A familiar feeling

When we look around us, there seems to be quite a lot happening. All around us, people are busy with their own activities, and so are we. For approximately two-thirds of our day, we are up and about, doing this, doing that. Busy, busy, busy!

Yet, the question we want to ask ourselves, is if we ever take a moment to see what the driving force behind all the activities is? We are performing various activities, there is no doubt about that, but what are the intentions behind all of our activities? Let's consider this for a moment before we read the next line.

Methods of seeking

And...? 
What do we find?

If we are totally honest with ourselves, we would find that nearly all our activities are motivated by the same intention, with the same wish, or the same expectation. Whatever it is that we do, we seek happiness. We want to be fulfilled.

This is quite evident, and we can start by identifying this on the very gross levels of activities. From time to time, we go to the cinema, we go to a restaurant or we go out dancing. It is obvious that we do this because we want to have fun, we want to enjoy ourselves.

Furthermore, we commonly study something we enjoy or we do a job we enjoy. In general, we won't do something that we dislike. However, when we do, we usually do this because we have the expectation of attaining happiness through this. For example, we do a job we don't like, to earn a salary through which we can go to the restaurant, the cinema, and we can go out dancing. See, all driven with the same intention, to be happy!

The same applies to our spiritual or religious activities. We perform them either to enjoy happiness now, or we expect happiness at some future time. For example, we may have heard that if we live good lives now, then one day when we die and go to heaven, we will be happy beyond our imagination. Or, we meditate with the intention of attaining something in the distant future, something that is not here at this present moment.

Whichever way, we can see that we are driven by the desire to be happy, to experience lasting peace and happiness. We do not have to admit this to anyone else, but we can be true and honest with ourselves and acknowledge this fact.

It is not a shame that we want to be happy and we shouldn't feel guilty because we want lasting peace and happiness. After all, it is what all of us want, is this not true? 

Taking all of this into consideration, let's ask the following question. Why is it, that we are constantly longing for fulfilment, lasting happiness or the presence of God? The obvious answer would be, well, because we want to be happy. However, there seems to be something more to it, more than what appears on the surface. 

Let's put this into perspective through a short story.

A deep longing

Imagine that at some point in our lives, we had the opportunity to live in the Himalayas. Thinking back, we remember waking up in the morning and smelling the clean, crisp air. We remember this feeling of freshness and the taste of the air. 

Further, we remember looking outside and seeing the foothills covered in Pinetrees, the white, snowy mountain tops, and the clear blue sky in the background. The tastes, the smells, the feelings we had comes back, and we long for this experience again. 

However, a person who never experienced this would never be able to think back and long for this feeling, is this not true? We can only miss something that we know, that we have experienced before.

Have we ever missed the voice of someone we have never heard? Do we ever long for the taste of something we have never tasted? No.

Now, let's apply the same understanding to our desire for lasting peace and happiness.

An intuitive hint

Through our desire for lasting peace and fulfilment, it is evident that we must have experienced this at some point, and consequently, we long for this again. This yearning comes from somewhere. It is not by mere chance, by mere accident, that we have this longing for unconditional love, peace and fulfilment. 

Intuitively, we can feel that the suffering does not feel right. Intuitively, we have this feeling, this knowing that we are more than what we are told to believe. 

This is because suffering is not our True Nature. Unhappiness is not who we are, it is not what we are, and therefore we have this natural aversion towards unhappiness. We are the peace, love and fulfilment that we are seeking. The presence of God that we yearn for, has never been separate from us, God has never left us, not even for one single moment. God is always here, and we can find Her in each and every single moment, always here and now. 

The presence of God, or our True Nature, shines through each and every experience we have. Each thought, each emotion, is illuminated by the loving presence of our Divine Mother.

'It' is something so intimate, that 'it' tends to be completely overlooked and before we know, we are seeking 'it' in all places, except for the only place where it truly exists. Within ourselves. 

This is exactly what we are missing and longing for. Our True Nature, Unity with the Divine. We miss being ourSelf.

Lost in the play

How we got to the point where we forgot ourSelf is a completely different topic, suitable for another article. In short, we can say that we got so caught up in this play, in the Leela, that we forgot to take off the masks. We were never truly the character that we are playing, it is just that we forgot who we truly are.

What brings us lasting peace and happiness, is not by understanding how or why we are here, but understanding how to discover our Self again.

There are subtle hints to remind us of who we are, like the silent moments between each thought, the experience between going to sleep and waking up, and the impermanence happening all around us, while we remain the same. Yet, we overlook these hints and instead we seek fulfilment elsewhere, externally.

We can also think of moments when we quiet the mind and stop being a somebody, even just for a few moments. Through this emptiness or silence, internal peace starts to come to the surface, sometimes just for a few moments... and then we get busy again!

See, as soon as we can acknowledge that lasting peace and fulfilment is what we are truly seeking, we can stop seeking it in all the avenues that brought us disappointment up to this very point. We can let go of grasping and clinging to objects. All objects, such as physical objects, mental objects, emotional objects and even holy objects.

So, we turn silent, we turn within, through meditation. The more we explore inwards, the less we are caught up in the play. Through this, what we have been longing for the most, gets discovered within ourselves.

Upon realizing that true and lasting fulfilment lies within, we stop seeking it externally. This means that the way we perceive reality changes too. Instead of having the expectation of attaining lasting happiness through anyone or anything, we can see people and objects for who and what they truly are. We can appreciate each and every moment for what it is, without wanting something from it.

What we are longing for, what we have forgotten, is nothing other than ourSelf!

What we are yearning for, lies at the very core of who we are. What we are missing, is ourSelf.

Similar articles on this blog:

Being a somebody, a someone - 04 October, 2020
Life, a cup of tea - 27 September, 2020
Exploring our True Nature - 14 July, 2020