In part 2 of my blog entitled Elements of Happiness I addressed the question, How do we achieve the sought after condition of happiness? For context, you may wish to read the first two blogs before proceeding.
In this final blog of the series entitled Elements of Happiness I will address a very important question: Once achieved, how do we make happiness last?
All of us experience moments that we casually describe as happiness. We have all heard things like this or that day was the happiest day of my life or I felt so happy when this or that happened. Our experience of happiness, even those of us who feel we are fundamentally happy, is often transient. We are happy based primarily on what is happening around us. Clearly, if our sense of happiness is based primarily on what is happening in our external environment, then our happiness will be very tenuous.
Consider for a moment that what we typically describe as happiness - transient feelings of elation - is merely the outer surface of happiness, feelings based on our conditional responses to various external stimulus. True happiness, happiness anchored to our inner condition, not to external conditions, transcends feeling and is better described as a state of being.
Feeling good is a great and wondrous thing, but this is not happiness in its essence. Many things make us feel good: sex, drugs, music, laughter, a massage, and so on. What happens to our state of being when the music stops playing or the massage ends? Do we suddenly become preoccupied with completing this or that task or find that our inner dialogue is jumbled, mixed with pessimism, harsh judgments of others or ourselves or feelings of insufficiency (she doesn't look good, I am too fat,I need more money). If this often happens to us, it doesn't mean that we are necessarily unhappy, but is does indicate that we have not yet attain a state of being where quietude and solace pervades our inner reality.
Most of us chase emotional highs as though we are happiness addicts. We need not judge ourselves harshly for behaving like this. It is to be expected. Everyone wants to feel good. Like children, we chase after what we perceive will be fun and exciting. This is very normal behavior; however, if we desire to mature spiritually, to become immersed in happiness, we have to consciously end this chase, and, through daily meditation that helps to heighten our awareness of life's spiritual basis, attain what I describe in The Middle Theory as a balanced state of awareness.
Earlier I mentioned that true happiness is beyond feeling and is better described as a state of being; that state of being is one of balanced awareness.
Daily Meditation....if you were reading carefully, this phrase would have jumped out at you. Yes, daily meditation is a key element of the "immersion" process. Daily meditation can take many different forms: prayer, quiet sitting, deep reflection, reading of sacred writings, and so on. What is most essential is that we create a space for meditation every single day, as though it were the only pool of water in a vast dessert that we must dip from everyday. During our daily meditation, if we are truly detached from the world around us, we become more aware of our vast and glorious inner reality that transcends feelings. In moments of deep meditation, our hearts expand, our minds become illumined, and we "touch" the very ground of being that created and sustains all life. Isn't this a miraculous thing!
So daily meditation is key to sustaining our condition of happiness; without it, we will be emotionally tossed around on the surface of life like an unanchored boat.
Another important element of our full immersion into happiness is constant gratitude. By being thankful for everything in our lives, even for our difficulties, we expand our awareness of life's essential goodness. Try this, the next time something happens that would normally make you react in anger or frustration, stop and smile on the inside and allow the experience to wash over you as though you were a pebble at the bottom of a bustling stream. Don't pretend that you do not feel angry in that instant, simply notice that you feel angry and allow that feeling to be absorbed by the deepness of your presence. If you practice this, you will soon notice that there is a part of you that transcends everything around you, and that your being is eternal in nature.
The final element of sustaining a condition of happiness is service. By service I mean conscious and consistent use of our energy to help others progress materially and spiritually. Service in not an act, it is an attitude based in humility that motivates us to become hands feeding the needy or arms embracing the hurt. To serve is to literally become an instrument of peace. When we attain an attitude of service, the simple act of breathing will bring us immense joy, for we will know that the air that fills our lungs is filling it for the purpose of aiding our service to humanity.
In this third and final blog of the series Elements of Happiness, we have explored three key elements of sustaining our condition of happiness, namely:
1. Daily meditation
2. Constant gratitude
3. Service
I trust that you have found the three blogs in this series enlightening and useful. Very soon, I will begin a new series of blogs centered on the concept of balance....I hope you will join me once again.
Deshon
