Happiness is Your Right, Privilege and Duty

By J.J. Edward

These thoughts and insights are intended to create greater meaning and fulfillment in our lives. Every human being is a piece of one Spirit and One Reality. There is no happiness outside this Reality. Attunement is of the essence of happiness, inner peace, and Joy. These thoughts helped me in my journey and they will surely help you too. What we need today is spirituality and not rituals and dogmas, and the third millennium is for the spiritually fit. To be human is greatness. Life is becoming more and more complex and a healthy spirituality and worldview are necessary to handle the new problems of life. We have to be open to all cultures and practices of all nations and religions and draw sustenance and energy for our lives. We need insights and tools to handle our fears anxieties, addictions, and negativities. We need a comparative spirituality and ethics and worldview in the present millennium.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781716246371

Book preview

1:

Silence and Meditation to Access Divine Energy

We have to adopt a lifestyle and a daily practice of silence, meditation, and non-judgment to be happy. One has to be in harmony with the universe and the creator to experience peace and joy which is the fullness of peace. Just as it is impossible to see your face in troubled water, so also the soul, unless it is clear of alien thoughts, is not able to experience God in contemplation.

Silence is, in other words, life’s greatest teacher. It shows us what we have yet to become. Silence is not only the absence of physical noise and sound but freedom from the noise of anger and greed for fame, name, control, and sensual gratification. Silence is the void in which God and I meet in the center of my soul. The practice of silence means making a commitment to take a certain amount of time to simply be. Experiencing silence means periodically withdrawing from the activity of speech. It also means periodically withdrawing from such activities as watching television, listening to the radio, or reading a book. 

Set aside a little time every once in a while to experience silence or simply make a commitment to maintaining silence for a certain period each day. You could do it for two hours, or if that seems a lot, do it for a one-hour period. Ideally, you should meditate at least thirty minutes in the morning, and thirty minutes in the evening. Through meditation, you will learn to experience pure awareness.

Communion with Nature

Nature is the garment of God. It is the body of God. Just as grass grows on the land, hair grows on the body, ornaments are made of gold, the whole of creation proceeds from God. Every second, our space expands 15,000 miles, creation is taking place right at this moment. In the field of pure silence is the field of correlation, the field of infinite organizing power, the ultimate ground of creation where everything is inseparably connected with everything else. Stillness is the first requirement for manifesting your desires. Be still and know God

Once you start experiencing inner stillness, you can add another component to this practice, and that is regularly spending time in direct communion with nature. Spending time in nature enables you to sense the harmonious interaction of all the elements and forces of life, and gives you a sense of unity with all of life. Whether it be a stream, a forest, a mountain, a lake, or the seashore that connection with nature’s intelligence will also help you access divine energy.

The world will freely offer itself to you and will roll in ecstasy at your feet. This world of energy is fluid, dynamic, resilient, changing, forever in motion. And yet it is also non-changing, still, quiet, eternal, and silent. Stillness alone is the potentiality for creativity and movement alone is creativity restricted to a certain aspect of its expression. But the combination of movement and stillness enables you to unleash your creativity in all directions, wherever the power of your attention takes you. Wherever you go in the midst of movement and activity, carry your stillness within you.

Living Your Life in Spirit

We are co-creators in the sense we are meant to be creative through our thoughts and actions. Through our positive actions of imagination and love we can create a new heaven and new earth.

When you are inspired dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be. Inspiration is a simple recognition of Spirit within ourselves. Being in-spirit is the place where we connect to the invisible reality that ultimately directs us toward our calling.

If we ignore inspiration’s powerful attraction, the result is personal discomfort or a sense of disconnection from ourselves. As we move more deeply into the spirit, we cease to be guided by the ego demands of others or ourselves. We surrender to the always-present force that urges us to be in this blissful state of inspiration. This spiritual essence is our source, which is magnificent and stupendous compared to our earthly self. Before merging into form, we were a part of God, with all the inherent qualities of a Creator who sends forth abundance, creativity, love, peace, joy, and well-being.

We choose to live in Spirit, entrusting ourselves to something greater than our life. When we listen and allow it, the Spirit guides us. When we fail to listen-or allow our ego to get in the way and run the show. When I ‘am in-spirit, I have a feeling of contentment, but more than this, I experience joy.

Quantum physicists tell us that particles don’t create more particles; rather, they’re said to proceed from what are described as waves of energy. This is clearly a purposeful Universe, with an intelligence supporting its creation and continuing evolution- and we’re pieces of that intelligence by virtue of having emerged from it.

Ancient mystical traditions teach that our planet exists as a vehicle to share the Creator’s universe love, beauty, and abundance. Inspiration flowing through us is a messenger from the realm of our nonphysical self, from where we were before we entered this visible world of form. The very first particle of human protoplasm intended to be our self was an aspect of an invisible, formless energy field that was our self-manifesting. In the particle, and the energy field from which it emanated, were the sizes and shape of our eyes, our legs, our mouth, and so on. Our embryo became a fetus in a space of total faith and harmony.

The basics of our development occurred without our interference: Our brain developed independently of our ideas about how it should be done; our heart, liver, kidneys, toes, fingers, eyebrows, and every other feature appeared on a schedule that seems miraculous from this side of the womb!

When we arrive in this physical world, we’re immediately cared for by well-meaning folks who’ve been taught to believe in the illusion of what Patanjali called the false self. They think that they’re not defined by the spiritual essence from which they came, but by their uniquely special individuality, their possessions, and their other, accomplishments. They see themselves as separate from each other, from what’s materially missing in their lives, and from God.

