Posts Tagged ‘Chuang Tzu’
Solstice Salutations and Quotations
~ For a Happy World
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life,
the whole aim and end of human existence”
~ Aristotle
“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”
~ Dalai Lama
“A disciplined mind leads to happiness,
and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.”
~ Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness
“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
~ Buddha
“The world is so unhappy because it is ignorant of the true Self.
Man’s real nature is happiness. Happiness is inborn in the true Self. Man’s search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true Self. The true Self is imperishable; therefore, when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end.”
~ Ramana Maharshi
Solstice Salutations and Quotations For a Happy World
Dear Friends,
Happy Summer Solstice!
With a new summer solstice sunlight zenith, let us envision the dawning of an Aquarian age of divine light, peace, compassion, and joy everywhere on our precious planet and beyond.
May we thereby rededicate ourselves to the Eternal Light of LOVE within and beyond everyone and everything on Earth; to THAT universal spirit of eternal light, love, harmony and happiness, which is the unseen Source of the worlds we see.
And as we optimistically envision a new season of previously unimagined planetary peace and joy, may we be infused with unprecedented illumination and inspiration for harmoniously healing our beautiful blue planet and all its life-forms.
To help inspire us, hereafter posted is a collection of wisdom words about finding timeless happiness. Please enjoy and accordingly consider these inspiring quotations.
Perennial Wisdom Words About Finding Happiness:
“Seek first the kingdom of heaven,
which is within.”
~ Matthew 6:33; Luke 17:20-21
“Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it.
What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.”
~ Ramana Maharshi
“Happiness comes when your work and words
are of benefit to yourself and others.”
~ Buddha
“The happiness of one’s own heart alone cannot satisfy the soul;
one must try to include, as necessary to one’s own happiness,
the happiness of others.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
“One great question underlies our experience, whether we think about it or not: what is the purpose of life? From the moment of birth every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affects this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire contentment. Therefore, it is important to discover what will bring about the greatest degree of happiness.”
~ H.H. Dalai Lama
“I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness.
That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not,
whether one believes in this religion or that religion,
we all are seeking something better in life.
So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness…”
~ Dalai Lama
“True happiness cannot be found in things that change and pass away.
Pleasure and pain alternate inexorably.
Happiness comes from the Self and can be found in the Self only.
Find your real Self and all else will come with it.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
“There is only one life and one world, and this one life and one world is appearing to us . . . . like a dream. . .You do not live in your dreams. The dreams come one after another; scene after scene unfolds before you.
So it is in this world of ninety per cent misery and ten per cent happiness. Perhaps after a while it will appear as ninety per cent happiness, and we shall call it heaven. But a time comes to the sage when the whole thing vanishes, and this world appears as God Himself, and his own soul as God. It is not therefore that there are many worlds; it is not that there are many lives. All . . is the manifestation of that ONE.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
“He who has not looked on Sorrow will never see Joy.”
“We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.”
~ Kahlil Gibran
“Find ecstasy in life;
the mere sense of living is joy enough.”
~ Emily Dickinson
“I do not think of all the misery, but of the glory that remains.
Go outside into the fields, nature and the sun,
go out and seek happiness in yourself and in God.
Think of the beauty that again and again
discharges itself within and without you and be happy.”
~ Anne Frank
“The root of joy is gratefulness…
We hold the key to lasting happiness in our own hands.
For it is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”
~ Brother David Steindl-Rast
“We are formed and molded by our thoughts.
Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts
give joy when they speak or act.
Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.”
~ Buddha
“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
~ Abraham Lincoln
“When you are suffering, when you are unhappy, stay totally with what is now.
Unhappiness or problems cannot survive in the Now.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“Happiness does not depend on how the furniture is arranged –
it depends on how I arrange my mind.”
“When you change the way you look at things,
the things you look at change.”
“Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy,
but this is not accurate.
You make yourself unhappy.”
~ Wayne Dyer
“The surest way to be happy
is to seek happiness for others.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Joy comes not through possession or ownership
but through a wise and loving heart.”
“If one speaks or acts with a pure mind,
happiness follows like a shadow.”
