Contentment, The Key to Ultimate Peace

In this podcast we the powerful nature of acceptance and contentment. When we realize that we ultimately lack nothing, the whole universe belongs to us.

Transcript

Welcome to the Happiness Podcast.

I'm Dr.

Robert Puff.

I want to ask you a question today and I want you to really think about it.

If you could change something in your life or have something happen in your life and this thing occurred and it would really impact you in a positive way,

What would that be?

Might it be winning the lottery?

Might it be changing some health thing in your life?

Might it be getting a job,

Becoming successful,

Or perhaps finding your soulmate?

But take a moment right now and think about what that one thing would be that would be a real life changer that if it could happen,

If it would happen,

It would truly impact your life in an amazing way.

I'm sure we all came up with something.

I think a common one is coming into a lot of money.

In the past few years there's been some really big lot of winners.

I mean a half a billion dollars winners.

That's a lot of money.

And I'm sure many of us would say,

Wow,

That happened.

That would be a life changer and that would be wonderful.

But we also know if we've lived long enough,

There are people out there that that happens to.

And yet we know that that doesn't necessarily make them happy.

And sometimes that makes them unhappy.

And it's not that there's something wrong with us having these really wonderful things happen.

It's just that because life changes,

Because life is impermanent,

They can't work.

There's always going to be a flaw in them no matter what they are.

If we're looking for external things to make us happy,

To make our lives go better,

Though they can for a while,

In the long run there's always that threat,

That threat that they'll be taken away,

That threat that something will change,

That threat that they'll lead to a path of unhappiness because we will do things that cause us damage,

That cause us pain,

That cause us suffering.

And we want to begin to question these things,

These things that we think,

That we dream about.

If they happened,

We would be so happy if that's true.

For example,

I'm a writer.

I'm working on my 14th book and they're good books.

I like them,

Actually.

I think they can really help people change their lives.

But I definitely would not compare myself even remotely to the great writer Ernest Hemingway.

His works are truly monumental life changers,

History changers.

He made literature look differently,

Be written differently,

A truly brilliant human being.

Now you would think as a writer,

If we reached this level of success,

Life would just be amazing.

It would be truly awesome.

I mean,

Oh my goodness,

It would just be astonishing.

And yet what I didn't know,

Which I just learned was that he actually committed suicide.

He had struggled with depression and he took a shotgun and ended his life.

And I think Ernest Hemingway had something to teach us.

I mean,

I know you may not aspire to be a great writer.

I don't either.

I just like to help people.

But the assignment I gave us at the beginning of this podcast was to think about something that if it happened,

It would be a life changer.

Of course,

It doesn't have to be the level of Ernest Hemingway or of its money,

The level of Bill Gates or of its love,

The greatest love story ever written or of a success that's reaching a certain level of success.

Whatever fill in the blank was for you.

If we look at the people that have that same aspiration and did a lot more than we did,

And then we can look at their lives and say,

Huh,

Why would some of them,

When they've reached so much in their lives,

Commit suicide?

I mean,

Let's use example of love.

I think one of the greatest love stories out there is Romeo and Juliet.

It truly is a beautiful story of love,

Of passion.

And yet it too ended tragically with death.

Again,

There's nothing wrong with achieving things.

There's nothing wrong with wanting things.

But the problem with it is they don't lead to happiness.

They lead to enjoyment.

They lead to having pleasure.

But happiness,

Consistent contentment in the moment,

They don't answer that.

They don't address that.

They don't meet that need.

So the question is,

Well,

What does?

I mean,

After all,

We're here to have better lives.

We're here to improve our lives.

How do we do that?

How do we work towards things that make us find happiness in the here and now?

And the answer is this,

Contentment.

Rejoice in the way things are.

Be content with what we have.

When we realize there's nothing lacking,

The whole world belongs to us.

That's beautiful,

But it's hard.

And it can be something that really goes against our natural tendencies to achieve,

To seek happiness externally.

And sometimes it can be truly infuriating.

I mean,

What if right now our child or someone we love is in the hospital dying?

We find contentment with that?

What if right now we're living in an impoverished state?

We're hungry.

We're struggling.

We're supposed to find contentment in that?

What if right now we are alone?

There's no one in our lives and we're lonely.

We're supposed to find contentment in that?

And that's why this path is hard.

It is hard.

