Here
are a few more questions from Sushil:
Dear Michael,
I am grateful for your replies. I have some questions to understand it better.
a) When you say, feel the origin of happiness inside us and not at objects, the same point is the origin of other emotional states like sadness, hatred, jealously etc. And these emotional states are felt through mind and not through Awareness. Awareness is everywhere, but we feel happiness because we have minds. Sometimes, I feel we are minds operating with the support of Awareness. After all, we understand all this through mind.
b) You suggested Awareness is the source of happiness. What are other qualities of Awareness?
With grateful regards
Sushil
Hi Sushil,
Thank
you for your questions. It is important to distinguish what comes from
Awareness, which is at our core, and what is just a product of our thinking.
I have to admit, there is a danger in using the word
happiness. That’s because most people conceive of happiness as being the
opposite of sadness. But I am using happiness in a different way. I am using it
to refer to your own Self-Nature. Because the mind is too limited to get a full
view of your Self-Nature, the only way you really understand this use of the word happiness
is by standing as the Self.
The mind is like a photograph
To get a sense of difference between standing as the self and thinking about the self, it is like the difference between visiting your country and seeing photographs of it. If I told you, “I didn’t have to visit your country because I saw pictures of it in a book,” you would know how much I was actually missing. For starters a picture book is only two dimensional. There is no depth to a picture.
Secondly there are no sounds, tastes, smells, and nothing to touch in a photograph. Thirdly you would not get to meet the people and see their unique qualities. And forth in a photograph there is no sense of the culture of the country that you can experience by being there.
Like a photograph, the mind is a limited instrument. It can only see a thing in terms of its opposite. The mind knows love by hate, jealously by tolerance, short by long, etc. But you are aware of these opposites, not caught in them. The very fact that you are aware of the mind shows that you are the subject, Awareness, and the mind is a mere object that you see at times when it is present.
But since there is no sense like an eye or an ear, that can look back at Awareness, we look right past it and take our identity to be inexorably linked to the mind.
This knowledge is meant to be a mirror pointing to your true identity. Now when you read these words, you use your mind as an instrument to understand them. But as a photograph cannot capture your country, words cannot adequately capture your own Self-Nature. At the most, these words can merely point to your real identity.
But the only way you can really understand them fully is by standing as yourself. From here you will see that the mind does not really capture your experience. All the mind can do is stand there in awe.
What do I mean by happiness
Then what do I mean when I talk about happiness? The best I can describe it is that you are everything and nothing, both at the same time. You literally stand free from opposites. Everything you thought was opposed to you, becomes you. That’s because you see that you are never really limited by anything that you see.
The Self is like space. By its identity space is everywhere. It is not limited to an object like a room or pot. When space gives up its limitations, it returns to its natural state, a state in which it is everywhere and limited by nothing.
Another way of saying this is that you are aware of a limitation, not caught in its grip. You are on this side of the mind where you are free. Standing here in your boundless glory, you will see the meaning of happiness.
What are negative emotions
Then what are jealously, sadness, hatred, and all the rest of the negative emotions? Overlooking the place where they actually experience happiness, people blame the objects that they see for their happiness. These objects could be a partner that they hope to have a relationship with, a car, a house, a new place, a better job etc.
This drive to find happiness is very strong; it is the drive to return to your original nature. So when you see what you think are obstacles to obtaining the objects that you want, your reaction is very strong. That’s because you feel that your ability to find happiness is being blocked. This is why negative emotions seem so strong. Also that’s why when a whole nation sees obstacles to their happiness, wars can break out and people get killed. So it turns out that all emotions except one are in your mind. The happiness that springs from the freedom of your Self-Nature is not in the mind.
We may not be empowered to do away with wars. But the good news is that we have the power to stand as our real identity, the source of happiness. We can stop chasing happiness in a place where it just doesn’t exist. Abiding as the Self we will have an influence on people’s lives. They may not notice it on the surface, but they will feel it in the deepest recesses of their heart, the place where words fall short.
If you are wondering how to free yourself from the limitations that you take to be true, read through the archives of this blog and you will see how it is possible to find your innate freedom. Also if you would like a step by step approach to getting to your core and finding this freedom, you can get my book, “Making Your Wisdom Come Alive.”
For more information on Self-Knowledge, go to www.light-up-your-life.com. If you have questions about this article or other things going on in your life, you can also write me at michael@ananya.com. I love questions and try to answer them all in this blog. That’s because when you start to question limitation, you are on the verge of destroying it.
If you enjoy these blogs, tell your friends. Although we don’t have money for advertising, we would love to see everyone who wants to, wake up to the happiness at their very core.
Best Wishes,
Michael Gluckman
