Every single human being in the world at some time thinks that “if only” this or that one of our conditions could be met then we'd be happy. “If only I had a girlfriend/boyfriend/million bucks, then I'd be happy.” Or in the case of the more spiritually minded: “If only I were enlightened, then that would settle everything once and for all.” Think again.

An old Chinese Zen Master once said, “From birth to death it's just like this!”  

Wherever you go in the world of human beings is pretty much the same. Only the details are different. All of my gaijin teacher friends who wanted to get out of Japan and back to the “real world” have discovered that the “real world” is hardly any different than the place they were leaving.  

We always want to believe that somewhere there's a perfect situation, if only we weren't barred from it. But that's not the reality.  

We always imagine that there's got to be somewhere else better than where we are right now, the great “Somewhere Else” we all carry around in our heads. We believe Somewhere Else is out there for us if only we could find it. But there's no Somewhere Else. Everything is right here.