Your boss is unreasonable, you haven’t been intimate with your spouse in weeks, your kids won’t pick their clothes up off the floor, and traffic is a nightmare. Trying to change the people and the situations in your life is normal. You want to be happy. Unfortunately, it is a fundamental Law of our universe that you can not change people and rarely can you change a situation. So what is left?
You want more affection, you want respect, you want cooperation because all of these things feel good. But if you can not change what’s going on outside of you what do you have the power to change? Is it possible to be happy in an uncooperative and irrational world?
Happiness is only possible when you have cultivated a state of mind that is supportive, loving, and nurturing regardless of your circumstances. You cultivate this state of mind, not by arguing with your thoughts, your spouse, or your kids, but by realizing that your senses are deceiving you.
Through meditation you learn to redirect your attention away from “thinking mind” and into the refuge of the body, the breath, and the present moment. Over time two things will happen: One, you learn to ignore most of what you are thinking and rely instead on that aspect of yourself that always knows the truth, sees clearly, and loves deeply. And two, the content of your thoughts will begin to naturally reflect the openness of your beautiful awareness.
So what will happen to the irrational and uncooperative world? For you it will change. It will change because you will be different in the world. It will change because like your thoughts it will begin to reflect back to you the openness of your loving awareness.
Close your eyes and take three deep breaths. Feel your body in the chair. Take three more breaths. Smile.
Photo Credit: Jonathan Klok