Living From The Source

When we reflect on our lives, and what we want, the goal behind most other goals is simply happiness.

We want to be happy.

But, we have a tendency to look for happiness in all the wrong places.

We look for happiness outside of ourselves, instead of looking within.

We look for acceptance and approval from others, rather than accepting and approving of ourselves.

We get caught up in daily dramas and lose touch with the present.

In Power, Freedom, and Grace: Living from the Source of Lasting Happiness, Deepak Chopra  explores issues of power, freedom, grace, and how we can achieve lasting happiness in our lives:

Happiness is the goal of all goals, and it’s a state of consciousness that already exists within you.  Happiness for a reason is a form of misery because the reason can be taken away from you at any time. To be happy for no reason is the happiness you want to experience.

In a pivotal chapter, What is the key to lasting happiness?, Chopra explains the distinction between Ego and Spirit:

Behind the curtain of your intellect and emotions is your self-image or ego. The ego is not your real self; it is the image of yourself that you have slowly built over time. It is the mask behind which you hide, but it is not the real you. And because it is not the real you, but a fraud, it lives in fear. It wants approval. It needs to control.

The ego is the prison you have built around your-self, and now it holds you captive within its walls. 

And how do you break free from captivity? You break free by choosing to identify with your inner self, the real you.

You know you are free when you feel happy and at ease instead of fearful and anxious. You know you are free when you are independent of the good and bad opinions of others, when you have relinquished the need to seek approval, when you believe that you are good enough as you are.

You know you are free when you surrender to the moment, to the what is, and trust that the universe is on your side. You know you are free when you let go of resentments and grievances and choose to forgive.

We obtain power by connecting to our source, the spirit within, the silent observer:

The first sign that you are living from the source is a lack of worry. You don’t worry about anything. You feel lighthearted, happy. You don’t get offended by the comments of others, you don’t feel obsessive about having your own way, and you don’t experience resistance to what is.

You experience effortless ease, spontaneity, and no resistance to whatever is happening around you.

The second sign that you are living from the source is the experience of synchronicity and meaningful coincidence. If we are in synch with the universe, then we experience synchronicity. The more connected we are, the more we experience coincident or simultaneous events.

As you elevate your attention from the world of the humdrum and trivial to the world of the magical and miraculous, your life becomes magical and miraculous.

He concludes the chapter on happiness with these Key Points:

The key to lasting happiness is to identify with the unchanging essence of your inner self, your source.  Then you no longer look for happiness because you know you already have it.

This happiness is true bliss, and it follows you wherever you go.

Aah . . . that’s better!

Related posts:  Zen & The Art of Happiness * The Inner Path to Peace