Holy why? Holy, not because God is here, although he is; not because The Masters are here, although they are. But because you are here.

You are here, yes? To notice that you are blessed with sacred presence is to notice you are a child of God.

You are free. And in this freedom, sometimes you may not feel the sacred.

And you are young. And in your youth, sometimes may not feel the sacred.

But like a child with their eyes closed under the bright sky, you are in direct relationship with the sacred, always.

To open your eyes and perceive this sky, not by looking for something behind the sky, but just to see the sky simply, is to enjoy the miracle, to enjoy life, to remove the game of improvement and enlightenment.

Indeed, one definition of enlightenment I love is appreciation so complete, so thorough, so delectable, so certain that no filter stands between you and Wholeness, the Wholeness that is already here.

You say with a smile, ‘Dear one, let’s be done with the game of improvement. And let’s be humbled by life, humbled by the mystery.’ Let’s stop pretending that the mystery of infinity requires further growth to recognize. No, it’s all around you. It’s all within you. It is you itself.

No more games.

This teaching, this recognition, this opening and this letting go, this surrender to what is, this revelation that the body, the sky, the Earth, the Mother, the Father, is not hiding The Divine for you, or hiding The Divine from you. It is the gateway.

And walking through the gateway, you see it is not only the gateway, it is The Divine itself.

Divine love is not only available several paces beyond where you are. It is right here.

In the so-called Maya or illusion, you move beyond the illusion, the illusion that love is beyond where you are, by opening and appreciating the play of creation, the Maya, the illusion. You do not need to go beyond it. And in the moment of celebrating it with maturity and kindness toward yourself and all you go beyond it.

You go beyond the illusion, the duality, by no longer aiming to go beyond it but by appreciating it as a steward, as a child, as an expression of the miracle.

Spiritual revelation is this: No more going beyond. Instead, meeting everything as spirit, not hiding anything from you, and in meeting and appreciating all things, not as that which separates you from Wholeness, but as the dance of Wholeness itself.

Then you go beyond experientially into the field of Wholeness, which is paradoxically right here, not beyond anything.

The Masters: They are right here. Do you see? They are so much like you? They are the stars in the sky during the day, still present. And when the time is right, the perception intensifies, and then they are the stars in the sky at night. They were never beyond.

And so, there are two fundamental and yet apparently contradictory Intentions and paradigms at play here.

On the one hand, and listen to this, no more striving. Open, and appreciate, and be in reverence for all that is as it appears to you now so that through your appreciation and awe of what is, you may perceive it more wholly and truthfully.

No more striving. Surrender to the apparent illusion and dynamism around you in the way that one may surrender to the movement of a fierce ocean. And through this surrender you become the whole ocean.

You see, you do not choose between depths and the frothy surface. Most of the ocean is calm, yes? But if you find yourself in what the ancients call Maya illusion, often it is not possible to swim so deeply from the tossing surface waves.

Instead, surrender. Even smile when it comes naturally. And all of this surface dynamism begins to show you it is just one aspect of the depths that it is, and you are — the calm, the clarity, the love, the being.

All of this is one paradigm: Surrender. Nowhere to go. Be in reverence. Stop believing that what you seek is beyond right here. And then you find it.

The other paradigm, which is apparently contradictory, is the journey, is the discipline and the growing, the movement of your attention, the technique, the process of mastery.

This too, this is a good journey, a good paradigm. And I want you to know that these paradigms, apparently contradictory, are just two sides of one coin. They are the yin and the yang of awakening.

So, can you strive for more love, even as you surrender to whatever love is present now? Can you swim for the depths, even as you surrender to the great movement of the surface of this glorious and powerful ocean?

I mentioned The Masters because this is what they have mastered. This is the grandfatherly palm they extend to you; the grandmotherly smile they offer to you always. They say yes, we know it is hard, and we also know it is easy. We know that even when you do not feel okay, you are okay. And this is God’s grace.