The River of Life is Within You, and Never Dries Up

Within us, is what we might describe as the River of Life.  It is accessible whenever we want to drink from it.  It brings us not only the spiritual fulfillment that we need, but also the physical fulfillment that our body needs, and that our families and loved ones need to receive (through us). 

The meditation practitioner goes inside himself, accesses the river of life, and brings back out through himself, into the physical world, the goods he/she has drawn from the river.

We all need to work in life.  There is no meaningful life without consistent work.  A rich person is able to do the work he wants to do, and when and how he wants to do it.  But he still must work.  And this means he must find the goods within, and bring them forth into the world.  This could represent a project you are working on in the office, that your bosses expect to be done with a certain competence, by a certain time.  Or it could represent the next sale that needs to be made.  Or it could be the next book you have to write.  The working (of some type) will remain, as long as we live a meaningful life.

Restfulness comes from knowing how to access the goods, and bring them forth.  The mind will try to pinpoint it in a set of physical steps, and that is natural and helpful.  But as we continue on the journey of life we come to learn that the true, unchanging procedure that our mind tries to define, is not represented in physical-world, at least not permanently.  It is only the process of accessing the life-giving energy from the internal, within us, that is permanent.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive to define steps to make your life easier.  On the contrary, it is an essential part of loving yourself (a critical necessity for happiness and spiritual growth), to try to simplify the steps you need to take to regularly access spiritual and physical sustenance.  A fisherman, as he fine-tunes his craft, will learn from his past, and implement those learnings into the practice of his future.  He takes note about where to cast the line, and the right time to do so, and what kind of bait to use.  A salesman takes note about the right type of people to see business from, and under what circumstances.  But circumstances in life change, and so these learnings are not permanent.  After a few years the fish may discover a better area to look for their own food, and so the old area in the river is less prosperous for the fisherman than the new one.  Or the product the salesman markets may be replaced by a more useful product.  These changes will happen, but one thing remains permanent:  The practitioner must first seek the sustenance within himself, not outside himself.  The source of all the things we need, those the eyes of the body don’t see, is located within us.  We have to go inside ourselves to find what we need.

It is for this reason we meditate.  The meditation allows us to block out the outer world from our awareness, while we instead focus our awareness within.  We have to go deep within, to our true being, to find that river of life.  The distractions of the world need to be calmed, which we can do by refraining from judging people, and by reminding ourselves during moments of fear and uncertainty, that we can never be separated from the one true source, the river of life, because it is within us permanently.

Finding that river of life is like finding clean water when you are thirsty, or finding healthy, finely prepared food when you are hungry.  It brings the rest from the world that we truly need.  There is no fear, no panic of any kind.  Everything you need is at hand.  When you find that river of life, stay there and drink from it until you are fulfilled.  Then, once you have drunk your fill, you go back into the physical world a different person than when you went in.  You have light in your awareness, calmness in your demeanor, joy in your personality.  All of this draws people towards you, gradually, slowly.  This is the implementation of the law of attraction that authors write about.  You will draw forth everything you want from the world towards you with this power. 

Just remember always, that it is not your body or your mind that accomplishes the good things that happen to you.  It is the river of life, given to you by the universe when you were born, that bring you these gifts.  Keeping this humble viewpoint helps you access the river of life more effectively.  Deluding yourself that your personality or body is the creator, makes it harder to find, and makes the gifts less frequent.  Humility is therefore your best friend on the journey.