There's a story about St. Peter asking three people to wait outside the pearly gates until he returned from an important errand. On his return, St. Peter said to the first person, "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting." "No problem," the person responded. "I am so glad to be here; the wait didn't bother me at all." "Okay, there's one small test before you enter," said St. Peter. "Please spell God." "G-O-D," said the person. And the gates swung open. St. Peter went to the next person and again apologized for the delay. The person responded, "No problem; I spent the time reflecting on my life on earth and making my peace with everyone." "Good," said St. Peter. "There is one small test— please spell God." "G-O-D," said the person. And the gates swung open. St. Peter went to the third person who immediately began to complain, "Why have you kept me waiting so long; I have never had to wait so long for anything— I will speak to your superiors about this." "I'm sorry," said St. Peter. "Please forgive me. There is one small test before you enter. Please spell Czechoslovakia." 

A friend of mine worries that things in her life are going so well, something is bound to happen to bring an end to her happiness. Too often we have a subtle pessimism inside that says to us things can't continue to go well— we might as well plan on failure and disillusion. This attitude is based on our fear of disappointment. If something in our life should go wrong, we can always say to ourselves: see, I told you so. Yet our everyday life is really a total act of faith and trust in the order of the universe. Our everyday life is filled with positive expectations. We don't expect to fall off the earth into space— we expect gravity to keep us centered and firm as we move through our days. Likewise when things are going well for us, let's expect them to become even better. 

There's a Hasidic story about a rabbi who was so worried about the state of affairs in the world that he couldn't sleep one night. The rabbi kept tossing and turning and fretting about what was going on. In the middle of the night, the rabbi finally quieted down; he became very still inside, and then he heard the voice of God, Who said, "Rabbi, you need to rest; you go to sleep. I'll stay up and worry about the world." When we get so anxious about how our world is going that we can't sleep at night, we too can become quiet and let go and let God and the universe work things out. We don't have to carry the burden of this life. We can become still inside and let go to a peaceful solution to our worries and our problems. 

We meditate to achieve self-realization, conscious union with God. We meditate as away of learning to surrender ourselves to God. But these are `advanced' notions of meditation. Many of us begin to meditate simply to get our lives together, to help us find solutions to our everyday problems. We need that sense of momentary peace and quiet so that the rest of our day can flow together more smoothly. Many of us began to meditate with little faith in God or anything else. Faith and trust in God come into our minds and hearts as we stay with the process. Finally, the realization of God's Presence comes to us and we know that life has really changed. Sometimes we see it only in small ways; a beautiful sunset or a child's tender smile will suddenly light up a new feeling of joy in our hearts. And then the real magic and wonder of this life dawns on us. We realize, as Alan Watts said, "This earth itself is in deep outer space." And we ourselves are an intimate part of this infinite cosmos. We belong here. We're connected—no longer strangers; we're finally at home. 

Meditation may be defined as 'the art of learning to be still.' In our everyday world of constant activity and movement, sound and sensation, one might question the value or necessity of learning inner stillness and tranquility. But the real purpose of meditation is to discover whether or not there is something beyond or behind this realm of complexities which we call everyday life. The person who has begun to meditate is constantly confronted by the question, "Is it really necessary for me to go through my everyday life as if I am in the midst of an endless battle of opposition, both with myself and the people within my world? Is there not a saner, more creative and harmonious way to live?" And, after some time of meditation practice, the person finally receives his or her answer: "Peace exists within me and I can find peace at any moment, in any situation." Once a person knows this, he is free. 

Peace is a decision we can make right now for ourselves and our day. Let's turn within and let ourselves be at peace; let's allow that 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. 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 a new feeling of well-being, and we accept this peace for ourselves and for each other this moment.

How do we get our timing right in life? Sometimes we need to be inwardly silent until we hear the next step for us to take. Being silent doesn't just mean not speaking; it means listening deep down inside of ourselves. Often when we are silent, we may not be listening. We may be worrying or planning to worry. Inner listening means being in touch with our intuitive responses to life. There's a kind of flow and synchronicity to things when we are inwardly still and open. The right person calls us at the right time or we call him or her, or we are guided to send a letter to so-and-so, or we suddenly see a new way of approaching a situation. Our timing becomes clear and appropriate to each moment as we let go of fixed attitudes and adopt an openness based on inner listening and receptivity. We simply relax our mental hold on things, and things have a way of coming together and coming into agreement, easily, without strain and without effort. 