~ Buddha
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
~ Dalai Lama
“Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold,
happiness dwells in the soul.”
~ Democritus
“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more,
but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”
~ Socrates
“Happiness belongs to the self sufficient.”
~ Aristotle
“The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live
that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.”
~ Epictetus
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not;
remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”
~ Epicurus
“Cultivate compassion; harvest happiness.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Joy is not in things; it is in us.”
~ Richard Wagner
“I am happy even before I have a reason.”
~ Hafiz
“The superior man is always happy.”
~ Confucius
“Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.”
~ Chuang-Tzu
“By letting it go it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try,
the world is beyond the winning.”
~ Lao Tzu
“What is the worth of a happiness for which you must strive and work?
Real happiness is spontaneous and effortless.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
“He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sun rise.”
~ William Blake
“Always be joyful. That is the only truly saintly state.”
~ Teresa of Avila
“Joy can be real only if people look upon their life as a service,
and have a definite object in life
outside themselves and their personal happiness”
~ Leo Tolstoy
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.”
~ Rabindranath Tagore
“Somehow not only for Christmas
But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others
Is the joy that comes back to you.
And the more you spend in blessing
The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart’s possessing
Returns to make you glad.
~ John Greenleaf Whittier
“Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination”
~ Mark Twain
“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow,
it only saps today of its joy.”
~ Leo Buscaglia
“Some cause happiness wherever they go;
others whenever they go.”
~ Oscar Wild
Closing Invocations:
May we consciously and cooperatively participate together in co-creating an ever better world – Happy, Harmonious and Peaceful – as we intend and envision it to be.
May we so become infused and used as instruments of Light and Love for everyone and everything everywhere – on Solstice Holidays and Always!
May everyone everywhere be happy!
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Remembering the Mirror of the Mind
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“The identification of pure awareness
with the mind and its creations causes the [mistaken] apprehension of both an objective world and a perceiver of it.”
~ Patanjali – Yoga Sutras
“All appearances are verily one’s own concepts,
self-conceived in the mind,
like reflections seen in a mirror.
To know whether this be so or not,
look within thine own mind.”
~ Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche)
Perception is a mirror, not a fact.
And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward.”
~ A Course In Miracles
“When you look in the mirror, what do you see?”
Do you see the real you, or what you have been conditioned to believe is you?
The two are so, so different.
One is an infinite consciousness capable of being and creating whatever it chooses,
the other is an illusion imprisoned by its own perceived and programmed limitations.
~ David Icke
“The mind of the Sage being in repose
becomes the mirror of the universe,
the speculum of all creation.”
~ Chuang Tzŭ
“The Witness and the witnessed are ONE.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Saying
“Space and time are not conditions in which we live,
they are modes in which we think.”
“The distinction between past, present, and future
is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
~ Albert Einstein
“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong.
What we have called matter is energy,
whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses.”
~ Albert Einstein
‘Time, space and causation
are like the glass through which the Absolute is seen…
In the Absolute there is neither time, space, nor causation.’
~ Swami Vivekananda [Jnana Yoga]
“Every particle of the world is a mirror.
In each atom lies the blazing light of a thousand suns.”
~ Mahmud Shabestari, Sufi Mystic, 15th century
“We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.”
~ Buddha
“The world, indeed, is like a dream
and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage!”
“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion,
does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.”
~ Buddha
“This separation between man and man, between nation and nation,
between earth and moon, between moon and sun.
Out of this idea of separation between atom and atom comes all misery.
But the Vedanta says that this separation does not exist, it is not real.”
~ Swami Vivekananda [Jnana Yoga]
“We are like the spider.
We weave our life and then move along in it.
We are like the dreamer
who dreams and then lives in the dream.
This is true for the entire universe.”
~ Aitareya Upanishad
“Our mentality is our reality.
