Happiness

"You believe that misery is happiness. A little piece of glass, a speck of dust, a body, or a war are one to you. For if you value one thing made of nothing, you believe that nothing can be precious, and that you can learn how to make the untrue true." -- A Course in Miracles

Look around you. Everywhere within all cultures of the world, striving is deified. It is the noble journey, the hero's journey, that fascinates us and shapes our lives. It is the seeking and finding of the right place, the right wealth, the right purpose, the right companion. Then we will have fulfilled the demands of this noble journey, and as the hero or heroine of the story, we will be happy. Right?

What is your experience with this story? How many versions of this fairy tale have we all lived, over and over and over? Of course, in the story, there is always one last piece that remains elusive. But we are certain that if only that piece or that person would fall into place, the happily ever after will be assured.

Certainly there are momentary bursts of euphoria in our lives when we seem to get what we think we want. Certainly there are glimpses of peace. But what comes and goes can hardly be depended on as true, can it?

What if all the comings and goings of people, places, and things are a smokescreen for what is always effortlessly present? ACIM points out that by valuing the transient, we lose sight of what is eternal and real. By valuing the comfort and desires of the conditioned self as what really matters to us, we lose sight of our true Self. This misplaced allegiance is the source of all suffering. Because like smoke these things will all dissolve, and they will ultimately never give us the happiness we seek.

The joke to all of this is that happiness is simply an attribute of our true Self and is always effortlessly present. And like a 3-D picture that cannot be entered and seen with our everyday vision, our true happiness, our true Self can only be seen when that everyday vision is dropped... when we no longer insist that our happiness lies in persons, places, or things. True Happiness, the Ground of Being that is our true Self and is always effortlessly present, can be counted on for now and forever. IT IS HERE NOW, AND WILL ALWAYS BE.

"The truth is true. Nothing else matters, nothing else is real, and everything beside it is not there." -- A Course in Miracles