“The Fog of Dharamkot”

This painting came together as I was seeking spirituality in India. I was in Dharamsala to receive a teaching from the Dali Lama and to complete a Tibetan Buddhist retreat. Despite traveling across the world to the country of spirituality and spending over a month seeking tradition or teachers that felt like a good fit, I felt less spiritually fulfilled and less “found” than I had in years.

My problem was that I was searching for something. The things we are meant to find, we stumble upon when we’re not looking. All of the spiritual progress I have made has happened almost passively. My job has always been subtle – to observe, to appreciate, to love. But really, seeking has only ever sent me backwards. We never find the right things when we are searching, even when it comes to spirituality. 

It’s like being in fog. What can you find when you are in fog? Nothing, because you can only see a few meters ahead of you. But when you are in fog, which we all are, you will run into countless surprises. The things that COME TO YOU in the fog are the things you are meant to find. So for now, I’m going to stop soul-searching and let the Universe reveal itself to me on its own terms.

The fog is not so blinding when you are truly seeing everything within sight.