My Beloved Souls,
With Love!
The Wonder of Human Experience
The greatest wonder of human life is this: people experience so much, yet learn so little from their experiences.
One relationship ends, and another begins.
One desire is fulfilled, and ten new desires arise.
One problem comes to an end, only for another to appear.
A person believes that if circumstances change, life will change. But they fail to see that it is not the circumstances that cause suffering—it is the way they perceive them.
Projecting Blame Outward
Whenever a relationship breaks, we say:
"They betrayed me."
"They never understood me."
But rarely do we look within and ask:
"Were my own expectations the real cause of my suffering?"
This is where ignorance begins.
The Image We Construct
The mistake does not lie in a woman.
The mistake does not lie in a man.
The mistake lies in the image we have projected onto another person.
We expect others to live according to our desires. And when they fail to do so, we make them the guilty one.
This is humanity's greatest deception—
Projecting our own mistake onto someone else.
The Beginning of Transformation
The moment you accept responsibility for yourself, transformation begins.
The one who can honestly see their own mistakes no longer feels the need to change the world.
The Unstable Nature of Mind
Consider how unstable the mind itself is.
You cannot hold even a single thought steady for more than a few moments.
Thoughts arise.
They pass away.
They change.
They disappear.
And yet it is upon this restless mind that we base the decisions of an entire lifetime.
What is Truly Impermanent
That is why Dharma teaches:
The world itself is not impermanent; it is the world created by your mind that is impermanent.
The Supreme Reality is eternal.
But the images your desires project upon that Reality—that is what you call the world.
Where there is imagination born of desire, disappointment is inevitable.
Where there are expectations, suffering is inevitable.
The First Step
Therefore, the first step is this:
Stop trying to change others. Change the way you see.
That is where true spiritual practice begins.
— Swami Nispruha Spandan