“If I get this new job, I’ll be much happier.”
“If she says I do, my life will be better.”
“If I had more money, life would be great.”
What do these three quotes have in common? They all seem to be making happiness dependent on getting something. The problem with these three quotes is that the happiness is depending on something outside of the person wishing for them. This is NOT how happiness is found. We have to search within for happiness. We already have everything we need to be happy. Not sure what I mean? Check out this story about The Seeker of Truth…
The Seeker of Truth
After years of searching, the seeker was told to go to a cave, in which he would find a well. “Ask the well what is truth”, he was advised, “and the well will reveal it to you.” Having found the well, the seeker asked that most fundamental question. And from the depths came the answer, “Go to the village crossroad: there you shall find what you are seeking.”
Full of hope and anticipation the man ran to the crossroad to find only three rather uninteresting shops. One shop was selling pieces of metal, another sold wood, and thin wires were for sale in the third. Nothing and no one there seemed to have much to do with the revelation of truth.
Disappointed, the seeker returned to the well to demand an explanation, but he was told only, “You will understand in the future.” When the man protested, all he got in return were the echoes of his own shouts. Indignant for having been made a fool of – or so he thought at the time – the seeker continued his wanderings in search of truth. As years went by, the memory of his experience at the well gradually faded until one night, while he was walking in the moonlight, the sound of sitar music caught his attention. It was wonderful music and it was played with great mastery and inspiration.
Profoundly moved, the truth seeker felt drawn towards the player. He looked at the fingers dancing over the strings. He became aware of the sitar itself. And then suddenly he exploded in a cry of joyous recognition: the sitar was made out of wires and pieces of metal and wood just like those he had once seen in the three stores and had thought it to be without any particular significance.
At last he understood the message of the well: we have already been given everything we need: our task is to assemble and use it in the appropriate way. Nothing is meaningful so long as we perceive only separate fragments. But as soon as the fragments come together into a synthesis, a new entity emerges, whose nature we could not have foreseen by considering the fragments alone.
The Takeaway
Happiness cannot be found if you’re going out into the world and asking for something outside of you. Everything you need to be happy is within you now. It is up to you to take the pieces of your life and assemble them into a happy existence. Life is one indivisible whole. You have to take all the pieces and put them together in a way that builds a happy life. You can’t do bad in one area, great in another, and mediocre in another. Do your best in all areas of your life to do the right thing. Trying your best and doing the right things in life is a guaranteed way to bring joy into your life.
One major fragment inside of you is gratitude. If you’re not grateful for who you are and what you have today, it’ll be difficult to find happiness with more. Getting more things can provide temporary happiness, but if you want that life-long happiness, you need to be grateful for what you have. Be grateful that everything you need to be happy is inside you. It doesn’t depend on something happening in the outside world. Everything you need is within. All you have to do is assemble the pieces.