When All Else Fails . . . . Be Happy!

Be Happy!

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When All Else Fails . . . . Be Happy!

by Barbara Condron

.
JOY

Live in joy
and in love,
Even midst these who hate.

Live in joy
and in health,
Even with these afflicted.

Live in joy
and in peace,
Even among the disturbed.
Live in joy
and without possessions,
As the Enlightened Ones. — Dhammapada

When was the last time you were truly happy?
Take a moment for introspection, recalling those times. Picture them in your mind. Where were you? Who were you with? What was the occasion or event?
Taste the happiness. Hear the sounds of joy. Sense the aroma of that moment. Savor the feeling.
Perhaps this happiness was born from receiving your first paycheck. Maybe it manifested at a moment of accomplishment after long efforts such as graduation, a wedding or an award. The experience could have accompanied the birth of a child, or that exciting, universally available experience we call orgasm.
Wonderful moments in life's experience — those happy times. Times to be relished and kept in the treasure chest of memories and the Aladdin's lamp of future hope.
For the Thinker, the question arises — why doesn't it last? What do I need to do to possess such happiness each moment? Does human man's condition require sorrow, pain, and misery, or is there more that can make a difference in the quality of life? Can man find peace, contentment and happiness as a part of his life experience?
These questions are rightfully asked, and they do have answers. For the one seeking enlightenment, those answers are found within the Self.
Throughout thinking man's history, our inner urge for growth and evolution has manifested itself through religious teachings. These teachings found in every culture and time period have stemmed from those wise souls who have become know as Masters. People like Guatama for the Buddhists, Lao Tze for Taoists, Zarathustra for Zoastrians, and Jesus for Christians. Each was a spiritual revolutionary to his time. All spoke Universal Truth so their teachers have endured. Each taught that man's potential is to live in a state of constant peace and bliss.
How do we, as human man, transcend our self-imposed limitations of grief and sorrow that blind us to the happiness resulting from these states of peace and bliss? We admit that happiness can be studied, learned, and made a part of Self! We prepare our Self to give and receive happiness by identifying who we are and electing to become what we most desire.
Consider for a moment what we were taught as children. Did well meaning parents, teachers, ministers and others in positions of authority ever offer advice planting the seeds of suffering? Do happiness robbing phrases echo in the memory chambers of your mind?
Can you hear:

"When you get older, you'll know what I mean."

"It's better to give, than receive."

"You'll be sorry later."

"You can't always win."

"Nothing lasts forever."

"I want to spare you what I went through."

"Life is full of disappointments."

"You'll have to learn to live with it."

"You can't always be happy."

Sound familiar? If these spark any related thoughts from your experience, take time to right them down. These ghosts from your past will haunt your present contentment and starve your future capability for happiness until brought forward into full conscious awareness for change. Awareness gives you the freedom to admit the ways you've learned to master negative thinking.
By perpetuating these thoughts into adulthood, human man creates discontent and erodes the bliss that is his Spiritual inheritance. You can easily identify where you have become an expert in negative thinking by realizing its effects. Negative thinking breeds doubt, fear, anger, resentment, jealousy, insecurity, loneliness, sadness, and all forms of depression. With individual internally battling these demons, is it any wonder that collectively human man fears the thought of nuclear war, resents poverty, isolates himself from others, promotes bigotry and injustice?
For thousands of years, most people have existed in a Spiritual wasteland, relying on religious leaders and their hierarchies to be arbitrators between himSelf and God. This, in turn, has been passed on generation after generation promoting the Christian idea of imperfection known as sin. The idea is that man is not worthy of direct communication with his Spiritual Parent. As long as this alienation persists, how can man admit and know his Spiritual roots? These roots free him to seek and find peace and bliss.
Human man tends to create his deities in his own likeness and image. The ancient Greek and Roman concepts of multiple deities had its own version of "sin". This is found in the story of Pandora and her jar.

