Can we truly know the divine without first knowing ourselves? Not merely as we wish to be, or as the world has shaped us, but as we truly are—beneath the masks, beyond the stories we tell ourselves? Or could it be that the divine cannot be sought or grasped because it is already here, waiting in the quiet truth of our own being, covered beneath the lies we refuse to confront?
For years, I searched for the divine outside myself, chasing it in philosophies, doctrines, and fleeting moments of wonder. Each step outward seemed to lead me further from what I sought. It was as though every attempt to know God reflected my own blindness back to me. I was looking for truth, but I hadn’t yet dared to face the lies that lived within me—the lies I told to avoid pain, to protect my fragile ego, to make the world more bearable.
It was only when the weight of those lies became unbearable that I turned inward, not out of wisdom but out of sheer desperation. What I found wasn’t the divine—not at first. I found chaos. Shadows of regret. A self I didn’t want to claim. But in time, as I sifted through the wreckage of my identity, I began to uncover something else. Beneath the noise, there was stillness. Beneath the stillness, there was truth. And within that truth, there was something infinite—a spark, untainted by my failures, unbroken by my wounds.
In that moment, it became clear: the divine isn’t something I reach for; it’s something I am. Not in the sense of ego, but in essence. To seek the divine is not to find something foreign or distant but to remember who I am beneath the illusions. I am not merely a seeker of truth—I am the truth. But to live in that truth, to embody it, is perhaps the greatest and hardest work I/we will ever do.
To be true to myself means to confront the lies I live by. It means facing the pain I’ve buried, dismantling the false self I’ve created, and releasing the need to be anything other than what I am. It is an act of surrender, not to weakness but to reality. And when I do this—when I resolve the lies within me—what remains is unadulterated, undeniable truth.
This truth is not a thing I possess; it is what I become. It is the mirror through which I recognize the divine, not as something separate from me, but as the essence of all things. To know the divine is to know myself—not the self shaped by the world, but the self that simply is. The self that has no need to prove, to grasp, or to fear.
If this is true, then the greatest act of devotion is not belief but authenticity. To be true to ourselves is to honor the spark of the divine within us. It is to say, “Here I am, as I am—nothing more, nothing less.” This, I believe, is the essence of both self-realization and divine communion: to strip away all that is false, so that truth alone may remain.
So, I leave you with this: Can we know the divine without first being true to ourselves? And if we are the truth itself, what lies must we confront, and what illusions must we dissolve, to live in harmony with that truth?
CHRIS JOHNS
It was never about some grand external revelation; it was about an inner revolution- an awakening long buried within the depths of my soul.
It was never about achieving heaven or being doomed to hell; it was about realizing that I am both architect and prisoner of my own creation.
It was never about seeking peace in a fractured world; it was about forging it from the chaos within, where the seeds of all creation are sown.
It was never about you; it was always about me—stripping away illusions, revealing the truth of my being, naked in the light of my own awareness.
It was never a flaw that needed fixing; it was a misunderstood perfection, woven into the very fabric of my being, awaiting the clarity to be seen.
And in the silence of this confrontation, I understood: the universe I sought was never outside me—it was a reflection of the unseen realms within.
For me, the true journey is not forward, but inward—into the heart of all things, where the fragments of existence converge, and all that is, is made whole.
CHRIS JOHNS
“So long as God seems to be outside and far away, there is ignorance. But when God is realised within, that is true knowledge. You should love everyone because God dwells in all beings. All will surely realize God. All will be liberated. It may be that some get their meal in the morning, some at noon, and some in the evening; but none will go without food. All, without any exception, will certainly know their real Self.”
~ Ramakrishna
“Even to say that God is close is not exactly right – because closeness, after all, shows a certain distance; closeness is distance. God is not close – God is you. You are God. So don't look for God in the churches, in the temples, in mosques. Look for him within. We have just to be a little calmer to feel him. The turmoil in the mind does not allow us to feel. And God is not a person – you cannot worship him; there is nobody to be worshipped. The worshipper is the worshipped. That's what Jesus means when he says again and again, ‘The kingdom of God is within you’. And the kingdom is such that it cannot be taken away from you. The whole existence is God. I want you to destroy duality completely. God is in the trees, in the rivers, in the moon, in the sun, and he is in you. Except God, there is nothing else.”
~ Osho
"God is not playing with you. God is playing as you. I know you and love you far too much to treat you as a mere person. I refuse to know you as less than God."
~ Mooji
“Invite your attention towards yourself seriously and you will come to know that there is no God except yourself. It is so simple... All you have to ‘do’ is realize that the body is not your identity. You are Ultimate Reality.”
~ Ramakant Maharaj
“Ultimately you are the proof that God exists, not the other way round. For, before any question about God can be put, you must be there to put it.
"I am" itself is God.
You yourself are God, the Supreme Reality.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
JAMES THOMAS
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