Could it be possible that we are on this earth to spend our time worrying about money? Endlessly trying to figure out ways to please ourselves? Is there any remote chance that the reason we are here is to carry a hatred for years and years? To do nothing but think about ways to secure power, possessions, or approval?

That doesn't make sense, does it? But clearly there is a nature in us that knows no other way to live.

If we are not here to serve that nature, what are we here to do? Is there any evidence that we are here to develop something else in ourselves -- a soul, a higher level of consciousness -- that is the container of the mind and heart that serves only itself? The answer is yes... and here's proof.

With every truth that you touch with your heart and mind -- not intellectually, but actually seeing the fact that you have mistaken some relationship for the fulfillment of yourself and have therefore become attached or dependent on it (and punished through it) -- you realize you were captive of a fear that told you without that person or possession, you'd be nothing. Now, seeing the truth that you had lived with that misunderstanding, you are suddenly flooded with a kind of happiness and a sense of peace. The moment you see something true, you feel better. In those moments of wholeness where, thanks to your interior work, you have an insight, there is a peace that is part of that wholeness. You don't have to become something in order to have that insight. It was already part of your being.

You have within you something that is capable of being in relationship with this larger life in which there is no separation between yourself and what you see. No separation, no conflict; no conflict, no pain the way you have it by living with a nature that thrives on conflict.

Our true future rests within our relationship with the present moment. The future is not a time to come. It's a choice that we make, moment to moment, that determines our experience. More than that, what we remember in the moment determines the quality of our experience.

Think of the things that you remember all day long. You remember things that you don't even know you're remembering! Driving down the street, waiting in line... all the time nothing but memories flooding in, and you serve those memories as though they can lead you to something new, when they are the ghost of what is past.

Work at remembering yourself. You can drive down the street, and even if it's just with your mind, try to remember truthful things instead of letting your mind fill you with fruitless thoughts that serve it but not your soul.

In any given moment you are only confined to the size of the world you remember. Who wants to remember a place too small for themselves? Who wants to remember something that punishes another human being? Who wants to remember that which takes you on a path filled with promises but delivers nothing but pain? This nature wants to remember such things because it thrives on the conflict. But your true nature, that part that can develop into a soul, wants to remember spaciousness, kindness, contentment, peace -- not as qualities of thought, but through an active participation in the moment by remembering yourself and remembering the truth.