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the ink is dry on the divorce decree she finds herself in the arms of another -who sees her as his darling bundle of joy. A steak makes a carnivore happy,a vegetarian unhappy. In spite of this fact we work overtime to get happinessthrough objects and activities.Some try to attain happiness through the mind. Poets, writers, artists,and intellectuals find happiness playing with thoughts and ideas, feelings andemotions. Professionals subject their minds to years of discipline with theconviction that intense and sustained happiness can be found in knowledge.An tiny minority, "spiritual" questers, try to find happiness bydisciplining themselves in prayer, meditation, chanting, breathing, or"processing" to achieve altered or "high" states of consciousness.The psychological world believes happiness can be attained byremoving psychological barriers: disturbing experiences and memories, selflimitingconcepts, and unforgiving thoughts lodged in the subconsciousmind.LIMITATION OF OBJECT HAPPINESSBoth approaches, the physical and the psychological, share the beliefthat through self-effort certain objective and/or subjective factors inhibitinghappiness can be changed, resulting in greater happiness. Conventionalwisdom supports this view and, to be fair, the kernel of truth it containsprobably accounts for the universal attempt to get happiness by changingobjective and subjective factors.Why do we feel happy when we achieve a goal or obtain a desiredobject? According to spiritual science all human activities are motivated by aseparation from our natural state of happiness, a separation that gives rise totwo apparently contradictory instincts, Fear and Desire, both of whichextrovert and disturb the mind, producing many positive and negativeemotions. Beneath every desire a fear lurks, behind every fear a desire. If Idon't get what I want I'll be unhappy. Avoiding what I don't want makes mehappy. So the fear of unhappiness is just the desire for happiness. These twoforces, attraction and repulsion, attachment and aversion, likes and dislikesaffect every aspect of our lives.The myriad fears and desires playing in the mind, both subtle andgross, stem from a deeper need - the need to be free of fear and desire - theneed to be fulfilled or happy. When I say I want a new car or a new lover Idon't actually want the object. I want the happiness apparently tied up withit.2
REMOVING THE WALLIf happiness or unhappiness doesn't come from objects, it has to becoming from me.If true, why does it seem to come from objects?Because the attainment of desired objects or the avoidance of fearedobjects temporarily removes the wall of fear and desire separating us from theSelf, the source of happiness. When the dam bursts our lives are floodedwith happiness, from the ecstasy of love to the satisfaction in a cup of coffee.At the time of the removal of a fear or desire the mind associates thehappiness with the object, rather than with the removal of the subjectivelimitation. That human beings are universally attached to and frightened ofobjects, physical, emotional, and intellectual confirms this poorly-appreciatedtruth.Almost everyone at one time or another believes happiness comes fromgiving and\or receiving love. As long as the love object gives and\or receivesaccording to the subject's special needs, everything is fine, but as soon as theobject stops cooperating the love dries up, at which point the removal of theobject is thought to make us happy. Why does the love dry up? Because theidea that it was coming from the object acted like a switch in the mind whicherected a wall between the mind and the Self, effectively cutting off contactwith one’s own unlimited reservoir of love.That switch, the belief that the joy is in the object, can as well pulldown the wall. For example, loneliness often causes us fantasize about anideal someone who we wish would come into our lives and remove ourunhappiness. When reality presents an approximation of our fantasy, the damholding our own limitless inner ocean of love breaks and love wildlycascades into the mind, giving the experience of happiness. Because theprocess is unconscious and takes place instantaneously the love seems to becoming from the object, or an interaction with the object - but the object isonly a catalyst, a trigger, that activates the inner switch.Let’s argue that since everyone's innermost nature is happiness/lovethe joy is in the object, in this case people. It is, but since people invariablyimpose conditions on their love we can't count on another’s love to make ushappy. To avoid this trap I should understand that though love is one, I canonly count on it when I’ve realized it's my nature. To do that I mustsacrifice the fears and desires separating me from my ownhappiness/love. For example, people feel happy in deep sleep because3
Page 1: SELF-KNOWLEDGE"I am composing this
Page 8 and 9: "Action cannot remove ignorancefor
Page 10 and 11: lowing blissful cosmic experiences,
Page 12 and 13: Something tells me this knowledge s
Page 14 and 15: ody.We aren’t our feelings and em
Page 16 and 17: The belief that I am a waker comes
Page 18 and 19: If I’m the sleeper ego, the bliss
Page 20 and 21: itself out and disappears back into
Page 22 and 23: imaginations; ego, filled with self
Page 24 and 25: The next few days saw many experien
Page 26 and 27: here, however, the subtle part, the
Page 28 and 29: state manifests as awareness and ac
Page 30 and 31: At this point in the text the “No
Page 32 and 33: time when it was appropriate? Greed
Page 34 and 35: Simply knowing that everything is a
Page 36 and 37: in the light of the Self.”(19)Tho
Page 38 and 39: ationalized or self-validating cred
Page 40 and 41: through which the Enlightened Being
Page 42 and 43: Of course the idea of a deluded Sel
Page 44 and 45: Since ultimately all transactions,
Page 46 and 47: Nearly everyone has, at moments of
Page 48 and 49: The complex process of experience i
Page 50 and 51: can't. The creative process is, acc
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eautifully mixed by the Mind (see "
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(Intellect's preoccupation with the
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attentioninwardsubtle bodystilledag
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attitudes, especially those which e
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specific results. For example, we t
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DESIRE IS STRESSOne major source of
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Meditation and Self knowledge go ha
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Put together, the sattvic elements
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Sleep is a symbol for ignorance, an
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THE BODYNo particular physical posi
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THE BREATHThe breath, as you’ve u
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If the ego insists on intruding, ma
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of objects in the Self alone and ex
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(40)One symptom of enlightenment si
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“As dawn dispels darkness before
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Listen carefully to the next conver
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This, the last, and the next five v
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Imagine Consciousness arranged in l
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nothing more is to be seen, and whi
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The word, it is said, "killeth." Ho
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agitationattentionfactor“Third Ey
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OM TAT SAT94
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