Zeus, angered because he had been deceived, devised sorrowful troubles for men by hiding the means of human livelihood – fire. Man stole the fire, outwitting Zeus, thus bringing Zeus' wrath upon Iapetus and all men who were to come. As payment for the fire, Zeus gave men an evil in which to take delight and embrace. Zeus ordered all gods to create a beautiful creature which they name Pandora. She was presented to Epimetheus, renowned slayer of Argus, as a gift. Prometheus, the man who had stolen fire, had warned Epimetheus to accept no such gifts, rather to return them in case in some way the gift would bring evil to mortals. Epimetheus accepted the gift anyway, and once done realized the evil he had accepted. Previously, men lived completely free from evils, hard work and painful disease which make man an instrument of the Fates. The woman, Pandora, removed the cover of the jar with her hands and scattered the evils from which sorrow came to men. Only hope remained in the jar. The sorrows still roam the earth and the sea, some by day others by night. Thus it is not at all possible to escape the will of Zeus.
– Myth of Creation

When man admits his separateness from his Creator, he reaches to know Truth. By failing to realize his parent-child relationship with his God, he creates his God as he imagines becoming lost in pretending and believing. When man imagines a wrathful, jealous, proprietary God based on his own physical experience, he is creating his God, revealing how man sees him Self. This occurs often when we project our thinking onto others, thus stealing our opportunity to recognize the uniqueness and differences in Self and others. Negative thinking produces a negative image of a vengeful God, threatening with fear and eager to punish by robbing man's happiness, dooming him to sorrow and pain.
The victims produced by these types of thought, are experts in negative thinking. They dwell on the "bad" things that happen to them, forfeiting their ability to change by pointing the finger at someone else whom they blame for their misfortune, be it "God's will", the "devil", a parent, or the car manufacturer who made the automobile they were driving when they had a wreck. Because these people feel they have suffered, they will make sure someone else pays in greater suffering. "Misery loves company" and the Law of Karma insures we come to understand the intentions behind our acts.
Consider the wisdom in the Dhammapada, one of the Buddhist Holy Works:

"The winner sows hatred because the loser suffers.
Let go of winning and losing and find Joy.
There is no fire like passion,
no crime like hatred,
no sorrow like separation,
no sickness like hunger,
and no joy like the joy of freedom.
Health, contentment and trust are your greatest possessions,
and freedom your greatest joy.
Look within.
Be still.
Free from fear and attachment, know the sweet joy of the way.
– "Joy"

Imagine what can happen when more and more individuals begin taking charge of their destiny by replacing "victim" attitudes with thoughts of health, contentment, trust, and joy? What will happen as more and more people establish a direct relationship with their God? How will the world be effected as each individual values his conscious ability to choose his perception of life experiences? Where can we go as we hardness our creative potential to Spiritually mature? What will happen when there are many Masters on earth?

True Happiness

True happiness is an attitude that can be created anytime, anywhere, by anyone.
Happiness doesn't just happen to you. It does not depend on who you are with, where you are, or what is happening around you. Happiness is a state of mind. It is a consciousness within reach of any Reasoning Man preparing to become Intuitive, Spiritual Man.
Drawing on inner wisdom, we expand our consciousness – again from the Dhammapada:

How joyful to look upon the awakened
and to keep company with the wise.
How long the road to the man
who travels with a fool.
But whoever follows those who follow the way
Discovers his family, and is filled with joy.
follow then the shining (enlightened) ones,
The wise, the awakened, the loving,
For they know how to work and forbear.
Follow them,
as the moon follows the path of the stars."
– "Joy"

Realize we have a common heritage – every part of creation began from the same causal source.
Imagine that you awoke one day in the middle of a cornfield in the midwest. You did not know your name, where you had come from, how old you were, who your parents were, if you should be somewhere doing something. How would you feel? What would you think? Would you be capable of action, if so, what action would you take? What would be your first step to gaining the answers to these questions?
Now imagine that someone came to you and told you were the daughter or son of the King and Queen of England. What would you think of your Self now? What would be your heritage, your rights, your privileges, your duties and responsibilities?
Begin now to claim your ability to produce happiness in your life by admitting that you are a child of God, the Creator. Having such a worthy Spiritual Parent capable of creating, you – as an offspring – must also possess worthiness that enables you to promote, experience and understand creation.
Assert your inner worthiness to learn to be a Creator! Pursue direct communication with your Spiritual Parent through developing the skill and art of daily meditation. An excellent book on meditation is Dr. Daniel R. Condron'sSuperconscious Meditation. As it states in "Psalms 5:1" in the Bible:

"Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation.
Hearken unto the voice of the my cry, my King, and my God:
for unto thee will I pray.
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord;
in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee,
and will look up."

and again from the Dhammapada:

"The followers of the awakened Awake
And day and night they watch
And meditate upon their masters.
Forever wakeful,
They mind the law.
They know their brothers on the way.
They understand the mystery of the body.
They find joy in all beings.
They delight in meditation."
– "Out of the Forest"

