There is no place in the world of things for the loving intelligence known as God who controls creation and gives it meaning. Yet on the path to joy, you discover that meaning is the very foundation of life. The meaning lies deep. Spiritual optimism is also an inner experience. It is based on the love, beauty, creative power and truth that one discovers at the soul level. When you begin to explore yourself on an inner level, you use intuition. It is a very common misconception that intuition has nothing to do with science. However, Einstein himself said that what distinguishes him from atheists is that “they cannot hear the music from heaven”.
In fact, both science and spirituality depend on intuition because the greatest scientific discoveries are made through creative leaps, not by following some straight path of established fact. You use your intuition every day to convince yourself that you are alive or that daisies are beautiful or that the truth is better than a lie. The way to joy is to deepen your intuition and make it more accessible. Once my intuition tells me what it is to be alive, then I can explore what my life means, where it came from, and where it is going. Fortunately, there is no force in the universe more powerful than intuition. On the spiritual path, you understand several basic principles. When they are revealed, reality changes. Beliefs alone cannot transform the events around you, but understanding can. It’s like the difference between believing you’re blessed and actually understanding God’s mercy in the world. The principles you will find below are powerful tools for understanding. As understanding grows within you, the limits of who you can become disappear; the only sure thing is that you will be transformed.
First principle
The healthiest reaction to life is laughter
This first principle serves as an antidote to fear and sadness and encourages you to experience life as something fun. As we hit the road, joy can come and go like little flashes. But in the end, laughter will dissipate the suffering, just as the wind blows away the smoke and dust.
Suffering is one of the most compelling aspects of illusion, yet it is unreal. The golden rule applies here: What is true in the material world is false in God’s world, and vice versa. The material world seems subject to crisis and suffering, and therefore the most normal way to approach life is with worry, anxiety, and defensiveness. But when your consciousness is changed, you realize that life itself could not exist without the creative power underlying it; that this continuous act of creation is itself an expression of rapture. The same creation is the foundation of your life.
In fact, it is through the prism of materialism that we have the most inaccurate view of the world: through it we see consciousness simply as an accidental byproduct of brain chemistry, and the power of the mind as a myth. By equating the deepest reality with the collision of inert atoms in the deathly cold of space, we deny everything that sustains life and gives it any meaning: beauty, truth, art, love, integrity, community, discovery, curiosity, inner growth, and the higher consciousness. What do all these qualities have in common? They depend on intuition. There is no objective proof that love is beautiful, nor that the truth can set you free. Rather, you must realize it through your inner experience. On the path to spirituality everything depends on a change in consciousness; nothing depends on the atoms colliding. What we have are two opposing worldviews vying for your recognition.
Which is better: to be a spiritual person or to be a material person? Is God a mere appendage to physical existence or is he at the root of existence? The choice is not easy because the balance between the evidence is greatly disturbed. Most of us have extensive personal knowledge of the material world but limited personal knowledge of God. And God needs a lot of evidence. He has to prove that he has it and that he can be relied on, as one can rely on stone or wood. If we are to claim that God sustains life, he would have to sustain it in the same vital way as air, water, and food. In other words, it is not an easy task to realize God. It can take a lifetime – if you’re lucky. To begin this journey, you must accept the idea that everything you see around you is far less real than God. You must seek to see the truth “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” as Jesus says. It is actually surrendering to joy. When you feel momentary happiness, or feel like bursting out laughing, or smile for no apparent reason, you are catching a glimpse of eternal reality. For a brief moment, the curtain is lifted and you can experience something beyond the illusion. Over time, these moments of joy will begin to weave into each other. Instead of being the exception, they will become the norm. There is no better way to know that you are growing in God awareness.
