Joy to the World...

Recently Harit and myself saw the movie "Soul Surfer". It was fantastic movie about Bethany Hamilton who is a surfer, a shark attack survivor and the ultimate optimist, I must say! Towards the end of the movie, I was in tears! What she realised through the ordeal in movie just went through my heart. I really liked her attitude and dwelling more into it are my thoughts below...

We go through life seeking for moments of joy and pleasure. We often hope that once our desires become fulfilled, we can finally be happy. Yet happiness is not an ideal somewhere off in the distant future. Instead it is within us at all times, waiting to emerge.

Happiness is a state of mind, starting in moments of quiet contentment that emerge when we find our way into deeper awareness and consciousness, just like Bethany when is surfing. Heaven and hell are states of mind. We can access higher states of mind by going within and accessing what is there. Within is a peace that stays with us when we are connected to the deepest levels of ourselves. While moments of pleasure inspired by external events may still be joyful, they are fleeting. The joy we find when we go within is far more enduring, and more real than we can ever believe possible.

Deeper connection can be discovered through the practice of presence. As we let go of how things should be, and become present to what is, we begin to experience a deeper connection with ourselves, and with the world around us. We can then interpret things according to what serves us best. Then each moment is a moment of joy and pleasure, and we have no searching to do. The moment of now is what we are really supposed to find. The door of happiness is open, and we can walk through it into our own personal Garden of Eden.

"People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."  ~ Abraham Lincoln