Monday, September 10, 2012

Happy Now

Take the Happy Road. Live in Truth!
The Tibetan Buddhist saint Milarepa once said, "All worldly pursuits have but one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow." When I first heard that I strongly disagreed with it, but then I read some commentary on what the good saint meant and changed my mind.

While it is true that there is a sense of happiness and joy when we achieve any of our worldly goals such as obtaining a college degree, or being offered a dream job, or finding a new friend, or finally being able to buy that long awaited get-away cabin, what Milarepa meant was that any of those joys are fleeting. After the exhilaration of graduation is over, or the first few weeks on the job reveal that it is going to be harder than you thought, or you have your first disagreement with the new friend, or you discover that the cabin roof leaks and needs major repairs the happiness and joy are gone. It seems that each thing in life that we desire and seek after to make us happy comes with its own set of problems.

But when we Live in Truth we aren't seeking after things in order to make us happy. We seek after things in order to learn and grow, but we find happiness in every moment of the journey. It is so wonderful to realize that we don't have to wait for happiness to come to us. We are happy now!

1 comment:

Wendi said...

Thanks for this good reminder. :)