Obstacles to Happiness

I must had a smile on my face earlier today while at the laundromat for the person working there told me that I look very happy. I told him that I don't see any reason why I shouldn't. I thought of reasons in my mind but really there should be no reasons I need to think of. After all, happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of children, until they have been polluted by the stupidity so prevalent in society and culture. To acquire happiness, you don't have to do anything because happiness cannot be acquired. You have it already. How can you acquire what you already have?

Then why don't you experience it? Because you've to drop what you're carrying. You don't have to add anything in order to be happy; you've got to drop something. Life is hard only when you have your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings, etc. Do you know where these things come from? They exist from you identifying yourself with labels of every variety.

There was a lawyer who was presented with a plumber's bill. He said to the plumber, "Hey, you're charging me $200 an hour. I don't make that kind of money as a lawyer!" The plumber said, "I didn't make that kind of money when I was a lawyer either!" You could be a plumber or lawyer but that shouldn't affect the essential "I". If I change my profession tomorrow, it's just like changing my clothes. I am untouched! Are you your clothes? Are you your name? Are you your profession? Stop identifying with them. They come and they leave.

When you truly understand this, no criticism can affect you. No flattery or praise can affect you either. When someone says, "You're a good guy," what is he saying? He's not talking about "I." "I" am neither good nor bad. "I" am neither a success nor a failure. It's none of these labels. These labels depend on the criteria society establishes. These labels depend on your conditioning - your level of being brainwashed by your culture, society, and people you know. These labels depend on the mood of the person who happens to be talking to you right now. "I" am none of these labels.

Uninterrupted happiness requires no cause. True happiness is just there. You cannot make me happy and you are not my happiness, whoever or whatever you happen to be. Someone can ask the awakened person, "Why are you happy?" and the awakened person replies, "Why not?". That is the only answer possible.

Self-improvement: Why Do People Seek Trouble and Drama?

Why do people seek drama? A good question and something that's related to the previous entry on Wang Xiaobo's "Extreme Experiences". Wang Xiaobo took his Chinese cultural revolution experience and ancient writings as his lens to see the issue. However, Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art, takes another perspective on the individual's need for excitement.

This short book contains small prose passages with a lesson contained in each meant to inspire and guide the artist and writer. One of the central themes is the concept of Resistance and how that prevents us from attaining what we most desire. Steven writes this on the needless drama that some people pursue:

We get ourselves in trouble because it's a cheap way to get attention. Trouble is a faux form of fame. It's easier to get busted in the bedroom with the faculty chairman's wife than it is to finish that dissertation on the metaphysics of motley in the novellas of Joseph Conrad.

...Anything that draws attention to ourselves through pain-free or artificial means is a manifestation of Resistance.

Cruelty to others is a form of Resistance, as is the willing endurance of cruelty from others.

The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work. The working artist banishes from her world all sources of trouble. She harnesses the urge for trouble and transforms it in her work.

Self-improvement: Not What You Do But Why You Do

It's very important to realize before you do anything, the reason you're doing it. If it's not for a meaningful purpose, you probably should not be doing it. And you should always be truthful to yourself on the real reason why you're doing it.

It's often easy to trick your mind into thinking on one reason you're doing something when that really is not the real reason. Do not just stop at your mind; look at your heart and ask how you feel. Most of us are gifted with conscience within our hearts and more often than not that'll be the gate which can see our true reason rather than the reasons given by our complicated mind.

For instance, today, I was thinking that I should isolate myself again to try to get a lot of work done to make up for slacking off recently. This is what my mind was saying. But then I asked my heart and it said only one word "guilt". If my heart had said something like "triumph" or "expectation", that'll be different. But I cannot base this action on this feeling since I understand enough about myself that I can be easily distracted when I'm completely isolated. And I know that more "guilt" will be tacked on the present "guilt" because I'll be ignoring other obligations I need to do today if I just completely isolate myself. I'm just digging a larger hole for myself.

The heart is simple like that--emotions that can be expressed in one word can say more than any fancy reasoning needing a paragraph. And it typically is more honest than your mind but do both to confirm.

So to sum it up, two things to keep in mind as going through life:

1. Before doing any activity, ask yourself why you're doing it.

2. Know the real reason on why you're doing it by looking at both your mind and your heart. In other words, your reasoning and your emotion.