H,
We are sometimes fooled into believing that the material universe is the most impending thing.  It is the one we deal with immediately we wake up. There is nothing more urgent than a hungry stomach. The solutions to the lack of basic needs, food-shelter-clothing, may pre-occupy all our lives and we may simply miss the inside.
I must note here that this is not a strike against material reality. There is no need to deny that there is a place for that. We live in a world that keeps that in our face. We have families, friends and neighbors that deserve the luxury of options and the opportunity to live full lives on every level. Every human being is deserving of ordinary and absolute dignity.
Yet, there is more. This is not all there is. No matter the material reality in front of us there is always the sea inside us. This sea may be affected by what the world looks like, and, to be honest, it frequently is, but it is also the superior garden we must tend to in order to access the full human being we were created to be. The spiritual reality that is sometimes grit, other times bravery, always wisdom and frequently empathy and compassion. The material reality makes us thirsty but only the spiritual reality can make us truly full and satisfied.