Persons on the spiritual path live in an ocean of faith. We all live in an ocean of emotion, images and thoughts. Generally we spend very little time in the world of outer objects. As soon as we have learned a skill, our hands and feet seem to take over and do it almost automatically. We spend most of our time daydreaming. Even if we are concentrating on our work, most of the time is spent in our heads. The farmer driving the tractor and plough has to watch the drills open behind him. His eyes are open but he is dreaming of the next job, or the market, or the football match next Saturday or last Saturday. His eyes are trained to spot any variance in the sods he's turning, but until that happens he's away with the fairies.          

We are all like that. We spend most of our time in an ocean of flowing thoughts and images accompanied by emotions. We are tossed on the waves of the mind from one feeling to another, one thought to another. That is just how it is. The question is really, "What kind of ocean are you in?"          

When I was doing business studies, the successful sales people were fond of saying," Everyone everywhere is a potential client." People out to make money see money and the potential for making money everywhere. They live in the emotional and mental ocean of money. Drug addicts and alcoholics are always planning and preparing for their next fix. They live in an emotional and mental ocean of intoxication. Some people live in the ocean of sex. Some people live in the ocean of political or corporate power       

The seeker of spiritual life lives in an ocean of faith. Everywhere they see their God, their angels, or their Nirvana, or their Brahman. For the spiritual practitioner, everywhere and everyone brings an opportunity to connect to the divine. Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita (an ancient Indian text), "For one who sees me everywhere and sees everything in Me. I am never lost to him nor is he ever lost to Me."  Some people see gold or money everywhere, some people see opportunity for romance everywhere, and some people see engineering everywhere.         

A friend was telling me that when he was studying Chemistry as a young student, he was finding it very hard to become enthusiastic about it. His teacher used to say to him, "Look around you. Everything is Chemistry. It is in the air, in the soil, in the furniture. It is in the pen and paper you are using. It is everywhere." In this way his teacher used to live in the mental ocean of chemistry.          

The spiritual practitioner lives in an ocean of faith. He cannot prove by objective experiment what he feels and thinks. He simply knows that there is a truth beyond this external reality. The outer world of the senses is real, but it is not the only reality. The inner worlds are also real.          

In the waves of the spiritual ocean are love and compassion, hope and virtue. Everything that happens to the spiritual practitioner is seen as a gift from the divine. Everything is helping to keep us on the path. Everything everywhere is our friend because behind everything is the sweet divine will of our loving Master.           

Even the material energy itself is only one of His expressions. Everything we can see, touch, taste, smell or hear is His energy. There is nothing anywhere that is not His energy. Even our thoughts are His energy and by His grace we have been given them. Otherwise we would not even be able to think of Him. In the ocean of faith there are many saintly people who are guiding us and encouraging us. They are like a boat that can take us safely across to the spiritual land. There have been many in the past as well who have left us their writing and realizations. Those who have gone before us to explore that ocean have mapped the currents and islands, the hazards and havens. For those who have faith, who can see, no proof is necessary; and for those who cannot see, no proof is sufficient. That is the nature of all our oceans.

Jack Carter Spiritual Adviser