The hidden nature of almost all that we do on a collective basis is the direct, but unseen, effect of one great unconscious desire to search out what we believe will complete us. Over countless ages untold billions of us have answered Nature's "call" -- much in the same way as a leaf says "yes" to the wind that carries it away -- we have sought to dominate a competitor or family member, attract the best sexual partner, make babies or plans to find better "hunting grounds." Yet, in return for answering this universal need for self-fulfillment, we are provided with a fragile, deceptive contentment; our reward is a momentary sense of completion that, in most cases, passes from sight as soon as do the temporary conditions that provided it for us.

Where are we to find a solution to this seemingly inescapable situation, where our best instincts betray us because all they're empowered to do is to sell us a return ticket to the places we just left?

Fortunately, for those who seek to discover the truth behind this almost inconsolable discontent, every now and then certain individuals appear who see things as they are. Just like you and me, they set out to find new, true answers that could stand up to the test of passing time with its ever-changing conditions. Share in their discoveries. Welcome these inward and uplifting thoughts as if they were your own, for in one sense... they are. Take them into your heart; search out their hidden meaning. If you will, you can't help but rise into the world from which they have come.

The Masters Speak of the Search...

He alone knows himself in the best way possible who thinks of himself as being nothing. --St. John Chrysostom (347-407, Greece)

No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. --Islamic saying

The true man of God sits in the midst of his fellow-men, and rises and eats and sleeps and marries and buys and sells and gives and takes in the bazaars and spends the days with other people, and yet never forgets God even for a single moment. --Abi'l Khayr (967-1049, Persia)

Weakness is very painful, but also very useful. While any self-love remains, you are afraid that it will be discovered. As long as the least bit of self-love remains in the secret parts of your heart, God will hunt it down, and, by some infinitely merciful blow, force your selfishness and jealousy out of hiding. The poison then becomes the cure. Self-love, exposed to the light, sees itself in horror. The flattering lifelong illusions you have held of your self are forced to die. God lets you see who you really worship: yourself. --Francois Fenelon (1651-1715, France)

Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. --Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, United States)

In humility is the greatest freedom. As long as you have to defend the imaginary self that you think is important, you lose your peace of heart. As soon as you compare that shadow with the shadows of other people, you lose all joy, because you have begun to trade in unrealities, and there is no joy in things that do not exist. --Thomas Merton (1915-1968, France)