Sure, wealth is necessary to live. What is the point of going through life without worldly comforts and living in consequent pain, misery or deprivation? All these make life unhappy. Would you rather spend your life unhappily or happily? I bet I know your answer.

But should the pursuit of wealth be your be-all and end-all? Is that all there is to life?  (Reminder: I am not saying that the pursuit of wealth, aka “material things”, is unimportant and that you should live in a monastery) …

Now pause for a moment and take a deep breath…

I hate to bring this up, but one of these days you will be dying (so will I, if that is any consolation). I hope you have rehearsed that event… I mean you should have imagined what your experience of dying will be like.

Well, have you? If not, do it now (remember, it’s only a rehearsal… there is nothing to fear).

If you had spent your entire life chasing wealth, would you, in your final moments, feel it was a life well spent?? Probably not.

You would say to  yourself, “I am dying…I am going away from all those possessions, as well as my family and friend… what is going to happen to me now?”… why didn’t I think about this moment during my lifetime, why did I spend all my time thinking about acquiring possessions… oh my God, where am I going, what is going to happen to me …. (eternal silence follows)

If during your lifetime you had:

•    made yourself materially comfortable (nice house, transportation, clothes, food, healthcare)
•    enjoyed harmless pleasures of the senses
•    cared for your loved ones: been kind and encouraging to your partners, children, parents and all others whom you had significant interaction with
•    done a lot of good to other living beings (including other animals)
•    come to terms with the meaning of life and of death
•    spent the majority of your life without stress, anxiety and worry,

would you, in your final moments, feel comfortable?? You most probably would.

Clearly the second scenario is preferable, and you cannot wait until your last days to make it happen. You have to start making it happen NOW.

Begin by spending ten minutes a day reading what various happiness and inner peace coaches say, and study more of whosever teaching you find most compatible. Move to another teacher if you do not see results in a few months. Rinse and repeat until you find a path that delivers the outcome you want.

Remember: Happiness is your birthright and is built into you; persevere in your search for it and you will definitely find it, as thousands of others have!

To your success in that,

-

Earlier in my life, I used to waste an inordinate amount of mental energy dealing with what I felt were “bad thoughts” (i.e. thoughts which I felt were “wrong” for me to think). If a “bad thought” happened to pass through my head, I would immediately attempt to get rid of it (to no avail, of course, since we cannot really control what we think). Try as I might, the thought would most often keep returning, almost as if to taunt me, and I would struggle to stop it. This occupied much time which I could have otherwise spent productively.

Also, since I was not successful in getting rid of “bad thoughts,” I decided that I was in a hopeless situation. This invoked worrying about how my life was going to be wasted because of “wrong” thinking, and anxiety about whether I would ever be able to fix the problem. More time frittered away.

To make things worse, my hopelessness created downstream effects of dejection and low self-esteem.

The acute mental distress I thus experienced forced me to look for a solution. After much searching and effort, I came across an enlightened person; the great thing was that he wanted to help me find happiness and was infinitely patient. He would not only solve my problem, he said, but would rebuild my psyche into something akin to a shimmering palace.

In time I learned from him that I am the silent being that is aware of my thoughts and am therefore in a way separate from them. Secondly, he taught me that there are no "good thoughts" and no "bad thoughts"; there are only thoughts. He explained that thoughts are like birds flying across the sky and that I should just watch them; I should not try to chase any of the birds away or capture any of them, just watch them fly by.

It took me time to make this attitude fully my own. However, at a certain point in my transformation, I began to find happiness in my emerging new attitude; I did not want to abandon the attitude because it made me utterly peaceful, and the peace was invincible.

I remember thinking to myself how I had wasted so many years in unnecessary pain and misery. When I thought about it in more depth, though, it struck me that perhaps that distress was necessary for me to find happiness. I had to go through it to want and find a solution. I concluded that I should be grateful for the distress.

I know for a fact that many people are trapped by the notion of “good thoughts” and “bad thoughts.” Usually this notion comes to us in our younger years from outside … most commonly from our parents, teachers or trusted friends. They were certainly well-meaning when they advised us; but unknown to them, they were absolutely wrong in their belief.

Allowing thoughts to pass freely without wanting them to stay or trying to stop them takes courage and time. But the courage is in you and the time is well worth it. Start now, find happiness and make your life more meaningful and productive!

To your permanent happiness,

Most people constantly identify with a “persona” instead of their true selves… and are not even aware that they are doing so. Are you one of them?  I hope not…

What exactly is this "persona"?

