Archive for the 'Happiness' category
Joy of being
March 30, 2007 2:06 pm
The joy of being arises in this present moment when you realize that everything you are experiencing is perfect. Nothing needs to change - the joy is in appreciation of what is. It doesn’t mean you don’t act, rather when you do act it is more of a dance with what is, rather than craving to get somewhere or something new. This dance is your true self. How do you know if you are acting from your true self? Eckhart Tolle explains:
The main trap to avoid is to confuse content and essence. The ancient dictum “know thyself†points towards essence, your true identity. Your name, nationality, religion, your opinions, political views, material possessions, likes and dislikes, desires, fears, ambitions, as well as your view of yourself as a success or failure, good or bad – in fact your entire personal history and your thought processes… all that is content. All content is subject to the law of impermanence (as the Buddha already discovered 2600 years ago), and if you try to discover who you are within the dimension of content, you will encounter frustration again and again. Or, as the Buddha put it, you will suffer. You suffer because you derive your sense of identity exclusively from the content of your life. Another word for content is form. That is what the ego is: identification with form. When you stop identifying with form, the ego is no longer in control. So, first realize who you are not (form) and what’s left is who you are. But then there is nothing left, you might say, but this is not so. What’s left is not form, but essence, which we could also call inner space. The space out of which all forms come and into which they disappear. The ancient Chinese philosophers called it the Tao. It is beyond time. It is the eternal, the primordial I am.
Joy of growing
March 29, 2007 7:30 pm
The joy of growing comes out of the thrill and satisfaction of evolving into something greater. If this is a natural joy, then why do we resist change?
Living within our comfort zone is easy. The world around us stays congruent with our beliefs, and we know how to act throughout the day. The only problem is that we are constantly changing. Somewhere I read that every seven years all the cells in our body are different. My body is completely different from the one I had 7 years ago… imagine that! Constant change opens the possibility to grow in new directions.
Joy of creating
March 28, 2007 6:01 pm
You are a creature that likes to create. One trip to the mall, and the obsession in our society is crystal clear.
But you create much more than just objects. You create your belief systems and how you think of the world around you. Together with your neighbors, you create cultures and communities, which leads into creating concepts like governments, money, and other really abstract ideas. Then someone builds a university to hand down these abstract ideas and ways of thinking. You can even create a life lie.
So doesn’t all this creating make us more miserable? No. I believe that when we are creative, we are open to the possibilities of the universe, thus letting go of worries and attempts to protect ourselves. The worrying sets in once we have stopped creating… out of fear of what we will lose. You can’t lose anything when you’re being creative - that’s the magic of it. As Ben Zander states in his book, The Art of Possibility:
A universe of possibility creates a generative and giving state that produces new life, creates new ideas and contributions where the emotions of joy, grace, awe, wholeness, passion and compassion are abundant. We can use language to create categories of meaning that open up new worlds to explore.
Joy of giving
March 27, 2007 10:05 pm
Everything we do is ultimately selfish - we always act in our own best perceived interest. This sounds bad, but hey, it’s true, isn’t it? And it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Eckhart Tolle refers to assisting others as “enlightened selfishness” - when we help others in return for the good feelings that arise.
There is a certain power behind giving, volunteering, helping and mentoring. In the world we live in, we are surrounded by messages that we need to consume to be happy. We are constantly living in lack, trying to get the next best thing. When we give, we are turn this around - to have something to give implies abundance and completeness. It breaks the silly consumer-craving cycle the advertising world perpetuates around us.
I used to volunteer profusely in college - in addition to making me feel good and stroking my ego, it also put things in perspective. It made my problems seem insignificant, and it helped me to let go of a lot of the problems I was holding on to.
Pillars of joy
March 26, 2007 9:18 pm
Prof. Srikumar Rao describes happiness as the joy you feel when you’re watching a sunset. He says, there is nothing you need to change with sunset, and nothing you need to do to obtain the happiness from it. The happiness arises within you in admiration of the moment. This is the joy of being.
Recently, I was journaling and it occurred to me that there are three other pillars where joy naturally arises:
- the joy of giving
- the joy of creating
- the joy of growing
I think these sources of joy are what lead to happy and meaningful lives.
Say cheese
March 25, 2007 9:17 pm
I am quite familiar with the concept that happiness is something within - there is nothing you need from the external world to be happy. If you do need something, then it is probably just your ego craving attention for something which, even if you got, you will eventually lose.
This week’s theme is happiness. And while I may be an amateur, especially compared to the happiness project, I’ll still have fun. If not, I’ll move back to New England and start grumbling again.
