May Love Be Your Compass

If joy is truly alive within you, then your light may extend to others—and they will be warmed by it.

However if your flame has gone out, how can you light another’s? You must tend to your own fire first—only then can you offer warmth or light to others.

If you do not know what it is to feel the simple joy of being, you cannot give it to someone else, no matter how much you do for them.

Then I suggest: just stop. Reflect on what it is that you truly need to be happy—and whether or not that thing is available to you, right where you are.

And if the answer is no—because this, or that, or the other is still missing—I encourage you to look again. Because chances are, you’re just looking in the wrong direction.

If true joy were subject to conditions, it would be just another form of pleasure—dependent on objects, outer circumstances, and therefore impermanent, impermanent.

The true joy I’m referring to is not a state of complete detachment, where all problems are magically solved, nothing touches you anymore, and you walk on clouds for the rest of your life.

It springs from the quiet but profound realization that life is fundamentally not a threat, but a marvelous gift, and it is actually supporting us in every moment.

That no matter the challenges, your simply being here and breathing is a mystery of unspeakable beauty and an incomparable privilege.

That despite the hardship, nothing is fundamentally wrong. That you are exactly where you are supposed to be.

That you and the universe are essentially one and indivisible being. Nowhere are there parts opposing each other. It is all one harmonic flow—mysterious and forever beyond comprehension.

And that oneness, that completeness, is your original nature, your real face since before the birth of this world.

That realization came for me one morning, at the worst possible time in my life—when everything was falling apart, including my health, to the point I was quite sure I would not survive.

Only later did I understand what had to die within me for life to continue: the unattainable standards, the false image of myself I was trying to uphold, my belief system—which was literally killing me.

That day, the liberation has been instantaneous, radical—and has remained with me ever since.

In an instant, it cleared all doubts I had about who I was—or rather, who I was not—and what I was here for.

The answer was uncompromisingly simple, though it remains, in essence, completely beyond words.

If I were to try and point to it, I would say: I am here for this moment to come into existence—nothing more. As simple as that.

That is the reason for the whole universe to be. And that is why such realization is immediately followed by a tremendous sense of relaxation and freedom.

You simply realize that the goal of this moment is this moment. It is already accomplished.

And so, you have fundamentally nothing left to achieve in life. No one to become. Nothing to worry about—unless you really want to.

We are not here to adhere to an ideal, to achieve what others want us to achieve, or to behave well so society can accept us and praise us.

We are simply here to bring this moment into existence.

The complete ordinariness of this moment is the very achievement we are looking for. We are—and this existence is—no matter what it presently looks like, the miracle we have been chasing all along.

Not only this recognition—and the quiet joy that comes with it—is your birthright, I believe it is your only true responsibility in this life.

This quiet knowing is what nature intended for you from the very beginning. It is the real reason you are here. It has nothing to do with identity, personal history, achievements, or conditions.

It’s not about achieving anything extraordinary. On the contrary, it’s about discovering for yourself that this ordinariness already is, in fact, the extraordinary you have been looking for.

You don’t attain anything with this understanding—not even truth—but through the natural falling away of the false, what has always been here is revealed.

The beauty and simplicity that arises from this realization do not need to be translated into any specific behavior. It does not need to look like this or that, or be proven to anyone.

It unfold silently within, with humble grace and natural containment. It appears one day, unexpectedly—and grows, like the rising of the first sunrays through a foggy autumn morning.

Contrary to what they told you, it is not hard to find—provided you let it find you. Provided you are ready to welcome it and give it space to breathe in you.

Life gave you a compass to reach it: curiosity, excitement, fearlessness.

In one word: Love. That is your compass. Nothing else.

Not love as dependence on someone or something—but a love story between yourself and the entire universe, until both ideas dissolve into one reality.

Forget the hollow substitutes: wealth, achievement, success, safety, recognition. The world is full of people chasing them—and look where we are: humanity is on the brink of collapse. Everyone has lost the north.

None of these things will ever bring lasting fulfillment. Not discipline. Not duty. Not ideals. Certainly not sacrificing your joy for others.

Nothing can lead you to what is already within you. All that restless striving—society has purposely invented it to keep us feeding it with our soul and blood. It will never give what it promises. Ever.

What the world truly lacks is order—not control, not religion, not politics, not more distractions invented by thought—but simple recognition.

Recognition that we don’t need to go anywhere else.

That is true order. The simple, quiet, infinitely powerful, wise—natural order.

It means returning to what was placed in you at birth: joy, peace, wholeness.

And if you’ve lost it, then it means rediscovering it. That is your task—your only real purpose.

Nature never spoke of detours or intermediaries. Its invitation was, and remains, uncompromisingly clear.

If you are willing to look with clear eyes, and let go of everything you were taught to pursue—all inherited meanings, all borrowed purposes—then everything can be seen anew.

And the beauty is: you need nothing to begin. No talent, no privilege. You need not be someone in the world, for this joy couldn’t care less about man-made icons.

In this search, the path and the destination are one and the same: the absolute ordinariness of life, just as it is.

You know the expression: “Putting the cart before the horse.” That’s exactly what we humans are doing—we’re doing everything backwards.

All we need is to place first things first: to allow yourself, others, the world, and existence itself to become a source of joy.

Let it flow—freely, quietly—in and out of you, without resistance.

That is the call of Nature.

All the rest will follow.

Only from that joy can a life be lived that is not a constant battle with everything and everyone.

Only from that joy can true compassion arise.

Only joy—which is pure love—can dissolve fear.

IMF - La Cathedrale Verte, Lausanne 21 June 2025