As you deepen your meditation periods realizing them to be times of concentration directed toward knowing your God, you will become familiar through experience with the state of peace and bliss each great Master knew. With continued practice you will build your own state of peace which will manifest in your daily activities. A calm and centered mind produces clarity in thought and action that is characteristic of one who is growing in awareness of his true inner nature and fulfilling his purpose for existence.
"The Bhagavad Gita" is part of the Hindu epic The Mahabarata. It addresses the active search of each person to know Self beyond the physical. To know his relationship to God is the quest of Arjuna, the conscious Self seeking enlightenment. Consider this discourse:

"He who gains freedom from attachment to or fear of sense objects, he who finds his love and strength in the Real Self is the One who has gained Peace. A Peace which surpasses all understanding. He is released from the sorrows and pains of physical life. His mind is free from distractions and is open to Wisdom and knowledge.
True knowledge has yet to be gained for those who have not experienced this Peace, for with Peace comes the calm and the calm produces the knowledge and Wisdom.
Without Peace, separate from it, the storm of sense-desires mask the ability for knowledge as the wind ripples the surface water making waves that distort the view to the depths."

Lean to calm the waters of your mind through daily meditation. Build your love and strength inwardly so you can change the attitudes that would rob you of your newfound Peace and joy.

Creating Your Happiness

To be free of old patterns of negative thinking is not as difficult a feat as you might believe. It does require a commitment to your Self that will produce the positive, productive existence you desire. You need not be a victim of past, learned thinking and the behavior those thoughts cause. Remember your recall of happy experiences? Those times were produced by the positive thinking you have cultivated throughout your life. Learn to draw on your strengths and assets. They are the tools you will use to change negative thinking patterns into productive thoughts and actions.
You are unique. There is only one individual in existence that has your understandings and perception, and that is YOU.
In each incarnation, the thirst to form an individual identity is present. Even when parents dress twins exactly alike, surround them with the same people, and treat them the same, each one's inner urge to express their uniqueness is present and becomes increasingly apparent as the days and months progress. Similarly, we may try to "fit in" by adopting personality traits, manners of expression or appearances obscuring our unique identity. Underneath this smokescreen of what we determine as normal, our inner urge still exists.
Man's inner urge has been a part of Self since the moment of his creation as Light. The Bible states it this way in "Genesis 1:1-3":

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without forma and void.
And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light' and there was Light."

Being at the essence of everything in the Universe, Light's inherited urge is for growth and maturity. Beyond the mind's thinking abilities are the two gifts given to each expression of Light by its Creator: Existence, awareness of Self, and Free Will, the right to create that awareness.
At our current place in evolution, man has earned the freedom that comes with the responsibility of conscious free will in physical life. All other structures available in creation function compulsively in the physical. Only the Thinker that uses the physical structure manifested in the body of human man has the tools necessary for conscious reasoning to occur. This frees man from reacting habitually to physical stimuli.
In the "Gita", Arjuna draws on the inner counsel represented by the Krishna. Krishna corresponds to the Lord God in the Bible, or Zeus in Greek mythology. Krishna offers the following wisdom concerning the finiteness of the physical existence:

"Arjuna, know that the joys and the pleasures of the senses, the satisfaction that comes from external objects, bear the seeds of future pain. They belong to the world of beginnings and endings and the wise man accepts them for what they are. Even in the world of senses, the wise is filled with the strength of true knowledge giving him the ability to use the senses to fulfill his inner desires and urges. He holds them in their rightful places with mastery having created harmony in Self. Knowing the Peace within, he finds the joy and happiness in Self and knows that within him is the Kingdom of Heaven. This one has gained the peace of the Real Self."

