I declare myself already happy as I am and came across
an article with an excerpt from a book by Anthony De
mello on Awareness that might strike a chord with YOU.
De mello by the way was a Christian priest who echoes what
is very much the foundation of Buddhist principles on
why we suffer...but then every belief system offers a
view of why we suffer. So despite knowing I am bound to
suffer, I CHOOSE happiness as a state of being.
"I was saying that we don't want to be happy.
We want other things. Or let's put it more accurately:
We don't want to be unconditionally happy. I'm ready
to be happy provided I have this and that and the
other thing. But this is really to say to our friend
or to our God or to anyone, "You are my happiness. If
I don't get you, I refuse to be happy." It's so
important to understand that. We cannot imagine being
happy without those conditions. That's pretty
accurate. We cannot conceive of being happy without
them. We've been taught to place our happiness in
them. "
"So that's the first thing we need to do if we
want to come awake, which is the same thing as saying:
if we want love, if we want freedom, if we want joy
and peace and spirituality. In that sense,
spirituality is the most practical thing in the whole
wide world. I challenge anyone to think of anything
more practical than spirituality as I have defined it
– not piety, not devotion, not religion, not worship,
but spirituality – waking up, waking up! Look at the
heartache everywhere, look at the loneliness, look at
the fear, the confusion, the conflict in the hearts of
people, inner conflict, outer conflict. Suppose
somebody gave you a way of getting rid of all that?
Suppose somebody gave you a way to stop that
tremendous drainage of energy, of health, of emotion
that comes from these conflicts and confusion. Would
you want that? Suppose somebody showed us a way
whereby we would truly love one another, and be at
peace, be at love. Can you think of anything more
practical that that? But, instead, you have people
thinking that big business is more practical, that
politics is more practical, that science is more
practical. What's the earthly use of putting a man on
the moon when we cannot live on the earth?"
--Anthony de mello from Awareness
The entire article is in fact a commentary by a person who
works at Microsoft who offered the letter to the
Editor of the Tower of Babel: an online journal that
is AMAZING...
http://towerofbabel.com/sections/op-ed/diana/
A good editorial letter in totality actually.
Be Well This Glorious Day We Have Been Gifted
