Joy and Self

Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of GOD (A Course in Miracles)

Have you ever noticed how miserable you sometimes become when you can't achieve some of your goals?  Perhaps you even attack yourself for not being able to get there despite your best efforts. But then, perhaps you have also noticed that on occasions you still feel deflated when you do succeed. Wake up to the fact that happiness just is; often happiness is unrelated to how well we think we are doing.

Both of us live in the northern part of the Americas and during dreary winter days we sometimes dream about the warmer climates. Yet, is it the case that people in California and Florida are any happier than we are? No! The reason is that the bad weather, just like a disappointment, is often an excuse why one is supposedly so miserable. It may have come anyway. Happiness comes from within, and it certainly transcends weather just as much as success or failure.

If you keep observing yourself, perhaps you discover the joy or sadness that is just flowing through you without any apparent reason.  Aha, you suddenly realize that joy, peace, love, and wisdom are always at your disposal, as long as you can stay with the SELF. Whenever we forget this truth and start looking for happiness in the external world, we will never find it. We can only find happiness when we connect with our SELF. Sure, we still need to deal with life and we still need to go after our goals, but happiness we can only find along the WAY, and not just at our imagined destination.

Nothing can threaten us as long as we stay centered in the SELF. Just do your thing and have fun no matter what.

By Christian and Su Zhen