People always say, “What can I do about the world?” Ramana Maharshi says the world you see doesn’t even exist. It’s actually just your perception of the world. You think the world needs you, but it needs you like a hole in the head, actually. Each person’s evolution contributes to the level of the sea; each person, by making your life a prayer. When I give sermons occasionally, the sermon is always about converting your life into a prayer. Become that about which you talk and learn and read and sing hymns—become that. Because by being that, just your existence already transforms the world. Each one of us raises the level of the sea not by what we do and say, but by what we have become. The great kings and emperors and conquerors have come and gone. They’ve all come and gone and made all kinds of waves. And what did that do? Nothing. You realize it has nothing to do with your perception, nothing to do with your judgmentalism.

David Hawkins