Everyone wants to be happy – everyone. That’s right, even masochists want pain in order to be satisfied; fulfill a need — in order to be happy. Happiness is our inherent yearning for fulfillment in some form; to gain pleasure or avoid pain. We believe we will be fulfilled by earning more money, acquiring fame, starting a business, a great relationship, having a family, acquiring knowledge, traveling, staying healthy, and much more. We rarely question further about happiness. Yet, these successes may not, ultimately, cause happiness. We find their rewards are only temporary. They may, in fact, create more desires to which we reach for again and again, ultimately leading us to the same void.
The cost hidden inside the pursuit
When striving for happiness in this way, there is a cost. For in a dualistic world (a reality where both subject and object exist), there is always a seed of sorrow that flows with every happiness attained. Nature and creation balance themselves through the opposite. Therefore, in the reality we live, the physical world, there can only be the exact and equal reaction to the force we project. (See Newton’s law of motion.) For each happy moment we gain, an equal sorrow must follow — in its own time.
In the creation of the physical reality, it is necessary for opposites to exist. The yin, yang symbol depicts a white circle within black, and a black circle within the white. Within every dark, there is light; within every light, there is darkness. Although these forces seem opposing, they are actually complementary. One could not exist without the other, for how would you know if you were happy unless you also knew sorrow? Likewise, how would you know ‘up’ if there were no ‘down’ to compare it to? In the physical world, opposites are necessary for one to form a ‘reality’.
What the masters said instead
Yet, the Buddha and other spiritual masters described our personal reality as a great illusion. They taught that truth lives in the present moment where one’s experience resides. Later, our experience becomes that which we can only remember, talk about, compare, diagnose, or judge. All this is a matter of the standard we set, the interpretation we adhere to. No longer living in the present moment, we continue in the cycle of duality, happiness and sadness, birth and death.
These ancient spiritual masters along with modern teachers have taught that there is a state of being that goes beyond the dual nature of the physical world, where true joy, unimposed by sorrow, exists. The eastern term Advaita, or non-duality, was taught in ancient times and also by modern philosophers such as Rupert Spira and Francis Lucille, to name a few. Many ancient teachings from Vedic books, including the Bhagavad Gita, along with the deeper mystical teachings of Jesus Christ, have taught how to rise above the world of duality to the ultimate supreme state of non-duality, where a true bliss state exists.
… Jesus said to them, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer, and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter the kingdom.”
— Gospel of Thomas, Saying #22
Note: Bliss is a term used to describe an internal joy that is not encumbered by more desires and ultimately by sorrow. It is the ultimate state of consciousness which we all, knowingly or unknowingly, seek.
Where Yogananda points
So have we been looking for happiness in ‘all the wrong places’? Paramahansa Yogananda, a great enlightened spiritual master who arrived in Boston in 1920 and brought eastern teachings to the west, wrote a wonderful book on the subject, called The Science of Religion. In his book, he explains that our sensory self, that which perceives all outer influences, all material processes, may be the main cause of our seeking tangible objects or situations — being a success, buying a new car, or boat, or assorted financial gain — for what we perceive might achieve happiness. Still, we can acknowledge that our happy moments are later encumbered by bouts of sadness or depression. Yet, he explains, once we control the outer senses and go inward, we discover an internal silence that holds the deepest experience of ourselves. The art of controlling our senses through pranayama (yogic breath control) and the complete Kriya yogic methods, which he learned from his own spiritual preceptors, will help us to rise above the dual nature of the world and finally attain the non-dual state, where true eternal joy exists.
His own society, Self-Realization Fellowship, still teaches those methods and holds his writings, and lessons in Kriya yoga can also be found through Ananda.
So, we can continue to pursue our dreams through means of sensory stimulation, or dig deeper into our true nature through reliable practices taught to us by realized souls. The lessons take effort, but nothing is achieved without effort and hard work. Through this work, eternal joy is waiting at our doorstep.
Where to begin
None of this asks anyone to abandon their life. It asks for a few minutes in which nothing is being chased. Here is a short breath exercise to start with.
Sit quietly in a comfortable position. Notice your breath in a relaxed manner. Watch it casually drifting in and out. Do not try to change it, just watch what it naturally does. Continue to breathe and put all your attention there. Thoughts will surface — just notice they are there, and continue to concentrate on the breath. Do not attach to the thoughts or try to change them, just allow their presence while you continue to notice the breath. Do this for at least 10 minutes, or longer if you wish.
For further study of the breath — where these methods come from and what they were built to do — see Pranayama: Ancient Breath Control Techniques.
Two other things worth doing:
- Notice how long a good thing stays good. When something you wanted finally arrives, watch how long the lift lasts before it becomes ordinary. Seeing this happen in your own life teaches more than reading about it.
- Find a teacher when you are ready. Kriya yoga is handed down, not self-taught. The two societies above are where that begins.