{"id":8978,"date":"2016-02-04T00:20:58","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T05:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/?p=8978"},"modified":"2016-02-04T00:24:57","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T05:24:57","slug":"looking-at-a-larger-realitywhat-is-the-sourceof-your-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/?p=8978","title":{"rendered":"Looking at a Larger Reality:
WHAT IS THE SOURCE
OF YOUR HAPPINESS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I appeared the other day on a globally broadcast panel discussion with Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith and Bishop Carlton Pearson and we were asked a series of extremely interesting questions. I thought it might be fun to share a couple of them:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What is the secret of happiness?<\/li>\n
  2. What is the meaning of life?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In answer to the first question I told our interviewer, “The secret of happiness is not to require it.”<\/p>\n

    My answer to the second question: “The meeting of life is the meaning we give it.”<\/p>\n

    Let’s take a look at the first of these responses here, and see if you agree.<\/p>\n

    I have learned in my dialogue with God that happiness is not something to be sought-after it is something that we are. It is our inherent nature. It is our deep identity. Is a word we have given to an energy that we feel in a certain way.<\/p>\n

    This energy is the fundamental energy of the universe. It is the primal force. It is the Essential Essence. It can be called by many names. Love is one of them. Happiness is another.<\/p>\n

    Because happiness is who we are, any effort to find it or to seek it is, essentially, on its surface a denial of our True Identity. By denying that identity, we push its manifestation further away from us.<\/p>\n

    I happen to wear glasses, and if you are a person who also wears glasses, I am sure that you and I have shared a common experience at least once in our lives. I am sure that at least once you and I have gone looking for our glasses while we were wearing them.<\/p>\n

    This is a classic example of ignoring what is true even as we are looking for what is true. It is an example of seeking that which we cannot find no matter how hard we try, because we are looking for something that we already have. We won\u2019t find our glasses anywhere because we are looking right past them — indeed, right through them — in our effort to find them.<\/p>\n

    In the same way, we cannot possibly find happiness if we are looking outside of ourselves, because it is inside of ourselves that happiness resides \u2013\u2013\u2013 for the clear and simple reason that happiness is we are.<\/p>\n

    The best way to experience happiness, then, is to express it. To \u201cexpress\u201d means to push out, squeeze out, press out. It does not mean \u201cto take in.\u201d Happiness is not something that we gather, it\u2019s something that we spread. And if we spread it wherever we go, we find ourselves experiencing it at a higher level than we might ever have thought possible.<\/p>\n

    Happiness is not something that comes\u00a0to<\/em>\u00a0us, it\u2019s something that comes\u00a0through<\/em>\u00a0us. I know this sounds elementary, but I\u2019m going to share it anyway. Happiness does not come from things. Proof of this can be found by simply observing the life of people who have acquired many things and are still unhappy.<\/p>\n

    As I said, I know that sounds simplistic and maybe even a little preachy, but it must be said nonetheless if we are to explore this topic. Because if we are to both learn and experience the secret of happiness, we must start at the beginning.<\/p>\n

    Happiness does not arise from something outside of us. It emerges from something inside of us — sometimes as our reaction to that which is outside of us, and sometimes as our creation of that which we would like to see outside of us.<\/p>\n

    Let me tell you about the highly New Age hot dog vendor on Coney Island. Perhaps you\u2019ve heard of him. He goes around saying to people, \u201cI\u2019m the New Age Hot Dog Vendor. Let me make you one with everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

    People smile and say, \u201cOkay, make me one with relish, lettuce, onions, pickles, mustard, and catsup.\u201d He does, then hands it to them. Then he charges them a crazy amount, like $7.77, so that no one can hand him precisely what he wants. When they give him a $10 bill, or two 5\u2019s, he thanks them, turns and wheels his cart away.<\/p>\n

    \u201cHey!\u201d the people inevitable say, \u201cwhere\u2019s the change?\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u201cChange,\u201d the vendor announces, \u201cmust come from within.\u201d<\/p>\n

    So must happiness. When we imagine it to be coming from \u00a0outside of us, it can disappear almost as fast as it arrives. When it originates inside of us, it remains with us much longer. Indeed, it can remain with us for a lifetime. Or certainly, for most of the moments of a lifetime.<\/p>\n

    How to experience the happiness that is naturally who we are, how to find the happiness that resides within, remains \u00a0the key question for many, many people. We\u2019ve already supplied the answer here. Give it away.<\/p>\n

    There is a second way as well.<\/p>\n

    Gratitude. And we\u2019ll talk about that next. I\u2019m going to explore this topic of happiness over the next several entries here. It is intriguing and even perplexing to many. I\u2019ve been asked by more than a few people to really dive into it.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019m happy to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I appeared the other day on a globally broadcast panel discussion with Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith and Bishop Carlton Pearson and we were asked a series of extremely interesting questions. I thought it might be fun to share a couple of them: What is the secret of happiness? What is the meaning of life? In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headline"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8978"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8984,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8978\/revisions\/8984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}