The Source of Happiness: The Present Moment

Who is not longing for happiness? For undisturbed peace, tranquility, carefree ecstasy, when everything looks bright, our heart burst out singing, and we love the entire world?  Most of the time –however- it is not granted to us. We yearn for happiness, we crave for it, and we tend to think of it as some state to be achieved some time in the future. "I will be happy when I have realized this or that dream of mine." "When I am rich and have no financial problems, I will be happy." "When everybody loves me the way I like it, I will be happy."–these are the obstacles in my way towards happiness.
You set up an objective, and you say: "When I have achieved that objective, I will be fully happy." You drive and you strive, you do your best to be successful; and when you have finally arrived at your goal at the price of a lot of hard work, toiling and suffering, you are happy for a brief period: "Success! I have finally done it! I have accomplished it". You are pleased, you allow yourself to enjoy the success.

You notice the sparkling sunshine, you hear the call of the birds, enjoy the beauty of the colorful flowers, you fully rejoice about the beauty of life. "Oh, how wonderful things are now!," you tell yourself. This state of undisturbed pleasure, however, does not last long. Doubt arises: "Oh, isn’t it going to go wrong soon? This pleasure will be over one day… What if..?" And the machinery of the mind starts working again. You think, you are afraid, or you set up new objectives. The sweet pleasure is gone, and you are in the state of suffering again.

Through The Eyes Of Consciousness

I am now talking to you in a different language from the one I used to speak. I am now speaking in a language that you can easily understand, if you listen to the message. You will understand this language if you read slowly. You will understand it if you insert a brief pause after each sentence, and allow the message to reach your intellect or, what is more, the realm beyond your intellect: the dimension of Consciousness. 

Now, it is not the “lot of cleverness” accumulated in me who wants to talk to the “lot of cleverness” accumulated in you. Now it is not the mind, wishing to initiate a mind game with another mind. We now avoid all the cleverness, wittiness, beliefs and dogmas, and the spirit living in me is going to address the spirit living in you. Consciousness is talking to the Consciousness in you. 

These are the words of the living spirit hiding inside you, contacting the living spirit hiding in you. Read it therefore slowly and understand my message.

Greetings to the Spirit Living in You!

There is a wonderful greeting in the sub-continent of India. You meet somebody, look deep into his eyes, and recognize the mysterious spiritual essence hiding in him. Then you put your palms to each other in front of your breast, bow and say, with great sincerity, ”I respectfully greet the spirit living in you!” This is the impressive Namaste-ritual: awe and respect to the mysterious consciousness recognized in the other person. You recognize and realize that you and him are the same: transcendental spirit, an unique  blossoming of the Consciousness.

We, members of the human race, are peculiar creatures. We are created on this beautiful planet, so rich in living things, as manifestations of life. On this planet everything is a great miracle, as its very existence is a miracle in itself. The existence of a thing is not an unavoidable necessity. Still, things do exist: a rose with its unique scent, a graceful blade of grass, a wood in the forest with its rich foliage, a singing bird. Oh, what a wealth of unique beauty! And they are all alive, rooted in the Self, they are all incarnations and manifestations of life.

As children, innocent toddlers, we experience this unique magic, but when we are grown up, ”we know what the different things are.” Our mind categorizes the manifestations of the miracle: this is just a rose, a common, boring rose–that is what we think. We cut it off to inhale its unique scent, without recognizing that all such things are the wonderful expressions of life.

There is something in us, completely incomprehensible for the Mind: that is Life, something that science is only able to describe as ”complexity,” complicatedness. The miracle is therefore placed into a category, but has the unique miracle of life been thus explained? No, we have only invented a word for it. A concept has been invented, but it kills the miraculous nature of life. Life is, in fact, a great miracle: a mysterious existence as an indivisible unity, a complete Self.

Consciousness: the Ultimate Mystery

Have you ever been thinking about what is hiding behind your eyes, contemplating the world through your eyes? Who is experiencing its environment through your body? Who is that knows your emotions and thoughts?

Tasting a Newly Discoverable State of Consciousness

Have you ever been thinking about what is hiding behind your eyes, contemplating the world through your eyes? What is the thing that is experiencing its environment through your body? What is the thing that knows your emotions and thoughts? Please, in this very moment turn your attention to the intellect, awareness reading these lines! Watch the observer hiding in you!

What you may find is an existing, real ”something,” and not some abstract metaphysical concept, new age-, esoteric or religious-dogmatic thing that you must believe in. You do not need to believe in it, as it is there in everybody as an alert, intelligent space. It is possible to experience it directly.

