More and more people, especially the younger generation, are searching and asking for the meaning of life. They are looking for a meaningful existence and can find it only with difficulty. Many are bored with a life of material well-being; it is no longer able to satisfy them. They suffer from material abundance, from the push and pressure of wanting to be and to have. In view of the many threatening and alarming developments that are coming to a head, they increasingly sense that all conditions essential for life are in danger.

And so, many ... are searching for the truth. Their inner unease, their searching and striving, is deep-rooted. The soul, which is not of this world, senses its eternal home where there is secureness and safety. The soul senses its connection with heavenly beings, among whom happiness, contentment, harmony and love prevail. Without the person being aware of it, the searching soul also longs for the dual unity, for its dual partner, who may live far from this earth in the light-filled spheres of the eternal home.
Soul and person are continuously on a journey. Untiringly, the wanderer strives for new goals that promise fulfillment. Once these goals have been reached, however, there is but a brief rest, fulfillment and satisfaction are of short duration. Nowhere can soul and person find the deep secureness, nowhere the lasting home.

The awakened soul feels that it is merely on a journey. It feels and senses higher things. This pressing sensation and longing of the soul awaken the person. The person who is awakening to spirituality begins to search for the higher, the nobler, and more perfect. The striving of the soul, which wants to reach its origin, makes itself known to the person; it penetrates him and rises in him like the invigorating sap in a tree when springtime draws near. ...

The person turns now here, now there, in order to find what his heart is seeking so restlessly, and has to recognize that he cannot find it externally. But where is there a place for the spiritual life in the crowding, rushing restlessness of our fast-moving time? Possessions, recognition and pleasure are the standards of an affluent society. They characterize the thinking and acting of today’s people. Since such an orientation is contrary to a spiritual life, many people believe that a spiritual life is closed to the one who lives in this world. Through our professional and social intertwinements, we are all connected with the life of this world. This external life stresses and burdens us more than ever. A person is not able to free himself from it. Technology offers him manifold and ever new opportunities: sensual stimulations and sounds, fascinations and distractions of all kinds, which often exceed the capacity of the individual. The quiet and inwardness that the soul calls for seems to many people like a utopia that has no room for realization in our restless world. However, this seems so only to the one who thinks that one has to withdraw from the noisy hustle and bustle, from society and profession, in order to attain restfulness. The hustle and bustle of this world may very well have fascinated and captivated many people. The worldly person may very well be bound by what attracts his efforts and striving; this is so today, as it was at all times. However, the renewal of a person from within, by recalling the powers latent in him, is possible today just as it has been at all times. We do not have to withdraw from our daily life, from our profession and from society in order to find tranquillity within ourselves. We only have to realize what is important: To live in this world, but not to be with this world.

It all depends on what forces we allow to govern us. It all depends on what forces we allow to dominate us and our life. When we are oriented toward the world, toward the material, then the world, all external aspects, will influence us. We will then be children of the world and will take part in everything that is a part of the outer world. Even though the spiritual reality is present as well, it cannot effectively support us, inspire and guide us, because we have not turned toward it; we have not made a conscious connection with it; we have not offered our hand to it. When we turn toward the spiritual, the external world with its manifestations loses its influence. Although it is still there, it no longer has power over us, since we have offered our hand to the divine in us. The divine now consciously nourishes us, guides and governs us. We may now rest in Him. Once we have established ourselves in the spiritual life which is within us, the eternal Being will be the firm ground on which we stand. Firmly rooted in this ground and trusting in the powers which stream to us from there, we can grow from it into the external life, in word and deed. The storm of time can indeed shake us but cannot in the end do any harm to us, since we receive strength and power of resistance from the very basis of the eternal Being. And so, we may rest in the Spirit, while fulfilling our task in the world.

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