Find Happiness 15: Why You Should Sit in a Park

“What everyone wants from life is continuous and genuine happiness.”

— Baruch Spinoza

If you are intent on finding happiness, I would suggest that every now and then you go and sit in a park or a farm (or a similar place) where it is reasonably quiet save for the occasional call of birds or animals (as a matter of fact it is Sunday as I write this, and I’m in my backyard; it is very quiet except for the occasional parrot screeching from the tall trees forming a huge, protective umbrella over me).

Why I make this recommendation is because I would like you to notice the process you undergo when you are listening to, say, a bird call.

If you have been following along with my general advice for finding the peace within you, you will understand why I am asking you to perform this simple exercise. In case it is not obvious, the reason is that it is practice for watching your thoughts.

And why should you become skilled at watching your thoughts? Because once you have located the silent witness to your thoughts and have started residing in that motionless, peaceful place, watching a thought is like listening to a bird call. You are there, the thought arises, it stays there for a while and then goes away. A thought is a sort of "brain-generated bird call".

Let’s get back to the park scenario. You are sitting there and things are fairly quiet. Then the bird call arises; it continues for a while, then it stops. And you have been listening to it all the while. You were listening, it came, and it died down. And you were there after it was over. See how it’s practice for watching your thoughts?

If you want to get the hang of it right now, listen to this audio, in which you’ll hear the cry of a peacock several times, with quietude in between (click the right arrow to start it):

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To tie this into what I have said before, what you have to do is:

1. Locate the peace beyond your mind by sitting in a quiet place and finding out who is aware of your thoughts. That is the basic, peaceful witness, the real you.
2. During the rest of the day identify with that peaceful witness and let your thoughts come and go, translating them into action whenever you feel the necessity and not out of any compulsion.

Let me again assure you that I am saying all this from first-hand experience. If I can do it, so can you.

Good luck, get to it!

To your peaceful, happy existence,

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