When you identify and admit a pattern of negative thinking that you have adopted as part of your identify, set into motion the creative power in your conscious waking mind. This power is your ability to reason. With effective use of memory, will and imagination, you can change any thinking pattern you discover. This Self-directed transformation will add to your identity promoting the happiness that results from the intelligently directed and controlled mind. You are bringing forth your Real Self.
Identifying your Self as Reasoning Man directing creative power, gives you the ability to evolve more quickly through initiated change.
For example, if you heard the phrase "Nothing lasts forever" and made that idea part of your thinking, you have probably allowed this thought to mar many pleasant and happy events in your life. This becomes the seed for a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom. Your happiness in obtaining a new job or position, in getting married or having a child or in obtaining any desired condition in life is shadowed with the thought "nothing lasts forever." Thus even your glimpses of happiness are spoiled by the undercurrent of the doubts and fears of negative thinking.
Is there a cure for this Spiritual dis-ease? YES!
First, realize that this type of thinking has been accepted and practiced for a long time. It has been created and recreated in situation after situation becoming a habitual reaction to otherwise happy times. Thus each accomplishment — the job, child, marriage — has contained the superstitious foreboding "Nothing lasts forever." These thoughts erode your happiness and set into motion the end of your dreams for the future, signifying the end to your happiness.
Second, admit that you'd rather embrace and thoroughly enjoy the benefits of getting what you desire in life. As new accomplishments are achieved, direct your concentrated thoughts and efforts toward defining the ideal you are striving for. Imagine yourSelf using that new job, learning "the ropes", taking on more responsibility with greater benefits. Free your mind with the thoughts that will produce the life you desire. Choose the type of existence you desire and are willing to live.
Third, follow through in thought and in action upon your dream. Keep in mind the Universal Truth that your thoughts are things! They are real and any created thought will seek to manifest itself in your life. Value your time by creating with thought and carrying out in action what you want to happen. Time, previously wasted on the doubt and fear of the "Nothing lasts forever" trains of thought, can be wisely used to pursue the fulfillment of new desires. Keep in mind anytime your thoughts are distracted from what you truly desire, move them (just as you would an object) back to where you want them to be. You are the creator and Master of all thoughts! They will do your bidding.
Something that will aid you in developing new ways of thinking is an investigation into the nature of Man. The old idea "Nothing lasts forever" rings true because it does describe the nature of our physical existence. The physical conditions in our lives are temporary. Being directed by creative thought, they come together in configurations of people, places, and things to produce the events and circumstances in our lives. Each event is a potential source of learning and growth for the Soul.
Reach to investigate and know yourSelf beyond the physical, conscious you. Get acquainted with the needs and desires of your soul, freeing yourSelf from the pain and sorrow that accompanies attachment to the physical level of existence. This attachment is the great illusion that robs you of the peace and bliss that exists within the inner levels of your mind. As it states in the Gita:

"Meditate on the Real Self. Blend into the Real Self. Emanate from knowledge of the Real Self. Love with devotion the Real Self. The wise become free of their bonds. Their vision becomes clear from that which obscures men's eyes producing blindness. They transcend to higher states of awareness, not returning again to the lower planes of existence.
Once his eyes are freed from the blindness of illusion, he sees all with equal respect, the learned and enlightened leader of men and the outcast among men. Arjuna, the eyes are freed from the illusion of personalities of forms of life, recognizing what is real is the Real Self.
Physical, worldly differences disappear when viewed from such a height. Those whose minds dwell in this awareness gain the life above Illusion even while in the physical existence. This awareness is the awareness of the Real Self. The Real Self is the only reality midst a world of apparent reality. Those who refrain from overjoy on gaining what is pleasant and from oversorrow on receiving that which is unpleasant free themselves from attachment to the pairs of opposites, the fruits of action and external objects of sense. These find encompassing joy in the knowledge and consciousness of the Real Self, entering the realm of Eternal Bliss and Peace."

When you begin to know your Self beyond the physical You, you'll discover the existences that do last forever. As it states in the book of "Revelation" in the Bible:

"I Am Alpha and Omega
the beginning and the ending,
saith the Lord which is,
and which was,
and which is to come."
–"Revelation" 1:8

You will begin to understand the Universal Laws of Infinity and Relativity expressed in this verse, and the Truth will become yours. You will free yourSelf from the slavery of physical thinking by identifying with your inner I Am.

Your Inner I Am

All great Holy Works stimulate man to reach toward enlightenment. This is accomplished by describing man's inner nature and life. Through personal experience and identification with the whole Self, man evolves to become God-like.
In the Old Testament of the Bible, a man named Moses struggled with the dictates of his position of authority. Communicating with his inner authority (Lord) he gained valuable insights to aid him in building his identity. His inner authority appeared to him in the symbol of the burning bush. When Moses queried by what authority could he lead his people from Egypt, the inner guidance replied, "Tell them I Am sent you."
Your I Am has sent you to explore, investigate, discover, and become like the Spiritual Parent that brought you into existence hundreds of thousands of earth years ago. When you limit your conscious thinking to things of the physical only, your "I ams" bear the bittersweet fruit of self-imposed limitations. You say:

" I am happy when I am with so-and-so."
" I am happy when I am at home."
" I am happy in this kind of situation."
" I am happy when I have this or that."