Our “reality” is what we think it to be.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Whatever we think, do, or say,
changes this world in some way.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Thought divides Universal Awareness,
as a prism divides light.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Human consciousness is conditioned consciousness;
it is pure Awareness conditioned by ego conceptions.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Ego” = “Mind”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
One must elevate — and not degrade — oneself with
one’s own mind, which is one’s friend as
well as one’s enemy. The mind is the friend of those
who have control over it, and the mind acts like an
enemy for those who do not control it. (6.05-06)
~ Bhagavad Gita 6.5-6
Remembering the Mirror of the Mind ~ Ron’s Memoirs
Introduction
Dear Friends,
At age ninety I’m again updating memoirs to emphasize my most important spiritual insights learned since spiritually awakening over forty years ago.
I’ve learned that our space/time duality “reality” is an energetic mental illusion which we create with our unique “free choice” thoughts, beliefs and behaviors. And that by understanding and intuitively using and controlling our “mind” we can inwardly advance our happiness and spiritual evolution, despite challenging outer life circumstances, with inevitable fears and sufferings.
For millennia mystics, seers and sages have revealed that space/time/duality reality is an unreal mental illusion, that they’ve often called maya or samsara. And these inner discoveries have been scientifically confirmed by Albert Einstein’s revolutionary relativity discoveries that everything everywhere is endless energy – E=mc2.
As an elder seeker of Self-Realization, I’m sharing this memoirs posting to help us understand and use our minds to transform and transcend them. Therefore the posting explains how the mind functions like a mirror, which only perceives and projects reflections. These perceived reflections are mistakenly interpreted by our minds as physical or material objects, which are only optical energy illusions.
Like mirrors the clearer the mind, the clearer and more accurate are its displayed images. And minds like mirrors can identify as “reality” only via perceived light wave images. Since most humans discern only a tiny part of a vast and ever expanding electromagnetic energy spectrum, what we visually and mentally reify is only a persistent “optical illusion of consciousness.”
Yet while incarnate we cannot escape viewing our space/time duality world through the ‘mirror of the mind’. But more and more we can remember that it reflects the unseen light of Eternal Awareness onto the screen of our human consciousness its Source. And thereby we can gradually transform and transcend the mind’s persistent “optical illusion of consciousness.” by inwardly remembering and Self-identifying with that Eternal Light of Consciousness..
So by learning how human minds perceive, reflect, and project like mirrors we can better understand why our perceived reality is only a mental illusion, which we can inwardly control to advance (and not deter) our spiritual evolution.
(See What is the human “mind”? Is it best friend or worst enemy?)
(See Transcending Ego-Suffering)
Therefore, I’ve posted the above and following quotations and explanations about how human minds appear and function like mirrors, to further our spiritual evolution.
Quotations about mental unreality of time on Earth
“The world, indeed, is like a dream
and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage!”
“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion,
does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.”
~ Buddha
“Space and time are not conditions in which we live,
they are modes in which we think.”
“The distinction between past, present, and future
is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
~ Albert Einstein
“Ego is the biggest enemy of humans. ”
~ Rig Veda
“The foundation of the Buddha’s teachings lies in compassion,
and the reason for practicing the teachings is to wipe out the persistence of ego,
the number-one enemy of compassion.” ~ Dalai Lama
“The mind is a bundle of thoughts.
The thoughts arise because there is the thinker.
The thinker is the ego.
The ego, if sought, will automatically vanish.
The ego and the mind are the same.
The ego is the root-thought from which all other thoughts arise.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“All bad qualities center round the ego. ..
There are neither good nor bad qualities in the Self.
The Self is free from all qualities. Qualities pertain to the mind only.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“The mind is only a bundle of thoughts [with] their root in the I-thought.
Whoever investigates the True “I” enjoys the stillness of bliss.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“All unhappiness is due to the ego. With it comes all your trouble.
If you would deny the ego and scorch it by ignoring it you would be free.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
One must elevate — and not degrade — oneself with
one’s own mind, which is one’s friend as
well as one’s enemy. The mind is the friend of those
who have control over it, and the mind acts like an
enemy for those who do not control it. (6.05-06)
~ Bhagavad Gita 6.5-6
“Every Cause has its Effect;
Every Effect has its Cause;
Everything happens according to Law;
Chance is but a name for Law not recognized;
There are many planes of causation,
But nothing escapes the Law.”
