Connecting to the Intrinsic Spirit

“One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead.” says Oscar Wilde. In other words, the life we program by schedules and agendas is the life we lead, but the essence of that has it's own current and flow that cannot be lead, but is inspired. A surfing saying is "you ride the wave or the wave rides you". Your real life is neither leading the wave, nor being lead by it, but flowing and adapting and dancing with its momentum. Most importantly it is having gratitude for one's place and accomplishments. Tennessee William's writes "Ambition is the last refuge of failure", meaning that aspiring is trying to hide that you've failed. This is partially true because it's important to acknowledge a failure. However, it's even more vital to recognize a failure not as an event symbolizing inadequacy, but as a learning lesson, didactically pointing us towards things we could improve to ensure more success.

Napoleon Dynamite always does precisely whatever he wants, that is what we must realize we have the capacity to do. Also, if people demand something of us, we don't have to necessarily answer it at all.

There are no failures when we are charged to examine every occurrence as didactic experiences.

We must continue to do things out of our own volition, for our own mind. Creating our own experience and shaping the perception of our own universe and NOT conforming to other's perspectives is the pathway to "experiencing one's real life" and riding the wave; crafting our personalized interface, perception, and contact with the world is one of the most important things possible.

We do that be doing things because we get a deep intrinsic, intuitive urge to do that. We mustn't follow the crowd, unless the crowd happens to blend with our path -- if it happens to be headed in the same direction we are. That is a recipe for happiness.

Visualizing the Intrinsic Spirit

Making connections with people. I frequently recognize connections with other people so that I can visibly see the Universal spirit. When I had to stay with a host family in Costa Rica, I recognized similarities in the house owner to my father and the local Costa Ricans, or Ticos, to my elementary school friends. Eventually, through the process of enormously interconnected travel, every person we interact with -- whether it be a close family member like a parent or brother or a complete stranger you meet on the airplane -- will embody and resemble a close friend we have related to. The world doesn't become our Oyster, every person becomes the pearl.