Happiness Is Your Destiny (Talk & Q&A)

All people are looking only to find lasting peace and happiness. When we are happy, we are fully present and accept our current experience. However, happiness is not a fleeting feeling or sensation - it is your True Self, and your destiny is to discover that. The talk is followed by a Q&A session.

Transcript

Hi everybody and welcome to this talk on happiness is your destiny and the first important thing to clarify here is what is happiness because we think that it is a state of the mind and the body it's positive thinking it's expansion in terms of feelings it's joy in the body but from a more true perspective happiness is these times when we are present when we are simply accepting what is around us when the mind is is happy with the present moment and from an even more absolute perspective happiness is our true nature what do I mean by that I mean that we are all aware in this moment if I ask anyone in the world are you aware all of them will say yes so the very fact of awareness and the fact that awareness accepts every thought every feeling every circumstance that is happiness our very own presence and so often we overlook that presence and we pay too much attention to our thoughts or our feelings or our circumstances so happiness is our very own being it's that ever-present essence that is the background of all experience and so then the spiritual path is a journey of realigning the mind with this natural effortless acceptance of all that there is it is the mind that says no to some of our experiences it is the mind that wants things to be different the way life works is that the more we want things to be different the more these things expand and grow sometimes really out of control and we can learn to spot these signals from life that are trying to realign our minds trying to bring us back to presence to our natural happiness and see that everything is always unfolding perfectly knowing this that everything is always perfect is happiness experienced in the body-mind and then the second part of the title is happiness is your destiny well why is it your destiny it's because it is always here your very essence your very being your true self or your awareness is always here and so by definition what is always here what is constant is inevitable and what is inevitable is your destiny so the present moment the now happiness is your your destiny it's it's always here everything flows through this moment every thought every feeling every person every interaction every circumstance happens here when we think about the past or the future we think about them from here from this moment and as I said before the the whole of our objective experience is to point us back to the present moment to our innate happiness to our very own being and until we are here every thought feeling and circumstance will keep saying to us remember what is true remember who you are remember where happiness can actually be found it can be found again in what is constant and if we focus on the qualities of awareness itself right now you will see that it is always here it does not say no to any thought any experience everything flows through awareness and that weight is infinite and timeless time appears in awareness it is constant and everything that comes in experience appears in awareness without awareness it would not be here and once we come back to the present in this way our objective experience is also changed because the source of the experience is different before we realize our true nature our own happiness the source is this idea of separation the idea that others are out there and I am here and I need to work on my happiness I need to do things that give me joy and give me happiness and once we realize that happiness is who we are it is always here then the thoughts change suddenly we're not seeking anymore we are just present and it is from this presence that actions arise our thoughts are more aligned with with truth so when there is a tricky situation instead of fighting it we just accept it and then act accordingly there is no resistance and our actions come from from this love from this pure acceptance of everything as it is and then we recognize that acceptance is effortless happiness is effortless it is already and always here what takes effort is to resist our experience to say no to something requires the judgment of it the tension created in the body and the trying the effort of fighting it whereas when we are present when we embrace it fully then there is no resistance there is an action without resistance the spiritual part is the mind learning this and these experiences are precisely there to help us understand what is true the intelligence the consciousness behind each experience and when we align our own minds with this intelligence suddenly life becomes more easy to to embrace when we are no longer seeking happiness the world then cannot offer us much we begin to give to the world instead the world has offered us the knowing of our true nature by continuously pointing us back and now that we know it it opens up to something more something that we can give it through our character individuality etc okay so I think I'll start answering questions now any tips on getting back to the present happiness very good start is to just focus on what what is here the breath is is always here maybe some sounds or notice the details of something that you're looking at all of these are good tools to to bring us back to the present moment and also slightly more advanced practice is to try and notice the space in which everything appears so not not an object per se but the space itself that holds the object or the silence between sounds and then slowly the more you do this the more you can also find some space between thoughts the awareness with which you are aware of these tools and little by little some questions will arise what is this awareness how can I be here more often and if you follow your your heart's desire to understand the answers you will attract the right teachers the right books the right tools and techniques for you to to go deeper into this understanding the the understanding of your true nature and and where happiness actually can be found and inside timer is a really wonderful place for this because there's such a variety of teachers and meditations so you're definitely in the right place you can you explain what you mean about giving back when you realize happiness so what I mean is that objective experience and this isn't a term that comes from non-duality and it means you know circumstances we find ourselves in but also a feeling and thoughts are called objective experience because we we know them with an awareness that is itself not an object it's not a thing so the purpose of all objective experience is to point us to this no thing this empty space so to speak that that is aware that is always present and once we we are here once we recognize that this is our very nature then we no longer seek to get things from the world we don't seek for love from the world for happiness from the world and then everything is just its abundance itself because you know that all of objective experience comes from the same source that awareness that happiness that joy and love that that embraces everything as it is and coming from that place you you give it's not necessarily even with with doing something or saying something it's just your very presence is so present so joyful that other people can feel it and that is is giving to me it's just this lack of seeking this being happy with things as they are this naturally results in in sharing in giving I hope that that answers your question if there are no more questions I just want to say that I've done a 10-day course here on insight timer that is precisely on this topic it's called redefining fulfillment as a state of being not the feeling in the body and I think if you enjoyed this talk you will also enjoy the course which has daily practices and reminders please follow me on the platform to stay up to date and you can also always message me or at me as a friend on the platform and I'll make sure to reply so thank you all for for being here with me and hopefully see you again soon you