True Happiness . Spring 2006
"Happiness is determined more by one’s state of mind than by external events."
William James
True happiness is a measure of our lightness. It demonstrates the connection we have with our own heart space. Light is the internal aspect of happiness. Happiness is the external manifestation of our light that comes from the source of our being. This is the light that brings inspiration, extending power and strength in times of need. It helps us learn more quickly from our mistakes and develop attitudes that bring us back to the heart. True happiness can be sustained only by developing a healthy relationship with this light.
How to Develop The Relationship with the Inner Light
The training starts by learning to listen to our true heart’s voice. The personality is always questioning. The heart knows. The heart speaks as a soft inner awareness that has a quality of certainty, of knowing what is true. As we listen, the objective wisdom of the heart acts as a wise friend, mentoring the personality. It literally offers an instruction manual on how to transform and empower our world. As we direct light into our anger, our fear, the heart provides the wisdom and insight to see our original intentions and identify what we want to accomplish. Our heart acts as a grounding chord of spirit, bringing the conscious awareness of the higher self. It generates a powerful healing force that penetrates deeply into subconscious awareness, which then allows us to learn faster and accelerate change.
Our growth moves in waves, through cycles of light and dark. In our light aspect, we give; we share our radiance with the world. When we are giving, we come into contact with our inner light and experience elevated awareness. As our light becomes stronger, it can now act as a purification tool. Often when we are setting new aspirations and desiring change, old perceptions and protection mechanisms that need to be released will surface. With the light of new awareness, we can now look inside and clear stuck patterns that are no longer needed. Light, now acting as compassion, a quality of the awakened heart, acts as a digestive agent, melting down the old impressions, the difficult emotions that are locked in the psyche. With this release, wisdom comes.
The dark grounds us. The healthy aspect of the dark is that it allows integration. It is a time of inner reflection where the outside world goes away. This is a perfectly natural process that acts as an integrity check and creates space for us to reflect upon our actions. It gives us time to rest and regroup, to accept change and clear our delusions. If we ignore the signals to go inward, our psyche can become heavy, laden with undigested images and feelings that can become toxic and make us tired. We more easily fall into angry and critical reactions that make the space around us uncomfortable. These old undigested wounds can be connected to memories from early childhood or even from a past life. They have to be cleared and released or they will create separation, splitting us from our connection to the light.
When we understand the play of light and dark, we do not need to demonize our darkness but neither can we ignore it. We have to treat it as a teacher, here to wake us up. Our inner light brings compassion, which allows us to see how the undigested darkness motivates actions that keep us miserable. The light brings objective awareness, showing us how we have created these undigested memories into dark demons, projecting them as enemies in situations of stress. With practice, the heart can bring light into the darkest moments. This can be a powerful catharsis, the release of the most deep-seated emotions of fear, anger and confusion. In times of challenge, our light has to become stronger than the dark.
It takes incredible courage and fortitude to face old patterns. As we bring awareness and compassion, our psyche starts functioning on a new level of discernment, allowing the old to melt away. We may have to bring compassion into the wounded psyche many times, as it is easy to get lost in the drama and miss the point of what we are doing; melting down dark impressions and liberating the psyche. With the power of the light and the wisdom of the heart, it is possible to move beyond the wounded self-awareness and experience true happiness.
The integration of light and dark gives us the ability to stay centered and grounded in any situation. We are more able to catch ourselves when, on the light side, we get hypnotized with arrogance and self-importance, or on the dark side, we become too self absorbed. The heart’s wisdom helps bring us back to humbleness and compassion. It is not that we are unaffected by the world, we are simply more capable of digesting difficult situations.
One of the deepest desires we all carry is our desire to be happy. It is the desire to be in touch with our basic nature, our ground of being. When we direct this desire toward our spiritual training, the vow to live in happiness can bring us our ultimate freedom; the freedom from suffering and the awakening into the light. Setting the intention to be happy strengthens our conviction to be mindful of our actions. It encourages us to do as little harm as possible and release any attitudes that prolong the suffering of others or ourselves. Setting the intention to be happy means training ourselves to bring light to every situation. It means developing attitudes of kindness, tolerance and patience, taking responsibility for the choices we make. By challenging our conditioned judgments and living from a place of choice, we become more capable of staying conscious in difficult situations and bring workable solutions based on respect and compassion. As our intentions become clear, our spirit provides not only the right attitudes but also the energy needed to constitute change.
We approach the training in our workshop, Cultivating the Spirit of Happiness, as an art and a science. As an art, we reach into the light and inspiration of our higher self. We make vows to express our creative spirit and move into our hearts. We acknowledge the pure beauty that comes from our soul and do our best to express it through all our actions. We strive to live through the power of love and blessings, accepting that we can live by principles of wisdom and acceptance that bring peace by experiencing our light deep inside.
As a science, we study our behavior. Self-examination gives us feedback to see if we are planting the consciousness in our mind and heart that we want to harvest in the world. We learn about our personality and how it functions. We look at our conditioning and the ability to communicate so others can understand our position. We monitor our reactions to see if they are true to our intentions, to see if what we say is what we want. This process gives us cues as to where we are deluded and helps us recondition our awareness with love.
When we are able to find light and goodness in every situation, our happiness has the power to heal the world.
William James
True happiness is a measure of our lightness. It demonstrates the connection we have with our own heart space. Light is the internal aspect of happiness. Happiness is the external manifestation of our light that comes from the source of our being. This is the light that brings inspiration, extending power and strength in times of need. It helps us learn more quickly from our mistakes and develop attitudes that bring us back to the heart. True happiness can be sustained only by developing a healthy relationship with this light.
