What do we want

Very few people ask themselves what do they want. Not what their parents want for them or their friends, or spouses, or children or the society, or the media, or the government. We are constantly being barraged by messages telling us what we should want but very rarely get the clarity, courage, or time to truly consider what it is that we really want in our lives.

What we are good at is justifying or accepting what we have. As long as it not too bad and their are enough moments of pleasure and something to look forward to, it is easy to become comfortable and accept our lives as they are. There is nothing wrong with being happy with what you have, with being grateful for what you have accomplished and acquired in your life. There is though, a certain lack of freedom in never deeply considering what it is that would enable us to tap our deepest nature, to live in harmony with our essential nature, not with the personality, or mask that we have acquired over our lifetimes.

This line of thought may seem a little impractical or even unreasonable in a world in which most of our energy is used up in just trying to survive. I've never been able to feel comfortable believing that we were created or evolved to spend our time in activities that we have not chosen but have been foisted upon us by influences beyond our control. In investigating this dilemma I have come to believe that that there are at least three levels of influences that effect us.

The first of these influences are the influences of ordinary life which work to keep us in line, to prevent us from harming ourselves and each other and which enable the society to function in an orderly fashion. The second types of influences are those that we can get from studying the great minds of the past, from listening to the music of the great composers, from being in the presence of great art and architecture. They stir within us a sense of something higher than our ordinary lives and can lead us to living with creativity, nobility, and a purpose of creating a better world and life for ourselves and our children. These influences remind us of a possibility that we often forget in our mundane existences.

The third influences are those that come from some unknown source within ourselves. It is these influences that are the source of the creation of all the worlds great religions and connecting with them are the goals of all mystical, and spiritual teachings. These influences directly connect us to the forces from which we have been created. They are difficult to interpret or explain and it is this difficulty that has resulted in the variety of religious and spiritual beliefs. We must learn to reconcile these differences by realizing that words alone cannot describe these influences and that we are all connected in a very fundamental way . It is this realization and the results from living with this view that will truly enable us to know and get what we truly want.