It’s all too easy to fall for the belief that happiness will come when things change. As soon as we step out of the societal comfort zone and moves towards the world of ‘wellbeing’ and ‘conscious culture’, what we are confronted with is the same pattern found in school systems, in sales pitches, and in every conforming mainstream advertising campaign everywhere:

happiness-looks-like-this

& exists-over-there 

This is often followed with…

what-you-need-to-change

about-your-self

which is

“not-good-enough”–right-now

 

Consequentially…

in order to become

who-you-want-to-be

which is NOT you as you are right now

but the better version of you,

or even better, the-‘real’-you

 

THEN…

when you become this imagined version of yourself

Which is right now what-you-are-not

Some day in the future,

You will become happy.

 

This whole pattern suggests that happiness is found outside of you, at the moment when you become what you are not – This is not true.

You are only ever here, right now, where reality is.

Only in being with reality, can you discover true happiness.

 

Let’s get this clear:

Becoming the ‘best version of yourself’ is not going to make you happy…

Happy-me becomes someone you will be in the future, and remains in the future, even IF you have done x-y-z, set all the right goals, made thoughtful intentions, cut cords, visualised, and found your own mantra.

Adding even more pressure… not only is it presented to us that we have to reach this imagined version of ourselves to ‘fulfil our potential’, we also need to get the process ‘right’. This is using the appropriate, conscious language, that helps or more appropriately “tricks” our minds into believing what we think is real, to be true, to become who we think we are, and even more complex, who we think we should be.

While all of these exercises have merit, and in many ways, have their place, when taken completely seriously, what they also do is completely miss the point. Life happens Now. And only now. Everything that takes you away from what is here right now is missing the point!

“I had a dream not so long ago of a friend who, in the dream, wanted to be a masseuse. This meant that she took the whole universe and the limitless possibilities of her being, and confined it to a tiny idea of what she understood to be what she wanted. The message became clear: If she simply opened up to engaging with what life brought to her, this openness invites the wholeness of Life to be met. To limit oneself to the smallness of one’s idea, when Life is present waiting for you to fall into it’s arms…this is insanity. At this point, I felt the whole rain of the world come through my eyes.”

Awakening is not about how to make the story of “me and my life” a better one, a more profound or spiritual one, but rather the ending of “me” and the beginning of “Life”.

It is certainly not about becoming a spiritual person, nor about proving that you are good enough, or even anybody at all let alone ‘a somebody’, but about simply being, and finding out who it is that wants this job/waist/home/lifestyle/business/newly aligned ‘me’… who are you?

The desire for happiness is the heart wanting to come home to itself.

It is the soul wanting to realise it’s true nature.

This is the natural desire for freedom.

The longing for reality, for true love, for your own being.

So, rather than the continuation of playing the game, self enquire and find out who this “me” is that wants to improve itself. You will find:

Not only are you good enough right now

but if you can fully come to realise that what you are

in this very moment

is already divine perfection,

that there is no part of you that needs to change,

and that to accept yourself as you are NOW

COMPLETELY

(AKA. loving-yourself-home)

 

You can also discover that

Everything that you desire, freedom, happiness, love, to feel fully alive, peaceful, open…

This is here, now.

 

You will find yourself to be immensely greater, or more accurately, limitlessly infinite, and that this “I”, who arrived in the world as a thought, is both most often concerned with “itself” and ultimately does not even exist. In my teacher’s words:

“If you ever have the feeling that “I must do this now”

This is not true.

There is nothing that you need to do

because this “I” does not even exist.”

– Vivek, Open Satsang in Rishikesh

 

The reality is that you are the pure awareness that this “I” arises in. This is the endless, limitless, boundless love that is “home”. As Vivek puts it:

“You are love itself

and acceptance

when you come back

to what you know is true.”

 

Your nature is this, and it is here for you to discover, at any moment. It is pure happiness – and it is to the very source at which all appearances emerge from – the very appearances that we look towards in their finite forms to give us everything we ever wished for… That ecstatic happiness so great that we can now rest, that life can be easy, effortless, and naturally joyful. In our minds we think we will find this “when” [insert condition here], in reality, this moment we have been looking for is already here, and is beyond all conditions.

Notice how easy it is to see the insanity in our own action – that we look towards something that has limits, that passes through our hands by time, that promises nothing long-lasting at all, and we expect this to supply us with peace that has no end… Insane. But forgivable. Really, what you are looking for is simple: who you are right now.

The longing for happiness is always the longing for freedom.

By releasing ourselves of the weight and falseness of the one we thought we were, spaciousness arises, and we begin to live more freely from the peaceful openness of the heart. From an inner peace, from an empty, loving, silence. From not-knowing, and not needing to know.

Suddenly there is openness, a space which allows Life to show up, arriving to meet more of itself, supporting this whole process of you returning home. The whole universe assists in this, in what is called “self-realisation”.

If you may be blessed by the grace to find your teacher, this is the greatest gift. I much enjoy how Eli-Jaxon Bear spoke of Papaji, he said: “He was the living truth in form, looking back at me, loving me, completely open and intelligent and silent. And that was it, and then it was over, and I knew I was home. And from that moment to this, I am at his feet in total gratitude,” sharing later that, Papaji’s transmission through the emanation of his being brought universal silence to the mind, naturally.

Rather than giving any tips or tricks, it seems more honest to share the celebration of these few appearances;

• Liberation is what the world is looking for in self-help.
• Intention is not about ease, peace, nor love, but it is placing conditions on appearances, suggesting that what we want is more important than what we already are, and what we are, which is here right now is already the deepest fulfilment, the very happiness, peace and contentment we are looking for. Here, no matter the circumstance.
• Love is not between people. Love is of the Self.
• Self love is not arrogant, nor is it personal, but rather it is a total acceptance: a full allowing of everything that wants to be here – to be here.
• And if anything …

Come to know that,

the deepest and most natural longing

in your heart,

is for your self.

Which is emptiness,

allowing everything.

 

Written by Miriam Annabelle Buck

In humble gratitude to my teacher Vivek.

Vivek teaches Advaita Vedanta in the lineage of Ramana Maharshi. He shares the Truth openly and naturally with all who come to find it.  For direct access to Vivek’s teachings, visit his website, Youtube channel, Facebook, or Instagram. There is the opportunity to join his Online Satsangs and his upcoming retreats in Spain and Crete.