How To Be Happy!
Happiness! Who in the world does not yearn to posses this often elusive state of mind? We all seem to want it; most of us have experienced it for a while only to see it evaporate like mist in the morning.
Happiness is enshrined in the consciousness of every American child when he or she learns that in our Declaration of Independence we have the inalienable right, given by God, to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. If there is another country that makes the pursuit of happiness a right of every citizen, please send an e-mail to me and let me know about it. It seems to me to be a uniquely American obsession.
Think about this phrase in the seminal document that launched the great American Experiment in representative government - Pursuit of Happiness; as if happiness were a fox or a rabbit that we pursued through the tangle of underbrush that makes up our lives. Just think of what that phrase really says. Happiness is something that you can acquire if you chase it hard enough and long enough or if you are good enough! Is that really what happiness is? Can you really "find" happiness in relationships, money, posessions?
I don't believe it! Happiness is the ultimate "inside job". It comes from within or not at all. Americans probably spend more time and treasure chasing happiness than any people in the world, but I have observed that we are not the happiest people in the world.
Why? Because you cannot acquire happiness from a thing or an outside circumstance in your life. A new face, new car, new job, new spouse, new address, does not make you happy because you are still you. Wherever you go, there you are! "As within, so without", Scripture tells us bluntly. Listen to what one of the greatest teachers God has sent to us,Jesus of Nazareth, had to say.
Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is not up there or over there or in this or that. He said it was within each of us. To Him the Kingdom of God was not a place but a state of Mind; of course we misunderstood His words as we did most of what He taught. We equate the Kingdom of God with a place or a time when God rules the Earth in the form of Jesus. Jesus was pretty clear that it is a state of mind or a beingness. You become the Kingdom of God, you do not travel to it!
You will find happiness only when you learn to love yourself and your neighbor - your fellow human. At no time did Jesus tell us that a bigger house, a nicer car or a better job would transport us to the Kingdom of God or into a permanent state of bliss. Only a renewal of your mind and heart will make you happy. Only then will your life be transformed.
Now be clear about this! There is nothing wrong with having a comfortable, abundant life. We are not condemned to a life of lack or suffering in order to be One with God. The point here is that while we can enjoy driving that nice car, living in the lovely home or working in the top floor corner office; the pleasure, the "high", always wears off. Soon, this new state of abundance becomes ordinary and then we need more and more and more and there is never enough to fill the hole in our soul that we desperately need to fill to feel satisfied. Enjoy the "stuff" but know that it is just "stuff" and that the thrill is short lived. Know that to be happy every day of your life you need to do two things.
Here they are: read, re-read and heed.
Keys to Happiness:
1. Know that you are a Creation of the Most High God who is the Indwelling God in you - not a mistake or damaged goods. You are not a surprise to God - He made you, He loves you, He is pleased with you, no matter what you are now or what you have done in the past. You are a work in progress. God knows who you are. He loves to see you grow and learn and to atone. Look at that word atone. It is AT ONE, isn;'t it. That is the key, to be AT ONE with God. It is not about apologizing or promising to be better, but about waking up to the reality that you are a Divine Expression of God; that God lives through His Creations including you. You are literally an experience God is having right now.
You and God are one. Once you get this, you will change because you have just come face to face with your Higher Self, the Self that know that it is One with God. You will never feel the same again. The things that used to "push your buttons" (American for causing upset) no longer have power over you. The people that you used to look down upon or judge, you now know are literally your brothers and sisters. The things that used to cause stress and worry are now seen as minor bumps in a road on which all are guaranteed to reach their destination. You finally understand that you are invincible, you cannot really be hurt - you have all the power of God as close as your Mind and your Word and your acceptance of God as the center of all there is.
Knowing that, how can you not be happy every day of your life? You are not a weak worm in the dust, you are made of the stuff of God. You are of Royal Blood and are a magnificent being, an eternal Spirit in training. Self hatred is the great enemy of your perfect life. Loving yourself is essential if you are to love God and to love other people. You cannot give love if you have no love to give! True happiness comes only when you understand what and who you are.
2. Love everyone you meet. They are literally your brothers and sisters. We all came from the same Creator, the same Universal Mind that created all that exists in this world and billions we have yet to experience. We are literally One in God, we are individualized expressions of that God. Put God at the center of your life for God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and ending of all things, including us. Each of us are bound together, no matter our skin color, culture, religion, by a common parentage - God, the Most High and the Indwelling God which are one and the same.
Here is the essential key to Oneness and the freedom and power that it brings to your life. Know that the fellow in the next office that is so irritating is your brother - he is a Creation of the same High God that created you! Like and love are not the same thing. You do not have to like him but you do have to love him. That means accept him for who he is, get out of judgement and find the good in that person and magnify that in your Mind. Give little or no thought to the unpleasant aspects of their being. See yourself as being One with this person, knowing that we are all One since God creates all that exists. There is NOTHING outside of God, including your irritating neighbor in the next office.
