This is part of a mail I received on Art of Living mailing list and it made a lot of sense...hence wanted to share it here...
What is your commitment in life? You may say you are committed to happiness. Every living creature wants to be happy. Whether it is money, power or sex, you get into it for the sake of happiness. Some people even enjoy misery because it gives them happiness!
To be happy, we seek something. But despite getting it, we are not happy. A school-going boy may think that if he goes to college, he will be more independent, free and therefore happy. If you ask a college-going boy whether he is happy, he feels that if he gets a job, he will be happy. Talk to somebody who is settled in their job or business, you already know what he will say! He is waiting to get a perfect soul mate, to be happy. He gets a soul mate, but he now wants a kid to be happy. Ask those who have children if they are happy. How can they relax until the children have grown up and have had a good education and are on their own. Ask those who are retired, are they happy? They long for the days when they were younger.
All of one’s life is spent in preparing to be happy someday in the future. It’s like making a bed all night, but having no time to sleep.
How many minutes, hours and days have we spent our life being happy from within ? Those are the only moments you have really lived life. Those were perhaps the days when you were a small kid, completely blissful and happy or a few moments when you were surfing, swimming or sailing or on a mountain top, living in the present and enjoying it.
There are two ways of looking at life. One is thinking that, “I'll be happy after achieving a certain objective.” The second is saying that “I am happy come what may!”
Which one do you want to live?
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I can identify myself with the lines, "A school-going boy may think that if he goes to college, he will be more independent, free and therefore happy. If you ask a college-going boy whether he is happy, he feels that if he gets a job, he will be happy"bcoz, when I was in 10th, I thought if I score gud marks, I needn't work hard any more, then it was 12th for college, then college life for job".
ReplyDeleteAmong the alternatives u gave, I choose to b happy at that moment, rather than waiting for the moment to b happy. As happiness lies in simple, silly things.
But there r also times, where I feel it is worth sacrificing temporary happiness for bigger ones or bigger favours.
Now, neither am I longing anymore for the days of my childhood, nor am I sitting and waiting for the future. Just walking in the journey of life, to let the surprises unfold by itself.
Hey!
ReplyDeleteI feel very happy after reading this post :)
:))
ReplyDeleteMy status msg is pretty much relevant to this post. It says "Philosophies are easy to read...the only difficulty is in following them".
Well, the gist of the post is what was transferred during ISHA yoga as well. While I can very well grasp the profundity of the "happiness" mentioned in the post, I am not able to practise it in the day to day life...May be a very few nanoseconds....jus may be, when I am in that state....May be, with time, I may learn to be rooted in the present...
A link is worth a thousand words:
ReplyDeletehttp://antorocks.blogspot.com/2005/11/what-is-that-i-want-from-life.html