The practices you have learned here will help you to go beyond the usual level of experience. You cannot establish your inner orientation with the mind, but the heart knows when you are headed in the right direction. The mind becomes quieter. This doesn’t mean that you get stupid; in becoming still, the mind opens to a new dimension of itself to assist the heart on the quest for truth so we venture into unknown territory and begin to learn to know in new ways. Our desire is not only to feel the truth but also to know it completely and to be taken in by it totally. With its innate intelligence and capacity for discrimination, the mind works in partnership with the heart. The heart is what stirs within the soul and makes us want to be nearer. The heart is what feels how close or how far away. The love is what melts the boundaries and awakens the soul to her Beloved and the desire for union with the divine. And the mind plays the important role of discriminating the experience and clarifying the consciousness through understanding.

To truly be where we are combines having the awareness of where we are, being the presence of where we are, and understanding the truth of where we are. When we bring those three elements together, being where we are becomes a practice that is necessary to become aware of the flow of being. You see, we are always someplace—one way or another, we are where we are—but we’re usually not aware of what that place is. We don’t get it; we don’t see it. Our attention, our awareness is scattered and distracted, involved with all kinds of peripheral, secondary manifestations. However, once we can focus and recognize our primary manifestation, we locate ourselves. And, if we pay attention, we find that the primary manifestation of where we are continuously changes—it is a continuity, a flow. It is not static.

Inner practice is not boot camp. Boldness doesn’t mean pushing ourselves. It doesn’t demand that we jam ourselves into a particular place. The balanced combination of strength and kindness that we have been describing shows us that what we want to develop over time in our practice is a kind of bold vulnerability in which we’re kind and strong and courageous. Sometimes the kindness is more in the foreground. Sometimes the boldness is in the foreground. The boldness continues to be a courageous strength and adventurousness without becoming foolhardy, without becoming harsh. We’re not pushing ourselves, saying, “Okay, you wimp, why don’t you just move into this?” That’s not what I mean by being courageous. So that’s when the kindness is important. Kindness has attunement, a recognition of exactly where we are. And if we have strength as well, we will naturally allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to be open to what’s arising and allow ourselves to be there and in the moment—whatever it is.

When you are called by something inner—something beyond your usual awareness—and you begin to practice, at some point you may begin to notice the impact of that something. You feel awe as you taste the freedom, and if you truly value it, you sense that it’s important enough to pay attention to in a more consistent way. The inward pull begins to gather significance and momentum that gets stronger and stronger until you can’t take your mind off it and can’t keep your heart from being absorbed in it. Should you forget about it, you feel the disconnection, dissatisfaction and, eventually, the pain of that. The yearning becomes a sign that you are swerving from the path, from what you love, which in turn brings you back to the presence of the Beloved you have turned away from. So, if you really apply yourself to the practices and allow the energy of desire to guide you, this will open you more to the inner Beloved, whether or not you ever attend another event that’s considered spiritual. It is difficult to follow the path completely on your own, but you can still do much for yourself.