Dear friends,
Welcome to this meditation which is intended as a signpost to happiness.
It helps if you can set the mood for reflection by sitting comfortably.
If you have a special time and a special place for this,
So much the better.
But if not,
Let's just do it anyway.
You might begin by taking one or two deep breaths as a way of coming into awareness of this present moment.
Breathing in,
I become aware of my life in this present moment.
Breathing out,
I'm thankful for my life in this present moment.
Let's take a few seconds to appreciate this gift as we breathe in and out.
An opening reflection.
We come from all the places of our separate lives to this period of quiet reflection.
From love and grief,
From hope and worry,
From solitude and from activity.
We come to seek renewal.
We come to seek happiness.
Let us set aside for now the cloud of everyday concerns,
Everyday plans,
Everyday pains.
Let us pause to give thanks for what we have,
To feel a sense of wonder and to experience the privilege and the happiness of living here now in this present moment.
Can you try to recall some occasion in the last little while in which you have been truly happy?
Next,
Bring to mind any moment of special happiness that means a lot to you.
And just rest in the glow of that feeling,
That happy feeling.
And just rest in the glow of that feeling,
That happy feeling.
What was it that made you happy in those moments?
Was it a person?
Was it a circumstance?
The pity is that most of us seem to spend a great deal of our lives planning for happiness in the future.
And then when the future comes along,
The thought for happiness seems to be still further down the road.
Like a shifting oasis in the desert,
It constantly eludes us.
You may be familiar with this quote from Shakespeare.
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.
We have to remember that any happiness that we can recall is an event which was then happening in its own special moment.
The lesson from this discovery is simply that happiness moments are here and now.
Happiness is here and now.
We could usefully write that expression down and put it up in places where we will be reminded of it.
Happiness is not like an alarm set for some time in the future,
When you'll have a better job,
A bigger house,
More money,
A more agreeable life partner.
Happiness is found in the here and the now are not at all.
So let's see if we can open the door of happiness right now and let's spend a few minutes inside.
So closing our eyes,
How am I just now?
Where am I just now?
Where am I just now?
Who supports me physically,
Psychologically,
Financially?
Think of all the supports I value the most.
What would life be like without these supports,
Without any of them,
Without one of them?
So realizing that I have these supports now,
Can I first bring about a feeling of gratitude for what I have?
And now can I turn that feeling of gratitude into a feeling of happiness?
Gratitude and happiness are like brother and sister.
In our search for future happiness we can take for granted and miss out on the present sources of our happiness.
In our search for future happiness our present bounty is taken for granted,
Unappreciated and the tragedy is that we do not recognize our present good fortune for the gift that it is.
We might only realize it when it's been lost.
If we keep our eyes and our ears open we will find happiness offered to us every single day.
A closing thought before the closing bell.
This is from Lawrence G.
Lovasek.
Try to make at least one person happy every day.
If you cannot do a kind deed speak a kind word.
If you cannot speak a kind word think a kind thought.
Count up,
If you can,
The treasure of happiness that you would dispense in a week,
In a year,
In a lifetime.
So my friends may you spread happiness near and far and may the happiness that you send around come back to you and keep you warm in every moment when the cold winds blow around you.
You can be sure the happiness will return.
That's just a way of things in this interconnected and interdependent world.
Namaste.
