This longing to know ourselves at a deeper level—at the level of the divine kernel itself—means we must access the realm of feelings. We fear, however, that this is a bottomless pit of meaningless bleakness, unknown terror, unreasonable violence and selfishness. Yes, such layers of negativity do exist in us. But they are a thin veneer compared to our true unlimited depths.

Think about some unimportant incident that left you feeling a certain way. Maybe you were angry or irritated, hurt or frustrated. Or perhaps you had a reaction that was joyful and optimistic. Nestled in each of these reactions was a desire. The way to find out who we are is to figure out the desire that is embedded in each of our daily reactions. In other words, how did we become who we are today?

You could say our life is an instrument that picks up on the wavelengths coming from within. Like a radio that can only play what it receives, our outer experiences can only reflect our inner self. In other words, all the disharmonies and conflicts that show up “out there” in life are always a reflection of what is really going on inside us. We will start to see this is true when we start to face into our inner illusions.

“Perhaps you can see the tree that you light as a symbol of many, many candles that have to be lit and be aflame within you, to bring the total consciousness to its eternal glow on the outer level of your manifest existence. Each recognition, each insight, each honest admission, each shedding of a partial mask, each breaking through of a defense, each step of courage and honesty where you take responsibility for your negativity, is a lighting of yet another candle. You bring light into your soul by bringing truth into your dark.”

This spiritual path works from the outside in. It must. Because the outer layers of our psyche are what we have direct access to. For a moment, though, let’s look at this from the other end of the telescope. In other words, let’s look at how we’ve ended up fighting between ourselves, against ourselves and within ourselves. How did we get so lost?

One could say that God is who created spiritual laws. But it would be more correct to say God is spiritual laws. They are kind and loving, letting us choose whether to follow them. More aptly, we get to choose how much pain we want to tolerate.

The only way out is to stop resisting, and turn and face ourselves. The way to the other side is by entering the stream. That’s the healthy struggle. We must let our difficult emotions float freely to the surface so we can discover we have nothing to fear from them.