Hello,
This is Don Joseph Gowie,
And this podcast is about the not-so-easy,
But always simple task of just being yourself.
Nasargadatta says,
To be yourself,
Stop imagining yourself to be this or that.
Just be.
Try to feel what it means to be without anything.
Let your true nature emerge.
Don't disturb your mind with seeking.
You are what you are seeking.
Be it.
But how do I be it,
You might ask?
The most direct path to your true self is to stop the mental interference of the false self that makes you unhappy,
Stressed,
And lost.
First,
If you want to be happy and at peace,
Stop arguing with reality.
The argument usually begins in anger with the thought,
This should not be happening.
It is the mind arguing with what is,
And causing you to suffer.
As Byron Katie states,
When you argue with reality,
You lose,
But only 100% of the time.
When you stop arguing with reality,
A space opens immediately,
And a natural feeling of happiness begins to emerge on its own.
Second,
Drop the story.
Bring into awareness the mind's running commentary,
Usually negative,
On nearly everything.
Many of us have lived in the heavy weather of our interpretations,
Misperceptions,
Judgments,
And projections.
It is,
As William Shakespeare wrote,
A tale told by an idiot,
And we believe every word of it.
Anthony DeMello wrote,
If we were not actively engaged in making ourselves miserable,
We would be happy.
We were born happy.
All of life is shot through with happiness.
When you drop the story,
Whatever you have been ruminating over begins to lighten.
In that lightness of being,
That same lovely space opens,
And you naturally begin to feel happier.
Number three,
Let go of me.
Another slayer of peace and happiness is the false self we have been conditioned to function from.
Notice how it subjugates you to who you should be,
What you should want,
And how your life should have gone.
This false self perpetually postpones happiness,
Believing it comes from things outside you,
Convincing you that without your attachments to having,
Getting,
Or keeping something,
You cannot be happy.
The Buddha called this the source of all suffering.
I invite you to consider another statement from Anthony DeMello.
It is this,
The only reason why you are unhappy is that you are focusing on what you do not have,
Rather than what you have right now.
The false self does not see and therefore cannot relate to the abundance of love surrounding you here and now,
Providing everything you need to be happy and at peace,
Regardless of circumstances.
Let me repeat that,
Regardless of circumstances.
Make sure you heard that.
Fourth,
Release psychological time.
We also postpone happiness through psychological time.
Here is what is meant by that.
When you are depressed,
Your head is carrying the baggage of the past.
When you are anxious,
Your head is full of worry about the future.
Both cause the heart to close.
But when you are at peace,
You are in the only time and place you are ever truly alive,
The present moment.
As your self-awareness allows depression and anxiety to arise and pass without any interference,
They fall away.
And in their absence,
That clear space arrives and your heart opens.
Now you have become the love that you have been seeking.