~ The Kybalion
Conclusions about the Mirror of the Mind as a controllable ego-mind illusion
The foregoing quotations from scriptures and seers and information on related SillySutras postings enable us to conclude that:
1) The ego = the mind; they are the same. The ego is the root I-thought from which all other thoughts arise. The mind is only a bundle of thoughts [with] their root in the I-thought.
2) Ego is what we think we are when we mistakenly self-identify as an individual mortal physical body separate from eternal non-duality Reality,
and as perceiver of a supposedly material space/time world. And our body is our ego incarnate.
3) Our Ego identification as separate forms permits our free choice. But it subjects us to the karmic cause and effect law at every energy plane of illusory separate existence. And at lower energy planes karmic suffering is inevitable. So ego can become like a psychological prison in which earthly karmic suffering or reward is unavoidable.
4) Uncontrolled ego invariably attempts to perpetuate its unreal existence. But such attempted ego self-preservation is always futile. What never existed can not be preserved.
5) Until the ego-mind is psychologically cleared, it can be controlled to gradually advance spiritual evolution. We can use it to lose it. Like using a thorn to remove another thorn’s sliver, we can use ego-mind to clear ego-mind.
6) To hasten our spiritual evolution we should mindfully control our thoughts, and behave with forgiveness, kindness and compassion; and no longer confuse non-dual projected pure awareness as a separate objective world.
7) We should remember that our perceived Earth-life separation from eternal Mother/Father/God and Nature is a mental illusion that never happened.
So we have nothing to fear – EVER.
Invocation
May we ever remember and never forget
That our true identity is immortal LOVE;
That all that is, was, or ever can be
is the Eternal Light of Divine Love – NOW!
That as embodied Human Souls
we’ve fleetingly appeared through the
Mirror of the Mind
As illusionary space/time energy forms,
to always follow our Heart
Until we’re formlessly dissolved as ONE LOVE
within Mother/Father/God and Nature –
our Eternal Source.
May we ever remember and never forget
That our separation from Source never happened.
So we’ve nothing to fear – EVER.
That all that is, was, or ever can be
is the Eternal Light of Divine Love – NOW!
And so may it ever be!
Ron Rattner
Pursuit of Happiness
~ Quotations
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life,
the whole aim and end of human existence”
~ Aristotle
“Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.”
~ Chuang-Tzu
“All happiness comes from the desire for others to be happy.”
~ Shantideva
“Seek first the kingdom of heaven,
which is within.”
~ Matthew 6:33; Luke 17:20-21
Introduction.
Dear Friends,
Everyone wants lasting happiness; no-one wants to suffer. For millennia great mystics have revealed that ever abiding Happiness is our true inner nature – our Self. So how do we discover and experience such Happiness?
This posting is a carefully selected collection of wisdom quotations about the Pursuit of Happiness which reveal perennial insights to the fundamental happiness goal of every human being – whether or not they knowingly follow an enduring religious, spiritual, or ethical path or principle.
These Pursuit of Happiness quotations follow my recent posting about why everyone wants happiness, which suggested that incarnation is limitation and that lasting happiness can only be found in transcendence of ego and merger with Source, after eons of inner evolution with ever elevated heart levels of awareness.
Today’s quotations provide pragmatic insights into ways which can help everyone experience increasing happiness as we evolve beyond ego to Self-identification as Eternal spirit, rather than as mere mortal bodies and their stories. They can help each of us from our unique perspectives find our most suitable path to lasting happiness.
Because we’re each unique with ever fluctuating enegies and unique evolutionary perspectives, different ‘pursuit of happiness’ quotations may apply to different people, concurrently or at different times. Therefore, as you carefully consider these quotations, please follow your heart to determine which ones and when they may apply to your unique perspectives.
Namasté!
Ron Rattner
Pursuit of Happiness ~ Quotations
We hold these truths to be self evident:
that all men are created equal:
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
~ Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Declaration of Independence
“I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness…”
~ Dalai Lama
“From the moment of birth every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affects this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire contentment. Therefore, it is important to discover what will bring about the greatest degree of happiness.”
