SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS HAS ALWAYS BEEN EXTERNAL
The search for happiness has always been external. In meditation, the real path to happiness, we integrate ourselves in mind, body, and spirit and bring the mind to a balance where all desires fade away.
You cannot be totally desireless, but even the desire that would be there would have some foundation, some form of logic. Those desires would be for your needs and not your wants—there is a significant difference.
When we become integrated, our thought patterns change, and as our thought patterns change, our attachment to things changes. We become increasingly non-attached.
That does not mean we separate ourselves from the world; we are “in the world and yet not of the world,” as the saying goes. Our thought patterns change and our demands in life become less and less. The less you demand, the more you lessen desires, wants, and cravings, the more happiness will grow within you. You become more integrated, and integration is the foundation upon which happiness is built.
Someone might crave to find a handsome, dashing, young prince charging down on a white horse. These are dreams, fools’ dreams. Why not the lovely boy next door? Or, one of your school friends who could become a perfect boyfriend or girlfriend instead of dreaming of that handsome prince charging down the street on a white steed with a lance in hand. They are quite skilful at using lances, those handsome princes on white steeds — they might pierce you so much that your heart will not beat again.
HAPPINESS TAKES US TO JOY
Happiness takes us to joy, where you could possess nothing in the world, be the poorest person, and yet be the happiest person.
Our possessions do not measure happiness, but inner balance measures happiness, inner stability, and how one becomes happy because a happy person is tolerant, patient, and accepting. When that person bubbles over with joy and happiness, it influences the entire environment around him, and that, in turn, makes him happier.
That is the quest, but people try to find it all the wrong ways, and that is where all the trouble begins. That is why the ancient gurus advocated: “Become a monk, possess nothing or need nothing; you just need a begging bowl and go around begging.”
If the whole world were going around with begging bowls in our modern society, then who will beg from who? Things are adapted according to the times, the day and age.
But, more so now than in past times, a person needs a far greater balance because all the outward yearning and cravings tend to create more and more imbalances in us. Then you find people, again, that possess everything they have, tons of things, and they use it in a good, rightful way to help or help those trying to help others if they cannot do it themselves.
There are many ways of using material possessions, and for one thing, anyone who gives one will inevitably receive ten back. It is an irrefutable law; it comes. And that makes a person help ten times more again, and then ten plus ten — a hundred comes. So that is how it goes; that is how it works.
A lot has to be done, including realizing more of one’s inner worth and, of course, not neglecting the outer things but maintaining a nice balance so that one can find happiness in every aspect of life. The more balanced you are inside and the more integrated you are, the more you will appreciate many possessions, little possessions, or whatever.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 1983 – 11
