Happiness

What is it that you really want?

Your answer to the question might include a new car, a loving relationship, the perfect weight or the perfect job and even the ubiquitous answer of good health but when you boil it right down the answer is always "I want to be happy!".

So why is happiness so elusive?

The answer: because our minds don't want us to be happy.
Or at least a part of our mind.
Try for yourself right now explore your mind. Do you feel happiness? You know it's there somewhere. But just before you allow yourself that pure feeling of eternal bliss does your mind present you with a list of things to do before it permits you even to experience a sense of contentment. Make more money, lose weight, stop smoking, get a better job, eat properly, meditate more, exercise, exercise more, get a good haircut, dress sharper, have the perfect partner, do the laundry....the list goes on and on and on and on from this lifetime into the next until we say STOP.

So now try saying stop. Go into your mind and see, feel, hear your list and without fighting it just say "stop" and sit in that space for a minute.
What happened? Did you experience, even briefly, a stillness - a peace?

Now why would our minds not want us to be happy? We think we want happiness. We say "I want to be happy" but still we are not. Our mind is our enemy. "Our mind is our enemy". Sounds like a very strong accusation because it is.
I suggest that you read "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle or hear what Gangaji has to say about the egoic mind or "A Course in Miracles" or Paramahansa Yogananda or more importantly listen to your own Self.

Repeat the exercise you did earlier and discover for yourself how much your own mind is your enemy. Your mind is a wonderful tool but it is not who you are.

When we discover that happiness, joy, peace and love is what we ARE (and not something we can get after all of the lists have been completed - which is impossible) we will experience ourselves as eternal joy!
Try it right now. From the point of knowing you will never achieve complete happiness from outside of yourself go within and use your mind to imagine yourself as Being Joy, Being Peace and Being Love. Meditate on that knowingness. Live your life and do your lists from within your mind that knows who and what you are.

From this knowing go out into your world and Enjoy!

This Joy is Spiritual Liberation!