After having read books on Ego, Yoga, Mysticism, Karma, Metaphysics and more, I've come up with a mental model of what the common denominator in all these more or less "spiritual" concepts.

The fundamental take away is that we cannot control our outcomes.

We have the choice to point our consciousness towards what we truly want. Then pour that intention into the world of infinite possibilities, which starts manifesting possible pathways to this outcome.

I mentally visualise this as a river

Imagine yourself on a boat floating on a river

If you're not doing anything, the river guides your direction. There is no stillness because water is flowing in all directions.

However, once you've identified a direction you want to go in, you use intentional acts like the rudder of your boat and point it in that direction. The flowing water does it's job and start flowing generally in that direction. Even if it's not obvious that you're making progress, life is doing it's thing to take you through the currents and motions that lead to your desired outcome.

But if your intentions waver, you get impatient or distracted by something new, you lose control over your direction and again you're flowing towards some accidental destination.

And this is the irony.

We change our minds so often and then wonder why we're not getting what we want from life.

• We want a good body but cannot resist the temptation of food.
• We want great relationships but can't accept the rough edges of our counterparts.
• We want to be well informed but want a book to be compressed into 5mins.