This is a new concept that has so far escaped our attention. This is, in fact, the only existing dimension into which the objects and forms of the external world are projected, and that is where we experience our bodily sensations, emotions and thoughts, which are no more than the phenomena of this dimension.

There are basically three–entirely different–states of consciousness:

*The ordinary state of consciousness, which is unaware of the space in which patterns and forms (an image of the world, thoughts, emotions and feelings) appear. This is our everyday consciousness, when we are submerged in forms and shapes - in the contents of the consciousness

*The state of identifying with the pure consciousness, free from forms and shapes. Initiated, mystic or spiritual disciplines call this state ”divine.”

*The experience of completeness, which is equally aware of the domain of forms and shapes and the space-like consciousness.

Spread your Wings and Fly Away!

How many people suffer because they are unable to utilize their potentials to the fullest? How many believe that they are unable to live their own lives because their environment impedes them, with false references to ”loyalty," "traditions," and "customs?" Have you ever had the impression that deep inside you shrink smaller and smaller, and you give up your dreams just in order to meet the expectations of your environment?

In the young seagull the desire arises to spread his wings and discover the distances promising so many wonders. The other seagulls were scared, and strictly reproached him: ”The sense of life is to fly as far as you find food. If you fly any further, you will be alone, and won’t find the way back.” Though the young seagull was scared of finding himself alone, he was unable to resist the temptation of flying far away, and he tested his wings day by day. Successes were followed by failures, but he did not give up: every day he flew a bit higher. One day he flew higher than the clouds, and the familiar landscape disappeared from his eyes, and he saw nobody around him. He could have felt lonely, but he still did not feel lonely. He was, instead, unique. The little seagull soared on, enjoying the currents of the air. Then he met a seagull–its wings were shining bright. Then newer and newer seagulls appeared, with their wings shining bright. The little seagull arrived in his new home...

How Can You Discover Your Real Self?

Are we really nothing but our body, emotions, thoughts, life story, career and possessions? * What we term ”I” exists constantly: from early childhood until death we know that ”we are,” that we ”exist.”  Who can that permanent ”I” be? * Awakening to the awareness of "I am" opens up the most mysterious dimension of our existence.*

When some people are asked the question, ”Who are you?" they begin to tell long and complicated stories about their alleged self: stories that they have learnt or developed about who they are or who they aspire to be.

This complicated story about ”me,” one’s possessions, one’s career and experience make a person so individual, that at present 7 billion separate, alienated universes live on Earth, unable to understand one another, generating a wide range of disputes, skirmishes, animosity, hatred and conflicts.

Are we really nothing but our body, emotions, thoughts, life story, career and possessions? If you were not a woman but a man, would you exist? If you did not have a job and property, would you exist even as a homeless person? But of course–many people would say, believing that even under different circumstances they would still live: they would have a body, they would think and experience emotions–and that is what they call ”I.”

But are we really a summary of our body, thoughts and emotions? We continually experience emotions, we feel things, and a stream of thoughts runs through our mind at all times. These thoughts and emotions, are however, not constant: they come and go, to be replaced by new thoughts and emotions. They change all the time: our childhood thoughts and emotions are entirely different from our present-day ones. Our emotions and thoughts are not permanent. What we term ”I,” on the other hand, exists constantly: from early childhood until death we know that ”we are,” that we ”exist.”  Who can that permanent ”I” be?

Awakening From The Obsessive Thinking

Please, carry out a simple, nonetheless astonishing experiment:

Take a watch or a stopwatch, and decide that you are not going to think for a while, as long as you are able to do so! Well, how long has it taken until the first thought slipped into your mind? 5-10 seconds? Are you able to avoid thinking for minutes?

You will be astonished: you are incapable of not thinking. Thinking takes place, it happens to you. The thoughts thinks you, and it is not you who thinks it. You do not do it at will (if it depended it on your will, you could simply avoid thinking), and you are unable to suppress thinking or keep it under control.

We are proud of capable of thinking, as this is what elevates us above the animal kingdom, and our personal identity is also rooted in our thoughts to a large extent. Philosopher René Déscartes declared ”I think, therefore I am.” But is this really thinking that makes us what we are? Would we exist if we did not think?

If we devote some time to monitoring our thoughts, we soon realize that thoughts in our mind keep shifting and changing: a thought appears, then it vanishes, and is replaced by another thought, linked, associated to the previous one–that is how thoughts stream continually, without a stop. Where is this vast stream of thoughts coming from, how has that stream become the foundation of our identity?