In keeping with the work theme, wouldn’t it be great if we could all love our jobs like Tori Amos sings about here? Here’s to showing up to work with a smile on our face, or to finding work that brings some joy to our lives.
Happy Monday!
(Source: cheyanneah, via spiritmolecule)
How to Obtain Happiness
- A man: I want happiness.
- Buddha: First remove "I", that's ego, then remove "want", that's desire. See? Now you are left with happiness.
I recently had, what I first thought as, the unfortunate pleasure to ride the subway with a crazy homeless man. I was on my way to teach a yoga class early one morning, listening to my iPod, trying to wake up, thinking about how my class would go when this old, rotund guy in patched up overalls a la Ragtime starts belting out “New York, New York.” At first I did what any New Yorker would do and rolled my eyes at him—he was scream-singing it! Even though I was wearing those earbuds that you have to insert INTO your ears, I could still hear him crystal clear. That’s how loud he was. I didn’t want to make myself deaf by trying to turn up the volume on my electronic device, so I tried to ignore the situation.
But then he got to the part that goes “If I can make it here, I’ll make it anywhere” and I couldn’t help but smile. It inspired so much hope in me. I mean, taking the song at face value, yeah, living in New York is rough—if you can figure out how to make life work here, you can pretty much go and live anywhere. But I kept thinking about the lyrics to the song and realized that this guy, screaming this song wildly out of key—he’s making it, in his own way. He’s as happy as a clam singing to strangers in a subway car about the city that he lives in. And that’s when I realized that we are all are making it. Even trying to make it, we’re making it. Just going about our day, trying to attain whatever goal it is, be it big like a career change, a home change, or small, like just going to the grocery store to get some food to make dinner. So next time you feel like you’re struggling with something or frustrated that it’s taking you longer than you expected to reach a certain goal, just remember that in that moment you are still making it, you are on your way.
Once I thought about that, I realized that it was pretty much the perfect way to start my day so I turned off my iPod and listened to him until he got off—at Bedford Ave! Hopefully he inspired a couple more people in Williamsburg that day…
Happiness, Obsessive Thoughts, and Seeing the Dalai Lama
After traveling to DC over the weekend to see the Dalai Lama speak to America on World Peace, I wrote this piece for the Interdependence Project and am reposting here. And check out one of my travel companion’s website Atha for photos and drawings from the event. It was truly a magical experience.
I’m not sure if it’s the summer heat or the fact that I’ve been without a home and couch-surfing for the past 5 months, but I’ve been feeling a little crazy lately. I’ve let some thoughts spin out of control, obsessing over seemingly stupid details and life tales, and letting the crazy ideas or stories that my mind creates drive me, well, crazy. So when a friend suggested taking a 1:15am bus ride to Washington, D.C. to see the Dalai Lama speak on July 9 on World Peace (the west lawn of the Capitol Building opened at 7am for seating), it seemed like a pretty good idea.
There might not have been so many people in attendance who journeyed as far as my friends and I to witness the momentous event, but there were literally thousands there delighting in His Holiness’ presence, no matter the heat—a scorching 93 degrees is what someone’s iPhone reported. It felt like it was 133. But it didn’t seem to discourage too many with second thoughts. This was history in the making, and we all awaited with bated breath—some of us for three or four hours—to hear the knowledge HHDL was going to drop.
After being introduced onstage by Whoopi Goldberg, who was just as surprised as all of us lawngoers that introduction duties had been bestowed upon her, HHDL began talking about happiness: Everyone has a right to it, and everyone is born with it, but that the mistake lies in thinking that happiness comes from an external source. In actuality, HH says that happiness is found by cultivating peace of mind, and that the only way to change society is by creating a calm mind. It sounds so simple, but I am but one fine example of how hard this is, in fact, to achieve.
And let’s let my ego dazzle you with a story here, shall we? Once upon a few short hours before His Holiness took to the stage, I was speaking from that cracked-out place of delirium brought on by lack of sleep, heat exhaustion, and an impending caffeine rush to one of my companions on the New York-to-DC adventure. As we walked back to the lawn after having procured the sweet stuff (in this case coffee), I spoke to her about how I was my own worst enemy (my ego wanted center stage here, too)—that I was the creator of all my problems, and why do we think, think, think, and then get stuck on one specific thought? Why can’t we be free of these thoughts that we somehow give power to, latching onto it and obsessing over it once it pops up out of thin air. She totally understood what I was talking about, but neither of us could come up with a good reason why it is we do what we do. So when HHDL started talking about finding peace of mind in order to be happy, it felt like he was talking directly to me, that he somehow overheard my conversation and was giving this speech specifically for my benefit.
Okay, so my ego isn’t THAT big, but in speaking to my friend that day and other friends during the week about this issue or problem I’ve been experiencing, it humbled me to know that I am not the only person who suffers with this. We all do it, and HH knows this. So what to do with a mind that works like a broken record, going over the same groove over and over again?
According to His Holiness, to be able to see our reality fully, we must look at ourselves objectively; transversely, in order to see things objectively our mind must be calm. A hard thing to achieve, an even harder thing to maintain. But HHDL says that through confidence, inner strength, intelligence (if used properly), warmheartedness, compassion, and concern for others well-being, we will be able to make our personal noise pollution stop. Through the practice of compassion comes inner strength, a greater calm to see things objectively. By being compassionate to ourselves as well as others, we are more likely to investigate our problems as they arise; it’s through our own thorough investigation that we realize that it’s not worth it to worry about our problems, but to, instead, accept them—the key factor in letting go of the obsessive thought process.
The fact that everyone has a right, a choice for happiness (and for us Americans,it’s one of our basic Constitutional rights) gives the Dalai Lama hope for humankind. And according to His Holiness, utter happiness equals peace of mind.
So I encourage you to notice when your thoughts start playing on repeat and see if you can observe them and realize that they are keeping you from attaining a calm mind. Try to meditate and really just let the thought go. Get rid of it. You don’t need it. It is a problem of your own device and it is keeping you from a calm mind, from happiness.
I know it is easier said than done, but to be free from the incessant, negative chatter inside my head? Sounds like heaven to me.
