Had a really wonderful conversation with a friend over brunch today. We discussed a variety of topics and touched lightly on the concept/ place for happiness in one's life. It was interesting timing in a way. I had a dream this week that the Dalai Lama died. Thank heavens this wasn't true, but for my subconscious, I think it was symbolic, a death of a sort of happiness in this period of my life. And it really got me thinking about what that effervescence means and why we don't have it all the time.
Physical theories aside- chemicals in the brain and habits that lay down neural pathways- I think we are not happy all the time because happiness comes at a sacrifice. There's a certain fulfillment that comes through the gravity of melancholy, a certain groundedness. And, as my friend suggested, a sort of safety... from skidding off the rails or being sucked out of your soaring high and into a jet plane engine. But what does that safety really mean? What are we safe from- the drop of a roller coaster ride? Being somehow attached to unrealistic visions of the world? I'm not entirely sure I know yet. I do know I am at a place where I have to pay attention to other emotions for a while so that I can process my life more fully and not have subconscious flare-ups and nightmares. And it takes a certain courage to look those other options in the face, then walk towards them willingly, opening up new levels of life and new ways to feel the world. But I don't want to stay there. These last couple of years in my life exposed me to a sort of happy bubbling-up I enjoyed as a base state and that I look forward to returning to again...soon, hopefully.
Post Script: Went to candlelight Kundalini yoga tonight, a class designed to highlight intense pranayamas and chanting, ending with a meditation via a powerful gong. It was incredible! I left there feeling less blocked, more grounded, palpably content and comfortably quiet. Our mind-body connection is phenomenal.
You Really Need to be Drinking Vermouth Right Now
10 years ago
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A rushing warm wind dancing through your body
Tonic hypnosis
An ongoing surge of the Tropical
Deliverance to our true essence
I think we stop being happy because we forget
We forget that we have done all of the hard work;
We have all the tools we need to be enlightened
We HAVE been enlightened
But we let ourselves forget what we have learned
And then we have to learn it all over again
And all of this learning, is basically the un-learning of how not to be happy that we foolishly learned when we went from being a kid to ......
What we really have to learn, is to "forget to be sad"
if we want to stay in a state of bliss in this world.
Absolutely, there are things to learn when we are in misery -
it can be an inspired state, it's Fact.
However, the amount of time we CAN stay in happiness
should greatly exceed the sadness. This is our natural state, why should it not? We need to tell ourselves to stop over-thinking.
Start enjoying what we DO have. Find kingdoms in simplicity, and heaven in a smile.
All ancient treatises.
"I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness"
-H.H. Dalai Lama
p.s. This is a somewhat "note to self" - thank you for being amazing.
p.p.s. I love your smile!
~Jefferson
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