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"The question is about the balance between inner work (work on yourself) and outer work. I’ll tell you, each person has got to intuitively trust themselves about where they are and what they can handle."
“Work on yourself” is a common pieces of advice in spirituality.
It is about seeing more clearly what has been here all along.
"On the spiritual path do what you want to do, but keep doing it. Don't remain idle doing nothing. Repeat the name, or think deeply, or seek the source of your consciousness, do atma-vichara, but keep working on yourself."
At first, it often appears that the answer lies in becoming a better version of yourself.
Working on yourself is not ultimately about becoming someone new. It is about becoming aware of what has been shaping your life all along—your conditioning, beliefs, emotional patterns, unconscious habits, and identification with thought.
"The seeker is he who is in search of himself. Give up all questions except one: ‘Who am I?’ After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are. The ‘I am’ is certain. The ‘I am this’ is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality. To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not."
The work is not about creating the Self.
It is about recognizing it.
Over time we accumulate layers of conditioning—beliefs, fears, habits, emotional patterns, and ideas about who we think we are. These layers shape how we experience ourselves and the world, often hiding what has always been present beneath them.
This is why awareness is so important.
"The real does not die, the unreal never lived. Set your mind right and all will be right. When you know that the world is one, that humanity is one, you will act accordingly. But first of all you must attend to the way you feel, think and live. Unless there is order in yourself, there can be no order in the world."
Take an honest look at how you’re living life.
There are only 24 hours in a day, and after sleep, most of us have 16 to 18 waking hours.
How are those hours being lived?
Using the 24-hour schedule below, map out a normal day as honestly as you can.
Write down how you actually spend it.
Include everything.
Work. School. Meals. Exercise. Television. Social media. Reading. Driving. Family. Rest. Worrying. Scrolling. Daydreaming. Spiritual practice.
Take a few moments to look over your day.
The schedule is only the surface.
The same thoughts returning each day. The same emotional reactions. The same habits repeated without much awareness.
When these patterns remain unconscious, they continue to shape your life.
When they are seen clearly, they begin to loosen their hold.
This is why awareness is so important.
Notice where your attention goes.
Notice your reactions. Notice your habits.
Notice what continually pulls you away from the present moment.
Continue to the Introspection Guide, where you’ll begin exploring the beliefs, fears, desires, habits, and conditioning that quietly shape your experience of life.
"Millions of people never analyze themselves. Mentally they are mechanical products of the factory of their environment, preoccupied with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, working and sleeping, and going here and there to be entertained. They don’t know what or why they are seeking, nor why they never realize complete happiness and lasting satisfaction. By evading self-analysis, people go on being robots, conditioned by their environment. True self-analysis is the greatest art of progress."
But they are not who you are. They are simply conditioning.
Habits are repeated actions.
If you would like to explore this more deeply, continue to the Habits Guide, where we look at why habits form, how conditioning shapes perception, and how awareness gradually dissolves unconscious patterns.
"The greatest error of a man is to think that he is weak by nature, evil by nature. Every man is divine and strong in his real nature. What are weak and evil are his habits, his desires and thoughts, but not himself."
Twenty minutes in nature is more nourishing than two hours scrolling your phone.
How easily social media pulls people’s attention away from the present moment and consumed for hours upon hours.
How the constant stream of news, outrage, and political division quietly consumes enormous amounts of people’s energy without bringing any peace.
How some conversations leave you feeling lighter, while others leave you drained.
You begin to see how much of life was happening automatically.
Not because someone told you to change.
It is simply about becoming aware.
"Awareness is the greatest agent for change."
There is nothing wrong with caring for your body, building healthy habits, organizing your day, or cultivating discipline. These things can support a clear and healthy life.
But they are not who you are.
"Be — don't try to become."
"Be as simple as you can be; you will be astonished to see how uncomplicated and happy your life can become."
Your life is shaped by what you continuously give your attention to.