The “persona” in this case is how you define “yourself”. Examples are:

“I am the sibling/spouse/child of so-and-so.”
“I am a powerful rich person.”
“I am the owner of ABC Corporation.”
“I am Jane/John Doe.”
“I am a lecturer at the University of ABC.””
“I am an accomplished engineer/lawyer/doctor/teacher/entrepreneur.”
“I am the Assistant Secretary in the Department of ABC.”

It is important to grasp the sense of what is described here.

You identify with one or more of the above personas, i.e., you think that that is who you are. The truth is that these personas merely describe what you have or what you do.

“I am the sibling/spouse/child of so-and-so” describes your relationship to another person.

"“I am a powerful rich person” and “I am the owner of ABC Corporation” talk about the assets you possess.

“I am Jane/John Doe” describes the name which the world attached to you.

“I am a lecturer at the University of ABC”, “I am an accomplished engineer/lawyer/doctor/teacher/entrepreneur” and “I am the Assistant Secretary in the Department of ABC” describe the job you perform.

  Now let us pause for a second to further understand this.

Clearly, when you were about a week old, you did not know about your relationships, you knew of no assets, you did not know what your name was and you were definitely not employed 

Yet you existed!!

As a matter of fact, your mind was pretty much empty. YOU JUST WERE.

Therefore your basic identity has nothing to do with your relationships, assets, name or job. First you were. You had a sense of being. Knowledge of your relationships, assets, your name and your job came later.

The sense of being is who you really are. It is the basic you. It is there even today, buried under a ton of thoughts and identification with personas like the ones listed above.

It is the basic you that is watching all your thoughts and actions. In a way it is outside your thoughts. Since there is nothing in it to disturb or agitate it, it is absolutely peaceful.

To locate the long-forgotten basic you, the next time a thought occurs, find the answer to the question, “To whom did that thought occur?” The answer is the basic you. If you want some free help doing this, take my email course.

So why try to be something you are not? Stop trying to be a persona, get back to being the basic you and start experiencing life yourself… instead of a persona experiencing it!

.

Being happy all the time is very much a matter of habit. If you don’t have the habit, it is easy to create it.

Let us first define “being happy”.

You are unhappy, generally speaking, when you do not have something that you wished you had. Want-related thoughts make you restless and dissatisfied.

But suppose it is the person across the street who is disturbed by a want. You would not be restless and dissatisfied because it is not you who has the want.

Well, surprise: all these years when you were disturbed by wants, it wasn’t “you” who had the wants.

It was your mind that had the wants. You are merely aware of your mind. You are a still, motionless witness to it. The mind is an object, and you are watching it.

But do not take my word for it, verify this arrangement for yourself. The next time a thought strikes you, try and put your finger on who was aware of the thought. Once you have located that “who”, dwell in the “who” for a while. Rinse and repeat; you will realize that this “who” is absolutely still and peaceful, and is watching your thoughts like a person in a theater watching a movie (your mind is the movie).

What you have to do is reside in this “who” all the time while being constantly and peacefully aware of all your thoughts. When your thoughts decide that you should do something (just as they have in the past), spur your body on to perform that action.

In the eyes of the outside world, you will be going about your life as usual; inside, you will be watching your mind and body going about your life as usual, only “you” will be absolutely peaceful and undisturbed.

But… you have to remember to be this way throughout the day. Here is a method for doing that: set alarms in your mobile phone to remind you every two hours to “identify with the motionless witness”, and set these alarms to repeat daily over several weeks. With practice you will find that when the alarm rings, you will already be the motionless witness. How do I know? Because it is happening to me!

So give it a whirl… first find the “who” that is aware of your thoughts, then be that “who” throughout the day. START NOW!

To your peaceful life,

Here’s a wonderful analogy relating to the gradual process of merging your individuality into the Universe. It also illustrates the courage needed to get the job done.
(from http://www.peterrussell.com, reprinted with permission)

*******************

The Parable of the Rope

We are like a person holding on to a piece of rope.

He holds on for dear life, knowing that if he were to let go he would fall to his death. His parents, his teachers, and many others have told him this is so; and when he looks around he can see everyone else doing the same.

Nothing would induce him to let go.

Along comes a wise person. She knows that holding on is unnecessary, that the security it offers is illusory, and only holds you where you are. So she looks for a way to dispel his illusions and help him to be free.

She talks of real security, of deeper joy, of true happiness, of peace of mind. She tells him that he can taste this if he will just release one finger from the rope.

