“The true saint is the one whose life revolves around God, in a worldly way, with a partner, children, a job and debts.”From El refugio del corazón
Every day I sit down to meditate. My meditations consist simply of sitting and surrendering to God from my heart, yielding the mind and allowing the Divinity to flow through me. It is a healthy habit that helps me decompress, and it takes two hours of my day.
And the other twenty-two? During them I remain in this same surrender, in my dreams and in my daily life. I have a family and a business, with its taxes, payroll and loans to pay, and even so I live in this relationship.
My wife sometimes makes fun of me because she says my life resembles that of a monk. It’s true that I don’t socialize much, but that is because my life revolves around this relationship: 95% of my internal dialogues are with God. Whether or not He can reply, I am talking to Him. What I know, I learned not from theory but from experience. And experience has shown me that devotion is lived not only in the hours of silence, but in all the others.
Why would you withdraw from your life?
Many yogis, when they awaken, decide to become ascetics and meditate in private for years on end. But when they meet other yogis or ordinary people, they clash and quarrel. This happens to them because they did not learn to live alongside others while they were withdrawing from the world.
Personally, I prefer the modern yogis and teachers who have a social and family life. They truly live with a partner, with finances, with friends and family, and with everything that is woven around these relationships. They are the ones who bring light, presence and consciousness to life and to everyone around them.
If you have already realized that it is the Divinity that lives you, why would you withdraw from the life you already have? All possibilities exist for us, and we are all explorers of the Universe. You don’t need to be a spiritual eccentric or a ritualist.
Your vision will change
Establishing a deep connection with your Being doesn’t mean you have to stop being who you are, or doing what you like, having fun or talking just the way you are used to. You may keep the same job, the same car and the same house, and your children will still be the same. Your daily routine may not change, but you will live and understand life in a different way. You will become a more compassionate, patient and calm person. And the universe itself will help you find balance in your life, so that everything around you is in harmony.
On the street, at the bank, at the market
Every day, life gives you opportunities for love to flow. Each time you go out into the street is one of them, and so is each time you sit down to talk with your colleagues, your friends or your family. Driving your car down a congested street in Bogotá, going to the bank or to the market, even there you can flow from love.
Practice it with your loved ones and with your coworkers, even if they are not as diligent as you are. When you open the door for a stranger, you will know that you are opening it for the Divinity. When you let someone go ahead of you on the road, you will know that you are letting God through. That is love in motion. You will not have to say prayers or go to temples: the Divinity is in every breath that keeps you alive.
That is how I live it. I surrender to God in intimate moments of silence, but also in my day-to-day life, recognizing that the Divinity flows in everyone and in everything around me, even in my sweet pets. We are all expressions of God.
Consistency
True wisdom is recognizing in your worldly life that God is present in everything. Ask yourself: Why do you want to find God? Do you want something in return, or do you truly love Him? You don’t have to love an abstract god: love Him here and now, especially in all those you don’t like.
That is why, when people talk about spirituality today, action is so important. The consistency between what you do, feel and say is what shows your lived experience. Many of those who meditate and practice age-old techniques have not reached enough clarity to heal their spiritual hypocrisy. You don’t have to fall into that. Nourish devotion in your heart; it is that simple.
Life will put you to the test. Recognize God also in those who look at you unkindly or criticize you, because He dwells there too. It is very easy to hug your little child and find God and love there; what is truly astonishing is finding Him also in those who have hurt you. Of course, this doesn’t mean you have to go down the street hugging everyone: you only need to change your perspective.
The other twenty-three hours
Meditation opens a path for you into the depths of yourself, but one or two hours are not enough to quiet you. You need to live it day to day, in every instant, in every moment. To be devoted to the Divinity, you don’t need to set time aside: every instant of your life is an opportunity to be devoted.
That is why there are no excuses. If you truly don’t have time to meditate, what do you do the other twenty-three hours of the day? What fantasies does your mind carry you off to while you shower, drive or eat? Even when you talk with other people, is your attention completely on the person speaking to you? I am sure you get distracted too, letting yourself be carried away by your thoughts.
A more intense version of you
The Divinity is your very life. It does not move away from you, because that would be impossible: it is the Divinity itself that lives you. You will stop searching for God on an unreachable horizon and find Him inside you. And once you understand that what carries your name is just a handful of thoughts, you will become a much more intense version of yourself.
The Divinity lives all of us, present everywhere; it is always here, right now. Live it.
You don’t have to withdraw from the world to find God. I invite you to live in this relationship in your home, at your work and on the street you go down every day.
From Dr. Zuluan Orion's books: El refugio del corazón · Devoción · Illumination