Picasso once said, "When I was a child I drew like Michelangelo. It took me years to learn to draw like a child." Sometimes we give up too soon in life. When one path, or career or relationship seems too difficult, we may want to quit and try something else. Yet if we keep giving up on each thing that seems difficult, we never stay with anything long enough to go beyond the surface. Real learning in life comes when we are willing to pursue things to their depth and discover their inherent meaning and value. An interviewer once said to the great writer, William Faulkner, "Some people say they can't understand your writing even after they read it two or three times. What approach would you suggest for them?" Faulkner replied, "Read it four times." Anything worthwhile in life usually requires time, commitment, patience and persistence. Let's not be in such a hurry to get on with our life that we miss the point of our life itself. We can decide to pursue our journey to its depths and discover the hidden joy at the heart of all things. 

When we receive the results from a medical test, and we are told the results are negative, this is very positive news. It means that we don't have what we were worried we had. Many times in life the absence of distress is a very positive indication. We don't worry about what is working— it is only that which causes us distress or discomfort that brings us the awareness of pain. The reality is that so much of our life does work out very well, that we tend to exaggerate the few areas of problem. When something major does happen, we realize how minor our petty little problems really are. As the Sufis say, "When the house is on fire, the toothache flies out the window." When there is a serious concern, our other problems vanish. Why wait until we have a big problem to release the little ones? Right now we can give up our overconcern and let ourselves enjoy all of the areas of our life that are working. 

I recently had to return some items that I had purchased from one of those big chain department stores. I was dreading some sort of confrontation over the returned items. I kept fingering my receipt as I walked into the store, gearing myself up for a negative encounter. As I walked up to the return item counter, a friend I hadn't seen for a long time came running up to me with a smile and joyous handshake. It turns out that she was an employee of this store. I was so happy to see her that I forgot my anxiety completely. I walked up to the counter, gave the clerk my receipt and the returned items, and the exchange was quickly and easily accomplished. I walked out of the store in a happy daze. What happened to the expected painful confrontation? It dissolved in the unexpected joy of seeing my friend. Often in our life, something intervenes in the midst of what we think is going to be an unpleasant experience. The anticipated discord dissolves into harmony and peace, and we are left with a dazed happiness. Break through to joy now. 

When we worry, we are secretly afraid that we are going to lose out on something. Our thought says to us, "If such and such happens, I will lose, or I will fail." We fret and worry about the future, which isn't here yet; we fret and worry about the past, which is already gone. At some point we come to see that worry doesn't change anything. What it does do is drain us of the energy we need to break through our problem to a solution. When we have a problem, in the moment we deal with that problem successfully, there is great peace of mind. Our thought quits chasing after itself; we are calm and serene. The way to find peace of mind is to stay with our problem to its solution, giving all our energy and attention, not to worrying about the problem, but to discovering our way to a solution. 

We all need help at times. Two businessmen found themselves struggling in the water after a shipwreck. One man asked the other, "Herman, can you float alone?" Herman replied, "I'm drowning, and you're talking business!" Sometimes we feel like we're drowning, and everyone around us is talking business as usual. We may need to reach out and ask someone for help. Sometimes we feel as if we are boxed into a corner, and we can't see any way out for ourselves— there seems to be no solution to our problem. Yet when we are willing to share the burden of our problem with another, many times we become open for a solution to dawn in our hearts. It may be humbling to have to ask for help, but none of us is in this life all by ourselves, and there comes a point when we have to trust others to help us when we can't find a solution on our own. Let's not be afraid to ask this universe to help us when we need it. 

A preacher was once giving a sermon and he said, "Everyone who wants to go to Heaven, stand up." Everyone in the congregation stood up except one little boy. The preacher asked the boy, "Don't you want to go to Heaven?" The boy replied, "Oh, I thought you meant, right now." There's a similar story about Zen Master, Roshi Sasaki, who said to a group of his students, "Anyone who wants to be enlightened, come forward this instant!" Not one student moved. It's interesting to ask ourselves, what do we really want right now? Often we find that we have conflicting wants or desires. It's difficult for life to respond to ambivalence. While sometimes we just know what we want, at other times we may just be stuck in postponement because we are afraid that, if we choose, we may make a mistake. Sometimes the only way to get off the plateau of indecision is to choose a course of action and put our whole being into it. This moment now may be your moment to choose the way forward into your breakthrough. 

