Finding Yourself | The Importance of an Inner Journey
As far as my spiritual and scientific educations take me, the mass of jelly between our ears is responsible for who we are. Our personality, our identity, our hopes, our dreams, our fantasies are all stored in that one small space.
Entire universes of possibility are locked up in the bone vault between our ears and as far as I can tell, the moment we die, the organ that makes them possible begins to degrade. Within mere hours it becomes irreparably damaged and we, as we know it, are gone.
Perhaps there is something that survives. But even most spiritual believers who push the idea of an afterlife or reincarnation seem to say that it is not the personality of 'you' that survives, so much as some sort of nebulous spiritual essence. In any case, it's not the part of you that loves dark chocolate, dressing up as a woman, going to parties, avoiding parties, dreaming about ninja kicking your way out of the building, or any other of the strong preferences and personality traits you have that makes you 'you'.
Therefore, as important as it is to go out and live life, it is also important to explore and revel in our inner worlds. Our inner worlds are perhaps richer than the external world can ever be, and yet we are often dissuaded as adults from spending time exploring the wealth of our inner world.
Sleeping dreams are some of the most extraordinary experiences mankind will ever experience. Where else will you be able to soar without wings, talk to Mahatma Ghandi and Pamela Anderson in the same night? It's not just our sleeping dreams we should cherish, but our waking worlds of fancy as well.
Plenty of philosophers have noted that we live our lives in worlds of our own making. We see things as we perceive them, not as they are. It is this diversity of realities that allows one person to dedicate their life to peace and another to dedicate their life to war. Neither one sees the world as it objectively is, but no man has ever done so either.
So whatever treasures lie within you, I implore you to seek them out, entertain them and revel in them. Do not dismiss pursuits of the mind as fanciful and unreal, they underlie all your reality and they will be just as gone as the rest of the world when you pass on to whatever future awaits us after death.
At one time, explorers would roam the earth, poking their umbrellas into the snouts of crocodiles and making droll observations about the various native peoples of the world. Why not take your metaphorical umbrella and poke it into the snouts of a few inner crocodiles. The journey is sure to be fantastic.