3. Practice Gratitude twice each day without fail by doing this: Upon awakening and just before sleeping, take time to speak your Word of Gratitude for at least 5 things for which you are grateful this day. Never start or end a day without thanking God for every blessing of your life, even if it is that you are still alive and that you will see the sun tomorrow. There are always things for which to be grateful.
Throughout your day, focus your thoughts on all the things for which you are grateful. Gratitude brings more to you, you become a magnet for your Good. I call gratitude the "motor oil" of God's Universe. It lubricates the engine of your life, bringing you more of what you cherish. Here are some examples of what gratitude and the understanding of who we really are can do in the lives of some men in the worst possible situations:
I did some spiritual counseling in prisons a while back; I was amazed that there were several of the inmates I worked with who were really quite happy in their state of being. How can you be happy in prison? They did not wish to be in prison - who does? But they had accepted that their choices had put them where they were, they were not victims and that realization freed them to use the experience for learning, growth and to become a new person. These men each told me that the change came when they surrendered to the moment and to a power greater than themselves. At that moment, the chains of victimhood fell off and they could see prison as a soul school and not a punishment.
One that was particularly memorable earned a Phd. in psychology while serving a 15 year sentence at San Quentin Prison. As he told me, he certainly had the time! His degree was from the University of California, Berkely - one of the top five Universities in the world! He received it free of charge, courtesy of the taxpayers of the State of California. He was a convicted armed robber and an attempted murderer who transformed his life when given the chance. 12 years he worked on his Doctorate and when he finally finished his Dissertation and was granted his degree he was given his parole and became a Professor in the University of California System.
That is turning hard time in one of America's worst prisons into a new life. That is creating happiness from the inside out and demonstrating the power of gratitude in your life. "Sweet Ernie" as he was called on the streets of South Central LA in his gang days, had come from the dregs to the halls of Academe. Can you do the same? Like Ernie, you can change the worst childhoods, the worst circumstances and the worst punishments into a life transforming experience - do you have the courage, the belief, the imagination to see beyond the "facts" of you life now? Can you be grateful when all around you seems bleak?
More on happiness next week.... May God Bless and Keep You!
Rev. Dore' Jacques Patlian
Happiness is enshrined in the consciousness of every American child when he or she learns that in our Declaration of Independence we have the inalienable right, given by God, to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. If there is another country that makes the pursuit of happiness a right of every citizen, please send an e-mail to me and let me know about it. It seems to me to be a uniquely American obsession.
Think about this phrase in the seminal document that launched the great American Experiment in representative government - Pursuit of Happiness; as if happiness were a fox or a rabbit that we pursued through the tangle of underbrush that makes up our lives. Just think of what that phrase really says. Happiness is something that you can acquire if you chase it hard enough and long enough or if you are good enough! Is that really what happiness is? Can you really "find" happiness in relationships, money, posessions?
I don't believe it! Happiness is the ultimate "inside job". It comes from within or not at all. Americans probably spend more time and treasure chasing happiness than any people in the world, but I have observed that we are not the happiest people in the world.
Why? Because you cannot acquire happiness from a thing or an outside circumstance in your life. A new face, new car, new job, new spouse, new address, does not make you happy because you are still you. Wherever you go, there you are! "As within, so without", Scripture tells us bluntly. Listen to what one of the greatest teachers God has sent to us,Jesus of Nazareth, had to say.
Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is not up there or over there or in this or that. He said it was within each of us. To Him the Kingdom of God was not a place but a state of Mind; of course we misunderstood His words as we did most of what He taught. We equate the Kingdom of God with a place or a time when God rules the Earth in the form of Jesus. Jesus was pretty clear that it is a state of mind or a beingness. You become the Kingdom of God, you do not travel to it!
You will find happiness only when you learn to love yourself and your neighbor - your fellow human. At no time did Jesus tell us that a bigger house, a nicer car or a better job would transport us to the Kingdom of God or into a permanent state of bliss. Only a renewal of your mind and heart will make you happy. Only then will your life be transformed.
Now be clear about this! There is nothing wrong with having a comfortable, abundant life. We are not condemned to a life of lack or suffering in order to be One with God. The point here is that while we can enjoy driving that nice car, living in the lovely home or working in the top floor corner office; the pleasure, the "high", always wears off. Soon, this new state of abundance becomes ordinary and then we need more and more and more and there is never enough to fill the hole in our soul that we desperately need to fill to feel satisfied. Enjoy the "stuff" but know that it is just "stuff" and that the thrill is short lived. Know that to be happy every day of your life you need to do two things.
