We are so conditioned to unhappiness, to believe this world we have been handed, this rat race existence is all we will ever have. Sadness has become the status quo. Few wonder; the insomniacs, the mental patients, the man that mutters on the bus next to you that you try to sit far away from, even the rare few that seem happy with their lot in life. They too have their moments of ‘insanity’. They lie awake some nights wondering, questioning whether there is something more, knowing that something is inherently wrong with the life that they lead and with the system that sells it. It is only in darkness that they confront the hell of their waking hours, yet in the light they can comfortably cast off the starkness of their unhappiness as a bad dream- too much to eat too late at night. They shake it off, put on their game faces and face the world again, accepting less because they have no real concept of deserving more. Convinced of their own smallness they cannot strive for anything other than what they have been sold. They would never stand up and say, “Something is wrong!” and search for the alternative. Oh, they may confess it privately to the therapists that they pay thousands of dollars to, but never will they proclaim to their friends, their colleagues, their waking selves that they want more.

While this paints a hopeless picture of the human condition the truth is that it is this proclamation that we can be saved. This wail of discontent, this racket that emerges when ones says, “I know better than this!” begins the road out of hell. Behind the carefully constructed veil of our society lies truth. But this truth is only revealed to those that have the courage to look for it, not just question secretly and accept discontent. It takes integrity to refuse to accept lies and search relentlessly, tirelessly for the only real way out. The information is out there and the signs are visible to those that wish to see. We are not as alone as we think. For all the while that we search and experience, that we live and work, that we question and discern we are being pulled further and further away from lies and closer and closer to the source of all truth. It is not revealed to those who cowardly hide in their discontent and fear, or those who feign enlightenment hiding behind academic platitudes that cannot challenge their own complicity with the system. It is those who insist upon reclaiming the beauty of their own essence and are willing to undergo the often-painful process of confrontation and refinement that can taste the glory of true freedom.

The truth cannot lie. The integrity that is built through the process of searching, character refinement and speaking out against society’s duplicity allows one to see the real light over all the false sparks that abound. It is only in that light that the nightmare can end, it is only here that questions are answered, the race can end and we can find rest. It is in the source of all truth that we come home.