Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Sometimes life can get really overwhelming for me. Sometimes, people seem to exist just to be irritating. Sometimes nothing I ever do seems like enough. Sometimes I wake up feeling angry or depressed. Sometimes, I wonder if anything I do is ever really worth the effort at all. I think it’s human nature to have times like these – where we’re just not 100% grooving with the moment. When our doubts and insecurities start whispering to us about how useless we are. When people seem to be ugly and uncaring to each other. When our responsibilities overtake the time we have to get them done. And, really – all we’re ever seeking is to be happy, right? Why is it so hard to just always be happy? Happiness comes from within, doesn’t it? I mean – just because someone was a jerk to you, do you have to get angry about that? What if you could just laugh it off? Why do we sometimes wake up depressed? What’s that all about? Can’t we just change our mind and be happy instead? We control ourselves, don’t we?… To me, this is a huge part of looking within. Of getting in touch with God. Because when we’re letting our minds run free – assuming we all realize that the minds we’ve been blessed with are not who we are, but the tool we’ve been given to exist on this planet – basically our own personal supercomputer – that supercomputer mind of ours will be up and down and all over the place. Because the mind has no concept of God. We use our minds to get in touch with whatever our concept of God is. Many people deny the existence of God. Do atheists meditate? Not sure what they’d be getting in touch with, but I digress… the more we seek to get in touch with our souls, with the part of us behind the mind, that can get in touch with the presence of God – which transcends anything the mind can ever comprehend – the happier we will be. The less we’ll take things personally, or question our own abilities, or be overwhelmed with life. The more we’ll start to be grateful for every moment we have. Conscious contact with God is probably one of the most beneficial things we can do, so how often do we do it?… my guess is not very often, if at all for most people. The times in my life in recent memory that I’ve felt the most at peace were the times I went to Florida a few years ago and took three weeks off to write a book. But it was more than that. I had a goal of writing a book, yes – but I also meditated and read a lot every day. I exercised every day. I ate well. I attended spiritual gatherings. And I came back home in a much better place than I was at when I left. Only took three weeks. No, that peace did not last forever – but it could. Life got in the way. I couldn’t keep up the routine I had when I was in Florida. But still… I moved the arrow. I became closer to God. And even when the arrow starts to move the other way… it will never go back to where it was. Life ebbs and flows. The more time we spend getting in touch with God, or the Universe, or whatever you want to call it – the happier we will be. It’s a slow process. And we’re living in an era that wants everything done right now. There’s a quote from the Dalai Lama that says if every child in the world was taught meditation, we would eliminate violence from the world in one generation. That’s a tall order. What are we filling our children with instead? And here we sit, depressed, insecure, and unhappy. Within us all, we have a cure. Costs nothing but a bit of time every day. We can only make that decision for ourselves. If you’re feeling stressed, a bit too easily angered, depressed, uncertain, anxious, and unhappy… ask yourself – how often am I seeking the cure? I know, for me anyway – meditation is one of the first things that gets dropped when I get busy. And another Zen quote is this, “You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you’re too busy, then you should sit for an hour”. I remember the last time I sat for an hour meditating. I was doing it regularly, too… it was a few years ago. And I was in Florida…
