This invisible power now permeates and brightens our modern world. Many connections can be made to the inner life, including the discovery by Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla that made it all possible.

We practice inner life AC when we rotate between different pools of energy. The wise student never tries to force anything (as Edison did with Direct Current). He or she employs the light touch to change centers when a given direction of activity or inquiry has served its purpose for now. This also includes a given author or teacher. Upon following this natural inclination, notice when you revisit the author the new connections you make. 

In the first half of the 20th century, F.M. Alexander pioneered a method for reestablishing postural integrity that flourishes in practice around the world today. One afternoon a woman brought her young daughter for a session with Mr. Alexander. The child had a severe misalignment, causing her to stoop sharply. After her session with Mr. Alexander her posture returned to near normal. She ran to her mother and exclaimed, "Look Mommy, he bent me all out of shape!"

Related Resource:
Online video on the Alexander Technique by our podcast co-host. View now. 

Picture a movie set. From certain viewpoints the fake homes and businesses appear real and substantial; however, view the movie set from a new place and you see what’s really happening. It’s all a front — a carefully crafted illusion.  

Birds remind us to wake up now to our instant power of internal flight. One of my favorite exercises from author Vernon Howard is what he called "The Tweet Tweet Exercise." Let the sighting of birds remind you to snap out of it, turning away from the mechanical wheels of mental movement to the quiet perception of what’s happening now.

Underwater geysers are rare places in nature where great quantities of life abide. Likewise, spiritual ideas of tremendous power and clarity orbit the center of our Being (the "heart" so often mentioned in the Bible), yet we walk in unawareness of this unfolding paradise.

With the quest for enlightenment being largely co-opted today by sophisticated commercial interest with a worldwide mass marketing effort, author Henry David Thoreau conveys a most relevant point: "Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man." Fascination and fixation on any outer source of wisdom, or the frantic attempt to find one, block perception of the inner geyser — the only Source from which advanced answers flow.

Awaken the inner teacher. Books, discussions and group meetings can help serve this sacred aim. Just never forget your aim, because most people will have forgotten theirs, urging you (often in subtle ways) to place outer sources of assistance on pedestals. The last thing any instructor with something valuable to teach wants to see, is fawning behavior in a student.

Related Resource:
The Perils of Group Think — Audio Discussion

“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” (N. Hawthorne)

We begin this quest with persistent efforts to stay alert, refusing to roam in the maze of associative, unchecked thinking. This initial (and necessary) stage of effort can be compared to the caterpillar stage of the butterfly. Without this initial struggle, there can be no stirring up of dormant inner powers.

Just as the butterfly breaks free of the shell and flies, so intelligent effort gradually gives way to understanding. In the beginning, to quote author Vernon Howard, “We work hard because we don’t yet know enough to work easy.” The transition from hard to easy, therefore, is from effort to listening — from movement to catch the butterfly to receptivity that invites the butterfly, and when it alights, to cherish it.

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Related Butterfly Podcast