True belonging

Photo by Cristian Palmer

What is true belonging? I speak of truth not as a concept, but as an experience you can know from your deepest being.

We can find a sense of belonging in many facets of life: family, culture, location, friendships, shared values, communities of interest, work environments, spiritual practices, identity groups, and nature. These sources of belonging are crucial for a life of deep meaning and connection.

While we may find a sense of belonging in many places, we live in a world subject to ongoing change. We might find that we belong, and then we no longer belong. Or we may discover that we didn't belong as much as we had thought. We may even know we belong, yet that sense of belonging feels tenuous or incomplete.

We grieve the sense of belonging that slips away from us. Fearing displacement, we may clutch onto what once provided a sense of home but is now decaying. This is the great upheaval of our times.

As we navigate our lives amid multiple, simultaneous crises, where do we turn when everything begins to fall apart?

As a teacher of self-realization, I invite people to uncover that which is ever-present and indestructible—the ground of being. This primordial awareness, the first light of existence, has always been here. The wisdom of my ancestors reveals that this presence-emptiness is the source from which the multiplicity of the universe arises.

When we realize the basis of our own existence, pervading our whole being, we can grieve our worldly losses while knowing that we can never lose our essential nature. We have always belonged, for we are existence—a fundamental consciousness that is beyond time and space. From this awareness, we can celebrate the cycles of birth and death, sowing seeds to nurture ways of being that align with our deepest virtues.