When we turn our gaze to the inside, it becomes difficult to locate this familiar sense of self. To overcome that fear we need to feel special in some way.

I belong on this earth in the way that an oak tree does.

Each of us is already special in the sense that nobody has the unique pattern of potentialities that anyone else has.

Time, for example, is intimately connected with the goddess Kali, which partly accounts for her destructive nature. Energy - in Einstein's equation, E=MC2 - is personified in India as Shakti in her various guises.

Day by day, tiny specks of us float away.

The natural wish and impetus to feel oneself to be an individual, to be special, includes standing out more than anyone else.

When we are open to ourselves and our own experience, and therefore, open to the world, then the world can respond.