What a strange thing!
Despite the inevitable suffering, there can be true happiness in the earthly life.
What a strange paradox!
Now, those who confuse joy with happiness have no solution to this puzzle. And the vast majority of human beings know nothing of happiness. Knows joy and suffering, knows nothing of happiness because joy and suffering are things of the tyrannical ego. Happiness is not part of our ego. And since most people never leave the periphery of their ego, they know nothing of happiness. And they say it is impossible to be happy in this world because it is impossible to avoid suffering.
They identify happiness with joy and unhappiness with suffering.
This is the eternal confusion among human beings. They forget that it is important to venture into an area beyond the peripheries of the ego. This is the only necessary thing because we all want to be happy, that we must and can be happy, as long as we discover a source of happiness, far beyond the superficial peripheries of our physical, mental and emotional ego, for within the ego zone there is no true happiness. There is only suffering or joy which we should not confuse with happiness.
Our ego says: In human life, there is only a little joy and much suffering. And you come to talk about happiness? Where is happiness? If I am sick, where is happiness? If my son died, if my wife died, if my husband died, my parents died, where is happiness? A true tragedy where I cannot resurrect them, I cannot visit them… do not tell me about happiness, this is an illusion, a utopia.
And yet our true destiny is to be happy. Not after death, but now ... here and forever. Happiness cannot begin after death; it must accompany a lifetime. But all life is subject to unfavourable circumstances. It has nothing to do with our happiness.
Unfavourable circumstances cannot give me unhappiness, and favourable circumstances cannot give me happiness.
Happiness! Nature wants it, God wants it and we must accomplish it. It is obligatory for each one to realize his happiness today, tomorrow, forever and ever; here and everywhere. It is our destiny; without this, we are not true human beings.
However, almost no one is happy, almost all people are unhappy; much more is said of unhappiness than happiness. This means that 99% of human beings have not discovered the truth about themselves, because where there is no self-knowledge, there is no happiness. Whoever does not discover the truth about itself can enjoy and suffer but can never be happy; that is, self-realization is not achieved. Self-knowledge and self-realization are happiness. There is no self-realization other than pure happiness.
So, we are facing this great impasse, this great conundrum, this great question mark.
How to realize our happiness, our true destiny, our self-realization here and now? Because it's not about doing this after death. It's about doing it here and now, at least in the beginning.
We have to start being happy now. Now we have to accomplish - now we have to fulfil our destiny.
“Whoever possesses and feeds within the desire and the attitude of serving and being good does not need to seek for happiness around. Happiness does exist, but not outside us, where we usually seek it, but within ourselves, where we rarely find it.”
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From a speech given by Huberto Rohden.
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