“You are placed on this earth.  You’re not going to last for billions of years.  This story unfolds from almost nothing.  One part unfolds, then another and another.  It does a little dance of unfolding, and then it folds back up into that nothing. “From that nothing to the unfolding to the folding back again is your existence, your story.  Not somebody else’s story or their story for you as drafted by them, but your story as drafted by you. “Some people say, ‘Destiny is pre-written; whatever is written on each one of those pages is already written.’  So then, why pray?  Whose mind are you trying to change?  And if you pray and you think it works, then you have to change the definition of destiny.  It’s not prewritten; it can be influenced.

“Other people say, ‘I am responsible for unfolding every bit.  I am the one who writes everything.’  How about a happy medium?  The fact that each part of the story is going to unfold is destiny, but there’s nothing written on the pages.  The paper feeder is automatic.  You write the story.  What would you like to write? “What should your story be like?  Should it be about suffering, pain, anger, and a list of all the things you don’t have?  Or should it be a really interesting story?  The adventure. “If you choose to change the story, I’m here to help and I can help.  I’ve helped a lot of people.  But the most important thing is that there is a lot of hope.  If you really understand that you can change the story, there’s a tremendous amount of hope—hope that this life can be fulfilled every single day.  And that is a mighty nice hope to have. “And not only hope, but tools to make it real.” —Prem Rawat