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#2968 - Friday, October 26, 2007 - Editor: Jerry Katz
Nondual Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Perfection
To seek to be to another
As sunlight and water
To a flower
As humus and air
Asking no returns
Making no demands
Encouraging no direction
Asking only the privilege
Of helping it to blossom.
~ ~ ~
Visit http://www.goodlife.org/glc_journal1_coperthwaiteforbes.html for more poems by Bill Coperthwaite and photos by Peter Forbes
The Path of Unconditional
Happiness
Excerpt from The
Untethered Soul, by Michael A. Singer
The highest spiritual path is
life itself. If you know how to live daily life, it all becomes a
liberating experience. But first you have to approach life
properly, or it can be very confusing. To begin with, you have to
realize that you really only have one choice in this life, and
it's not about your career, whom you want to marry, or whether
you want to seek God. People tend to burden themselves with so
many choices. But, in the end, you can throw it all away and just
make one basic, underlying decision: Do you want to be happy, or
do you not want to be happy? It's really that simple. Once you
make that choice, your path through life becomes totally clear.
Most people don't dare give themselves that choice because they
think it's not under their control. Someone might say,
"Well, of course I want to be happy, but my wife left
me." In other words, they want to be happy, but not if their
wife leaves them. But that wasn't the question. The question was,
very simply, "Do you want to be happy or not?" If you
keep it that simple, you will see that it really is under your
control. It's just that you have a deep-seated set of preferences
that gets in the way.
Let's say you've been lost and
without food for days, and you finally find your way to a house.
You can hardly make it to the doorstep, but you manage to pull
yourself up and knock on the door. Somebody opens the door, looks
at you and says, "Oh my God! You poor thing! Do you want
something to eat? What would you like?" Now the truth is,
you really don't care what they give you. You don't even want to
think about it. You just utter the word "food." And
because you really mean it when you say you need food, it no
longer has anything to do with your mental preferences. The same
goes for the question about happiness. The question is simply
"Do you want to be happy?" If the answer is really yes,
then say it without qualifying it. After all, what the question
really means is "Do you want to be happy from this point
forward for the rest of your life, regardless of what
happens?"
Now, if you say yes, it might happen that your wife leaves you,
or your husband dies, or the stock marker crashes, or your car
breaks down on an open highway at night. Those things might
happen between now and the end of your life. But if you want to
walk the highest spiritual path, then when you answer yes to that
simple question, you must really mean it. There are no ifs, ands,
or buts about it. It's not a question of whether your happiness
is under your control. Of course it's under your control. It's
just that you don't really mean it when you say you're willing to
stay happy. You want to qualify it. You want to say that as long
as this doesn't happen, or as long as that does happen, then
you're willing to be happy. That's why it seems like it is out of
your control. Any condition you create will limit your happiness.
You simply aren't going to be able to control things and keep
them the way you want them.
You have to give an unconditional answer. If you decide that
you're going to be happy from now on for the rest of your life,
you will not only be happy, you will become enlightened.
Unconditional happiness is the highest technique there is. You
don't have to learn Sanskrit or read any scriptures. You don't
have to renounce the world. You just have to really mean it when
you say that you choose to be happy. And you have to mean it
regardless of what happens. This is truly a spiritual path, and
it is as direct and sure a path to Awakening as could possibly
exist.
Once you decide you want to be unconditionally happy, something
inevitably will happen that challenges you. This test of your
commitment is exactly what stimulates spiritual growth. In fact,
it is the unconditional aspect of your commitment that makes this
the highest path. It's so simple. You just have to decide whether
or not you will break your vow. When everything is going well,
it's easy to be happy. But the moment something difficult
happens, it's not so easy. You tend to find yourself saying,
"But I didn't know this was going to happen. I didn't think
I'd miss my flight. I didn't think Sally would show up at the
party wearing the same dress that I had on. I didn't think that
somebody would dent my brand-new car one hour after I got
it." Are you really willing to break your vow of happiness
because these events took place?
Billions of things could happen that you haven't even thought of
yet. The question is not whether they will happen. Things are
going to happen. The real question is whether you want to be
happy regardless of what happens. The purpose of your life is to
enjoy and learn from your experiences. You were not put on Earth
to suffer. You're not helping anybody by being miserable.
Regardless of your philosophical beliefs, the fact remains that
you were born and you are going to die. During the time in
between, you get to choose whether or not you want to enjoy the
experience. Events don't determine whether or not you're going to
be happy. They're just events. You determine whether or not
you're going to be happy. You can be happy just to be alive. You
can be happy having all these things happen to you, and then be
happy to die. If you can live this way, your heart will be so
open and your Spirit will be so free, that you will soar up to
the heavens.
This path leads you to absolute transcendence because any part of
your being that would add a condition to your commitment to
happiness has got to go. If you want to be happy, you have to let
go of the part of you that wants to create melodrama. This is the
part that thinks there's a reason not to be happy. You have to
transcend the personal, and as you do, you will naturally awaken
to the higher aspects of your being.
In the end, enjoying life's experiences is the only rational
thing to do. You're sitting on a planet spinning around in the
middle of absolutely nowhere. Go ahead, take a look at reality.
You're floating in empty space in a universe that goes on
forever. If you have to be here, at least be happy and enjoy the
experience. You're going to die anyway. Things are going happen
anyway. Why shouldn't you be happy? You gain nothing by being
bothered by life's events. It doesn't change the world; you just
suffer. There's always going to be something that can bother you,
if you let it.
This choice to enjoy life will lead you through your spiritual
journey. In truth, it is itself a spiritual teacher. Committing
yourself to unconditional happiness will teach you every single
there is to learn about yourself, about others, and about the
nature of life. You will learn all about your mind, your heart,
and your will. But you have to mean it when you say that you'll
be happy for the rest of your life. Every time a part of you
begins to get unhappy let it go. Work with it. Use affirmations,
or do whatever you need to do to stay open. If you are committed,
nothing can stop you. No matter what happens, you can chose to
enjoy the experience. If they starve you and put you in solitary
confinement, just have fun being like Gandhi. No matter what
happens, just enjoy the life that comes to you.
As difficult as that sounds, what's the benefit of not doing it?
If you're totally innocent and they lock you up, you might as
well have fun. What good does it do to not have fun? It doesn't
change anything. In the end, if you stay happy, you win. Make
that your game, and just stay happy no matter what.
About Michael
Michael A. Singer received a
master's degree in economics from the University of Florida in
1971. During his doctoral work, he had a deep inner awakening and
went into seclusion to focus on yoga and meditation. In 1975, he
founded Temple of the Universe, a now long-established yoga and
meditation center where people of any religion or set of beliefs
can come together to experience inner peace. Through the years,
Singer has made major contributions in the areas of business, the
arts, education, healthcare, and environmental protection. He has
previously authored two books on the integration of Eastern and
Western philosophy: The Search for Truth and Three
Essays on Universal Law: Karma, Will and Love.
Website
http://www.untetheredsoul.com