So what happens to your happiness and joy when you are not with that person, or you are somewhere other than home, or you are in a new situation, or you don't possess "this" or "that"?
Expand your thinking now! Free yourSelf from self-imposed limitations of physical thinking.
Affirm that you are Reasoning Man by utilizing your power to transform your identity. Choose the peace and bliss that comes from growing Self awareness.
Draw on your memory!
Develop your will power!
Stretch your imagination!
Become the YOU you have always secretly wanted to be. Stop postponing your awareness and happiness with thoughts like "I'll be happy when…" or "I'll be happy if…". Create happiness in your life right now.
To begin enhancing your awareness of your power to transform your identity, make a list of the people, places, and things you have experienced that have resulted in your own happiness. Use the tables contained on the next pages in the following way.
Take the happy time you thought of when you began reading this book. For example, your high school or college graduation. Now, describe your unique, personal thoughts about this event that led you to single this experience as a happy one. You will be describing your experience through the use of the five means of physical identification — your senses.

I smelled
a sense of excitement and anticipation for the future.

I tasted
the success of accomplishment.

I heard
the congratulations of those I admire and respect.

I touched
the love of many close friends.

I saw
the end of one phase of my life and the beginning of another all at the same moment.

By describing your experience with each of your five senses, you have completely identified the stimulus for your mind experience of happiness. For truly happiness is a state of mind. Your happiness was not a gift from something outside you, it was the product of your own creative thinking! This thinking, which comprises your attitude toward life, is a part of you. It goes with you wherever you go, it is present at all times, in all situations. This is the freedom of thinking that causes happiness and fosters an ever-growing and changing identity.
Identification of your thoughts through using your senses gives you the insights you can practice in your present life. It also gives you the ability to imagine your future. By interpreting your sensory experiences drawn from your memory, you can determine how to create joyful experiences and sustain your joy at times of physical unpleasantness.
To reveal what produces your mental and Spiritual joy, use what you identified through the five senses to cause your reasoning to work. For example, from the stated sensory perceptions of graduation we could discover:

1. I am happy when I have something to look forward to with excitement and anticipation.

2. I am happy when I complete something.

3. I am happy when I associate with those I want to be like, thus giving mySelf the opportunity to learn from them adding to my identity.

4. I am happy when I give and receive love.

5. I am happy when I live the present moment fully, seeing the continuity of my life.

By developing your ability to interpret the energies that make up your thoughts, you will experience the joy and freedom in guiding your Self discovery. The keys you find can be used to evaluate your choices today and plan your future. With this you can expect greater happiness in your life! Happiness will become a choice for you, a choice that with determination and love will become easier and easier to make.
The Bible says "Seek and ye shall find". Actively seek your heart's desire with greater awareness each day. Realize our physical existence is one of many. Reach within Self to know the True source of happiness, peace and bliss.

"Seeker!
Do not be restless
Meditate constantly
Or you will swallow fire
and cry out: 'No more!'

If you are not wise,
How an you steady the mind?
If you cannot quieten yourself,
What will you ever learn?

How will you become free?

With a quiet mind
Come into the empty house, your heart,
And feel the joy of the way
Beyond the world.

Look within —
The rising and the falling.
What happiness!
How sweet to be free!

It is the beginning of life,
Of mastery and patience,
Of good friends along the way,
Of a pure and active life."
— "Seeker", Dhammapada

Seeking you answers to the question "Who Am I?", build an image of Self that is constantly unfolding. Imagine how seed pushes out, reaching for the light, gently unfolding its petals. Creation in motion! Guide your identity in a similar fashion, constantly emerging and growing, adding to your awareness of Self daily. Become committed to our evolvement by discovering the beauty in the phrase — "You've changed!"
Because the mind is perpetually in motion, the nature of the physical is change. You I Am has sent you into this physical existence so that you might add to your awareness of Self and creation. Because reincarnation (the soul's rebirth into the physical plane of existence) is governed by Universal Law, we each have the potential to become a Master of Self rather than a slave of the physical.
Karma, being an extension of the Law of Cause and Effect, is set into motion by our intentions behind our actions. As we intend to mature, constantly adding to our identity by using what we already possess inwardly, we realize the physical existence is a schoolroom for our soul. We are here teach lessons as well as learn them.
As Reasoning Man nears his graduation from this place of learning, the peace and bliss that escaped his awareness before is now his to claim. The Mastery that was long thought to be the providence of only a few is now recognized as the destiny of any who reaches to be known as Spiritual Man.
As it states in "Matthew" of the Bible:

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

When All Else Fails: BE HAPPY! copyright 1988 School of Metaphysics
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