Attention is one of the most valuable things you possess. Wherever it rests, your energy follows. And over time, whatever repeatedly receives your attention begins to shape the way you think, feel, and experience the world.
Notifications. Social media. Breaking news. Politics. Advertising. Entertainment. Endless scrolling. Constant stimulation.
"It is only in the state of attention that you can be a light unto yourself, and then every action of your daily life springs from that light—every action—whether you are doing your job, cooking, going for a walk, mending clothes, or what you will. This whole process is meditation.... "
It wanders through memories of the past and fantasies about the future. It replays old conversations, imagines different outcomes, worries about tomorrow, and postpones happiness until circumstances improve. Most psychological suffering exists within this movement of thought through time.
Yet life itself is never experienced there.
Reality is always here.
Awakening is not something that happens tomorrow. It is not waiting at the end of enough meditation, enough knowledge, or enough years of practice. It is discovered only in this present moment—the only place life has ever existed.
This does not mean ignoring practical time. We still make appointments, go to work, pay bills, plan adventures, and care for our responsibilities. Clock time has its place.
But psychological time is something else entirely. It is the endless habit of leaving this moment in search of another.
Each moment offers another opportunity to return—to notice when the mind has wandered into yesterday or tomorrow and gently come back to what is here now.
"Save all your energies and time for breaking the wall your mind has built around you."
Your life is made not only of time, but of energy.
Two people may have the same twenty-four hours, yet experience them completely differently. One moves through the day exhausted, restless, and scattered. Another feels present, clear, and alive.
The difference is often not how much they do, but where their energy goes.
Much of what drains us isn’t physical. It is the endless movement of the mind.
Constant thinking.
Trying to control life.
Resisting what is.
Replaying the past.
Imagining the future.
Comparing ourselves with others.
Living in a state of tension.
Every thought, emotion, and attachment asks something of your energy.
As spiritual practice deepens, many of these invisible leaks begin to close on their own. You stop fighting what is. You stop carrying problems that exist only in thought. Life doesn’t necessarily become easier, but it becomes lighter.
The body matters too. Not because it must be perfected, but because it is the instrument through which life is experienced.
Sleep when you’re tired.
Move when your body wants to move.
Rest when rest is needed.
Eat what leaves you feeling clear and alive.
Spend time in nature.
Drink water.
Allow moments of silence.
This isn’t another wellness checklist. It’s simply learning to listen.
You’ll also begin to notice that your energy moves in rhythms. There are times when the mind is naturally clear, creativity flows, and work feels effortless. There are other times when, despite doing everything “right,” the body simply has little to give.
Both are part of life.
Instead of fighting these rhythms, begin cooperating with them.
When energy is available, use it well. When it isn’t, allow yourself to rest without guilt.
Gradually another kind of energy quietly appears—not because the world has changed, but because you’re no longer exhausting yourself resisting what is.
Life begins to require less effort.
Then action becomes simpler. It happens when it needs to happen.
And when nothing needs doing, there is peace in that too.
"Would people know that nothing can happen unless the entire universe makes it happen, they would achieve much more with less expenditure of energy."
The body and mind are not separate. They constantly influence one another, each reflecting the condition of the other.
A restless mind often becomes a tense body. Anxiety tightens the muscles, shortens the breath, disturbs digestion, and disrupts sleep. Likewise, a tired, inflamed, or neglected body can cloud thinking, heighten emotional reactivity, and make inner stillness more difficult to access.
Every choice affects the whole. The food you eat influences your energy and clarity. Sleep restores both the body and the nervous system. Movement lifts mood and reduces stress. Breath calms the mind as surely as it relaxes the body. Supporting one naturally supports the other.
This is why caring for the body is not separate from spiritual practice. It doesn’t awaken you by itself, but it can help quiet the mind. And a quieter mind makes it easier to recognize what has always been here.
The goal is not physical perfection or mental perfection. It is harmony. When the body and mind work together rather than against one another, life becomes simpler, lighter, and more balanced.
