What
is Happiness?
To put it simply, happiness
is you being your Self. Not the
limited self that you pretend
to be most of the time, but the unlimited
Self that you are and have
always been.
This is the Self that is
always present before, during and after
everything else that appears in your experience.
You are the radiant yet changeless background
that allows for everything else to exist.
If that is true, you may
be wondering, why is happiness so hard
to discover and why have there been
so many books written on the topic? The
answer to that is not as simple.
We have spent lots of time
pretending to be anything but unlimited.
In fact, we have become so good at
this pretending to be limited that
we have forgotten that life is just
a game.
We now spend most of our
time reinforcing the illusion that we
have created for ourselves. That leaves
us very little time for inner reflection.
If we would spend more time doing that,
we’d see that it could set us free
from our totally self-imposed and made
up sense of limitation.
We spend a lot of energy
to keep up the illusion that unlimited
Beingness is actually limited to the particular
body-mind that you call yourself. No wonder
we are so exhausted most of the time!
We have unlimited energy
available to us, but instead of using
this energy for good or to discover who
we truly are, we use this energy to convince
ourselves and others around us that we
are limited—that we have personal
problems.
We see our problems as either
simple or impossible.
They are simple when we
allow it to be easy. We then allow our
energy to flow inwards towards self-discovery
and for loving acceptance of what is.
Or our problems are impossible.
We then force our energy to flow outwards.
We fight against the world of our own
creation and try to prove to everyone,
including ourselves, that our world and
its problems are real.
The happiness that is
you is totally independent of what you
have or do not have, yet it improves
your experience of whatever you have or
don’t have. This happiness that is
you is also independent of what you
do or do not do, yet it makes your
experience of whatever you do or don’t
do more enjoyable.
This happiness really is
who you are.
When you are no longer fooled
by the apparent limitations of the world,
you see them as a dream. As an appearancy,
because you know that your very own
Beingness has no limits.
In reality, the only thing
that is, is Beiningness. That is the real,
changeless substance behind everything.
We are infinite beings over
which we have superimposed concepts
of limitations. And we cause ourselves
pain under these limitations because we
accept that they are real – just
because they are opposed to our basic
nature of total freedom.
Actually, everyone moves
to serve you as you live day to day. When
you are in tune and you have a thought,
every atom in the universe moves to
fulfill your thought. And this is
true.
When you’re in harmony,
it is such a wonderful state to be in.
Not because things are coming your way,
but because of the feeling of God-in-operation.
It’s a tremendous feeling. You need
to experience it to know how great it
is. It is such a moving experience when
you’re in tune, in harmony - you
see God everywhere!
When we get in tune,
our capacity to love is so extreme that
we love everyone with an extreme intensity
that makes living worth “living!”
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What
is Success?
I’d like to review three
beliefs about success.
The first is our belief
about success itself. Deep down, most
people still evaluate their success by
what others think – not by
what they feel within themselves.
As long as we believe, even
slightly, that our success is determined
externally, we open the door for a paralyzing
fear of failure. We place ourselves at
the effect rather than at the cause of
our experience.
In our society we have set
things up so that very few people win
while everyone else “loses.”
As long as this definition of success
and failure dominant in our culture, blame,
conflict and irresponsibility will continue.
But when we change this
foundational belief at our heart level,
we gain back the freedom to take responsibility
for our own experience. We open a
window of opportunity to live a winning
life.
The second belief is our
basic ideals about leadership. Today’s
political, social, business and educational
leaders live under the constant spotlights
of our media. The things we see are not
good. We are teaching ourselves and our
children that our leaders are not to be
trusted.
The simple truth is that
every one of us is a leader. In
every moment, we have the opportunity
to decide what is next for us. Making
decisions is the essence of leadership.
We should not think of leadership
as a dishonest, power-hungry person, but
we should replace it with an acceptance
that the gift of personal leadership is
our most basic birthright.
When we do this, we then
rediscover that we can truly make a
difference.
The third belief concerns
our foundational understanding of teams.
Even though most of us love the idea of
being part of a team, we often use the
team concept to separate rather than connect.
When we have more consideration
for others, we begin to honor differences
instead of fearing them.
As we become unconditional
team players, we realize that our toughest
competitors are often our most empowering
teammates. And that their competition
helps to bring out the very best in us!
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