~ Dalai Lama
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
“Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek.”
~ Dalai Lama
“Material progress and a higher standard of living bring us greater comfort and health, but do not lead to a transformation of the mind, which is the only thing capable of providing lasting peace. Profound happiness, unlike fleeting pleasures, is spiritual in nature. It depends on the happiness of others and it is based on love and affection.”
~ Dalai Lama
“Those who are not looking for happiness
are the most likely to find it,
because those who are searching forget that
the surest way to be happy
is to seek happiness for others.”
~ Martin Luther King,Jr.
“Joy comes not through possession or ownership
but through a wise and loving heart.”
“If one speaks or acts with a pure mind,
happiness follows like a shadow.”
~ Buddha
“Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold,
happiness dwells in the soul.”
~ Democritus
“The secret of happiness is not found in seeking more,
but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”
~ Socrates
“Happiness belongs to the self sufficient.”
~ Aristotle
“The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live
that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.”
~ Epictetus
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not;
remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”
~ Epicurus
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
“Very little is needed to make a happy life;
it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
~ Marcus Aurelius
“Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!”
~ Rumi
“There is only one way to happiness
and that is to cease worrying about things
which are beyond the power of our will.”
~ Epictetus
“A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.”
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
“If you want to be sad, no one in the world can make you happy.
But if you make up your mind to be happy,
no one and nothing on earth can take that happiness from you.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
“I do not think of all the misery, but of the glory that remains.
Go outside into the fields, nature and the sun,
go out and seek happiness in yourself and in God.
Think of the beauty that again and again discharges itself within and without you,
and be happy.”
~ Anne Frank
“Since you alone are responsible for your thoughts, only you can change them.
You will want to change them when you realize that each thought creates according to its own nature.
Remember that the law works at all times and that you are always demonstrating according to the kind of thoughts you habitually entertain.
Therefore, start now to think only those thoughts that will bring you health and happiness.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
“The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase;
if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it.”
~ C. P. Snow
“Don’t seek happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness. Happiness is ever elusive, but freedom from unhappiness is attainable now, by facing what is, rather than making up stories about it. Unhappiness covers up your natural state of wellbeing and inner peace, the source of true happiness.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
“By letting it go it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try,
the world is beyond the winning.”
~ Lao Tzu
“I am a happy camper so I guess I’m doing something right.
Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you,
but if you turn your attention to other things,
it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”
~ Henry David Thoreau
“Fame or integrity: which is more important?
Money or happiness: which is more valuable?
Success or failure: which is more destructive?
If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never truly be fulfilled.
If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself.
Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”
~ Lao Tzu
“In the pursuit of learning every day something is gained.
In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.”
~ Lao Tzu
“What is the worth of a happiness for which you must strive and work?
Real happiness is spontaneous and effortless.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“True happiness cannot be found in things that change and pass away.
Pleasure and pain alternate inexorably.
Happiness comes from the Self and can be found in the Self only.
Find your real Self and all else will come with it.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it.
What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“I am happy even before I have a reason.”
~ Hafiz
The word “happiness” would lose its meaning
if it were not balanced by sadness.
~ Carl Jung
“The root of joy is gratefulness…
We hold the key to lasting happiness in our own hands.
For it is not joy that makes us grateful;
it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”
~ Brother David Steindl-Rast
Life Is Perpetual; Happiness Is Optional
”Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it.
What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.”
~ Chuang-Tzu
“The soul is eternal, all-pervading, unmodifiable, immovable and primordial.”
“The soul never takes birth and never dies at any time
nor does it come into being again when the body is created.
The soul is birthless, eternal, imperishable and timeless
and is never destroyed when the body is destroyed.
Just as a man giving up old worn out garments accepts other new apparel, in the same way the embodied soul giving up old and worn out bodies verily accepts new bodies.”
~ Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2
Ron’s Introduction to Life Is Perpetual; Happiness Is Optional
Dear Friends,
Have you ever wondered why the world seems so insane? Why billions of people worldwide suffer unnecessarily from wars, poverty, illness, lack of basic life-sustaining necessities? Why even in the richest nation on Earth, suffering is ubiquitous? Why even materially rich people are often depressed, addicted or mentally ill?
To help us answer those questions, I’ve posted below “Life Is Perpetual; Happiness Is Optional” a pithy whimsical poem which emphasizes the crucial spiritual truth that Life is eternal, though suffering is optional. In comments following the poem I’ll explain it’s origination and dedication.
Ron Rattner
Life Is Perpetual; Happiness Is Optional
Life is perpetual;
Happiness is optional.
God gives Life eternal.
Humankind makes it sublime or infernal.
Timeless delight,
or endless night:
However we choose it,
we never can lose it.
Ron’s audio recitation of “Life Is Perpetual; Happiness Is Optional”
Ron’s commentary on “Life Is Perpetual; Happiness Is Optional”
Dear Friends,
Long before my mid-life spiritual awakening, I often wondered about seeming needless injustice and suffering in our supposedly ‘advanced’ societies.
And I attributed societal suffering to societal insanity. But only after spiritual awakening, did I begin deeply reflecting on root causes of such societal insanity and unhappiness. With continuing curiosity, I began asking many new questions about our true identity and reality. That process of constant questioning has proved immeasurably helpful.
Thereby, I’ve often been blessed with simple spiritual answers to seemingly complicated questions about insane human behaviors which cause needless suffering in our beautiful world; answers which have brought me ever-increasing happiness. Like Dr. Seuss, I’ve discovered that: “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple”; that seemingly complicated questions about living a happy life often can be resolved with simple answers from elevated levels of inner awareness.
I have found that human suffering arises from ignorance of our true nature and spiritual Self-identity; that we inevitably suffer karmically while seeking happiness through satisfaction of ephemeral worldly desires, because lasting happiness can only be found within; and, that our experience of happiness depends upon our self-identification as eternal spirit rather than as only impermanent mortal bodies and their stories.
So inspired by my beloved Guruji, I’ve shared many SillyStutras writings about happiness, to help us discover within that eternal happiness is our true nature.
Recent realization and dedication
The foregoing pithy poem was composed many years ago. But only recently have I discovered an ancient phenomenon which significantly impedes and complicates humanity’s quest for happiness. While vehemently rejecting current governmental pandemic edicts denying billions of people their core freedoms and human rights, I began relentlessly researching the source of this extraordinary phenomenon.
Thereby, I found persuasive evidence that our societies, enterprises and “leaders” are afflicted and dominated by ancient subhuman malignantly evil energies or entities which parasitically polarize, divide and exploit humankind, by provoking anger, anxiety, and fear. [See Discovering and Escaping an Illusory Matrix “Reality”; and “Is the world being ruled and ruined by psychopaths?”]
And I’ve realized that countless beings who are now dependent or dominated, or are hungry, sick, impoverished, or enslaved, are being forced or instinctively intimidated to prioritize physical survival over seeking happiness within to discover that life is Eternal.
But as we begin a rare Aquarian Age of peace, justice and goodwill, I’m confident that Humanity is about to recognize, reject, and replace current exploitive autocratic leaders and systems with loving societies serving people and planet over profits.
And this posting is deeply dedicated to contributing to that transcendent new Age.
Invocation
May today’s writings help us recognize
current extraordinary difficulties
as rare evolutionary opportunities,
and encourage us to nonviolently and non-judgmentally
resist and transcend them
with innate love, forgiveness, righteousness and justice.
May we thereby live ever happier, peaceful and harmonious lives.
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Should We Be Seekers?
~ Question, Quotations, and Comments
“He is born in vain,
who having attained the human birth,
so difficult to get,
does not attempt to realize God
in this very life.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna
“Seek first the kingdom of heaven,
which is within.”
~ Matthew 6:33; Luke 17:20-21
“Seek and ye shall find.”
Matthew 7:7; Luke 11.9-13
“What you seek is seeking you.”
~ Rumi
“What we are looking for is what is looking.”