And yet if we're able to begin to at least consider it,

Be able to at least say,

Huh,

I wonder,

I just wonder if being content with the way things are might be a path to alleviate some of the suffering that I go through.

And maybe,

Just maybe,

We're finally getting tired of the suffering and we realize that though we do many things to avoid pain,

Pain still comes.

It greets us and it says,

Here I am again.

And maybe it's time to say,

Okay,

Old friend,

I'm tired of struggling with you.

I'm tired of fighting you.

It's time to do what I can do.

But when that pain comes,

When I've done everything in my power to direct the course of my life and my life isn't going down the path that I want,

That I begin to embrace that path and say,

Hmm,

This wasn't what I expected,

But I'm going to find contentment even in this,

Whatever this is.

And then what will happen is all of a sudden that suffering that we've struggled with so much in our life will begin to soften.

We will find that in life,

Life can truly be beautiful when we don't fight life.

It's not that we're not doing things to improve our lives,

To make things better,

But when life says,

And this is the way it's going to go right now,

We say in our hearts,

Deep within,

Thank you.

I embrace this.

I accept this.

I love this.

That is a very,

Very challenging path to go down.

In many ways,

It's much like winning the lotto,

Far better than winning the lotto because it can't be taken away.

No matter what happens,

We can find peace and happiness no matter what with this path.

But it's hard because we don't like to let go of things.

We want things to go a certain way and we fight life and so we suffer.

But perhaps today we'll begin to soften that a bit and say,

All right,

It's time for me to start embracing life and seeing life as something beautiful,

Even when it goes down a path very differently than I wanted.

I'm going to begin to find that being content with what life is giving me right now is the path to finding that the whole world is a beautiful adventure because I'm open to it.

It's an openness to what is instead of fighting what is.

Contentment with what is creates a softness in us and that softness instills peace.

It generates beauty.

It generates love.

Love of life.

We can truly have beautiful lives,

But it has a high price tag.

The highest one will ever pay.

It's one where we have to let go.

Let go of everything we're attached to and flow with life.

And though we work towards things,

Though we do things that direct us down certain paths,

When life says,

No,

Today we're not going down that path,

We're going down this path,

We say to life,

Okay,

And thank you.

Again,

This is a very challenging path to go down,

But the rewards are truly beyond imagination and they can't be taken away.

We can't lose them because there's nothing to lose.

By letting go of all our attachments,

The universe is given to us freely and we become at peace no matter what.

And life now is a beautiful adventure until our dying breath.

Thank you for joining me on the Happiness Podcast.

Besides creating this podcast,

There are a variety of other things that I do.

If you'd like to keep abreast of these activities and perhaps someday we may be able to meet in person,

Just go to www.

Happinesspodcast.

Org.

You can subscribe to my newsletter and if you do,

You'll be emailed a free PDF copy of my meditation book called Reflections on Meditation.

And until next time,

Accept what is,

Love what is.

Reviews

A valuable perspective on finding contentment in one’s life. Thank you.

Aaah! The secret of life, to living. So many thanks.

Dr. Puff:
Have you ever considered changing the name of the series from “happiness” to “contentment”? It would likely not be as were understood but that seems to be what you want for us. Thank you for helping hm so many for so long. Neil 😀☯️

"Accept what is, Love what is." This a much needed reminder. Thank you

Not easy...to be mature and accept reality.

Great, thank you...

Thank you very much! This was just what I needed to hear!

Very helpful! Thank you! 🌻🌼🌻

Wonderful podcast on contentment...if you fight life, you will suffer! Just allow to accept what is and you will find peace and tranquility! Thank you!

Thank you for giving this new point of view and acceptance to things as they are.🙏

This talk is truly about the "road less traveled"! Accepting life as it comes is definitely a spiritual practice in & of itself! Thank you for your beautiful words!

Always great guidance🙏🏻Namaste and thank you 🦋🌸💕💫

This podcast has just revealed to me the gateway to restoring my joy. Thank you !

FYI: on Hemingway, another writer whom received serious brain injury (CTE)and lost most of his writing ability has proposed this explanation for Hemingway, he was known to have had head injuries from a car accident while driving an ambulance in War service, along with being knocked out in his boxing days. Similar story to what is being learned about NFL players and CTE outcomes these days.
It’s a reasonable explanation for Earnest, his loss of writing ability, and his suicde. RIP