The name I chose for my first book, Pure One, emerged directly from a powerful spiritual experience I encountered over two decades ago that shattered everything I'd been led to believe up to that point.

I was reading a book about the renowned sage Ramakrishna and felt deeply despondent. I perceived a tremendous chasm between my state of consciousness and his, believing I could never achieve the purity of mind possessed by such a great being. I fixated on the idea that without that purity, enlightenment was impossible. It felt like a vast, insurmountable mountain lay before me.

Then, all of a sudden, waves of energy began flowing through me, and I burst out laughing. A profound sense of knowing washed over me: I was perfect, complete, and whole—and could never be anything else. I laughed at all the angst and anxiety I had spent trying to change myself!

My mind and emotions had not been purified, and they still needed work. Yet, seeing myself from the perspective of God, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that my essential nature is perfect, complete, and whole. I realized I should love myself as God loves me. This knowledge extended outward: the same truth applied to everyone else. We are all made in the perfect image of God.