Day: October 4, 2020

Misconception about happiness is common. We convince ourselves that life will be better if we have a larger home, a nicer car, and a corner office. We tell ourselves we’ll be happier if we are married, or if we are singles, or if we have children, or if we get divorced. We tell ourselves that life will be better once we finish a difficult task at work or perhaps when we change jobs altogether.

As we are constantly shown, the truth is that life is always full of challenges. Happiness doesn’t suddenly, permanently envelop us when we’ve completed a task or cleared an obstacle. At some point, we must admit that these tasks and obstacles are life and decide to be happy despite them.

Is there a solution to this universal problem?

There is, in a single verse in the Bhagavadgita (V.23):

“Only he who can keep in control here itself the pressure mounted by desire and anger can be happy; he is a true yogin.”

This formula for happiness is brief, crisp, and lucid, with no ambiguity. If we learn to govern our passions, we can be happy here and now. Transforming the old core belief system is a must. The difficulty is in the consistent and persistent daily implementation, which often we need support and guidance.

If the eye is clear, our body will be full of light. When our attention is receptive and accepting, everything we see may become an object of meditation, a teaching source.

Even the most difficult and painful feelings and emotions can become teachers and companions for us as we experience them arising in the present.

There is wisdom from the fifteenth-century poet, “When the eyes and ears are open, even the leaves on the trees teach like pages from the scriptures.”

Where shall we place our attention? As we move through the days of our lives, how shall we keep our eyes clear, our hearts open, and our spirits alive and awake in the present moment? If we find ourselves thinking all day about whether or not we are loved, or how we can protect ourselves from danger, or how we can impress others with our skills and achievements, then we are condemned to languish in a prison of our own making.

Where we look and how we see gives birth to the kind of life we will live. If we see the only danger, we live in fear; if we seek what is gentle and true, we will find ourselves on a path of serenity and peace.