Living in the middle of the storms, we seek the shelter.

Have you ever noticed when it begins to rain, all the birds go find little places where they can sit for a while and let the rain go by, because they cannot afford to have their wings wet. Who taught them that?

There are innate things about us that we have forgotten. That the quest for peace, the need for peace, is not expressed by this world, but it is expressed by individuals like you and me—that we can only look at ourselves and feel our need…our…my…my need that I have to be in peace.

And then comes the question, how do you search for it? This is a big question. Let me shed some light on this. How do you search for something you never lost? Where do you search? Where do you begin to search?

If all of a sudden I find that I have lost my jacket, I’m looking… Where would I look for my jacket? Should I fly to South Africa to look for my jacket? Should I go to India to look for a jacket that I never wore in India? Should I go to Malaysia to look for my jacket?

No! When you lose something, you look in the last place you were. You don’t go looking all over the place, where you even weren’t.

When the quest for peace begins from inside of us, why are we looking towards people who have maybe written this book, and this book, and this book, and this book, and this book. Why aren’t we starting from ourselves and finding that one person who says, “Peace beings with you”?

But if you start searching for something that you have not lost, this is going to create very big problems, because you are actually searching. And you are sincere. And you are looking, and you are looking, and you are looking, and you are not finding.

And people want to help you, and they are saying, “Where do you think it could be?” And you’re saying, “I don’t know!” “Well, then, let’s look over here. Then let’s look over here.” And what happens? The time gets wasted; a lifetime gets wasted, and before you know it, you neither found the jacket, nor understood the search, nor understood what this life is all about.

The paradox to me is that somebody has created a picture. (I don’t know his name.) This is my paradox; somebody has created a picture: “This is how you should be.” And I follow the picture to the T, but I don’t even know what I am, who I am.

And that is why, time and time again, there have been those who have pointed to you and said, “Look within you for the answers. Look within you and find your thirst. Look within you and find your quest. Look within you and find what it is that you want. Look within you and find the shelter from the storms. Look within you and find the unchanging.”

– Prem Rawat