Question: Do we all have the ability to develop our intuition?

Answer: Everyone, to a greater or lesser degree, is psychic. Some people are more sensitive and responsive to Nature and to the world and people around them. It is good to have the desire to help people—that’s compassion. But before you help others, you have to put the work into helping and strengthening yourself. Do it today; don’t focus on tomorrow. Learn to “let it go” before giving others the same advice. People will know whether or not you speak from experience. Without a lived experience, your words won’t carry meaning, and the feeling won’t go through you. When you live through an experience and it changes you, take a step back. Can you see the big picture? When a flower blooms in the summer, can you say for sure what will happen to it the following winter? No, you have to wait and see.

In the same way, everyone is born into this life with a “program.” Suppose it is part of your script to have diabetes, heart disease, bad relationships, and to be in a wheelchair from a car accident at age 40. This sounds like a pretty miserable life, right? Suppose though, that all of this hardship made you hopeless, and all this misery led you to a spiritual path, and you began to change, really change. Then, it would be possible for all these difficult situations to begin to disappear. But only on one condition—that you accumulate enough good—before that accident at age 40—to change your fate. This is possible. On the spiritual journey, there is a beginning, but no end. You can go as fast as you want—that’s why some people change quickly; these people really want to change their fate, and God helps them. You might still have the accident, but instead of being in a wheelchair for the rest of your life, you might only break a leg. Fate can change, but this kind of change can only happen when you don’t ask. Only God, in his unconditional love, can bring about this kind of change.

Some people who are very attuned to the spiritual world can actually see this type of change occurring in a person’s life, because there are no limits and no boundaries in the spiritual world. But some things we never know. You may be asking: If some things will never change, why bother to put so much effort into spiritual cultivation? The reason is that nothing is impossible. There is a Chinese saying that if you have this kind of faith, then even heaven cries for you. This kind of faith can change your destiny.

You must understand though, that some things in life cannot be changed. They are meant to teach us the lessons that we need to learn in this lifetime. Do you ever wonder why some very good people have to suffer untold hardships? Hardships do not happen to punish us; they are opportunities to learn lessons that our souls need to learn on the journey. If we do not learn them through the hardships in this lifetime, they will present themselves—maybe in a different form—in another lifetime. So, take advantage of every opportunity for growth. Don’t pity yourself and do nothing; see every situation and every suffering as a chance to learn a deep lesson—a lesson that your soul needs in order to grow.