Stop trying!

For most of my life, I have tried to become “spiritual.” I read books, listened to discourses, watched countless videos, and made sincere efforts to think and act in a higher way. Sometimes, I felt I had understood something deeply. But the very next moment, my mind would fall back into old habits—desires, distractions, and restlessness.

That left me with a troubling question: 

Which part of this is really me? - The one that feels clarity for a moment, or the one that keeps slipping back?

No matter how many scriptures I read or how many spiritual talks I listen to, the mind seems to return to its old patterns. Over time, this left me discouraging.

What if life itself is already teaching us everything we need to learn?

If we observe closely, there is not a single meaningful moment in life that does not carry a lesson. Sometimes the lessons come through joy, sometimes through pain, and sometimes through situations that simply repeat themselves.

When the same kind of problem keeps showing up—different people, different places, different circumstances—it may not be bad luck. Life might be trying to teach the same lesson again and again until we truly understand it. But instead of learning, we often label experiences as “good” or “bad” and move on. As a result, the cycle continues.

There is another limitation we rarely question: Our Senses.

Have you ever tried to imagine a completely new color, one that you have never seen before? Or a brand-new sense organ? Think! Think as hard as you can. It is impossible. Our thoughts, words, and actions are limited by what our senses allow us to perceive.

Because of these limitations, the world we experience is bound by time, space, and cause and effect. If there are higher realities or deeper truths, we cannot perceive them with our ordinary senses. That is why the idea of God, or the infinite, is so difficult to grasp. 

The infinite cannot be fully understood by a finite mind.

This is also why spiritual traditions emphasize meditation—not to gain something new, but to quiet the mind, even if only for a short while. If you think deeply , this is the only way we can rise above our senses.

There are also qualities within us that are hard to explain purely through biology: love, sacrifice, compassion, devotion. If survival were our only purpose, why would these emotions exist so strongly within us? Perhaps we are meant for something more than just survival.

Then a simple realization dawned on me: What if the problem is trying too hard?

This leads to a simple way of living: Do your work sincerely, without being attached to the outcome. Work with care, devotion, as pure as a prayer —then let go of the results as a pure offering  and give them back to the universe.

I do not know how many lifetimes it might take to live this way fully. But I do know one thing: every genuine attempt to live like this brings a quiet sense of peace and bliss.

And maybe that, in itself, is the path.

Om Tat Sat.