04 Sep The Evolution of Happiness – September 5 2019
Humankind is being led along an evolving course,
through this migration of intelligences,
and though we seem to be sleeping,
there is an inner wakefulness that directs the dream,
and that will eventually wake up up to the truth of who we are.
Jalaluddin Rumi, 12th Century Persian Mystic
from Coleman Barks,
The Dream that Must Be Interpreted, The Essential Rumi,
quoted from The Yogi’s Roadmap by Bhavani Silvia Maki
Too often we find ourselves trying to ‘figure out’ our life path, deciding what should come next, where should I be a year from now, what job should I have, what partner should I be with; as if there were a perfect alignment of people, places and things that would bring me happiness.
This is what drives us: the idea of and desire for happiness. Or at least a lessening of our suffering.
When we look at life from this angle, we end up spending our time in thinking – constantly comparing ‘what is’ with what ‘should be.’ Trying to shift things this way or that to bring them more fully into alignment with these ideas of happiness.
We’re not wrong. Happiness is our guide. But not as a goal we set ‘out there;’ rather it is the thing that, once we find it within, will guide us unerringly in the direction the universe wants us to go.
This is the direction of evolution. This is all that nature is ever doing. Evolving itself. Evolving me. Evolving you. Evolving consciousness itself. As the Veda says, consciousness is all there is. Nature is consciousness. Consciousness is nature. One and the same. An evolutionary flow, moving always toward its ultimate goal of knowing itself entirely.
When we have contacted the place of happiness within, the field of pure bliss, nature shows us where that happiness wants us to go, by making each new step a bit more and a bit more and a bit more in the direction of ultimate bliss. One next right action after another, moment to moment. The evolution of each one of us the evolution of the whole.
And how do we contact this field within? We meditate. Each time we sit, we are giving ourselves and nature the clear message that we wish to listen to something other than our thoughts; that we are willing to give up, for at least 20 minutes, our ideas of happiness in order to move in the direction of happiness itself.
Today I will meditate twice, morning and evening, knowing that by so doing I will have moved more in the direction of the source of all happiness within, which is my birthright, my assignment, the very truth of my Being.