"One finger," thinks the man; "that"s not too much to risk for a taste of bliss." So he agrees to take this first initiation.

And he does taste greater joy, happiness, and peace of mind.

But not enough to bring lasting fulfillment.

"Even greater joy, happiness and peace can be yours," she tells him, "if you will just release a second finger."

"This," he tells himself, "is going to be more difficult. Can I do it? Will it be safe? Do I have the courage?" He hesitates, then, flexing his finger, feels how it would be to let go a little more . . . and takes the risk.

He is relieved to find he does not fall; instead he discovers greater happiness and inner peace.

But could more be possible?

"Trust me," she says. "Have I failed you so far? I know your fears, I know what your mind is telling you — that this is crazy, that it goes against everything you have ever learnt — but please, trust me. Look at me, am I not free? I promise you will be safe, and you will know even greater happiness and contentment."

"Do I really want happiness and inner peace so much," he wonders, "that I am prepared to risk all that I hold dear? In principle, yes; but can I be sure that I will be safe, that I will not fall?" With a little coaxing he begins to look at his fears, to consider their basis, and to explore what it is he really wants. Slowly he feels his fingers soften and relax. He knows he can do it. And he knows he must do it. It is only a matter of time until he releases his grip.

And as he does an even greater sense of peace flows through him.

He is now hanging by one finger. Reason tells him he should have fallen a finger or two ago, but he hasn"t. "Is there something wrong with holding on itself?" he asks himself. "Have I been wrong all the time?"

"This one is up to you," she says. "I can help you no further. Just remember that all your fears are groundless."

Trusting his quiet inner voice, he gradually releases the last finger.

And nothing happens.

He stays exactly where he is.

Then he realizes why. He has been standing on the ground all along.

And as he looks at the ground, knowing he need never hold on again, he finds true peace of mind.

 *******************

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/indi/ / CC BY 2.0

Meditation, as popularly conceived, is similar to prayer in a lot of respects. It entails closing your eyes, being in a special location, and performing it during a portion of the day. If you are talking about deep meditation (aka soul-searching), then all those descriptors are appropriate. But should the rest of your day be meditation-free?

No Way!!!

Meditation, if done with the correct attitude, connects you with the rest of the Universe. This connection frequently happens during deep meditation, and over several sessions. The door to the rest of the Universe slowly opens; if you are dedicated enough, have faith in where the meditation is taking you, and are serious about willingly surrendering to the unimaginable power of the Universe, you will have the courage to step into that door.

Once in the door, you will realize that this is your peaceful, blissful home; this is where you live, and from where you have been looking out of the window your whole life, forgetting that you are at home in the first place. Most recently you’ve even been looking out of the window trying to find home

So once you find your peaceful home, what do you do? Start looking out of the window again because your 15 or so minutes of daily meditation are over? And again forget that you are actually at home? HECK NO!!

Once you are out of deep, eyes-closed meditation, you have to be ‘at home’ the rest of the time as well. Without your eyes closed, without being on your meditation mat and without withdrawing from routine activities. You should be a motionless witness to all your thoughts and sensations, acting in accordance with what your mind decides. You will do all the things you normally do, only you will be quietly watching your mind and body as they go about their routine tasks. In a way, you will be watching the movie of your life.

The takeaway: Once your sit-down meditation is over, spend every moment of the remaining day in open-eyes meditation.

As my spiritual teacher and very close friend Swami Suddhananda has always said, you should be… 

living in meditation.

To your peaceful, enhanced life,

The loss of a loved one is always devastating to the psyche. However, if you are grounded in inner peace, the impact on you is greatly reduced.

When a loved one passes on, the intellectual effects are overwhelming. Memories, fears, and confusion hit you like a tidal wave; you feel as if you are totally submerged by grief.

And then there is the vacuum the permanent disappearance of the loved one creates. The person (I am including pets as persons) had been a part of your life for a very long time. He or she had always occupied a large space in your mind. The two of you would do many things together, and you would think of him or her constantly. But now all that mental activity is suddenly irrelevant, and you do not have anything readily available to substitute it with.

This situation is, for the large part, unavoidable and painful. It usually takes time, sometimes days, sometimes weeks or months, before you can break the surface of grief with only your nose, to “breathe” and deal to a limited extent with your immediate environment . However, if you are grounded in inner peace, you can push more than your nose above that surface; perhaps your whole head or maybe even your torso.

