People are attracted to spirituality for many reasons including: – Seeking peace – Seeking happiness/joy – Resolving emotional issues – Being interested in discovering spiritual powers – Getting more of what they want in their lives – Being a better person – To communicate with higher beings Yet, the real calling behind Spirituality is actually quite different, and unless recognised, spiritual pursuits will ultimately be empty and perhaps better served with a good therapist. The Buddha, in his first explanation of his discoveries, explained the 4 noble truths. The first is the truth of suffering/unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) , and the Buddha went onto to explain the causes of this, the fact that it can be stopped and the path towards that. Another way we could explain this is simply with, “ The Truth Will Set You Free”. Unaware of our true natures we relate to life in a very separate and limited way. This creates a rollercoaster of ups and downs, of grasping at experiences and defending ourselves against others. It’s like chasing the pot at the end of the rainbow. So we could say the real objective of a Spiritual Path is to unravel the mystery of life and to discover who/what we really are and in so doing, to set ourselves free (actually we discover in the end that there is no one home to set free). And it turns out that this unravelling, which can be endlessly long or amazingly short depending upon how hard you want to make things, is a beautiful journey, which all along the path, results in an opening and a letting go which enriches us endlessly. Once you are called to this path, you will see that it is the only thing that makes sense.