Personal Transformation

All of this sounds like a whole lot of effort to go to in order to get such ephemeral rewards. Why would we want to put forth this extraordinary effort? Are we all so scared of dying that we will latch onto any sort of salvation we can muster to avoid the inevitable? This may be the case, but whether or not the rewards they experience as a result of delving inwardly will occur in any sort of afterlife setting, they are indeed apparent in a better here and now.

Can forgiveness and courage make you a better parent? Can detaching from your anger make you a better spouse, teacher, boss, or lover? It is possible that rather than changing nothing on a personal level and then complaining that our lawmakers and world leaders are allowing the destruction of our planet, we might find that developing intimate relationships with ourselves and others are our best paths to a better world ?

The fact that people return to certain activities like regardless of their dogmatic origins, time and time again is its own testament to their efficacy. The traditions of esoterism themselves, the mindfulness, the attention to our inner lives that it offers do indeed seem to cross cultural divides, and, perhaps, offer we mere humans a hint of a basis for unity. Perhaps, that is the very thing we call humanity. I think we should at least allow for the possibility.