This is partly from Eckart Tolle’s A New Earth (page 114) but with some slight changes to make it clearer.
So to start off do you think any of the following three things about events of people:
- “Something happened (or someone did something to me) in the past that should not have happened and I resent that. If that hadn’t happened, I would be happy now”
- “Something is happening now (or someone is doing something or failing to do something) that should not be happening and it is preventing me from being happy”
- “There is something that needs to happen in my life before I am happy. “
OK well 1. is pretty obvious. The past is the past and it can’t be changed. If you can accept that you can be happy.
2. and 3. are more tricky because if I say “accept your current situation and you unblock happiness” the normal reply is “Oh, so I should just become apathetic and accept whatever other people do to me?”
It is the reaction because we have been conditioned by society to be unhappy until certain things stop happening or start to happen. It is what our complete marketing system for material products is built on.
Next time you watch, listen to or look at some advertising not how many feature happy people far more than the product itself.
Truly accepting your current situation because it is as it is does not mean becoming a door mat. However once you accept it you can be happy and you can be far more focused on creating a way to move towards what you would like.
This has three major gains.
- First you can work towards what you want without the fog of emotion clouding your mind.
- Second you can know that when you get there you will not be stressed about loosing whatever it is (because you think to lose it would make you ‘unhappy’ and therefore you live in a constant state of underlying stress at that prospect).
- You can be happy right now.
But the idea that we can be happy and be passionate about doing something or getting somewhere is so alien to most people, goes so against the conditioning laid down by society, it is a hard circle to square.
However deep down you can see the evidence when you meet or see people in the most adverse of circumstances who display a sense of happiness that almost seems insane. In fact they are often painted by society as insane as a sort of self defence mechanism.
What would happen to society if we all suddenly stopped wanting things because we thought they would make us happy? Capitalism would certainly be in for a rough ride!