We are all wishing to experience happiness, we all would like to feel peace. If you ask the person that sits beside you what they want from life, the answer almost certainly will be – I would like happiness for myself and others. This happiness most likely will be the exact feeling that they once had when they achieved something important, when they fell in love, when they got their first job, when they bought their first car. It will be associated with something or someone. And they will be searching for this happiness again, for this feeling of true content. But if they would think about it deeper, they would soon realise that even though it happened before it also passed, it faded. So, are they running after something that sooner or later will be gone, it will pass or perhaps it won’t be as amazing after some time, as now they got used to it? Yes, they do…
On the other hand there will be the ones that do not want to search anymore, the ones that believe that true happiness isn’t possible to achieve because the nature of human life excludes permanent contentment and happiness, that we can only experience fleeting moments of excitement.
As much as all of this is true and very real, the point that we seem to often miss is that we are always looking for happiness outside of ourselves, in other people – friends, parents, partners, children; in the material things around us – new job, car, house; but we are not trying to find it within ourselves. There is only one person responsible for the happiness in your life and it is yourself. This realization should sit at the base of your spiritual journey. It is possible to maintain the feeling of happiness and harmony through meditation practice.
The goal of meditation is not in the outside, not in the material world, not in other people but deep inside each of us. Meditation allows you to recognize your very own aspects and brings you to the wide world of self-awareness. This teaches us that constant source of happiness, peace and joy exist inside of us, if we want to feel it we need to stay connected with the source, connected with our through self, with the light within.
I would like to share with you a small exercise –
Find a place where you can be on your own, find a few minutes when nobody will distract you. Light a candle, place it in front of you. Sit in a comfortable but straight position, you can sit on a chair or on the floor with your legs crossed, let your shoulders drop, put your hands on your knees, facing your palms upwards. Look at the candle, focus on the flame, take a deep breath in, and slowly exhale. Concentrate your eyes on the flame and your mind on breathing. Stay still, even if only for few minutes, see how it feels… Repeat every day, each day extending time.
