Finding the path to freedom demands that we first have a taste of it, knowing what it is before we can find it.

That comes about in two ways: discovering personal freedom (empowerment) and discovering the source of all freedom, our life's purpose.

Just as every flower, every leaf, every beast, every star has its purpose, what is essentially inside it to make it be what it is to become, so do human beings.

The problem arises in that we have intellect, a blessing in that it gives us knowledge of good and evil and all things in between, and a curse in that it gives us our egos.

It is our egos that get in the way of personal fulfillment.

We are so concerned about "who we are" and how we will be perceived, our self image and the image we project to others, how we are taught to be and what we think we should be, that we often get confused about who is the "who" behind it all.

Within each of us is a Higher Power that is a part of God. That Higher Power is always looking out for us and it is here to help us be what we should be, an internal code that can guide us to true fulfillment, our soul's purpose, what we were put here -- or chose to be here -- to become.

Having all the resources of God at its disposal, including all the guides and angels at its disposal, this God-self, or Goddess within, is able to create miracles. This totally positive power is always available to help you. Every miracle that has ever occurred is due to the God self, that piece of God, that resides within each of us. It is the source of absolute protection, healing and guidance.

Teamed with the subconscious mind, which connects us to the field of all human activity, thought, belief and what we make into reality, we are able to perform miracles in our daily lives. We can change virtually every area of our daily life.

But, first, you must access it, clear away the clutter and let your individual light shine.

Personal empowerment, finding the authentic self, entails that we cultivate and develop our selves first.

Those who are quick to judge others call this selfishness. And if we build ourselves up at the expense of others, that is a true statement. But there is a very real difference between authentic caring for the self and being overly preoccupied with "selfish" concerns.

The difference is that the authentic self knows that we are more than just the "things" around us and that no "thing" can create wholeness. The authentic self knows that this body we inhabit now is not our "self," that the authentic self is eternal.

The authentic self knows that until we can find contentment within, no amount of outside blessings will satiate our want. The authentic self is the essence, what we would want our children to carry forward. The "self" that is who we truly are. It is our gold.

What we call "self" when used "selfishly" is the ego. It is a construct, a ghost, a facade, a fake. It is "self importance" and thinks that it is all there is to life and the world. In fact, the ego's self is only a lowly planet revolving around the true, authentic self, the sun within. The ego self reflects the light, often distorted, of the true self, the limitless, eternal God-self.

As a result, the ego self suffers, neurotic suffering, while the authentic self is the source of healing.

But until we can burn away the ego from dazzling our attention away from the authentic self, the masquerading ego self lights up our skies, obscuring the true landscape of being.

How do we access the true self?

Melody Beattie has written truly remarkable books -- including "The Language of Letting Go" (Hazelden Foundation; Center City, MN; 1990) and "Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Your Self" (Walker & Co.; New York; 1989) -- on how to develop the self, to empower the self, to love the self, so that an individual's wellspring does not run dry. (See also: "Boundaries and Relationships: Knowing, Protecting and Enjoying the Self" by Charles L. Whitfield, M.D.; Health Communications Inc.; Deerfield Beach, Fla.; 1993).

We must find love to find our selves. Find happiness. Find joy. Be centered in it, grounded in it, find the inexhaustible source of love, compassion and caring -- the joy and freedom of it.

For the authentic self to emerge, one must love oneself, honor oneself, show compassion and forgiveness for oneself. The key to providing a safe place for that love, one first must establish boundaries. In writing of boundaries, Beattie poses questions that any self-respecting person (in the true sense of the word) must ask. Call it a credo for living.

Boundaries emerge from deep within.

They are connected to letting go of guilt and shame, and to changing our beliefs about what we deserve. As our thinking about this becomes clearer, so will our boundaries.

Boundaries are also connected to a Higher Timing than our own.

We'll set a limit when we're ready, and not a moment before. So will others.

There's something magical about reaching that point of becoming ready to set a limit.

