Start Walking

What if I were to tell you that there is a magical city. Once you pass through its gates, you can read people’s minds. You can make yourself invisible or even defy gravity and float through its streets. There is no poverty, no pain, and no disease. All who live there, live forever.

While it’s location is known by many the path to get there is very difficult and hard to travel. Mountains, rivers, and changing weather stand in your way. It takes the full physical and mental discipline to navigate such a journey, and even some of the best men and women fall prey to the respite that can be found in multiple places before reaching the final destination.

However, some have passed through the gates of this magical city, and they have returned to their homes to share of its wonder. Not only giving us details about the city itself but also tools to help us navigate the journey there with greater ease.

Upon hearing of such a city, your logical mind quickly tells you it is impossible! A place like the one I just described could never exist. With a self-assurance of your conclusion, you would of course, never pursue its location. You would never again wonder where it is or how to get there, and thus you would never know, for sure, if it actually existed.

I use the city and the journey as an analogy for our practice. If we never believe in a state of being that transcends the mind and logic, one that lifts us to an experience that is best described as spiritual or divine, then we will never attempt to achieve it.

A yogis journey is very long. The path is riddled with obstacles. We as the journeymen and women are tested continuously by the every-day events of our lives. Even the most unassuming situations are lessons if we are willing and able to pay closer attention.

Many men and women have already trekked this journey. Some we refer to as saints and sages. Many others have moved through their life without history ever catching their names. The ones we do know left us roadmaps to follow. Through Hinduism alone we have the Vedas, Upanishads and the Classical Yoga Sutras, to name only a few.

The maps have been drawn by the teachers of the past. What is needed now is voyagers. Men and women who are ready live courageously by diving into the unexplored depths of their own consciousness. The path is long, and the journey will be arduous. Few who start it will reach its end, but NO ONE who has completed the task has regretted the work it took to get there or been disappointed by what the final destination had to hold.

If you feel even the slightest desire to explore your life with more depth and understanding, then you are already on the path. The journey of a thousand steps only happens one at a time. Start walking.