The practice begins with a fierce desire to change, to be different. We want to understand who we really are and what the world around us is. This desire must be strong, it must relentlessly pursue us, since only such a desire contains enough energy to begin serious internal work.

The practice begins with a fierce desire to change, to be different. We want to understand who we really are and what the world around us is. This desire must be strong, it must relentlessly pursue us, since only such a desire contains enough energy to begin serious internal work.

If there is no such desire, but only curiosity about the spiritual path, then it is better to satisfy it by reading books or communicating with people who have gone far ahead of us on this path. You should not make serious decisions about your life if the desire for internal change has not become an urgent and burning necessity.

If we understand that liberation is the most important goal in life, our vector is aimed where it needs to be. A firm decision to practice comes only when a burning desire for liberation arises. This is a stage of serious human maturity. Without this desire, self-realization is impossible, even if the seeker follows the path pointed out by an enlightened teacher. A weak desire for liberation is meaningless. True immersion in practice comes when a person realizes that everything is meaningless compared to the liberation of the soul.

We live for this and show the way to our children. All life is built in one direction - turning the hustle and bustle of everyday life into practice. Then family, work, responsibilities come that we cannot run away from. But we know very well the most important thing, we know why we live.

Such an aspiration develops through effort and inner discipline. Most people spend their whole lives postponing things for later. And then death comes.

So to practice you need to be mature. A wise Taoist said that the difference between an ordinary person and a sage is that an ordinary person always tries to improve himself, while a sage accepts himself as he is.

It is a big mistake to confuse the end of the journey with its beginning. Effort is required at the beginning. If we try from the very beginning to relax, to let go, to make peace with ourselves, to accept everything as it is, to be simply an impartial observer of what is happening, or, if we believe in God, to trust the will of the Almighty, then we are likely to fail.

For a while, we might be able to fool ourselves. We can learn to pretend to be calm, to show ourselves and others partly competent or modest - but all this will not be the same. You won't be able to fool yourself and others for long. Deep dissatisfaction with ourselves, with our fate, with those around us and with the unfair structure of the world will continue to live inside us. Sooner or later, life will shake us up and the entire palace of pseudo-spirituality, glued together with the liquid glue of our ambitions, hopes and fantasies, will turn to dust. This will continue until the Augean stables of the subconscious, where fear, pride, distrust and despair lurk, are completely cleaned.

Such a dismantling of our being presupposes a powerful aspiration, the strength of which must be sufficient to break and redirect the force of inertia that defines and regulates human life. This inertia is the power of habits, which mostly constitute the daily reality of each of us. The goal of this force is to preserve the more or less familiar and comfortable existence to which we are accustomed. But habits lead nowhere. They lead in a vicious circle, creating a jarring illusion of peace and comfort, while, in the words of the Buddha, "our house is on fire."

Only our will, recognized as aspiration, can break out of this circle. The passion for God must be so strong that all other desires are burned in it.

🍀 Ilya Belyaev "Space of Consciousness"