Excerpts and Articles -
"Only Your Thoughts Can Upset You"
Be here now
By Terry
Winchester
There you are, struggling
to survive, living off the 'sweat of your brow', hoping that
one day you will be happy. Later on things will get better.
In fact everything was fine until we were told that it
wasn't. We were quite happy as little kids - until we were
told that we must now grow up and start the endless struggle
to be someone other than what we are right now. The media is
telling us that we are not happy unless we buy a certain
brand of cigarettes or wear the latest fashion clothes.
Society insists that it
is not possible to be happy until we get an education. Then
we will be "somebody" - a doctor or a lawyer. Study hard for
seven years and we'll give you a piece of paper to certify
that you have read the books we think you should read - then
you will be somebody our society can look up to. We are
forced to study a bunch of information about other people's
redundant opinions before we are qualified to fit into this
group mentality that forms our distorted society.
So finally, after years of struggle, you receive a piece of
paper that shows other people how many books you have read
and they call you clever. If you are lucky and have been
able to afford the latest fashion attire they will give you
a slot, fitting to your degree of learning, and you become
another cog in the heartless machine that grinds along
mercilessly devouring our beautiful planet and turning it
into a depressing wasteland.
You have now become a 'somebody' with an official label and
a job, if you are lucky. But the sadness in your eyes gives
away the fact that society's promise did not work. The race
to "keep up with the Jones's" is relentless. You are tired.
The years of struggle to get your new car so that the world
could see who you really are didn't fill the gap. More was
never enough. Bigger wasn't better. You are not happy.
"Don't worry," your mother says, "it's not so bad, we
actually had it worse when we were young. You will soon meet
someone nice, get married and then you'll be happy."
Thinking that mother knows best, we look forward to being
happy later. It's OK to be miserable now because I'm going
to meet my 'knight in shining armour' and he will take me
away from all this. Sure enough, when you fall in love, you
do experience happiness. For a while...
There you were, minding your own business and BANG! this
person breezes in and turns your life upside down. Now you
can't think straight. You are 'out of your mind'. You find
yourself skipping through the tulips in a thunderstorm, just
like they do in the movies. Life is a bed of roses. Now you
know what happiness is. At last you have found it. You are
just like a kid again. What has actually happened is that
you have fallen into love, or into the Alpha state of mind,
that dream-like state that is within you. The other person
does not do anything to you or give you anything. He or she
is just a catalyst who allows you to experience more of who
you really are. For a while there is no time and space.
Everything is bright and beautiful.
Alas, the honeymoon wears off. Before you know it, the ego
regains its senses and cunningly sets about bringing you
back to the 'real' world. After all, you have to be
practical you know. You haven't got time for all this 'lovey
dovey' stuff. Don't forget that life is a struggle. We have
to make money to survive. I mean, let's be 'realistic'.
It doesn't take long before the critical left-brain, or ego,
is reminding you of how imperfect everything is and, of
course, it's not your fault. It's all these other idiots
causing your misery. Even your own spouse begins to annoy
you.
"Don't you know that it is wasteful to squeeze the
toothpaste in the middle?" your ego points out to your
inconsiderate partner, "You are so stupid."
"Ha!" replies your other half's ego, "what about you, you
sit around drinking beer and watching the telly all day? Why
don't you mow the lawn like you used to?"
"Because I work hard all day and you never
appreciate......."
"Don't you start with that nonsense, my mother warned me
about you! I should have listened to her..." And the game is
on.
In the beginning your partner could do nothing wrong and was
viewed as being the most wonderful creature on earth because
he or she made you happy. Now that same person is
responsible for all your misery.
"If it weren't for you, I would be happy. You're not the
person I married. I'm leaving and I'm going to find somebody
else. I can't live like this."
You are unhappy again.
The next person you meet will more than likely be the 'after
image' of the person you have just run away from. In other
words, you will be drawn to someone just because they
squeeze the toothpaste in the right place. Obviously the
result will be more misery.
Even if you do manage to stay together, you are not happy.
There is still something missing. You have still not found
that elusive happiness. Next you find yourself saying, "When
I have children, then I will be happy."
Little consideration is given to the dirty nappies, the
sleepless nights and the total disruption of your lifestyle
for the next 20 years. You then end up longing for the day
the children leave home so that you can finally sit back and
be happy. Before you know it, the kids are gone. The house
is empty and you become depressed. The empty nest syndrome
is consoled by the thought that, "When I die, then I'll be
happy."
You will also notice that, when you start to get towards the
end of your life and you are running out of future to look
forward to you find yourself reminiscing about the 'good old
days'.
"Remember when we were at school and had to study all night?
Then we were happy!"
"Those were the good old days. Then when we got married we
had no money and we lived in a cardboard box, then we were
happy."
"Remember when the kids were young and kept us up all night?
Then we were happy!"
What have we done? We are always looking to the future or
the past. We forget to 'be here now'. Happiness is just a
state of mind. It is freedom from the misperception that
something has to happen before we can be happy. The mind is
in fact saying that you need time. You need to achieve or
acquire something first because there is something lacking
in your life. Well the good news is that you already have
what you are looking for and, if you stop looking, you will
experience it. That is what I realised standing there on the
street in New
York City, with nothing to do and nowhere to go.
I was happy.
"Be in the world, not of it" - Jesus
Now I could understand what Buddha meant when he said that
in order to be happy you have to become desire-less. His
buddy Jesus agreed with him reminding us to act in
accordance with, "Thy Will and not my will." To top it all
off he said that even if we do collect any treasures they're
just going to go rusty or be eaten by moths, that is if we
are lucky and thieves don't break in first and steal them.
The Chinese philosophers told us, "The Great Way is not
difficult for he who has no opinions or holds no preferences
for or against anything."
The ego just can't win. Thank God….
When I was in the middle of the street in a strange city
with no means of support, I didn't disintegrate and in fact
I was feeling an indescribable sense of joy. The insane New
Yorkers must have thought "I" was the insane one - just
standing there smiling like the Mona Lisa.
"All your needs are met" - Bible
All our needs are met, not because some benevolent God is
dishing out favours - but because you have always had
everything anyway. It was the illusionary ego that caused us
to perceive a 'lack' by veiling the Truth.
The question now arises, "How do we integrate these
principles that go against everything that society has
taught us into our everyday lives? What about all those
goals that we are supposed to have?"
What about using the power of your mind to achieve your
unlimited potential?
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