What do you want in life?

Address for Happiness

What do you want in life?

Invariably what we all seek in our lives is happiness. Not the happiness based on external experiences, which is short lived and subject to change but a much deeper happiness of contentment, peace, joy, unconditional love and insight. This is a natural desire.

Happiness is our natural state of being and we recognise that being unhappy does not feel right. If happiness is a natural desire why do we not experience it, why are we searching for happiness? Why do we experience such unhappiness?

We do not need to be told one of the things you must do in this life time is to be happy, it is a natural state of being. Yet it alludes so many of us.

We are like the musk deer, always searching for the elusive fragrance, running ourselves to exhaustion searching whilst all the while it is carried within us, we simply do not recognise it.

So not realising that happiness is within oneself we search for it outside.

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Two brothers were devotees of Lord Shiva and travelled to the forest daily to meditate. Many years passed and then one day Lord Shiva appeared, he said ‘you have both been good devotees tell me what you desire and I will fulfil your wish’.

The first brother said I wish to have a kingdom and he followed with a long list of demands for this kingdom.

It is done said Lord Shiva; he then turned to the second brother and asked what is it you desire?

The second brother thought for a while.  

Then he spoke, it seems to me that there are some flaws with requesting a kingdom, for what if the land is barren and no crops can grow?

What if the neighbours are hostile and there is war?

Or what if my wife was unable to bear children?

The second brother continued, I was wondering why my brother was asking for all these things and then I realised that what he actually wants is happiness. Therefore what I wish for Lord Shiva is ‘happiness’.

Lord Shiva replied I couldn’t give you that.

Why not the brother exclaimed!

I can only give you what you do not already have.

If you asked me for a head I could not give you one because you already have one, as it is with happiness you already have the happiness within you.

I cannot give you what you already have.

It generally takes us quite a few years, decades actually and usually not until we have exhausted every option for finding happiness in the external world before we realise that these things do not bring us happiness.

Let us take a moment here to define happiness vs. comfortable.

To have wealth makes us comfortable not necessarily happy. 

However it is better to have wealth and be comfortably uncomfortable than poor and be uncomfortably uncomfortable.

Now, close your eyes and silent your mind, enter the stillness within. Can you feel the beauty, the peace? Existing in this absolute silence and space. The tools of Self Knowledge allow us to remove our false attachments to reveal this reality.

Namaste

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Close your eyes and come to the breath

Your body is an instrument keep it in beautiful condition

The body is an instrument that amplifies all your thoughts, therefore the energy of your thoughts vibrates through the entire body and mind, both spoken and unspoken. Who you are, what you perceive, what you think, these thoughts become you. And they leave an energetic 'imprint' in your body.

What are the quality of your thoughts at this very moment?
How are you breathing? Are you breathing or holding your breath?

Can you be present with your breath, your body or has your mind raced you far away?

Take a moment to watch, to observe what are the thoughts currently in your mind. Watch them as if they were 'outside' of yourself.

Now choose if you wish to retain these thoughts or delete. What would you like to 'think'?

Play with your thoughts, think of something beautiful, calm and joyous...do you feel the tension releasing from you body, your breath becoming deeper? Now think of something that you currently perceive causes you anxiety and watch your body follow.....

Namaste,
Megan - Om Shanti

The 'maya' of the mind

In Sanskrit there is a term 'maya' it loosely translates as seeing or believing something that doesn't actually exist. You could say this entire world is 'maya', it doesn't actually exist but you can not see this as you did not create it.

One could say the same of your mind, when those destructive and negative repetitive thoughts rumble around in your mind we could call them 'maya' or the I virus.
The difference here being 'you' did create them or at least the 'I virus' created them.

So what can you do to remove them?

Simply do not engage with them, do not 'think about them, the more you think about them the bigger they become. As these thoughts are false they have a very low energy frequency whereas the truth of who you are has a very high energy frequency.

So simply drop them, let them go...return to the stillness and silence that you are, this will provide the space to gradually realise the truth of who you are.

Namaste

One Pointedness - Sadadhanam

We live in a world of constant activity always 'doing' rather then 'being'. When ever there is a 'gap' in our thought activity rather then allowing ourselves to simply rest in that 'gap' that space, the 'I virus' immediately fills your mind with activity again.

When you next have the opportunity to experience stillness, silence either through a meditation or a quiet moment perhaps in nature, close your eyes and make a constant choice to allow yourself to just sit in that silence, feel it, experience it.

This is your natural state of being, where no thoughts disturb you, yet you are alert and present. In this state you eventually access your higher guidance, your higher intelligence.

However do not try and seek this with your mind, your mind can never grasp the truth of who you are, you are beyond your mind.

Namaste

Being Present in the Now

Our world is our creation and it can change with a thought. How many problems do you perceive you have in your life at this time? Probably a few…

Now, try bringing your mind to this present moment, closing your eyes, bringing your attention to your breath and being completely attentive to this single moment. Let no thoughts distract you. Now in this present moment are there any problems?

No, there can be no problems in the present moment; they cannot exist because in this moment everything is just as it is. How do you feel? Do you sense the space and lightness of this moment? Wouldn’t it be nice to experience this as a state of being?

The problems you experience in your life are the sum total of all your projections, what if’s and attachments to falsified thoughts creating stories in your life.

Silencing your mind, finding the space between your thoughts, your words, your actions, being in the present moment returns you to your natural state of being.

Begin to practice this often you will be richly rewarded.

Namaste

Change can only happen from within You

This is part of my journey, which I would like to share with you.

It began with an egg; well it didn't really, as there is no beginning or end simply the sum total of many experiences accompanied with a very questioning mind.

So about twenty five years ago (precisely half my life) through a self enquiry and questioning mind resulting from seeking responsibility for my health and well being I learnt about the state of caged hens.

There after I chose to never buy an egg from a caged hen. At this stage free ranging hens eggs were rather expensive, almost twice the price of caged hens eggs. It was very much a conscious choice, it was expensive and one that led us to having a number of henny penny’s in our suburban back yard.

Several months ago I was delighted to notice that free ranging hens eggs are now comparable to caged hen’s eggs, in some cases even cheaper. Wow I though this is amazing… however as I stood and watched people purchasing eggs in my local Coles I couldn't understand why were people still buying eggs from caged hens, if you haven’t already just type into google ‘ caged hens’ you’ll get an idea of my disbelief.

Now I can understand people not being able to afford free range eggs twenty-five years ago, but today? Are we so detached, separated from what happens in the world around us, that we do not even question what we are putting into our bodies? Where has this food come from that is sustaining us and how has it been treated? What impact does it have on this earth? What is the eco footprint of the food we eat? Change begins from each of us individually.

If you are looking for direction in Australia you may like to check out this link: Sustainable Table is a not-for profit organisation that empowers people to use their shopping dollar for a food system that is fair, humane, healthy and good for the environment.

http://www.sustainabletable.org.au/

Namaste

'Atma kah' - Who am I?

Well that would depend on who you are associating the 'I' with.

If you are associating the 'I' as your body and mind you have just limited yourself to something finite and limited and rather chaotic!

Atma, translates as 'the Self is the truth'.
All else is false, unreal.
Therefore Atma kah is the reality beyond all falsehoods.

The moment you identify with something you drag the limitations of that something on your self.

To access the Atman, the Self within each of us we need to understand the nature of our false attachments to our thoughts, people and experiences.

To detach from these false attachments in order to gain the insight, simply begin to command the mind to return to your natural state of silence by choice when ever you choose.

Namaste