Art of Happiness

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“My mind is my garden is my mind…”

In the garden of my mind I sow knowledge;
In the garden of my mind I grow experience;
In the garden of my mind I harvest wisdom.

In the mind of my garden I see beauty;
In the mind of my garden I feel love;
In the mind of my garden I am light.
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Spiritual teachings from all times and all places advocate the "know yourself" as the only manner to access wisdom and happiness.

Wisdom and happiness are the two facets of the same coin because wisdom is the Art of happiness. Here we get to the keystone of everything: the more we know ourselves, the more we open ourselves to the Universe, and the more we get filled with incredible happiness, felicity, ecstasy, bliss, peace. I don't know why but this is a fact. Any serious meditant, no matter his culture or religious expression, will confirm this. (Question) The practice of Art of Happiness is what we can call Spirituality.

So, what is happiness then?

It can be described as the capability to watch and exist in the world as it is, in the Here and Now. In other words, happiness comes when illusions vanish. Illusions vanish when we integrate --intimately-- the ambivalence of all things, when illusionary oppositions and categorizations join together in one whole substance.

"What is essential is invisible to the eyes", said the Little Prince (Saint-Exupéry). When investigating our own self, what is invisible to the eyes, it is the whole Universe that we visit. What exists within us exists everywhere else, our essence is the one of the Universe, we are woven with the same fabric. We become our own telescope and microscope that connect us to the world.

Spirituality must not be confused with religions that relate to a set of stories, myths, characters, events and rituals.

Why are we naturally filled with illusions?

We probably don't come to the world filled with illusions; on the contrary we are born with a plain potential to be in the world as it is, in the Here and Now. Let's not forget our childhood, how strongly our inner space was filled with direct flows of sensations with no cultural and behavioral filter. We get filled with illusions during the learning phase probably because of very practical evolutionary reasons. Conditioning --or getting surrounded with illusions-- seems like an evolutionary necessity made to maintain individuals in a mental and behavioral perimeter that maximizes the coherence and the survival of the group. From the cradle we are taught what is good and evil, we are given ready-to-wear definitions of ourselves that "fit in the box" of the collectivity, all of them are strong illusion builders. Later we remain by ourselves confused between the map we were given to navigate in life and the land, between our representation of the world and the world as it is. Keeping our sight stuck to the map and staying away from experiencing new lands is driven by our fear of the unknown mostly conditioned through the educational process. Our ignorance surrounds us like high ramparts of a castle from which we rebuild our own world from the dungeon. It is a poor, illusive and tragic protection against the Dragons that our mind will continue to build for ever. Fear is the fear of the fear.

Why is suffering one of the main hand that awakes and liberates us?

As strange as it may seem, pain sends us back in the Here and Now, where we can meet the substance of the world and face a behavioral choice, the one of remaining a prostrated victim or to accept the pact of giving ourselves up to the world as it is. This pact is a way to enlightenment.

What is meditation?

The way to reach the substance of the Universe is through direct experience, far beyond the words and the concepts, Here and Now. The language of spirituality is only for map-making and description, it cannot be substituted to real experience (have you ever visited a country by reading a guidebook?) The practice of meditation consists in exercising and mastering our capability to maintain our awareness and focus in the Here and Now, right in the substance of the very present in the world, beyond the skin of illusions. It is a good way to learn without going through the pain box (even if the inner way to wisdom goes through very difficult challenges).

We need peace for meditation and we need to meditate to access the peace. This chicken and egg thing evaporates little by little when we perform small iterations, until we reach the point when this issue vanishes. Then it's up to us to decide what we want to do with our new freedom.

There are many ways to meditate, that range from breathing postures and mind exercise to social shared practice of compassion. It is like climbing a mountain: there are many techniques, many guides, many sides and many ways, but the top is still the top.

By the way, what do we find at the top? The answer is... nothing but ourselves! There is no more wall or rock in front of the eyes, we are just facing our inner self while we contemplate the vacuity of the world. We are rich of the Journey we went through.

What relation with Collective Intelligence?

Let's keep away from recommending one method rather than another to reach happiness, each one has his own story and journey to experience. What is important is to become aware of the spiritual dimension of any thing, and to be filled with it, at each second, each instant. The question of existence cannot be summarized as survival issues, even if this question expresses the day-to-day existence of a large part of Humanity. Once survival is acquired, the question about Mankind needs to be played in everyone's heart, in the universe of Consciousness and in the consciousness of the Universe.

Our Collective Intelligence depends on how we care about these questions.

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A conversation about happiness has continued here.

Links to dig in

• All these matters are much more deeply reviewed in The Isdom of the Wisdom Society, an article of Anthony Judge
• Spirituality in Wikipedia
• A very good introduction to meditation --the practical way to spiritual mastery-- is given in this very humorous text from Reverend Mike Young.
• Circles of Compassion: the practice of development and social sharing of compassion that takes place within women communities around the world. See also the Millionth Circle.
• Read the first pages of "Illusions, the adventure of a reluctant Messiah" from Richard Bach. The liberation from illusion is described in a very poetic manner.
• An approach to living: many advice from a wise and enlightened person in one page. Thanks to Ang for this one
• The Art of Living with the practice of Vipassana meditation
• Thinkhappythoughts.com A blog that explores only the concept of happiness

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Discussion.

I don't know, Jean-Francois, maybe it is my experience that is at variance with yours, maybe it is my understanding, but I have experienced happiness and joy, sorrow and pain. This has taught me to recognize happiness by the fact that it only comes from helping others, from the feeling of beeing useful to others, much as sorrow only comes from the failure or lack of doing so.
As I see Collective Intelligence as that which forms the competent (emerging) behaviour of the group (the symplegm) from the diverse actions and decisions of many individuals in the group, I also perceive happiness as the feeling that comes from participating in the Collective Intelligence and sorrow as the feeling that comes from the failure to participate or the lack of such participation.

Is that what you were trying to explain hereabove?
Maybe it is... In that case I'm sorry I didn't understand.
I know I can be quite thick at times...

As for meditation... I know the word, I have seen people who say they do meditate regularly, I have often asked how to do that, but I still haven't obtained from anyone nor found anywhere a practical answer to that question, so I stll don't really know what that word means: "meditation" . If by any luck you can explain me what it is to "meditate", I'd be grateful.

Gandalf_Legris

How many kinds of happiness are there? and what is happiness? If it is reconciliation, is reconciliation the means to attain happiness? And if the world is mostly myself,is meditation a way to my own being?

Passerby