Happiness Within
A favourite quote of mine goes "It is difficult to find happiness within us, it is impossible to find it anywhere else"
Countless times we are told by wiser people and by books that happiness lies within us. That the material things of the world, the selfish relations, the “props” that we use for enjoyment..nothing can give us happiness. Life itself reminds us of this principle time and again.
We crave and cry for a particular thing and when we eventually get it, it doesn’t give us the joy we had envisaged. Yet, we again and again fix our sights on something or someone and say, “Only if that was mine, I would be happy!”
Why is it that even though we know this and somewhere agree with this principle, we still do not apply it in our life? The reason according to some wiser people is that we only know this, we do not truly understand this. An oft cited example is that of a glass of water that contains cyanide. If u know that the water is poisoned, you will not drink it because you understand it will kill you. But when it comes to happiness, we just know the principle and not truly understand it.
Life would be so much simpler if we were not chasing things or people. But the desire for them seems to be unconquerable. Then what is it that we can do? The wiser people say the solution lies in inculcating desires for something higher. If you cannot control your desire for junk food, inculcate a desire for health. If your desire for health becomes strong, the way most desires eventually do, your desire for junk food will automatically lose power.
Sigh! If only it was that simple ………
I got a lot of reminders that my post was overdue. The reason behind this being that I was doing night shifts during the week and my weekends were being spent attending Vedanta discourses with my mother (the effect of which is obvious above). Before any of you groan and symapathise with me, I would like to tell you that the lectures in themselves were very interesting. Infact I would recommend them to you also. You can find out about them here. Needless to say, this is not an advertisement of any kind, just something I enjoyed and thought some of you might want to check out. No yogas, breathing exercises or talk of strange auras surrounding you. Just plain logic told in a most interesting and relevant way.
Countless times we are told by wiser people and by books that happiness lies within us. That the material things of the world, the selfish relations, the “props” that we use for enjoyment..nothing can give us happiness. Life itself reminds us of this principle time and again.
We crave and cry for a particular thing and when we eventually get it, it doesn’t give us the joy we had envisaged. Yet, we again and again fix our sights on something or someone and say, “Only if that was mine, I would be happy!”
Why is it that even though we know this and somewhere agree with this principle, we still do not apply it in our life? The reason according to some wiser people is that we only know this, we do not truly understand this. An oft cited example is that of a glass of water that contains cyanide. If u know that the water is poisoned, you will not drink it because you understand it will kill you. But when it comes to happiness, we just know the principle and not truly understand it.
Life would be so much simpler if we were not chasing things or people. But the desire for them seems to be unconquerable. Then what is it that we can do? The wiser people say the solution lies in inculcating desires for something higher. If you cannot control your desire for junk food, inculcate a desire for health. If your desire for health becomes strong, the way most desires eventually do, your desire for junk food will automatically lose power.
Sigh! If only it was that simple ………
I got a lot of reminders that my post was overdue. The reason behind this being that I was doing night shifts during the week and my weekends were being spent attending Vedanta discourses with my mother (the effect of which is obvious above). Before any of you groan and symapathise with me, I would like to tell you that the lectures in themselves were very interesting. Infact I would recommend them to you also. You can find out about them here. Needless to say, this is not an advertisement of any kind, just something I enjoyed and thought some of you might want to check out. No yogas, breathing exercises or talk of strange auras surrounding you. Just plain logic told in a most interesting and relevant way.
posted by Tipsy Topsy at
4:57 PM
2 Comments:
was getting into a philosophical drive at first, but decided against it:d anyhows the perception of happiness varies from person to person. be it hedonistic or spiritual or wahtever... right from the happiness of a baby suckling to a geriatric who sees his favourite grandchild and all the people in between the two mentioned extremes of age. 'member what i said about the satsang?:D anyhows poignant observations and *HUGS*
cheerio!!!
joker
By
Anonymous, at September 27, 2004 8:35 PM
Bah, I feel pained by the loss of all my hearfelt comments, thanks to Haloscan's ravenous appetite for comments!!
Argh...
By
Self Writeous, at May 29, 2005 9:27 PM
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