We know we mean what we say; others take us seriously too.

Things change, not because we're controlling others, but because we've changed.

In setting boundaries, you are looking out after your needs. You must put your needs first.

What do you need to do to take care of yourself? Listen to that voice inside.

What makes you angry? What have you had enough of? What don't you trust? What doesn't feel right?

What do you want? Need?

What don't you want and need?

Self-care never leads away from our highest good; it leads toward it.

Learn to nurture that voice inside.

Trust yourself. Listen to your guides, what the angels have to say. Heed their instruction.

Your guides are ever-present. Listen to, trust, and nurture the ability to heed their wisdom.

Remember, your Higher Power can create miracles. When looking at what must be done for the "self," don't fall into the trap of self-pity. Remember this, always: Now is perfect.

This time, right now, is the perfect time in your life. For what? For anything.

There is nothing you can do about the past. The past is gone. Feeling guilty about the past is wasted energy. Learn from the past, yes. And if you hurt from events in the past, you obviously were affected by those events. But, there is no use in focusing on what "could'a, should'a" been done.

A beautiful Sanksrit proverb says it quite well:

Look to the day,
For it is life,
The very life of life.
In its very brief course lie all
The realities and verities of existence,
The bliss of growth,
The splendor of action,
The glory of power --
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today, well lived,
Makes every yesterday a dream
of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.
-- Sanskrit Proverb

Now is perfect.

How can that be?

Because we cannot do anything about the past, but we can do anything in the present. And the present will set the course of all of our futures.

Remember: God gives you what you need. It may not be what you want. But, it's what you need, at any moment.

Remember: Consider the sparrows in the field. He gives us what we need according to our natures.

We are precisely where we are because of the choices we have made in the past.

No matter your station in life, your education, training, job status . . . you are a child of God and God has given you everything you need to make you the maximum you. We each have a soul's purpose on this Earth. It is up to us individually to find the thread of light that leads to our highest and best ability of being.

Does that mean wealth? Riches? Fame? Maybe. Maybe not. Only you can answer that.

It could be your life's purpose is to have a beautiful child or make music, teach generations of children their ABCs, or, even, yes, die a valuable death.

We live out the contracts that we pledge before our births to learn the lessons on Earth that our souls need. If that entails riches, so be it. Poverty, so be it. If Jesus, for example, could heal all the sick, why didn't He?

Why did He say the poor will always be with us?

An incident in the life of the founder of Reiki, Sensei ("sensei" means "teacher" in Japanese) Mikao Usui illustrates this principle. After Sensei Usui discovered Reiki from a 2,500-year-old Sanskrit document while studying in a Zen Buddhist temple in Japan, he went out into the world to use it.

Moving to the slums of Kyoto, he lived for several years in the town's beggars' quarters, where the outcasts of society lived, suffering from deformities, missing limbs and other afflictions.

After healing each person, he asked them to go and start a new life. But, he found the same faces still returning to the slums, begging; they refused to take honest work. Many were angry because with their diseases healed they could no longer make their way as beggars and would have to work.

Sometimes, it's better to teach someone to fish than to give a fish.

We each have our lot in life, our cross to bear. But God gave us the way out.

Didn't He say the Kingdom of God was within us?

Each of the great-souled persons who have walked this Earth as guiding lights has told us, throughout time, in every major religion: We are children of God, children of Light, the Kingdom of God is within each one of us.

We choose our lives before we are born. But we also have free will. We can choose to fulfill that contract of learning the lessons of life we chose to learn or we can reject it.

If we reject it, the lessons we are meant to learn will come again and again until we get it right.

Haven't you seen this in your own life?

If you have a problem with handling money, doesn't it keep happening until you get it right?

If you have a problem choosing the wrong type of person for dating, doesn't it keep happening until you get it right?

Life is like that. We live and we learn or we keep on getting it wrong, over and over again.

