Joy isn't something to be found outside of yourself. It is a place in your heart you live courageously from.
Your life is completely in your hands. You may never own a Ferrari and your perspective on that will either enslave you to that thing forever, or set you free from it. If you cling to it your life then becomes this sad tale of a person chasing a car and hoping it will bring them happiness. It never will. If you never attain it you will not find completeness in this area of your life. If you do manage to attain it you will spend the time you have with it worrying about it, caring for it and fearing of the loss of something you worked so hard to attain. That is attachment to a physical thing. It brings nothing but misery, it's action only serves to continue the wheel of samsara. That is a Buddhist belief, but if you take it literally it means misery. It means life is misery (suffering) and the chasing of things to own, even as seemingly benign as a state of being, you are nothing more than a hamster on the wheel called life, called misery.
It can be attachment to so many things, from so many perspectives. A nice house, a good job, even food, clothing and shelter. If you make your life about those things, your life will be just that, the tale of chasing and owning things. What a waste of this life. It is good to be a doctor and heal people, it is attachment to want to be a doctor because a doctor is important. You place your importance upon your position, then you defend this position and fear losing it. You fail to see the cloud of conspiracy and delusion you're building. Whether you want to be a doctor, a mother, a husband, a holy person even. They are just the ways of the physical world, simply to define who we are to solidify our importance. In doing so we fail to see our innate importance, the importance of everything. In grasping we fail to see the way is surrender.
The physical world is a world of balance. There is growth and there is fire to erase that growth; but it also leaves the soil fertile for new growth. Should we become attached to it our life is then a wheel of great happiness and great sorrow. However, if we understand that there can be no darkness without light and vice versa we can find peace within. It doesn't mean to do what we've always done and plot out a way to appreciate the light and dark. It means to take a perspective which appreciates both, which appreciates all and is wholly authentic not just some part we are playing. Good and evil are only perspectives, they're labels we place on things or situations in order to echo-locate who we are. Each of us is one being existing in a dualistic world. I am only one life-force, only one being. Within the physicality of my being there are both light and dark. They exist out of phase with the rest of the world. In that place, the cave, I can live any life I want, I can imagine any world for myself. That is delusion. The path to happiness is to exist in reality where we all have equal importance. Why? because otherwise it's all just fantasy and no matter how fine the trappings we've put upon it, we still innately know it's a lie.
We see in others the weaknesses of ourselves. For me to have peace I must accept that we all have the right to it; and the right to it in the ways in which they see fit, not me. Otherwise if I move forward in a way to restrict others I know others are moving to restrict me. It's a grand perspective funneled into the present moment. We are here, in this life and at the same time we are that spark which animates this body; connected to and completely one with every other living being. When we close our eyes and detach from everything we use to define who we are; e.g our clothes, our jobs, our faith, our nationality, our gender, our sexual orientation.... because outside of all of those definitions we are simply a being of energy. We are what animates the bodies we choose from life to life. We are a silvery thread woven with others from life to life creating the fabric of the universe. We are all one. When you open your eyes, is your perspective different?
We see in others the weaknesses of ourselves. For me to have peace I must accept that we all have the right to it; and the right to it in the ways in which they see fit, not me. Otherwise if I move forward in a way to restrict others I know others are moving to restrict me. It's a grand perspective funneled into the present moment. We are here, in this life and at the same time we are that spark which animates this body; connected to and completely one with every other living being. When we close our eyes and detach from everything we use to define who we are; e.g our clothes, our jobs, our faith, our nationality, our gender, our sexual orientation.... because outside of all of those definitions we are simply a being of energy. We are what animates the bodies we choose from life to life. We are a silvery thread woven with others from life to life creating the fabric of the universe. We are all one. When you open your eyes, is your perspective different?
Detach from the physical, do not own it, appreciate it but don't define who you are in relation to it. You are far more important that that.
And remember this, never forget.... joy isn't something to be bought, won or owned... it is a place in your heart you courageously live from. It is contagious and it is a gift to the whole world, for you channel through yourself the love of the universe and it envelopes you and everyone near you. It inspires, it comforts, it builds and it supports the change which comes with destruction. It is the best gift you can give your loved ones and the absolute best thing you can teach your children to ensure they live a happy life. I am but one speck in the Universe; radiating love and you can choose who you are. Who are you?
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