Finding Peace and Ending Suffering

In this contemplation, we discuss the mechanism of how unhappiness is created by keeping our happiness hostage to what should happen (or not happen) in the Future. This act of freedom, invariably, creates tension in the body and mind; the release that ensues when our desired expectation does happen gives an illusion of "happiness". Most of the time, the release does not happen and we hold on to the disappointment and tension. We can choose to be happy without projecting into the future.

We believe the content of our thoughts without investigating the truth of it. The replay of an event is NOT the event. The map is not the territory. We suffer the content of our thoughts because of the belief that whatever we think is "real" in a way. We don't see how low-resolution this thought is compared to the actual event. We replay the event and go through it repeatedly OR imagine and scare ourselves! All it takes is zooming into our thoughts and verifying for ourselves!

Do we realize that we postpone our happiness? Do we realize that we are trading our current happiness and deciding to pursue happiness with the aim of finding it in the future? This sounds absurd but this is what we do most of the time. In the process of wanting what we don't have and getting rid of what we do have we project happiness in the future. This is an experiential contemplation of this exploration with examples and vivid imagery!

In this contemplation, we learn to pause the "known" and stay with the "now." In this "now", we allow our experience to unfold just the way it wants to. Similar to sitting at the beach and watching the waves crash without correlating the waves with any past experiences or predicting the nature of the next wave. Instead of constantly jumping into the memories of past experiences or the imagination of future experiences (that leaves us exhausted and stressed), we can just stay in the Now! In the process, we get insights about how suffering is and how to not create it.

This contemplation explores the recipe of unhappiness with the first ingredient being "wanting what is not here" and "trying to get rid of what is here" based on our preferences! We are constantly fighting what is happening and trying to manipulate it into conforming to a romantic idea of how people/situations/things should be. And the second ingredient is the projection of happiness/peace in the future leaves us miserable in the now. Somewhere in the future, there is happiness - long-lasting happiness - is what we romanticize but never verify the truth behind it. Here we explore this mechanism and recognize the agency of pulling back the happiness projected into the future and infusing it into the Present.