Look for Happiness – Page 11

Being happy today 1: Joyfulness is in our own hands

April 24, 2011May 13, 2011 Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Joy isn’t dependent on getting things, or on the world going the way you want, or on people behaving the way they should, or on their giving you all the things you like and want. Joyfulness isn’t dependent upon anything but your own willingness to be generous, kind, and loving. It’s that mature experience of giving, sharing, and developing the science of goodness. Virtuousness is the joy we can experience in this human realm. So, although what society is doing or what everyone else is doing is beyond my control -I can’t go around making everything how I want it – still, I can be kind, generous, and patient,and do good, and develop virtue. That I can do, and that’s worth doing, and not something anyone can stop me from doing. However rotten or corrupted society is doesn’t make any difference to our ability to be virtuous and to do good.

Ajahn Sumedho

Opening to the soul in ordinary life

April 24, 2011April 24, 2011 Karl Duffy1 Comment

The three days of the Easter Festival contain a number of beautiful rituals which have been celebrated by human beings for thousands of years. These rituals touch of the big themes of human life – loss and death, betrayal and loyalty, meaning and love – and do so in a way that allow us ways to share significant emotions with others. The city of Geneva was quiet this morning, as it has been the last few days. It is good to have seasons and rhythms in our lives, periods of less activity with time to celebrate with family and friends. These celebrations can become familiar rituals in our lives – they bring us together and allow us to connect, and through connection find support and meaning. They open us up to something which is beyond the rush of each day and the limitations of work:

Ritual maintains the world’s holiness. Knowing that everything we do, no matter how simple, has a halo of imagination around it and can serve the soul enriches life and makes the things around us more precious, more worthy of our protection and care. As in a dream a small object may assume a significant meaning, so in a life that is animated with ritual there are no insignificant things. When traditional cultures carve elaborate faces and bodies on their chairs and tools, they are acknowledging the soul in ordinary things, as well as the fact that simple work is also ritual. When we stamp out our mass-made products with functionality blazoned on them but no sign of imagination, we are denying ritual a role in ordinary affairs. We are chasing away the soul that could animate our lives.

Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul

Teens Day 13: Holding onto our thoughts

April 6, 2011April 4, 2011 Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Sometimes we find that we like our thoughts so much
that we don’t want to let them go

Pema Chodron

Early Spring morning walk

April 3, 2011April 3, 2011 Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Walking the lanes near my house early this morning, with the spring chorus of the birds. At times one is just struck by the beauty and freshness of nature. Practice is easy then. Nothing needs to be added to this moment or to this step. We need not worry about getting anywhere, or measuring up or competing the journey. Just this step, and this moment, that bird singing, those three ducks flying overhead.

What activity is most important in your life? To pass an exam, get a car or a house, or get a promotion in your career? There are so many people who have passed exams, who have bought cars and houses, who have gotten promotions, but still find themselves without peace of mind, without joy, and without happiness. The most important thing in life is to find this treasure… In order to have peace and joy, you must succeed in having peace within each of your steps. Your steps are the most important thing. They decide everything.

But often in our daily life, our steps are burdened with anxieties and fears. Life itself seems to be a continuous chain of insecure feelings, and so our steps lose their natural easiness. Our earth is truly beautiful. There is so much graceful, natural scenery along paths and roads around the earth! They are all available to us, yet we cannot enjoy them because our hearts are not trouble-free, and our steps are not at ease.

Thich Nhat Hahn

On being true to ones nature

March 28, 2011March 28, 2011 Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Another poem by Mary Oliver, about a flower that blooms in Springtime. It is a lovely affirmation of love for life, and the willingness to open and stand firm in one’s own purpose. To share with others, and to shine.

All my life, so far,
I have loved more than one thing,

including the mossy hooves of dreams, including’
the spongy litter under the tall trees.

In spring, the moccasin flowers
reach for the crackling lick of the sun
and burn down. Sometimes,
in the shadows, I see the hazy eyes,
the lamb-lips

of oblivion, its deep drowse,
and I can imagine a new nothing
in the universe,
the matted leaves splitting
open, revealing the black planks
of the stairs.