~ St. Francis of Assisi
By letting it go it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try,
the world is beyond the winning.
~ Lao Tzu
“Remember God; forget the rest.
Forget who you think you are,
to remember what you really are.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Introduction
This posting asserts and explains, with quotations and comments, that consciously or unconsciously we are all spiritual seekers.
Should We Be Seekers?
Q. Should we be seekers?
A. Knowingly or unknowingly everyone’s a seeker.
Knowingly or unknowingly everyone seeks Self.
But seeking’s then,
while Self is NOW.
So, to find Self,
BE Self –
NOW!
Ron’s audio recitation of “Should We Be Seekers?”
Ron’s comments and explanation of “Should We Be Seekers?”
Dear Friends,
Are you a spiritual seeker – a seeker of Eternal Truth?
Nowadays, few humans consciously seek spiritual Truth. Almost everyone wants to be happy. But most people seek happiness in worldly pursuits and pleasures, not within.
For millennia mystics, saints and sages have counseled us to focus on spiritual rather than worldly goals. They tell us that worldly pleasures and attainments can merely bring transient satisfactions, whereas lasting happiness can only be found within.
Thus Jesus advised:
“Seek first the kingdom of heaven, which is within.”
“Seek and ye shall find.”
~ Matthew 6:33; Luke 17:20-21; Matthew 7:7; Luke 11.9-13
Similarly, 19th century Indian holy man Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa said:
“He is born in vain, who having attained the human birth, so difficult to get, does not attempt to realize God in this very life.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna
From my experience, knowingly or unknowingly, everyone is a spiritual “seeker” because everyone longs for a state of being which transcends inevitable Earthly cares and suffering, bringing eternal happiness as LOVE. But rare are those who attain it.
Background
In memoirs titled “Transcending Transcendence” I’ve told how soon after becoming a “born-again Hindu”, I learned that that the object of Sanskrit Hindu practices given by my Guruji was to achieve “mukti” or “moksha”, a state of Divine illumination, where the Self, soul, or “Atman” would experience its Oneness with “Brahman” [Supreme Reality] – the pinnacle of human experience.
Thereafter, I began considering and seeking “self realization”, or “enlightenment” as a spiritual goal, until gradually I abandoned goal oriented spiritual seeking, and – as “An Uncertain Undo” – intuitively began surrendering to the Infinite, with ever expanding heartfelt faith in God.
Explanation
Mystics say that by resolutely looking within we can discover ultimately that we are imprisoned by illusionary mental tendencies and mistaken beliefs about self identity and reality which wrongly reify our limited perceptions of ephemeral forms, in an ever impermanent illusory reality, where mortality and suffering are karmically inevitable.
So, how can we find divine happiness within?
Non-dualist masters tell us that effortlessly – with resolute intention, intense aspiration and focused observation we can discover our eternal Self, as a joyous state of spiritual freedom beyond belief.
“What is the worth of a happiness for which you must strive and work? Real happiness is spontaneous and effortless.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.”
~ Chuang-Tzu
By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try, the world is beyond the winning.
~ Lao Tzu
“In the pursuit of learning every day something is gained.
In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.”
~ Lao Tzu
“Don’t seek happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness. Happiness is ever elusive, but freedom from unhappiness is attainable now, by facing ‘what is’ rather than making up stories about it. Unhappiness covers up your natural state of well-being and inner peace, the source of true happiness.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
“Do not search for the truth;
only cease to cherish opinions.
Do not remain in the dualistic state.
Avoid such pursuits carefully.
If there is even a trace of this and that,
of right and wrong,
the mind-essence will be lost in confusion.”
~ Seng-Ts’an, The Third Patriarch of Zen
Dedication and Invocation
May the non-dualist mystic masters inspire us –
each from our unique perspective –
to prioritize spiritual rather than worldly goals,
and so to seek and find relief from belief –
relief from mistaken mental tendencies
from which we inevitably and repeatedly suffer
until we find –
beyond the mind –
our true immortal Self.
And thus discover that:
We are what we seek!
And so it shall be!
Ron Rattner
