LET'S SOW HAPPINESS

VICTOR MANUEL GUZMAN VILLENA

It says that while there beside me anyone who suffers; I have no right to think of my own happiness. These words sound good, but are fallacious. They look real, but deep down, are wrong. The first observation of the human mystery, jump to our eyes like a series of evidence as these: the beloved feel love, only beloved can love. The beloved can not stop loving.

Instead, people that are suffering make others suffer. The failures need bother and throw their darts at those who succeed. The spiteful people flood their vital environment with bitter resentment. Only feel happy when they can see that everything goes wrong, then we all losers. The failure of others is their relief for own failures, and are compensated for their frustrations with the defeats of others, and  they scattering to the four winds negative news often distorted and magnified. A frustrated person is truly frightening.

The people who are controversial in the family or at work, being perpetually a thorn and fire for the others, are so because they are in eternal conflict with themselves. They do not accept anybody because are not accepted by their own self. They sow divisions and hate around them because they hated themselves. We will make the others happy to the extent that we are happy. The only way to truly love your neighbor is reconciling with yourself, accepting and loving serenely what you are.

The prescript “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” Constitutes a high ideal, and is necessary to start for loving ourselves.  On this matter some may argue that is being selfish. To affirm this, without major nuances, remains as superficiality. Indeed find ourselves without another purpose than to be happy, would be equivalent to be enclosed in a narrow circle of a maternal womb. If someone looks wildly for his own happiness, making it the last purpose of their existence, is fatally destined to death, like Narcissus; and death means solitude, sterility, emptiness, sadness. In its last instances, the egoism advances always accompanied and illuminated for tragic resplendence; selfishness is equal to death, that is to say, the egoism always finishes in desolation.

To be happy means, specifically to suffer less. As the suffering sources dry off, the heart begins to fill with pleasure and freedom. And to feel alive constitutes already, without much ado, a small inebriation; but the suffering ends up by blocking this inebriation.  After all, there is no other choice but this: suffer or live. The suffering makes the human suffer an agony. Eliminating suffering,the human being the human being, automatically recommences to live, to enjoy that happiness that we call life. As we manage to pull up the roots of the sorrow and pains, it raises the thermometer of the inebriation and of the vital pleasure. To live, without much ado, is already to be happy.

And if we achieve that people can live, the expansive force of this vital pleasure will release joy to the fellow men/woman with spring resplendence and concrete commitments, and this way we are managing the new man, reconciling with the suffering, unite with the pain, pilgrim towards freedom and love.

The search of Happiness

Emerging from the Atlantis to the Sanctuary of the Spirit

Letter Nº 16

THE SEARCH OF HAPPINESS

If you want happiness, you should look for the causes that on other occasions have produced it

Victor Manuel Guzmán Villena

The first passage in the search of the happiness is to learn to identify that the negative emotions and behaviors are harmful and how the positive emotions are useful.
We must realize the negative emotions not only are bad for each of us but also for the society and the future of the world. To know how to fortify our determination to confront and to overcome them. On the other hand, we must be conscious of the beneficial effects of positive emotions and behaviors; this will take us to cultivate, to develop and to enhance those emotions, however difficult it may be.

We have a spontaneous inner strength. Through this learning process, analysis of thoughts and emotions, gradually we are going to developed a strong determination to change, with the certainty that we have in our hands the secret of our happiness, our future, and that should not be squandered.

If we accept the principle of causality as a natural law. In dealing with reality, it necessary to consider that law. For example, in the field of everyday experiences, if certain undesirable events take place, the best method to ensure it not happen again is to try not repeated of the same conditions that produce the situation. Similarly, if one wants to have a certain good experience, what is more logical is to seek and accumulate those causes and conditions that favor it.

The same happens to the mental states and experiences. If the happiness is desired, we should look for the causes that in other occasions have produced it, and if the suffering is not desired, we have to procured that the causes and conditions do not return to appear that gave rise to it. Is very important to learn to appreciate this principle.

The hatred, envy, jealousy, anger are negative states of mind because they destroy our mental well-being; when antagonism or hatred feelings are towards anyone or when a person feels full of negative emotions, all seems hostile. The consequence is that there is more fear, greater inhibition and indecision, a sense of insecurity. These things are developed in a world that is considered hostile. All these negative feelings are developed due to hatred. On the other hand, the mental states like affability, compassion, generosity are definitively very positive. They are very useful.

To achieve happiness we must identify and cultivate positive mental states as well as identify and eliminate negative mental states, classifying the emotions simply on the basis of whether or not lead us to happiness. That means we must produce a transformation in the way of thinking, and that is not so simple. This requires applying many different factors from different directions. Some times we have the idea that there is only one secret key,a secret that if it is revealing everything will go well. but is like taking care our own body properly, takes various vitamins and nutrients, not just one or two. Similarly, to achieve happiness must use a variety of approaches and methods to overcome the complex negative states . If you try to overcome certain negative ways of thinking can not be achieved by practicing only a technique, change takes time and the application of various techniques, and we need time to take a closer look at them. this is a learning process.

As time passes, we can accumulate positive changes. Every day when you wake up you can develop a sincere motivation to think positive: "I will use this day in a more positive way. I will not waste this day". Then, at night, before sleeping analyze what has been done and wonder if that day was used as planned. If everything took place as planned we should be happy for that. If anything went wrong, regrets what we did and do a critical exam. Thanks to this method is possible fortifying the positive aspects of the mind.

The ethical behavior is another characteristic that leads to a happier existence. The great spiritual teachers, like Buddha advise us to make healthy actions and avoid actions that they are not, which depends on the degree of mental discipline. A disciplined mind leads to happiness and an undisciplined mind to the suffering, in fact, impose discipline in one's own mind is the very essence of the teaching of Buddha. Speaking of discipline must be referring to the self-discipline, not what we were imposed externally. We must also refer to the discipline applied to overcome the negative traits. A criminal gang may need discipline to commit a robbery with success, but that discipline is useless.

In conventional terms, in our daily lives, education as an important factor to ensure the success and happiness. Knowledge is not something that reaches us from a natural way. We must practise, we have to go through a kind of systematic training program. And we believe that conventional education and training are quite hard that is why so many students have the desire of reach vacation. Yet we know the education is necessary in general terms to achieve success and prosperity.

We are made to pursue happiness. And is clear that feelings of love, affection, intimacy and compassion bring happiness. We all have the basis to be happy, to access these positive states of mind that bring happiness. In fact we not only possess the necessary potential for compassion, but the basic or fundamental nature of human beings is the benevolence therefore must be recognized that although conflicts are caused by the misuse of intelligence, we can use it to discover ways that allow us to overcome conflicts. By using intelligence and goodness, all human actions are constructive. When combining a warm heart with the knowledge and education, we learn to respect the points of views and rights of the others. That is the foundation of a reconciled spirit which serves to overcome aggression and resolve conflicts.