“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
– Lao Tzu
Many feel they are too impure, imperfect or unqualified to embark on a spiritual Path, so they shelve the idea. Yet as Sri Chinmoy explains, here and now is our ideal starting point:
“We have to be on the move like an elephant — but not a mad elephant. An elephant goes to this side and hits a wall; it gets hurt. It goes to that side and hits another wall; again it gets hurt. But at least there is movement. Then, after some time, the elephant will find another way; there will be a door wide open, and the elephant will go out. But if the elephant just stands still waiting for the walls to be removed, it will never be free.
“If a swimmer waits for the waves and billows to subside before he jumps into the ocean, then he will wait forever. Ten metres ahead he will see a huge wave and wait for it to subside. Then he will see another wave coming from twenty metres away. Like this it will go on and on. If you want to wait for the right moment, that right moment will never come — never!”
– Sri Chinmoy
We each have many barriers standing in our way. But if we do not start our journey because of them, we will never start, and these barriers will only loom ever-larger and more defiant. If we were already perfect, we would not need meditation and the spiritual life. It is precisely because of our imperfections that we urgently need to dive into meditation and embrace the spiritual life.
Hence every spiritual Path tells us – just start with what you have and what you are, here and now.