Ego is often referred to as an acronym for Edging God Out. Very early on, ego tells us that we’re separate from everyone else- directly contradicting Spirit, which reminds us that we share the same life force with everyone. Ego nags us to compete and insists that we’ve failed when others defeat us or have more than we do.

Our culture wanted us to learn early that we are what we acquire, and if we have or want very little, then we are of very little value. Furthermore, we are what others think of us, so if our reputation is sullied, we’re of even less value! We opted to fit in, chasing someone else’s dream and counting up our earnings and possessions to measure our level of success.

Ego’s Dominating Messages

Ego is just an illusion, so ask yourself if you wish to continue to be controlled by something that isn’t true, or would you rather look into what’s real and never changes? Keep in mind that spirit is fixed, permanent, and infinite, while ego comes and goes with the wind.

The ego says, You’re a body. The Holy Spirit says, You’re not even a person-you’re just like Me, your Source of being. The ego says, Your thoughts are very important. The Holy Spirit insists, Only thoughts you think with God are real-nothing else matters. This teaching explains that thoughts centering on ourselves, appearance, possessions, fears, or relationship problems are not only unimportant, they are not real.

We become what we think about. If we think about giving, as God does, the universe will provide. The ego says, There’s good and bad. The Holy Spirit maintains, There’s nothing to judge because it isn’t really in the first place. If I make you bad and myself good, for instance, I deny the presence of Spirit in you whom I elected to judge. God sees it quite differently.

Our spiritual Source knows that only it is real- all of the ephemeral worlds of form and boundaries are not of its infinite nature. The ego directs love and hates toward individuals. The Holy Spirit’s love is nonspecific and all-encompassing.

Ego directs us to love some, be indifferent towards many, and hate all others. There’s no they, there’s only one. The Source of all-encompassing love knows nothing of boundaries; differing customs; geographic divisions; family splits; or differences in race, creed, sex, and so on, it only knows love for all. Jesus points so perfectly to the differences between ego and Spirit. Evil, good, righteous, and unrighteous are all the same-some move away from our father, some move toward Him.

The ego will tout its irresistible logic to assure us that our body, our possessions, and our achievements are all very real and important. The ego wants us to regret our past. The Holy Spirit wants us to practice unconditional forgiveness. I look for a way to be like God and stay loving, caring, forgiving, and peaceful within myself, suspending my need to be right and knowing that in the next moment it will all be gone, which is true of everything that’s being played out in this illusory world.

Your ego wants you to live in a state of self-importance, but your Holy Spirit knows that the only thing that’s truly important is being in alignment with Spirit. Therefore, anything that’s not of Spirit-such as fear, illness, worry, shame, anger, and the like-is worthy of your laughter.

When others attempt to seduce you into feeling bad, guilty worried, fearful, or anything that isn’t of Spirit, practice stepping outside of yourself and becoming the observer to all things transitory, which is your entire physical world. Repeat sentiments such as This isn’t mine, I refuse to own it, and I’ll not be misaligned with Spirit.

Die while you’re alive. You’re in this world but not of it. You can be here without being attached to hereby simply discarding your body identification: Imagine yourself as a decomposed energy field that’s impervious to anything not of Spirit. As H.L. Mencken, a famous journalist/satirist of a generation ago wrote: We are here and it is now: further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine. A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct."

Returning to Spirit results in a grand sense of being in tune with our uniquely Divine purpose. When You Are Inspired, your mind transcends limitations. We’re transcendent; we’ve gone beyond the world of boundaries and entered a space of creative knowing. In other words, we surrender and put ourselves under the guidance and control of our Purposeful Force.

Chapter 2:

Happiness, the Result of Your Inner Life and Character

What you are is superior to what you have and what you can. No possession or achievement can have any meaning if it cannot make us happy. Happiness is really the gratification of the heart and soul. It is an internal realization and can only be a realization from within. We have to deserve it and deserve it right. Chesterfield says, Many new years you may see, but happy ones you cannot see without deserving them. 

Rule No 1:

Happiness depends on the attitude you have

No one else can make us happy either. We have to learn to be happy ourselves. Happiness is best achieved by deserving, not by running after. A man most successful in societal terms, having acquired power, fame, and money, can still have a sense of emptiness within and he can still feel like a failure and be unhappy.

Happiness cannot be bought by success alone. It is an internal realization that can only be achieved by the right action and right thinking. It is easier to be unhappy than to be happy. A single thing not going our way, however trivial it may be, has the potential of making us unhappy.

A little rudeness by someone, a little deviation from our plan, that has nothing to do with us and over which we have no control, can be enough to make us unhappy. But, to be happy, we want everything, and everything collectively, to be just the way we want it to be. 

No amount of outward success can bring us satisfaction and no amount of pleasure pursuits can make us happy if we are not at peace inside. Happiness is the gratification of the soul. To achieve this, our life has to be in total harmony with our inner self. No inner need can be satisfied by outside forces alone, and no outside forces can bring us a sense of peace and happiness, no matter what. 

An unhappy man wants to project to the world that he is happy even when he is miserable inside. He will resort to excessive laughter and gaiety in the hope of being able to hide and compensate for his internal misery. The really happy man never laughs or seldom, though he may smile. 

Never confuse pleasure with happiness; the two are not the same. Pleasure is an enjoyable or agreeable sensation or emotion, amusement, recreation, or gratification of the senses. It is derived from outside sources and is short-lived.

Happiness, on the other hand, is a feeling of joy or gladness, satisfaction, and peace of mind contentment, and equanimity. It is the