selves through meditation, prayer and contemplation, we develop a sensitivity that takes us beyond the usual planes of the material world. Not that we deny the material world, but we gain a richer perspective on the whole of life by learning to take the time to turn within, get quiet and feel the peace and stability of our inner life. 

Meditation is the act of inner self-listening. Are we spending enough time listening to ourselves each day? Are we worth taking the time to listen to what we have to say to ourselves? Who do we pay attention to in this life? We get calls from people trying to sell us something— we hardly hear what they are saying. But then there are messages we take very seriously, that we listen to with total attention; if someone is saying to us, "I love you" or "You're fired" or "You're hired" we pay very close attention to these messages. We always have the time to hear these very important pieces of communication. So, too, with ourselves. What could be more important than taking the time to sit down and relax and listen to what our inner life is telling about ourselves? We can make an appointment with ourselves each day for a few minutes to quietly sit and listen to our innermost self. 

As we hurry through our days, perhaps the one thing we each most need is to take the time to become inwardly centered. Resting at the center means that we relax and inwardly put ourselves in the hands of life. We stop the struggle, release the anxiety, quit the worry. We come to a point of rest. Sometimes we feel that the world is hanging on our shoulders. But it's not. We can do our jobs and fulfill our commitments in life without strain and without burden. We can do what we do, with peace of mind and heart. No need to struggle right now This moment is filled with all that we need to complete our task— the moment isn't holding itself back from us— it's giving itself to us so that we will have the time to do whatever is necessary. Relax into this moment now, rest at the center of your being now and let everything work out well for you, now. You can rest inside now, and all things will be well. 

A great Sufi meditation master was once asked from whom he had learned to sit so still in meditation. The Sufi master replied, "I learned stillness by watching a cat by a mousehole; the cat was much stiller than me." The cat was so still because it instinctively knew that in stillness lay its fulfillment. We, too, can realize fulfillment in learning to take time to be still inwardly each day. As I tell my meditation students, "Don't argue with silence." All the great religious and spiritual traditions have taught some form of inner quietude. Jesus said, "Go in your closet and close the door," meaning to take time to turn within and be still. Buddha's enlightenment came as he sat meditating under the Bodhi tree in India. Mohammed spent many years in
solitude and deep, inner contemplation. In the Book of Job, about 4000 B.C., we have the admonition: meditate on these thoughts to attain union with God. Let's take time each day to be still in the midst of all our doing, to attain inner peace and harmony. 

We can be inner-directed as opposed to outer-directed in this life. Outer-directed means that we look to people and situations to tell us how to be in this life. Inner-directed means that we learn to trust our own inner understanding and intuition to guide and direct our way in this life. We learn to listen to ourselves deeply and follow our own profound advice. It's useful at times to receive advice from others— but let's leave the final authority for our unfoldment up to our own inner convictions and understanding. We can develop the capacity to be inwardly centered in the midst of life's uncertainties, and we can make choices based on our awareness of what is appropriate and true for us. Stay centered within. 

When things are going well for us in our outer life, it's easy and simple to feel good inside of ourselves. When family, personal relationships, job, finances and physical health are all going well, we can find inner peace without struggle or strain. We say, "All is right with our world, and all is right with our self." But sometimes things in our outer life don't go so well— then it is as important, if not more important, to maintain our inner equilibrium of peace, calm and serenity. We are always unfolding our inner nature—when people and situations in our outer life fluctuate, we can still abide at the center of our being. Strength in life comes from our capacity to stay inwardly centered and focused on the good, regardless of outer appearances. Let's just know right now that, appearances to the contrary, life is good and we are a part of this life— so we can let ourselves relax and be at peace. 

A woman once came into a psychiatrist's office with an egg on top of her head and a strip of bacon behind each ear. She said to the psychiatrist, "I have come to talk to you about my brother." Sometimes we think that all of our problems are somehow outside of ourselves. We say, "If only they would change, then we would be all right." We half-way convince ourselves that all of our distress comes from the people in our lives. Yet, at some point on the road to spiritual maturity, we come to realize that no one is responsible for how we feel about our life except ourselves. The famous therapist Victor Frankl said that no matter how powerful or devastating outer forces or pressures may be, we always have the choice as to how we will inwardly respond to whatever happens to us. No one can take away our inner dignity or our freedom or ability to discover meaning and purpose in any situation in life. The answer is always inside— look within and find your solution today. 

Codependency is when we feel dependent on others for fulfillment and our emotional well-being. We look to others rather than ourselves and become frustrated and disappointed when others aren't always there for us. As alcoholics are chemically and psychologically dependent on alcohol, so codependents are emotionally dependent on others to rescue and take care of them, or they, themselves, are the rescuers and caretakers. Yet there is a way in which we all live from each other. During the ancient Pueblo Indian rites of passage, a child at puberty was taken into the kiva and initiated into the spiritual rites and ceremonies of the tribe. Then he was sent out into the wilderness alone to experience his power vision, a spiritual event which united him to all life. When he returned, after having his power vision, he was accepted as a full-fledged adult member of the tribe. We too have our rites of passage, perhaps not as organized, but of equal validity. We too learn to release our dependency on others, only to eventually discover that we are one with all life everywhere and that we can stake our claim as full adult citizens in an infinitely friendly and receptive universe. 

There is a widespread phenomenon sweeping our land called Mego, which translates: "My eyes glaze over," meaning that when we hear something that is not particularly interesting or relevant to us, our attention span wanes, our eyes glaze over and we dismiss the unwanted intrusion on our awareness. For instance; it is estimated that each of us receives two thousand advertising impressions daily, of which we register about ten. We see our world and we respond to stimuli based on our sense of what is relevant and important to us. Since each of us is a unique individual, unlike any other, our criteria of value and importance will be unique to each one of us. It's helpful not to waste time, attention or energy by trying to relate to someone else's sense of relevance. If the message doesn't speak to our hearts, it just doesn't. If we don't connect with some communication, we just don't connect. When we attend seriously to what is relevant for us, there is always a feeling of fulfillment.

Intuition is a sort of sixth sense. It's a kind of feeling or premonition that is beyond our ordinary ways of knowing. In Zen they have a saying, "Can you hear the bell ring, before the bell rings?" Intuition seems to be a faculty that we can develop and strengthen within ourselves. We can test our intuition by checking it against the outer world. When we have the feeling we should call so-and-so, even though there seems to be no good reason to do so, and we follow through and call him, and he says, "I was just thinking of you"—this seems to be away we can validate our intuition—at least for ourselves. When we follow through on our intuitive feelings and discover that many times we are being guided and directed to appropriate actions which harmonize with our world, we begin to trust that there is indeed more to each of us than meets the eye. We can allow ourselves to be receptive to the possibility of intuitive knowledge by just being open and following our inner promptings.