Here they are: read, re-read and heed.
Keys to Happiness:
1. Know that you are a Creation of the Most High God who is the Indwelling God in you - not a mistake or damaged goods. You are not a surprise to God - He made you, He loves you, He is pleased with you, no matter what you are now or what you have done in the past. You are a work in progress. God knows who you are. He loves to see you grow and learn and to atone. Look at that word atone. It is AT ONE, isn;'t it. That is the key, to be AT ONE with God. It is not about apologizing or promising to be better, but about waking up to the reality that you are a Divine Expression of God; that God lives through His Creations including you. You are literally an experience God is having right now.
You and God are one. Once you get this, you will change because you have just come face to face with your Higher Self, the Self that know that it is One with God. You will never feel the same again. The things that used to "push your buttons" (American for causing upset) no longer have power over you. The people that you used to look down upon or judge, you now know are literally your brothers and sisters. The things that used to cause stress and worry are now seen as minor bumps in a road on which all are guaranteed to reach their destination. You finally understand that you are invincible, you cannot really be hurt - you have all the power of God as close as your Mind and your Word and your acceptance of God as the center of all there is.
Knowing that, how can you not be happy every day of your life? You are not a weak worm in the dust, you are made of the stuff of God. You are of Royal Blood and are a magnificent being, an eternal Spirit in training. Self hatred is the great enemy of your perfect life. Loving yourself is essential if you are to love God and to love other people. You cannot give love if you have no love to give! True happiness comes only when you understand what and who you are.
2. Love everyone you meet. They are literally your brothers and sisters. We all came from the same Creator, the same Universal Mind that created all that exists in this world and billions we have yet to experience. We are literally One in God, we are individualized expressions of that God. Put God at the center of your life for God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and ending of all things, including us. Each of us are bound together, no matter our skin color, culture, religion, by a common parentage - God, the Most High and the Indwelling God which are one and the same.
Here is the essential key to Oneness and the freedom and power that it brings to your life. Know that the fellow in the next office that is so irritating is your brother - he is a Creation of the same High God that created you! Like and love are not the same thing. You do not have to like him but you do have to love him. That means accept him for who he is, get out of judgement and find the good in that person and magnify that in your Mind. Give little or no thought to the unpleasant aspects of their being. See yourself as being One with this person, knowing that we are all One since God creates all that exists. There is NOTHING outside of God, including your irritating neighbor in the next office.
3. Practice Gratitude twice each day without fail by doing this: Upon awakening and just before sleeping, take time to speak your Word of Gratitude for at least 5 things for which you are grateful this day. Never start or end a day without thanking God for every blessing of your life, even if it is that you are still alive and that you will see the sun tomorrow. There are always things for which to be grateful.
Throughout your day, focus your thoughts on all the things for which you are grateful. Gratitude brings more to you, you become a magnet for your Good. I call gratitude the "motor oil" of God's Universe. It lubricates the engine of your life, bringing you more of what you cherish. Here are some examples of what gratitude and the understanding of who we really are can do in the lives of some men in the worst possible situations:
I did some spiritual counseling in prisons a while back; I was amazed that there were several of the inmates I worked with who were really quite happy in their state of being. How can you be happy in prison? They did not wish to be in prison - who does? But they had accepted that their choices had put them where they were, they were not victims and that realization freed them to use the experience for learning, growth and to become a new person. These men each told me that the change came when they surrendered to the moment and to a power greater than themselves. At that moment, the chains of victimhood fell off and they could see prison as a soul school and not a punishment.
One that was particularly memorable earned a Phd. in psychology while serving a 15 year sentence at San Quentin Prison. As he told me, he certainly had the time! His degree was from the University of California, Berkely - one of the top five Universities in the world! He received it free of charge, courtesy of the taxpayers of the State of California. He was a convicted armed robber and an attempted murderer who transformed his life when given the chance. 12 years he worked on his Doctorate and when he finally finished his Dissertation and was granted his degree he was given his parole and became a Professor in the University of California System.
That is turning hard time in one of America's worst prisons into a new life. That is creating happiness from the inside out and demonstrating the power of gratitude in your life. "Sweet Ernie" as he was called on the streets of South Central LA in his gang days, had come from the dregs to the halls of Academe. Can you do the same? Like Ernie, you can change the worst childhoods, the worst circumstances and the worst punishments into a life transforming experience - do you have the courage, the belief, the imagination to see beyond the "facts" of you life now? Can you be grateful when all around you seems bleak?
More on happiness next week.... May God Bless and Keep You!
Rev. Dore' Jacques Patlian
posted by Rev. Dore' Jacques Patlian at
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