AN EXPERIMENT IN CREATING VALUE

Here’s an experiment: Try listening for the effect of these words: say I love you several times today—just say the words; let them linger in the air and notice how they make you feel. Say them to everything around you; say, I love you to the toaster, to your houseplants, to your toothbrush. Say it to the houses you pass and to the people in the houses you pass; say it to other drivers, to cops, say it to yourself. Fill the world with the words we all want to hear: I LOVE YOU!

I'm getting ready to go outside to read my electric meter, a task I share with my electric company, one month they trudge out to check the numbers, the next month I do. Today, a cumbersome bit of uncertainty slithers up from some region of my mind and I find myself wondering if they really show up for their end of the bargain or have they, in their corporate foxiness, found a way to get me to do their job--me foolishly reading the meter and them doing only an estimate when it's their turn. I feel suddenly suspicious. 

(SUSPICIOUS: a state of suspecting wrongdoing without sufficient proof or evidence). I'm reminded of all the retailers who have installed self-checkout units in order to eliminate checkout clerks from the payroll and get me to do THEIR job. I paw through my past years elec. bills to see if I can catch them in a scheme to do the same. But even as I do this, I realize there's a deeper issue in the mix--a sort of cocktail of darker stuff--my own lack of trust and fear of being taken advantage of being the main ingredients. This is not proof, (although yes, in a reasonably clear vessel, intuition might certainly arouse suspicion--but I'm not sensing that sort of conviction at the moment) I find no proof in the electric bills either--each month is marked with a code: A for actual reading and E for estimate. As nearly as I can tell, things have gone according to our agreement about who reads the meter, when. I suppose that they could still be cheating me and lying on the bill but I also know that I do not want to call up some poor clerk and raise a ruckus based only on my suspicions about the possible lying, cheating, conniving nature of big businesses in general. I decide I don't want to do that at all. I'd rather clear out the clutter in my own mind so that I can again choose to focus on the joy that resides inside and let the Universe take care of the cheaters. It will. Maybe once in awhile the Universe uses me as the vehicle for that payback but not today. Today I get to be happy and nothing else is required of me yet. And aaah the fresh, expansive nature of an uncontaminated mind--nothing beats it. Have a delightful day. May your dance of life sparkle with joy!

That time of day

It's about 8 p.m. here at my house in the ubiquitous upstate New York. I'm doing ok. I didn't kill anybody. There's food in the fridge. Nobody I know lost their home or any of their loved ones. Noone's car needed me to push start it. This is the time of day when I wind down. I've either accomplished what I wanted to accomplish today or its too late to do anything about it and whatever it was that didn't get done will have to wait because I seriously need a nap, some dinner, or to just lie back with a book or a movie and let the tension melt out of my neck and shoulders. Yay! So why, you may be wondering is there a picture of some seagulls when the topic apparently is vegging out?  Good question; I'm glad you mentioned it. 

A little about me:

I am a contemplative living outside the traditional contemplative culture. After training for seven years in 3 monastic traditions--I was drawn back into the world-at-large for further training in the arena of so-called ordinary life. After struggling for so long with the myriad ways my mind made me miserable I suddenly discovered I could be happy in spite of it and in fact I now consider myself a Happiness Expert.

Interests

• My adult life has been characterized by my spiritual journey and my interests tend to radiate from that core undertaking; i.e. the work of (simply) being Present has become the dominant state of being, one which underpins anything else I might be engaged in. Simple activities have greater dimension and the innate possiblity of enJoyment. Considering what my mind and my life were like when I started this path of self-correction, the difference is miraculous.
• I love to sing, to dance, to just make toast!
• write poetry
• or just watch raindrops sliding down the windowpane.

WHAT IS HAPPINESS ANYWAY

"The mind is restless, turbulent, powerful, violent; trying to control it is like trying to control the wind." --Bhagavad Gita

I suspect that every human being on this planet wants to be happy. This is one thing we all really do have in common. But how can we be happy when unhappy situations are clawing at the door of our equanimity and possibly pushing us to the edge of our endurance?

Let's take a look at what happiness really is. There are two ways to look at this question, one would be a relative definition of happiness and the other would be objective. The relative definition is open to personal interpretation and is usually dependent on some condition that must be fulfilled in order for happiness to ensue. This creates an if/then premise. i.e. if I am married to the right person, then I will be happy, or if I have my health, then I will be happy. The problem we encounter here is that if the condition is lost then the happiness goes with it.
We need to install a standard of happiness that does not depend on the attainment or acquisition of any condition or element but rather is happiness that stands alone; happiness itself; a state that is attainable (actually noticeable would be a better word) regardless of circumstances.
This is the only definition of happiness I can accept for myself and it makes happiness absolutely available to anyone regardless of their income, age, degree of beauty or any seemingly adverse circumstances. This happiness is the result of accessing the joy that is inherently available to all of us and which arises naturally and spontaneously in the absence of mental distractions.
To attain this joy, we must turn inward to the source of our being; we must learn to be still. When we learn how to be still, that stillness will deliver up the joy. It is stillness that gives rise to joy and joy is the fundamental heart of happiness.