“Inner silence is the event horizon to a vast ocean of wisdom and wonder.” -Amy Larson, amyjalapeno.com

Your job, your titles, degrees, your home (whatever that looks like), your car and reputation, your religion, your relationship with God (or Universe, the Buddha, etc.), even your relationships, your name and ancestry and state of your mental and physical condition – all of these things are the shore. They make up a picture of who you think you are. But there is so much more waiting for you.

I attended a leadership training almost twenty years ago. And at the beginning of the first session, the facilitator had us close our eyes and visualize all of these things that filled our lives. She then had us commit to giving everything to the training. She told us that in order to do that, we had to completely let go of all the things I mentioned above.

It was scary. I didn’t want to. I wasn’t going to let go of my children, my marriage. And I found myself wanting to bolt for the door because of it. She saw my hesitation and the hesitation of others and asked for a show of hands for all of those wanting to leave.

She proceeded to have us close our eyes again. She asked us to visualize those things that were most precious to us, that we were unwilling to let go of. And then she said that everything we saw before us, everything we could possibly visualize, none of it was who we truly are.

She then told us that if we were willing to let go of all of those things, that whatever was true, whatever was real would follow us wherever we went and that whatever was in our way and holding us back would be left behind. And so I did, I trusted, and it ended up being one of the most transformative experiences of my life.

So all of those things you think are you, even your name and closest relationships, are only images of past experiences. They are pictures and your memory of them is preventing you from experiences the only truth, the only reality – a vast ocean beyond the event horizon of the silence of all things.