In the self-help program of Alcoholics Anonymous, it is drummed into participants that they were suffering from "the insanity of alcohol." That "insanity" is defined as: "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

In the case of the alcoholic, it's the belief that he or she can keep on drinking and won't get drunk, won't get embarrassed, won't get into trouble, won't mess up his or her life. But, it keeps happening over and over again. In Buddhist thought, we are born here to repeat endless cycles of karma -- to be reincarnated over and over again -- until we "get it right."

Thus, we have a soul's purpose here, but we also have free will. To overcome the "insanity" of karma, if you will, we have to break through the illusion of living. That's perceiving enlightenment, what is "really real" from all the diversions and distractions all around us.

So, how do you find the "really real?"

The answer is where it has always been all along: inside each one of us.

In recent years, much has been written about angels -- and, indeed, there are TV shows and movies abounding with characters playing them.

Angels, guides, power animals, call them what you will, but they are "really real."

You cannot see the wind, but you feel it, right?

You cannot see the rays of the sun except as they are reflected by all around you (and get burned from being exposed too long!), but they are real.

You cannot hear TV or radio broadcasts unless you have a radio to receive those waves.

So it is with the power of the angels, guides and power animals.

The Kingdom of God is a very populated place.

Doreen Virtue, in her book "Divine Prescriptions: Using Your Sixth Sense -- Spiritual Solutions for You and Your Loved Ones" (Renaissance Books; Los Angeles; 2000) gives a beautiful set of guidelines for heeding your angels.

And angels aren't there only during "emergencies."

"In the spring of 1999," she writes, "I appeared on a radio program to discuss how the angels desire to help us in every facet of our lives.

"'Yes, everything except the trivial stuff,' the radio show host commented matter-of-factly.

"'Actually, they want to help us with everything,' I emphasized, 'and that definitely includes the so-called trivial stuff. The angels say that the size of the problem doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you are asking for, whether it's a life- and-death miracle or a small favor, whether you're asking for a healing from addiction or for a convenient parking space. To the angels, all that's important is that you receive the support you need with all your difficulties, so that you can be freed of other concerns to work on fulfilling your life's mission.'"

In fact, we are never alone.

Engraved in stone over his front door in Switzerland, famed psychologist Carl Jung, pioneer theorist of the mass unconscious mind linking every human, was carved: Vocatus ataque non vocatus, Deus aderit ("Called or not called, God will be there").

Our highest guides and many departed loved ones are always with us to guide us if only we will heed them, develop our "sixth sense," heed our intuition, listen to the voice within us.

A favorite Bible verse regards Elijah and the "still, small voice."

Do you remember it? In I Kings 19; 4-12, Elijah fled into the wilderness fearing for his life and an angel came and fed him. And he was told to await the coming of the Lord at Mount Horeb. "And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice . . . ."

The lesson here is that we expect God or a Mighty Being to be "mighty" in physical things, in creating chaos, terror, destruction. But, we should know that the greatest power is more subtle and dramatic at the same time. Life is just as powerful when a field of flowers blooms as when a frost withers a crop in winter. Neither makes much noise. But both are dramatic and powerful. So it is with the "still, small voice."

We must heed that subtle voice to empower ourselves.

Within the problems and restrictions in everyone's life are the solutions, the lessons to be learned. Spiritual growth requires being able to look squarely at those lessons, areas that are not working, that are out of balance and realize that these problems are there because a lesson must be learned.

As you listen to that "still, small voice" to face these lessons, fears, limitations, you will allow a healing to take place. By facing them and feeling the emotions associated with them and freeing them, your life will change in ways that are healthy and beneficial. By "passing through" the pain, you will find liberation. Restrictions that previously seemed impossible will simply melt away. That's because, reality is within you. How you perceive your life is the only "restriction" or "challenge" or "liberation" that matters to you, your authentic self.

Face your fears. Go through them. Be free. By healing yourself you are freeing your "self" to heal the world.