To explore these topics in greater depth—overall well-being—continue with the Mind & Body Guide.
"The wise person remains where they are and begins to work on themselves. They begin to transcend the body-mind.
To the extent you begin to transcend the body-mind, to that extent you find happiness and peace. How do you do this? It has been show to us by great Sages. The secret again is to quiet the mind by any means you can."
Every path is unique.
Some people move inward quietly through self-inquiry. Others find that emotional healing, supportive relationships, teachers, or therapeutic work become an important part of the journey. There is no single formula.
These supports are not the destination.
They cannot awaken you or reveal your true nature. But they can help quiet the mind, soften old conditioning, heal emotional wounds, and remove unnecessary obstacles that make truth more difficult to recognize.
If you choose to work with a therapist, counselor, or spiritual teacher, it can be helpful to find someone who understands the deeper dimension of this work—or at least is open to it. A guide who recognizes that healing is not only about improving the personal self, but also about seeing beyond it, can sometimes offer a very different perspective.
At the same time, never forget that your deepest guide is within.
No one can observe your thoughts for you. No one can question your beliefs for you. No one can discover your true nature on your behalf.
Ultimately, you become your own teacher.
Awareness itself is the deepest form of healing.
"The Guru is within. The Guru is the Self."
Every person carries a unique history.
Childhood experiences, relationships, loss, fear, grief, trauma, and years of conditioning all leave impressions on the mind. These impressions can quietly shape how we think, react, relate to others, and experience ourselves.
Bringing awareness to these patterns is an important part of inner work.
Sometimes this happens naturally through meditation or self-inquiry. Sometimes it unfolds through honest conversation, therapy, shadow work, or other forms of emotional healing.
Healing is not about becoming a perfect person or creating a flawless past.
It is about meeting your experience with honesty instead of avoidance.
Seeing what has been unconscious.
Allowing what has been resisted.
Understanding what has shaped you without becoming defined by it.
As old wounds begin to soften, the mind often becomes quieter. Emotional reactions lose some of their intensity. The stories that once seemed absolute begin to loosen their grip.
None of this creates awakening.
But it can remove many of the clouds that obscure the peace already present beneath them.
Healing the person and awakening to your true nature are not the same thing.
Yet they often support one another.
"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate."
Psychedelics such as psilocybin, LSD, DMT, and ayahuasca have helped many people glimpse realities beyond their ordinary sense of self. Experiences of unity, interconnectedness, profound love, or the temporary dissolution of the ego can dramatically shift a person’s perspective and, for some, become the beginning of a sincere spiritual search.
While these experiences can be deeply meaningful, they are still experiences. They arise, they pass, and they cannot replace the ongoing work of understanding the mind or recognizing your true nature.
Psychedelics may open a door, but walking the path requires sincerity, stability, and continued inner work. Insight becomes transformative not through the experience itself, but through how it is lived and integrated afterward.
For some, psychedelics reveal unconscious patterns, soften rigid beliefs, or inspire a deeper commitment to meditation, self-inquiry, or spiritual practice. For others, they can become another form of seeking—another attempt to chase extraordinary states rather than recognize the awareness that is already present.
Like any powerful tool, they also carry risks and are not appropriate for everyone, particularly those with certain mental health conditions. They should be approached with caution, discernment, and proper guidance.
Ultimately, the deepest recognition is not found in an altered state, but in the simple awareness that remains before, during, and after every experience.
"Psychedelic experience is only a glimpse of genuine mystical insight, but a glimpse which can be matured and deepened by the various ways of meditation in which drugs are no longer necessary or useful. When you get the message, hang up the phone."
"Do not neglect this body. This is the house of God; take care of it, only in this body can God be realized."
You’ll know what to do. You’ll be exactly where you need to be.
"Wherever you are, be there totally."
Every path eventually comes down to one simple question: What matters most?
If truth becomes your deepest longing, your life will gradually begin arranging itself around it.