How to Develop The Relationship with the Inner Light
The training starts by learning to listen to our true heart’s voice. The personality is always questioning. The heart knows. The heart speaks as a soft inner awareness that has a quality of certainty, of knowing what is true. As we listen, the objective wisdom of the heart acts as a wise friend, mentoring the personality. It literally offers an instruction manual on how to transform and empower our world. As we direct light into our anger, our fear, the heart provides the wisdom and insight to see our original intentions and identify what we want to accomplish. Our heart acts as a grounding chord of spirit, bringing the conscious awareness of the higher self. It generates a powerful healing force that penetrates deeply into subconscious awareness, which then allows us to learn faster and accelerate change.
Our growth moves in waves, through cycles of light and dark. In our light aspect, we give; we share our radiance with the world. When we are giving, we come into contact with our inner light and experience elevated awareness. As our light becomes stronger, it can now act as a purification tool. Often when we are setting new aspirations and desiring change, old perceptions and protection mechanisms that need to be released will surface. With the light of new awareness, we can now look inside and clear stuck patterns that are no longer needed. Light, now acting as compassion, a quality of the awakened heart, acts as a digestive agent, melting down the old impressions, the difficult emotions that are locked in the psyche. With this release, wisdom comes.
The dark grounds us. The healthy aspect of the dark is that it allows integration. It is a time of inner reflection where the outside world goes away. This is a perfectly natural process that acts as an integrity check and creates space for us to reflect upon our actions. It gives us time to rest and regroup, to accept change and clear our delusions. If we ignore the signals to go inward, our psyche can become heavy, laden with undigested images and feelings that can become toxic and make us tired. We more easily fall into angry and critical reactions that make the space around us uncomfortable. These old undigested wounds can be connected to memories from early childhood or even from a past life. They have to be cleared and released or they will create separation, splitting us from our connection to the light.
When we understand the play of light and dark, we do not need to demonize our darkness but neither can we ignore it. We have to treat it as a teacher, here to wake us up. Our inner light brings compassion, which allows us to see how the undigested darkness motivates actions that keep us miserable. The light brings objective awareness, showing us how we have created these undigested memories into dark demons, projecting them as enemies in situations of stress. With practice, the heart can bring light into the darkest moments. This can be a powerful catharsis, the release of the most deep-seated emotions of fear, anger and confusion. In times of challenge, our light has to become stronger than the dark.
It takes incredible courage and fortitude to face old patterns. As we bring awareness and compassion, our psyche starts functioning on a new level of discernment, allowing the old to melt away. We may have to bring compassion into the wounded psyche many times, as it is easy to get lost in the drama and miss the point of what we are doing; melting down dark impressions and liberating the psyche. With the power of the light and the wisdom of the heart, it is possible to move beyond the wounded self-awareness and experience true happiness.
The integration of light and dark gives us the ability to stay centered and grounded in any situation. We are more able to catch ourselves when, on the light side, we get hypnotized with arrogance and self-importance, or on the dark side, we become too self absorbed. The heart’s wisdom helps bring us back to humbleness and compassion. It is not that we are unaffected by the world, we are simply more capable of digesting difficult situations.
One of the deepest desires we all carry is our desire to be happy. It is the desire to be in touch with our basic nature, our ground of being. When we direct this desire toward our spiritual training, the vow to live in happiness can bring us our ultimate freedom; the freedom from suffering and the awakening into the light. Setting the intention to be happy strengthens our conviction to be mindful of our actions. It encourages us to do as little harm as possible and release any attitudes that prolong the suffering of others or ourselves. Setting the intention to be happy means training ourselves to bring light to every situation. It means developing attitudes of kindness, tolerance and patience, taking responsibility for the choices we make. By challenging our conditioned judgments and living from a place of choice, we become more capable of staying conscious in difficult situations and bring workable solutions based on respect and compassion. As our intentions become clear, our spirit provides not only the right attitudes but also the energy needed to constitute change.
We approach the training in our workshop, Cultivating the Spirit of Happiness, as an art and a science. As an art, we reach into the light and inspiration of our higher self. We make vows to express our creative spirit and move into our hearts. We acknowledge the pure beauty that comes from our soul and do our best to express it through all our actions. We strive to live through the power of love and blessings, accepting that we can live by principles of wisdom and acceptance that bring peace by experiencing our light deep inside.
As a science, we study our behavior. Self-examination gives us feedback to see if we are planting the consciousness in our mind and heart that we want to harvest in the world. We learn about our personality and how it functions. We look at our conditioning and the ability to communicate so others can understand our position. We monitor our reactions to see if they are true to our intentions, to see if what we say is what we want. This process gives us cues as to where we are deluded and helps us recondition our awareness with love.
When we are able to find light and goodness in every situation, our happiness has the power to heal the world.
Inspiration to Remember
Be willing to play.
Tell the truth with compassion.
Kindness comes from an open heart.
Listen carefully to your heartand be true to yourself.
Our joyfulness is a natural expression of spiritual grace.
Light filled awareness brings wisdom, love and freedom.
Without acceptance, we do not have access to the voice of our heart.
Be willing to play.
Tell the truth with compassion.
Kindness comes from an open heart.
Listen carefully to your heartand be true to yourself.
Our joyfulness is a natural expression of spiritual grace.
Light filled awareness brings wisdom, love and freedom.
Without acceptance, we do not have access to the voice of our heart.
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