Happiness is the natural, innate state of a human being. This is a truth recognized by and lived in all of humanity’s spiritual traditions.
What is happiness? It is more than the joy of buying ourselves a beautiful gift, meeting someone special, or enjoying a delicious piece of cake. All of these forms of happiness are fleeting. The cake is eaten, the gift is lost, the relationship falls apart… And then what? Does true happiness really exist? Or are we merely running after colored balloons that burst in the wind?
Wisdom bears witness that Happiness exists in the very essence of our being, like an eternal seal. Eternal, because that essence (Atman), the Spiritual Heart, is eternal, being one with the Supreme Consciousness. How, then, could we truly be unhappy? How could we be deprived of this fundamental quality, if it is an aspect of Consciousness itself, which does not perish?
Yet, to recognize this directly, we must enter the deepest level of our being—Atman, the Heart. This Heart of mine, of yours, of the world. Is the Heart of the world the same as my heart and yours? Yes—and such a beautiful and true “Yes” it is.
Through yoga practice, meditation, prayer, introspection, and deep contemplation, we come to live beyond all that is superficial, beyond all the layers of ignorance covering the light of our soul. There, unshaken Happiness exists, pure Light, the Peace of the Heart. Whenever we sincerely say, “Now I am truly living,” we are in fact living in the Spiritual Heart, living with our whole Heart. Whether we are standing in front of the sea, in the middle of a forest, on the peaceful summit of a mountain, or gazing at the endless sky, loving deeply, or being “good all the way to God”… in such moments, we recognize who we truly are.
If we uncover ourselves, if we remove the veils of limitation and the contractions of consciousness, if we abandon selfishness and anger, if we truly begin to BE and sincerely live each moment of life, then the Path opens before us and we live the Happiness that fears nothing and cannot be cut short by anyone or anything. We live truly, in Truth, together as one.
I offer you a few verses from Abhinavagupta to meditate on: “Tell me, what is the ultimate and absolute Reality? Listen to the answer: renounce nothing and cling to nothing; joyfully delight in all that exists and be as you are!”
Simona is a Senior Hridaya Teacher teaching at Kamala Center in Romania.
