There is something missing in my life…

Q:  My life, on the outside, seems great. I have plenty of money, cars, a nice house, a beautiful wife and children; and yet, I still feel unhappy. I have tried meditation, I have tried yoga, and I have read many spiritual books. While all of this has been helpful, it is not enough. Something is still missing. What should I do?

A:  What you have described in your question is the missing piece that people discover when they realize that the only thing that will fulfill them is to be merged in God and to be consumed by the flame of God’s love. I, too, had this experience prior to beginning my spiritual training.

I was an actor living in Hollywood. I had money, fame, and success. I was in a two-and-a-half-year common law marriage with the love of my life. I had everything I wanted, and I was actually quite happy. And yet, like you, there was a piece that was missing, and I didn’t know what it was.

When I met the one who would become my Guru, I found that elusive missing piece. I felt a thunderbolt of awakening and revelation which stimulated an instantaneous and insatiable hunger for God. I was already meditating and praying, and I grew up going to church, so I was always very close with the Divine, but this experience ignited something in me that was unquenchable. God became all that I wanted.

As much as I still wanted and enjoyed all the other things I had at the time—my partner, my fame, my money, my home—they all instantaneously, and in less than nothingness, became a distant second to wanting to be consumed by that feeling I had the moment I met my Master.

My attachments—one by one—began to fall away. Even the things that I thought were most important to me were now redefined (they took on new meaning and new levels of satisfaction and fulfillment), because everything was now flavored by my burgeoning courtship with God.

Most people turn to God when everything they have does not bring them happiness,
and most people go to God as the lender of last resort.
And, paradoxically, most people turn to God to ultimately get what they want.
Few are they who turn to God simply to luxuriate in His company.

So, what do you do now? For you (as it did for me), it may mean walking with a Master in a Guru/Disciple relationship. And, it may not. The best you can do is remain in that raw, vulnerable space, and allow your insatiable hunger for God to show you the way.

When the student is ready, the Master appears.