When you are grounded in inner peace, you are in a constant mental state of stillness and awareness. You do not feel any movement in your being, yet you are intensely aware of your thoughts as well as all physical sensations. The moment a loved one passes on, the flood of thoughts mentioned earlier occurs. But if you are already in a state of still awareness, it will be like watching a movie about a flood from a seat in the audience.

The net result is that you do not feel personally as distraught or depressed as you would if you were "swimming in your thoughts." Less of a toll is taken on your nervous system, your attitude towards life and those who are dependant on you. If you are in a very advanced state of inner peace, there will be no toll taken at all.

This is how being aligned with your inner peace makes grief more bearable. It is therefore a very good idea for you to identify your inner peace and abide in it as soon as possible!

To your happiness,

Almost everyone has felt low self-esteem at some point in their lives. Some feel it fleetingly and some for protracted periods of time. The best scenario is when you have banished it forever from your psyche. The fact is that if you have found the unshakable peace within your being, low self-esteem is no longer a possibility. This article describes how aligning with that peace ensures that you will never, think poorly of yourself again.

Low self esteem occurs when you have a poor opinion of yourself. The problem is that based on this opinion, you often think thoughts like this:

• “I am really no good at this.”

• “Why can’t I be like him/her.”

• “I am too stupid to improve myself.”

If you have been made aware of inner peace, then learned about how to find it, then constantly positioned yourself in it, these thoughts will no longer bother you (whether they occur or not).

That’s because being in a state of inner peace separates you from your thoughts and causes you to watch your thoughts like a movie.

If you’re watching a movie and someone on the screen said, “I am such a pile of crap,” would you care? That’s someone saying it in a movie about themselves, not about you, a person in the audience. 

In the same vein, next time you think, “I am such a pile of crap,” remember to quickly step back and be a witness to your thinking. “I am such a pile of crap,” is just your mind talking about itself, not you. You’re the one who’s watching your mind.

As a matter of fact, anything you think is just your mind talking, not you talking. And you should always position yourself as a witness to your thoughts. If you are a witness to all your thinking, then you are yourself free of all thought. If you are free of all thought, you can never be agitated, because agitation occurs when you are involved in some disturbing thought process or the other. You are in a state of perfect inner peace.

This is how inner peace triumphs over low self-esteem (as well as a whole lot of other mental conditions).

Start witnessing your thoughts today.

To your naturally peaceful life,

Pain is one of the less enjoyable facets of life. We all have dealt with it at some points in our lives, and it is very likely that most of us have not seen the last of it. It is usually a disturbing experience, the degree of mental discomfort being directly proportional to the degree of pain. However, the effect on your psyche will be minimal if you are familiar with the expansive peace inherent in you. This article explains the mechanics of the phenomenon.

To align with the boundless peace within you, you have to first locate it. Once that is done, you have to align yourself with it during every waking moment, until it becomes effortless. This is actually quite easy, since the state you will be in is your basic identity, the “basic you”. It is your true nature, long obscured by years of identification with your thoughts (i.e., your mind).

The fact is that your thoughts are not you. You are aware of them but are separate from them. You can see this for yourself if you look deeply into what is going on in your head. To do this, find a quiet place and budget 10 minutes of solitude on five or six occasions. On each occasion, close your eyes and pay attention to what is happening in your mind. Whenever you think something, try and answer the question, "Who was aware of that thought?"

You will ultimately realize that ‘you’ are aware of your thoughts and that you are a motionless witness to them. They come and go but you remain untouched, a constant witness who is still and at perfect rest. This is not some whimsical theory, either… it is thousands of years old, and is the attitude just describes is what all the great prophets and wise men have had over the millennia. It would be a good thing to join their ranks, say what?

Once you are constantly aligned with inner peace, pain is not such a nerve-racking experience. This is because you are a witness to it, and therefore not mistakenly thinking that it is happening to you. It also means that your mind will not be crammed with thoughts like, "God, this is so lousy" or "Why does this have to happen only to me?"

You quietly watch the pain, experiencing it but not being too disturbed by it. It will by no means be transformed into a pleasurable event… but you will not be agitated by it. You should of course follow your normal course of action for physical treatment of the pain (like taking a painkiller).

There was a great sage called Ramana Maharishi who was alive in the 1950s. He developed cancer on his elbow and had to be operated on. He refused to be anaesthetized during the surgery. When a concerned friend asked him, "O Learned One, did it not hurt terribly?" the sage replied, "The body had pain. Am I the body?"

Your body and mind are wondrous creations but they are not you. You are a peaceful witness to them. Realize this and make your life serene!

“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):

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,