TOWNSHEND — On the surface, I seem an unlikely candidate to write about being happy.
I am often sad and sometimes without an easily identifiable cause. I sigh a lot and have been known to say to God on many occasions, “Lord, it is so hard being human.”
I know he knows what I am talking about, even though my life experience is like a banquet in comparison to so much of the real human suffering we hear about in the world.
Yet the smaller sadnesses we feel - the isolation, the loneliness, the longing - are very real forms of suffering, too.
But after intoning my weariness at the human condition, I am able to readjust my outlook and return to my center, and from there I know exactly how to be happy.
* * *
Look around you. How many people do you know who are truly happy? And you yourself - are you truly happy?
Does your happiness depend on things going well in the day-to-day life you lead, and when things fall apart, does your happiness, too, come undone?
As long as our happiness is linked to what happens in the world, be it the macrocosm or the microcosm of our own little sphere of experience, it is on very undependable ground.
So how can we find the happiness that Maharshi says is our true nature? How can we find a happiness that is not dependent on things staying manageable in our little realms?
If our happiness is tied to the ones we love, what becomes of it when tragedy strikes and the ones we love leave us or die?
If our happiness is tied to our possessions, or our great jobs that give us such a feeling of fulfillment and importance, what becomes of it when the economy tanks and we lose it all in one fell swoop (or in smaller increments)?
Can human beings truly find a happiness that is not subject to change when circumstances in the outer realm change?
The answer is of course, yes.
True happiness, or what is more appropriately called joy, can be found and held onto by moving from living strictly in the material, physical world into the world within, and one method to find our way there is the practice of meditation.
* * *
We appear to be separate physical bodies, bodies with minds filled with experiences, concepts, beliefs, likes, dislikes, and the entire gamut of human thinking. We also have characters and personalities, all molded and shaped by our thinking and the experiences we have had, the lessons we have learned along the way.
But there is another part of us that is very mysterious and, for many, seldom glimpsed: the deep, empty, clear space within our consciousness where thinking ceases and being alone emerges.
It is a hard place to describe in words. Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu describes it:
§Between heaven and earth is a space like a bellows;
§Empty and inexhaustible,
§The more it is used, the more it produces.
§Hold on to the center.
§Man was made to sit quietly and find the truth within.
A true search for happiness that cannot alter with time or circumstance must begin with this going within to the center. It requires silence and receptivity. It also requires dedication and practice, and another central prerequisite is humility.
But if you want lasting happiness badly enough, eventually you will try anything, and this is one method that will not disappoint you.
* * *
Sit somewhere quiet. Keep your back straight and your hands relaxed on your lap. Gently close your eyes and begin to take long, deep breaths through your nose.
Quiet your mind by focusing on your breaths or by repeating a few words. Something as simple as “I am” would do, or “I am loved.”
There are many methods for meditation; the important thing is to just do it.
Do it for five minutes today, 10 minutes tomorrow, 15 the day after that. Build up a tolerance for sitting quietly, receptively, and humbly, and there can be no doubt.
You will find yourself moving surely and steadily on the path toward happiness and it will begin to unfold within and all around you.