A large, gruff samurai once went to see a little monk. “Monk!” he barked, in a voice accustomed to instant obedience. “Teach me about heaven and hell!”

The monk looked up at the mighty warrior and replied with utter disdain: “Teach you about heaven and hell? I couldn’t teach you about anything. You’re dumb. You’re dirty. You’re a disgrace, an embarrassment to the samurai class. Get out of my sight. I can’t stand you.”

he samurai became furious. He shook, red in the face, speechless with rage. He pulled out his sword, and prepared to slay the monk.

Looking straight into the samurai’s eyes, the monk said softly, “That is hell.”

The samurai froze, realizing the compassion of the monk who had risked his life to show him hell! He put down his sword and fell to his knees, filled with gratitude.

Then the monk said softly, “And that is heaven.”

Are you bewildered by its nature or unsure of how to embody it? Most of us are. This innate virtue is exactly what the world needs, yet it is a reality that politics and religion are fundamentally unable to address.

Many remain vague about this inner goodness; others doubt it exists within them at all. Some fear that if they embrace it, they will lose the “edge” required to survive in a harsh world. This is because we often mistake “goodness” for mere gratification—whatever pleasures, comforts, or secures us. But the goodness I am referring to is far more vast.

When we cease to be in conflict with our humanity, we begin to emit a “fragrance”—as the Buddha described—of unreasonable generosity. This frequency is unnerving to the ego, yet it is the only force capable of replacing our karmic debt with the vibration of authentic Love.

We are all born with a profound nobility that can unseat the heart’s obsession with mischief. However, this goodness only arises through selflessness, a state that often looks frightening to the logical mind. Many of us ignore this transformative process to protect our pride or satisfy our basic instincts.

We often miss this because we are blinded by fear or intoxicated by the self-righteousness of hate. We become addicted to the duality of fear, submitting to its predictable plights. Yet, these very struggles are part of the process meant to awaken us.

We are here on Earth to transcend the mechanism of the “self” and awaken the boundless goodness within. Everything that has happened to you—with or without your consent—has served this purpose. We can choose to align with this process now, allowing the unreasonable laws of the Universe to sustain us, moving beyond mere human gratification and into the true meaning of our existence.

Whether we understand it or not, we are all in the PROCESS. We either live in this by design or we willfully defy this purification through the mechanism of our DNA and genetics. It is up to us as individuals.

Our goodness is not in opposition to our “bad” as it were. This goodness is a state of Being that is not in opposition to anything in this lifetime or world. It simply exists as the All. This is very important to become aware of in the course of a spiritual practice. This goodness is a big part of our PROCESS and cannot be taught; nor can it be understood by human logic, reasoning or education. This goodness must be the direct experience that one senses deep within.

The way we are, the essence of what we are, is pure Love.