Is it possible to look past the external world and see the light in truth we are and all others are? is it possible in the seeming chaos of the world to stay connected to the divine light we are in truth? to move through just what the 5 senses experience and stay awake, connected and mindful of the presence of the 6th sense in each of us? the external world a playground offering delights and excitements that feel good.. yet hold all the trappings of discontent and lack. creating a relationship with oneself that becomes a center that is unfaltering to our own capacity of real happiness, true joy. the strength of the ego mind and it's will seems daunting. the very notion that what we see or want in our lives to makes us happy: people, places, the right career, the house, the car, the status, the power, the money is logical in the outer world.. and EVERYONE else is doing it. each person priding themselves on what they have, what they have that is different from others... these ideas are based in ego pride and are not real happiness. for if they were REAL happiness and love why would we need any of it?
the easiest example is romantic love. when someone sees another person and without knowing them decides that there is something so attractive about that person they want to "be" with them and fall in love. deciding that they must have this person and their love they become whatever is seen as necessary to obtain this desired person. however, we only have so much energy and pretending to be something we are not fully in truth to get the attachment of our desires, in time falls away... all the other parts of oneself begin to seep through. the ego mind and will grows angry if it doesn't get what it needs to feel happy and loved, and it begins to attack the very precious love it desired so completely.
i see this all the time and i have done this.. i have been living in a state of being that i felt a void somewhere inside myself and not knowing it was searching for my happiness outside of myself, placing demands on others and circumstances to be a certain way so that i could stay in a state of being that i "felt" happy. when in truth the happiness i have been searching for is i want the void in me to be healed so that i don't need anything or anyone to be a certain way for my happiness. my example recently to a friend is this.. a flower doesn't bloom with its color and fragrance and if it isn't adored for it's beauty decide "that's it, i've had enough of giving away my beauty for free and it not being appreciated so i will no longer blossom and be a flower" nor does the sun shine down on us and if not given attention for it's beauty and blessings decide "no more! i won't give of myself if you aren't appreciating me the way i deserve" so why as humans do we display this behavior if we are truly being the happiness and love we are in truth?
if we are really seeking happiness and love we must venture within, likely to painful uncharted territory to begin letting go of the idea that we are not already connected to everything and that we are whole in truth and we are light and love and if we become the sun, the flower we are in truth life becomes a symphony of being love and happiness in every moment with everyone. easier said than done. because there is something still so gratifying to dislike and judge others and ourselves.. what would we do without this identity... oh right! we would just be happy.
The Eye Of The Needle
What can one do to attain happiness? There is nothing you or anyone else can do. Why? For the simple reason that you are already happy right now. So how can you acquire what you already have? If that is so, why do you not experience this happiness which is already yours? because your mind is creating unhappiness all the time. Drop this unhappiness of your mind and the happiness that has always been yours will instantly surface. How does one drop unhappiness? Find out what is causing it and look at the cause unflinchingly. It will automatically drop.
Now if you look carefully, you will see that there is one thing and only one thing that causes unhappiness. The name of the thing is Attachment. What is attachment? An emotional state of clinging caused by the belief that without some particular thing or some person you cannot be happy. An emotional state of clinging is composed of two elements, one positive and the other negative. The positive element is the flash of pleasure and excitement, the thrill that you experience when you get what you are attached to. The negative element is the sense of threat and tension that always accompanies the attachment. Think of someone gobbling up food in a concentration camp; with one hand he brings the food to his mouth, with the other hand he protects it from neighbors who will grab it from him the moment he lowers his guard. There you have the perfect image of the attached person. So an attachment by its very nature makes you vulnerable to emotional turmoil and is always threatening to shatter your peace. So how can you expect an attached person to enter that ocean of happiness called the kingdom of God? As well expect a camel to pass through the eye of a needle?
Now the tragedy of an attachment is that if its object is not attained it causes unhappiness. But if it is attained, it does not cause happiness--it merely causes a flash of pleasure followed by weariness; and it is always accompanied, of course, by the anxiety that you may lose the object of your attachment. You will say, "Can't i keep just one attachment?" Of course. You can keep as many as you want. But for each attachment you pay a price in lost happiness. Think of this: The nature of attachments is such, that even if you satisfy many of them in the course of a single day, the attachment that was not satisfied will prey upon your mind and make you unhappy. There is no way to win the battle of attachments. As well search for water without wetness as for an attachment without happiness. No one has ever lived who has come up with a formula for keeping the objects of one's attachments without struggle, anxiety, fear and, sooner or later, defeat.
There is only one way to win the battle of attachments: Drop them. Contrary to popular belief, dropping attachments is easy. All you have to do is see, but really SEE, the following truths. FIRST TRUTH: You are holding on to a false belief, namely the belief that without this particular person or thing you will not be happy. Take your attachments one at a time and see the falseness of this belief. You may encounter resistance from your heart, but the moment you do see, there will be an immediate emotional result. At that very instant the attachment loses its force. SECOND TRUTH: If you just enjoy things, refusing to hold the false belief that you will not be happy without them, you are spared all the struggle and emotional strain of protecting them and guarding them for yourself. Has it occurred to you that you can keep all the objects of your attachments without giving them up, without renouncing a single one of them and you can enjoy them even more on a nonattachment, a nonclinging basis, because you are peaceful now and relaxed and unthreatened in your enjoyment of them? The THIRD TRUTH and FINAL TRUTH: If you learn to enjoy the scent of a thousand flowers you will not cling to one or suffer when you cannot get it. If you have a thousand favorite dishes, the loss of one will go unnoticed and leave your happiness unimpaired. But it is precisely your attachments that prevent you from developing a wider more varied taste for things and people.
IN the light of these three truths no attachment can survive. But the light must shine uninterruptedly if it is to be effective. Attachments can only thrive in the darkness of illusion. The rich man cannot enter the kingdom of joy not because he wants to be bad but because he chooses to be blind. ~ The Way To Love
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