Finding My Way

. . . sources of pain, such as overeating, sometimes appear to be sources of pleasure, but in the end they are not. What will eventually lead to suffering is not seen for what it is, but is mistaken for a way to happiness. . . . because we misunderstand what causes pain, we work at achieving the very causes of pain. ~H.H. the Dalai Lama

No wonder we can't find our way to happiness when we are given so many misdirecting messages regarding where happiness can be found. The ole, IF IT FEELS GOOD -- DO IT! way of living leads too, too often to pain. Actually, our urgent need to escape everything unpleasant, and painful leads us deeper into pain and unpleasantness.

Anguish emerges from craving for life to be other than it is. . . . In yearning for anguish to be assuaged in such ways, we reinforce what creates anguish in the first place: the craving for life to be other than it is. . . . The more we want to be rid of it, the more
acute it gets. ~Stephen Batchular

There is an old joke where two economists are hiking through a wilderness area and one, studying the map says to the other: "See that mountain over there? According to this map we are on top if it!"

In our efforts to escape pain and suffering we often fail to see where we are, and in fact, we think we are somewhere other than where we actually are.

We are foolish to think we can have mastery over what is not ours to master. . . . We don't need to control the world. We don't need to defend ourselves against it. We don't need to preserve anything. We only need to be here -- totally, completely, freely -- responding to the actual occasion. ~ Steve Hogen

In trying to find the Right way, we stay confused and lost. If I could just give up on that idea that there is a right way and wrong way, I could stop and be cognizant of where I am in the NOW.

Unhappily, when I'm home I'm worried about work, and when I'm at work I'm worried about home, and when I plan I am feeling guilty about the past and when I'm focused on the past I feel upset that I'm not focused on achieving my goals, and no wonder I'm unhappy and lost, because I'm always traveling and never ever actually living in the present moment. It is in the present moment that we live. All we have is NOW yet I rarely have just opened my arms and embraced the joys that exist in my NOW.

It's not where I'm going that matters -- it is where I am right NOW that matters.