We always want someone else to change so that we will feel good. But has it ever struck you that even if your wife changes or your husband changes, what does that do to you? You’re just as vulnerable as before; you’re just as idiotic as before; you’re just as asleep as before. You are the one who needs to change, who needs to take medicine. You keep insisting, “I feel good because the world is right.” Wrong! The world is right because I feel good. That’s what all the mystics are saying.
-
A little guidance goes a long way on the road to liberation.
Free
If you find yourself on the spiritual journey, then you know from experience the road is often unclear and the directions are vague. These Shortcuts are designed to help you find your way more effectively. Subscribers receive one Shortcut via email each week. Simply enter your email address below to receive your first Shortcut.
-
The mystics also say, inconsistently, that there is no I.
Evan’s last blog post..Leave as Soon as You Can
You are absolutely responsible for your own happiness.
Jarrod – WarriorDevelopment’s last blog post..Living your Passion
@Evan They do say there is no I, and it is a bit inconsistent. Too bad. Because that’s the real key.
@Jarrod Nice to have your comment. Welcome! You know, in one sense, I tend to agree with you. There is very little “happiness” that has ever come at from the outside world. It would appear that, for the most part, I’m not going to be happy unless I “do” something about it. The real question, though, is what to do? As you can guess, I have some ideas.
Do we really want people who can be happy wherever/whatever?
Is this different to crass insensitivity?
Perhaps for warrior development – cheerfully slicing people’s heads off. Not sure I regard this as desirable though.
Evan’s last blog post..Leave as Soon as You Can
@Evan – why would you not want to be happy? This doesn’t mean dopey or bliss cadet. True happiness arises deep within and is unshaken by events of the world. Even for a warrior. The Bhagavad Gita goes into that.
Its very simple really. The world is vibration, kinetic energy. When we drop the barriers, we can experience that directly. And it is bliss. Without end.
As to the “I”, language sometimes fails. First there is an I who experiences happiness. Then there is no I, only an apparent I. That which experiences happiness is not the “I”. Then the I returns but now as the cosmic I, the I that is all I’s. And ears
@Jarrod – yes responsible. But in a way just to experience what is. Not to oblige ourselves to be happy. More to allow it.
Davidya’s last blog post..The Rapture
Great quote, by the way Tom (laughs)
Davidya’s last blog post..The Rapture
Davidya, even I’m finding this hard to believe I am saying this! Because I tend to be in the I don’t know state more often than other feeling/knowing states.
But I really like not obliging oneself to be happy, allowing it instead. It does seem a burden one places on oneself to be responsible for making ‘me’ happy. Or putting the burden elsewhwere. Both things it also seems I’ve attempted over and over without lasting success.
Tom, it sounds very much like those affirmations I struggled over several days ago, doesn’t it? Only this time with at least a settled attitude.
@Evan Personally, I would love to see people always happy. Just because you are happy doesn’t make you indifferent. Misery is not required to care. Love is all you really need. If you love, you love. The joy springs from the love. The love sends you out into the world to do what your thing is to do.
@Davidya I really like de Mello. Cool dude.
@Barbara No need to try to be happy. You can’t make yourself happy. instead, you can let go of the mental blocks to the happiness that you already are. That’s all you “need” to do. But happy is a result, not a goal, nor something you need to do. Just let it happen.
My take on this quote is that de Mello is simply pointing us away from where we are usually looking: outside of us. We look outside to see what is wrong. We look outside to find happiness. But instead, we find what is “wrong” inside of us. It is simply our mistaken thoughts. Our beliefs in what isn’t true. All de Mello is doing is changing your focus. Kind of like Jesus (de Mello was a Jesuit, by the way): why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye when you don’t see the log in your own eye. Same message! Namaste everyone.
You really think it is good to be happy when confronted by injustice and awful suffering?
Evan’s last blog post..Aging Well
@Evan Of course! Where is it written that one must be sad to deal with injustice? The best way to deal with injustice to be internally at peace. Undivided. Unconflicted. If you come from a place of Oneness with everything, a place where you see the Truth about the victim and perpetrator of injustice, then you can do more to make a difference. It doesn’t take anger and outrage to heal the world, it takes love.
Many a Jesus scholar has labeled Jesus as a social revolutionary, someone who fought injustice with radical ideas. I cannot see Jesus in anyway but happy, supremely happy, peaceful. And in the face of utter horror, hanging from a cross, he had such peace and love for others that he forgave his tormentors. “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”
The Buddha the same. In the Buddhist “scriptures” you find statement after statement that the “Enlightened One” (a Buddha) experiences nothing but joy, no matter what.
Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying that one will not feel the pain, feel the hurt, feel the suffering. But if you have awakened to the truth, you are a deep, limitless space that can absorb anything. And have it never dent your joy and love. Limitless love. Able to handle the most outrageous suffering. Not in denial. But in acceptance, understanding, peace.
@Evan – in what way does feeling guilty help injustice or suffering? You cannot solve a problem from the level of the problem. Getting clear and connecting with the inner self brings you greater creativity and energy. It also happens to bring with it increasing happiness.
This is nothing to do with the state of the world. It is happiness within, an inner power that is not overshadowed by the dramas of the world. From that place, one is much more effective and much better able to rise above issues and find solutions.
It’s a win win choice.
Its also worthwhile noting that what you put your attention on grows stronger, so if you dwell on injustice and suffering, you are giving it more energy. You are helping keep it real. If you instead focus on solutions, you are helping solve. It’s the difference between anti-war and pro-peace.
True happiness is not the opposite of suffering. True happiness is a direct experience of what is, beyond duality.
Davidya’s last blog post..The Rapture
@TOm – even better put. For some reason, your post didn’t appear when I was by.
@Evan: If you can be unhappy enough to remove another’s unhappiness more power to you. I have found this not to be the case though. True compassion must be founded in the realization that all suffering is illusion. This does not preclude our desire to end suffering but rather gives us a more realistic starting point for action.
We can help by pointing the way and being there for the sufferer when they want assistance. Think of it as if a friend was sinking in quicksand; do you jump in to save her or do you stand on solid, unshakable ground and throw out a lifeline? It is obvious from your posts that you truly care about people and that fact alone will lead you to your answer of how to best put your compassion to use. Never, never stop caring. It has been my realization of late that our thoughts may be where we live but our hearts are who we are and you my friend seem to have a big heart. Namaste…….
Hi Eric,
If suffering is an illusion. Then compassion and the desire to end suffering is delusory. I don’t find this to be the case.
In your example there’s no point throwing a rope if the quicksand doesn’t exist.
My feeling is thay you too have a caring heart. I think we need to build on this basis. But that for me means that compassion and suffering are real.
Evan’s last blog post..Making Money From Blogging