And by honestly observing your life, you’ll see pretty easily what already comes first.
"You must want to be free. It must become first with you before anything else."
Without thinking about it, you wake up. Brush your teeth. Prepare food. Go to work. Go to school. Answer emails. Drive. Exercise. Care for your family. Walk the dog. Wash the dishes. Rest. Sleep.
Or are you moving through it on autopilot, carried from one habit to the next without ever fully arriving?
Every ordinary moment is an opportunity to wake up.
Waking. Eating. Beginning work. Walking. Resting. Going to sleep.
Let them bring you back again and again.
"Just by thinking about these things all the time, something begins to happen to you, something wonderful. Do not think about the weather, or about the day’s work or your problems. For all the thinkers, who thinks? Find out who has the problems? Find out who you really are, who am I?"
There comes a point when reading another book, listening to another teacher, or collecting another insight no longer changes anything.
It becomes: “Am I living what I already know?”
"I always suggest working on yourself. Don’t worry about the words. Transcend the words. Have the experience for yourself, and then there will be nothing to say. But as long as you are a book reader, you never stop reading. There is a time to read, but there is a time to stop, too. There’s a time to put the books aside and to intensely practice, giving your life over to the practice."
Working on yourself can easily become another project for the ego.
As soon as one problem disappears, another takes its place.
The ego survives by convincing you that fulfillment is always one more improvement away.
Genuine inner work gradually reveals something unexpected.
"The truth is, you have nothing to overcome. Think about that. If you had something to overcome you would never overcome it, for it is the nature of mind to play games with you.
...we want to play the game of overcoming. So we say, "I've got to work on myself. I've got to practice. I've got to meditate. I've got to be alone. I've got to do this and I've got to do that."
But I say to you tonight, there's no thing you have to do. You just have to realize what I'm saying and awaken, and that's it."
All is well.
"Always remember deep in your heart that all is well and everything is unfolding as it should. There are no mistakes anywhere, at any time. What appears to be wrong is simply your own false imagination."
Not toward something to achieve. Not toward someone to become. But toward what has always been present.
Awareness is not another state to attain.
It is not about about learning something new.
It is simply an invitation to relax, and trust life.
There is nowhere left to arrive.
"Awareness is not something you do; it is what you are. Rest as that."
"As you become spiritually mature, you become humble, filled with humility and love and you smile at the world, you understand its nature as maya. Its constant change. You no longer hate the world nor love the world. Just observe the world, leave it alone. You stop debating with people, arguing with people, trying to prove points. You just leave everything alone and leave everybody alone and you're at peace with yourself and the world.
This happens automatically when you take refuge in the Self, in the heart. In other words your job is not to look for peace, for harmony, for justice, for love for these are fleeting things in this world. Your work is to take refuge in the heart, in the Self. Then these verities come by themselves. In other words you become a living example, a living embodiment of consciousness, of divine love, of peace. Whereas if you just look for peace and harmony in this world, you're doing something external and you'll never really find it."
Every teaching is only a pointer.
How many years do you have left? How do you truly want to spend them?
When the body is left behind, nothing you have gathered—possessions, status, opinions, achievements, or knowledge—will go with you.
"You and I know many people who have been searching for many, many years, twenty years, thirty years, forty years, for the answers to life, for reality, yet they're still in the same place they started twenty years ago. They have gone through all kinds of things. They've been to many places. They met a certain teacher, but they're still the same. For they've never really investigated themselves. They say they do. They say they've been working on themselves for years, but nothing has happened.
But have they really been working on themselves? What they've been doing is sort of just thinking about it a little bit, reading books. But they've never dived deep enough in the Self to find the answers. And this is exactly what you have to do.
You have to dive deep, deep, deep within yourself, deeper than you can ever imagine. And the only way you can do this is by giving up the external world, mentally, not physically. In other words, by not reacting to things. To observe things, watch the world go by, leave it alone. It's neither good nor bad. It has nothing to offer you."