The infinite – free, unbounded, full of joy – is our native state. We have fallen from that state and seek it everywhere: every human activity is an attempt to fill this void. But as long as we try to fill it from outside ourselves, we are making demands on life which life cannot fulfil. Finite things can never appease an infinite hunger. Nothing can satisfy us but reunion with our real Self, which you can call God, or Krishna, or Allah, or your Buddha nature, or the Om, or whatever else you like. Religion is not important to fill this void, but spiritual practice and finding out who you truly are is. Lets take the analogy of an ocean and a wave here. Most of us think of themselves as a wave. If we do so, then we start to compare with bigger waves, smaller waves, more beautiful waves, more popular waves (with more surfers on them), waves in more sunny seas, and so on. And very soon we see the beach on which we are going to crush and die coming closer and closer. This can be very frustrating, sad and scary. So to fill this void, what we really have to do is to travel to our inside and look deeper by questioning ourselves “Who am I”. If we do this over and over again, we come to realise that being a wave means being water, which means just being a part of the ocean itself. If the wave dies, all the ocean does is simply soak the water back in and create new waves. That´s the same with our higher self and us, or the the Brahman and the Atman. We have come to incarnate as a human being, but our true nature is life itself. If you feel as if you´re missing something, no matter if its a relationship, a job, money, a title, or power. Stop looking in those finite materialistic things and start to travel to your inside to discover the infinite - a place where a true, lasting happiness can be found. - Pema
