The first step on the journey to harmony is always to embrace. To embrace whatever the world has to offer. Any obstacle of fear, hatred, or ignorance life throws at us, we must learn to unclench our fists and instead open up our arms. Most of us fear failure; we are so deeply entrenched in our tribal mindset that we believe if we are not perfect in the eyes of the tribe, we will be cast out by the tribe. Evolutionarily, this makes sense. If you were cast out from the tribe, chances of survival were slim to none. The result of an imperfect spear toss was not between lunch or no lunch. It was life or death. However, the great news is that we've moved on from the tribe; security has been replaced with freedom.

 

This freedom allows us to embrace imperfection, shortcomings, idiosyncrasies; in short, it is the freedom to embrace yourself. The most courageous action you can take is to become yourself in a world where you can become anything. Voltaire states, "Perfection is the enemy of progress," and he's right. Without the freedom to fail, we cannot move forward. How can you sell out an arena if you are too afraid to get on stage? How can you start a business if you're too scared to sell your product? How can you love your family if you are too afraid to love yourself? 

 

By embracing imperfection, we pave the road to the person we are meant to be. We must follow this path on our own; we cannot follow others or lead them. The path is only big enough for two feet, and disappears behind you with each forward step. 

 

In today's world of chaos, everyone has the answer, and their answer is to sell you the answer. They will tell you the only way back to true happiness and strength is to follow the path they have laid out before you, so long as you can afford the $19.99 monthly subscription. These salesmen create a mansion of a lifestyle out of cardboard and paint. They find a self-improvement niche and turn it into their entire personality, becoming competitive and tearing down others to prop themselves up. Do not trust these people. Their goal is not to help you but to deceive you. 

 

If we cannot trust our contemporary thought leaders, whom can we trust? For one, we can trust that little voice in our heads. The voice you try to shut up when you are not behaving correctly. We hear the voice in books and songs when a passage or verse sounds as if it has been plucked from our soul like a feather that has forgotten how to fly. The Gospel of John in the Bible starts, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". While I do not strictly adhere to the God of Abraham, I know that this word lies deep in all of us, just waiting patiently for its turn to speak. 

 

This voice is quiet; we must listen carefully, wade through the static that this world throws, and try to hear it. The reason the world is filled with static is not a coincidence. The powers that be do not want us to listen to this voice. They know if we do, their house of cards will collapse. The voice will tell us to put down the Twinkie, get off Amazon, stop scrolling Instagram, and live our lives.  The voice is the greatest threat to the consumerist society that we live in, and the leaders of that society work hard to drown out its whispers.  

 

We get glimpses of this voice in times of solace, on a walk, in the shower, or deep in meditation, but it's too distant for us to converse with it now. We want to get closer, but many obstacles are in our path. The journey is worth taking, but what if we need assistance? My advice would be to listen to wisdom that has stood the test of time. If a piece of art has survived hundreds or even thousands of years, some truth must lie in the weeds. 

 

Two things must be clarified by this. First, I am not just discussing ancient religious texts and philosophical works, or urging you to join a church, mosque, or temple; this wisdom can also be found in Tolstoy's novels, Shakespeare’s sonnets, or Dylan’s verses.

 

The second thing is that you must not flee from the texts of religion because of the biases you hold for people you have never met or books you have never read. Was the same sales pitch going on long ago that we see in the thought leaders today? Of course it was; the Church compiled the Bible to select the writings that best served its interests. The Dead Sea Scrolls and Gnostic texts, such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, were discarded because they threatened the Church’s claim to be the wheels that brought our cart of offerings to Christ. If they were not the wheel, what reason would man need to place grease in the offering basket on Sundays? 

 

Whether you agree with the Crusades does not mean you disagree with the teachings of Jesus, disagreeing with suicide bombers does not mean you disagree with the words of Muhammad, and disagreeing with Israel blowing Gaza to bits does not mean your life would not be made better by Moses’ ten commandments. 

 

We must wash ourselves clean of the ideas implanted in our psyche. These ideas were not made by us, but created for us. Used to instill division in our souls so we would reap fear from the hope we sow. I implore you to step back from the best-seller list stand and pick up a dusty book to the side. The best-seller shelf offers waves that thrill and distract. But ancient wisdom is the ocean beneath—unchanging, unfathomable, and avoided not for lack of truth, but for fear of drowning in it.

 

The goal is not to find the right religion or philosophical text to follow along the path, as we already stated that religious figures' or philosophers' paths have already closed. The point of opening yourself up to different wisdom is not to follow it but to learn from it. The droppings and tracks left on the mountain will no longer seem random but will become checkpoints and signs of good fortune. It is not the division in these paths that you want to look for, but the pieces that unify them all.

 

Two key pieces of advice to focus on are finding a purpose and developing a strong moral character. If you can create these practices, they will start to blend and overlap, and in time, they will synthesize, turning into a double helix and becoming the DNA of your being. 

 

Aimlessly attaching yourself to pleasure and avoiding pain will only leave you hollow, as your soul is taken bit by bit, connecting itself to the things you cannot hold. We must find purpose in our lives and rediscover it daily. This can start small, but like a hole in the ground, each shovelful of dirt makes it bigger and deeper.  

 

Your purpose is to dig, and your character is your shovel. Like a shovel, your character must be sharpened and shaped. It must be strong and sharp to get through the roots. It must be rounded and firm to scoop out the dirt. Like an engine’s oil needs to be changed and a guitar’s strings need to be tuned, our shovel must be constantly and consistently formed to meet the needs of your hole.  If you find that your shovel and hole are no longer compatible, it is time to reshape your shovel or leave your hole, because there is no time to stop digging. 

 

Confucius said, “To see the right and not do it is cowardice.” Continuing to put our heads down and hoping for a savior is cowardice. The Earth does not need to be saved; it needs harmony. The Earth and all of its creatures are alive. In life, there is consciousness, and in creatures, there are minds; in minds, there can be confusion. The collective consciousness has been so confused by the cognitive dissonance of the humans that inhabit it that things have gone haywire. 

 

We’ve lost the Way, the Tao, the Dharma—and traded them for cheap tricks and empty noise. We stuff our dreams under the bed and lie on a mattress made of excuses: “I’ll start tomorrow.” “I just need more money.” “Once everything falls into place, it’ll be easier.”

All the while, life is pounding on the front door—and we’re too busy watching a cooking show to realize there’s no food in the fridge, and no time left to eat.