Self-Awareness Creates the Ground Where Happiness Grows

There is an old Hindu legend which states that at one time all human beings were gods. However, they treated their divinity with such disrespect that Brahma, the chief god, decided their divinity should be taken away and hidden where humans would never find it. The question was, where to hide it? Should he bury it deep within the earth? Should he sink it to the deepest depths of the ocean? Or just place it on the highest mountain peak? Brahma thought for a long time. It seemed there was no place in land or sea that humanity could not eventually reach. Finally, he decided, “I will place their divinity within themselves, they will never look for it there.”

A lighthearted parable with a sting of truth. Most of us don’t feel like we’ve “found our purpose” and on most days, we’re not even sure where to look. Obscuring it even more is that we live in an era where the pursuit of self-awareness is constantly derailed. Today’s world bombards us with distractions designed to hijack our most precious resources: time and attention. Social media, in particular, lures us in with fleeting flashes of sound and