WHAT IS NOT HAPPINESS?

Good day and  I hope you are having a great week. Many challenges popped up this week for me. As I mentioned before I am heading to the Middle East this week, and any type of preparation you would do for a long trip is doubly complicated when you travel to some parts of the world where we just don’t have the infrastructure that most people are used to when they travel. 

Anyway as I was dealing with the stuff, and listening to my wife’s positive reassurance, I started to contemplate a phrase I heard in a Buddhism 101 seminar.  Nichirin Daishonin a 2^nd century monk in Japan who popularized the sect of Buddhism named after him said and I am paraphrasing, “happiness is NOT the absence of pain or challenges.  Happiness is being able to deal with pain and challenges and still choosing to be Happy”. 

Recently I gave my 9 and 6 years olds my old iPods filled with their favorite songs.  I started to think about how I used to listen to music on my Walkman and how we were so impressed with the automatic switch of the tape from side A to side B and then with the advent of the CD and  how we could easily skip to different songs.  I wonder how the tech generation would deal with having to find a song on a Cassette Tape? Maybe I am not giving you enough credit? Would you be able to handle forwarding or rewinding through the entire cassette to find your song? Or would it turn your life upside down.  You may think I am being silly, but the stuff I see people complain about, and yes at times, the stuff that I now complain about is really not much more trivial than that. 

As my wife likes to remind me, complaining will just attract the crap I am complaining about into my life over and over. What can be gained by complaining and wasting energy, instead of actually dealing with the issue? Yes there are those times when I just have to accept the situation for the time being, because there may not be any obvious solution. But even then, there is little benefit that comes from complaining. I used to justify that it would make me feel better to vent, but really it was not at all helpful. I would just get worked up even more. Complaining does not lead to happiness.  Working on the solution is a step towards the right direction but even this should not be criteria for happiness. 

Happiness is independent of what my situation is.  Happiness is being alive in this time, in the now.  There is nothing more to be said.  Stuff happens that bring joy or pain but that is all part of being alive and YES, IT IS ALL A PART OF BEING HAPPY.   From The Law of Attraction (LOA) view point, when you are happy no matter what you are attracting more opportunities to be happy no matter what. That is going to strengthen your resolve, and life will, by default, be much, much better. 

Let me know how you feel about this statement on my Facebook, and Twitter feed.  I hope this makes sense and makes you think this week.  As always, to your success.