A caterpillar once looked up at a passing butterfly and yelled, "You'll never get me up in one of those things." Just as it is the caterpillar's destiny to one day change into the butterfly and be lifted from the bounds of the earth, so too are each of us in this life to be free. The butterfly flits through the air compelled by no pattern, conforming to no routine. When we release ourselves to inner freedom, our life becomes filled with a momentum and energy that lifts us from being bound by earthly cares and worries. What was a struggle on one level becomes a joyous adventure on another. Freedom gives our life meaning and happiness. When we feel like the caterpillar slowly crawling our way through this life, let's remember that our destiny is the freedom of the butterfly. 

A fax machine transmits written documents from one place to another. The only condition is that you have to have a fax machine to receive what another fax machine is sending you. Many times people will call up and say, "Well, I'll fax the invoice or the letter or the material to you." And if you say, "Sorry, we don't have a fax machine," then together you have to figure out a more laborious way of receiving the material you need. Sometimes the universe is trying to fax our spiritual breakthrough to us, but our inner fax machine has shut down; so we can't receive the message. Sometimes we just don't believe that something new and good is going to happen to us. But so many, many things have happened to us in this life— why couldn't something really great and stupendous happen? There's nothing to stop it from happening. Why not keep our spiritual fax machine open to receive the message that opens our hearts and fills our life with joy? 

Sometimes we see life as a series of problems for which we haven't discovered the solutions. Maybe we just need to redefine our problems as susceptible to solutions, that within each problem there is a solution and we are capable of finding it. I once had a day that I called Solution Tuesday because a whole series of long-term, difficult problems were solved, one right after another. Sometimes we think that if we receive one solution to a problem, then that's the end of our allotment for a long time to come. We think of solutions as being doled out to us in a very stingy way. Yet there is a solution right now for us no matter what the situation. 

Joseph Campbell once said that where we stumble is where our treasure lies, meaning that often what we take for a mistake, accident or unfortunate situation is really the way in which a deeper spiritual realization occurs. Campbell cites a story in the Arabian Nights about a young farmer who is plowing a field. His plow becomes stuck, and when he reaches down to see what stopped it, he discovers a valuable ring; digging further, he discovers a vast treasure of precious jewels. Sometimes when we seem to be stopped in our tracks, and we see no way out, we are forced to go deeper into ourselves until we discover a solution so unexpected and so beyond what we imagined that the solution produces riches of undreamt of joy and creativity. 

Idries Shah tells the story about when the legendary Sufi Nasrudin once spent some time traveling across the border between Turkey and Greece. The customs official was sure that Nasrudin was smuggling something across the border, but each time he searched Nasrudin's donkey, he could find nothing. Some years later, the now-retired official ran into the now-retired and very prosperous Nasrudin. The official asked, "Nasrudin, what were you smuggling?" "Donkeys," replied Nasrudin. Sometimes in life we are so busy searching for hidden and deeper meaning to things that we miss the obvious that is right in front of us. A wise person once said, "Always look for the simplest answer to any problem first." When we allow ourselves to realize that which is simplest and most obvious in any situation, many times we need look no further. As Robert Creeley, the poet, once wrote, "One says of the drunken farmer / leave him lay off it / and that is the explanation." 

Anthony Trollope, the great Victorian novelist, once received a rejection of a manuscript he had submitted for publication. On the train on his return trip home, Trollope is said to have turned the rejected manuscript over and begun to write a brand new novel on the back pages— a novel which became one of his great successes. How often, when we are faced with rejection or frustration, do we throw our hands up in the air in despair and say, "I give up— it's not working." We can quit too soon— before the breakthrough— or we can be like Anthony Trollope and disregard apparent failure, brush aside rejection and go full force into our new creative project. Don't quit on yourself, and don't give up in the face of opposition; stay focused on creating something great in this life. Any time we feel stuck or let-down, we can choose to begin again; the closed doors begin to open, and we quickly connect with our fulfillment. Stay centered in your dream until it comes true. 

Sometimes people say, "Gee, I'm willing to let go of this troublesome situation, but I just don't know how." How do we let go? Is there a secret formula or technique for releasing what is no longer beneficial to us? I think we need to ask ourselves, first of all, are we really ready to let go? Have we really come to the end of this particular situation— have we exhausted all the possibilities within it? Or is there still some subtle payoff we are receiving from staying in the situation? Chances are, if we weren't still getting something from it, the situation would have dissolved for us long ago. Once we really decide that something no longer fits with who we are now, it becomes easy and simple to allow ourselves to just let go; like when we carry a heavy burden for a long time, and then we reach a place where we can let it go; inwardly we feel a great sense of relief and release. When we are no longer carrying it, we have let it go. Sometimes it's with a shock that we realize that we have already left something far behind us, and it happened almost without our noticing it.