The Quest For Happiness

The musk deer is a small animal inhabiting central and eastern Asia. Near the navel of the male, there is a special gland which produces a delightful, odorous secretion known as musk, used extensively in perfumes. Though this secretion is designed primarily to attract the female deer, the male himself is also intoxicated by its aroma, but he can’t figure out where it’s coming from. He first experiences this intoxication as a fawn, feeding from his mother’s breast, so naturally he assumes that the sublime aroma is coming from his mother. He associates intoxication with maternal care. Ten as a youngster gamboling through the meadows, he catches whiffs of the divine essence from time to time, when the wind is just right, and he decides that it’s connected somehow with play. As an adolescent, he watches his father posturing magnificently on the crest of a hill, and the yearling becomes intoxicated again, this time associating it with power and status. While munching meadow flowers or sipping sweet water, the growing deer catches occasional whiffs of the ambrosial scent and concludes that it is also connected with food and drink. As he matures, he finds intoxication in the company of female deer, and when he mates, the body-warmth of the sexual act increases the potency of his secretion and sex becomes synonymous with bliss.

 He spends his days pursuing all the various activities he has learned to associate with the intoxicating scent he loves so much, but the problem is that none these activities guarantees him an experience of drunken bliss each time; it all depends on which way the wind is blowing. His desires become more and more fragmented, one moment he’s chasing after his food, and the next it’s sex, power or recreation. He runs this way and that, changing directions with the wind, until finally he collapses, exhausted, to the forest floor.

His weary head hangs down until his nose is at his navel, and then, just when he least expects it, he experiences the most powerful, uninterrupted dose of divine aroma that he has ever had. In that incredible instant, he realizes that what he has been seeking frantically in other things for his entire life, has been coming from his very own being all along.

Silly deer, we’re much too clever to make such a foolish error, aren’t we?

Like the musk deer, we all catch whiffs of divine intoxication from time to time. Examples of this are legion: the shudder of ecstasy that sweeps over us at the first taste of a culinary masterpiece; the warm, comfortable sense of well-being we get when permitted to sample magnificent luxury; the satisfaction which comes when we finally possess an object of great desire; the feeling of fulfillment which follows a flash of inspiration; the buoyant rapture brought on by great music or beautiful scenery; and so on. In almost every instance, these all-too-brief moments of divine intoxication are experienced in conjunction with some external relationship or activity; but the biggest mistake we can make in life is to conclude from this that happiness can be received from some external source.

When we eat a piece of chocolate cake, for example, the pleasure we derive is not baked into the cake; rather, the cake somehow causes a feeling of satisfaction to well up from inside us. Even the memory of some delightful food eaten long ago can elicit a little of that same satisfaction in us. If delight were “baked right in,” then everyone who eats chocolate cake would experience the same satisfaction every single time, when the fact is, many people actually dislike chocolate cake. Similarly, some people get great satisfaction out of smoking, while others find it nauseating; an acquaintance whose company we find enjoyable may impress other people as being very boring; we all find certain activities to be pleasurable one day, and a complete drag the next. If satisfaction were built into such objects, relationships and activities, then we’d all like the same things, all the time, and this is obviously not the case

In reality, external things are only tools which we employ in the hope of eliciting satisfaction from a source which exists somewhere deep inside our own being. If we fail to understand this, we become like the puppy who chases his own tail, intent upon capturing an elusive, tantalizing phantom always glimpsed out of the corner of his eye, and which always seems to zip away at the exact moment he lunges for it. Most of us have witnessed the perplexity on a puppy’s face when he finally clamps that phantom in hi snapping teeth; incredulous, he learns a painful lesson: that he has just been running around in circles all the while, chasing himself

A person who believes that happiness can be extracted from any outside source is like an animal chewing on a dry bone; as the fossil splinters and cuts its mouth, the animal feels satisfaction, not realizing that the juice it’s swallowing is really just its own blood.

 It is undeniably true, however, that contact with external things can result in the tapping of our inner source of satisfaction, but this approach carries with it a host of annoying, built-in restrictions. The first is that of time: pleasurable experiences are always temporary, they have a beginning, middle, and an end, and when they’re over, we’re left to search for gratification elsewhere.

Another restriction is availability. Things which elicit satisfaction in us aren’t always available when and where we want them. For example, we crave a chocolate cake, but the bakery is closed; we are attracted to another person, but that person isn’t interested in us.

Desensitization is a third restriction to seeking happiness in external things. An object “gives” us pleasure for a while, but eventually we become bored with it; after five minutes in the presence of a delightful odor, we can no longer smell it; too much chocolate cake or anything else—turns our gratification into repulsion, exhaustion, and even illness.

A fourth restriction is cost: the most pleasurable things often require a great deal of effort to obtain, and frequently they are not worth the price we have to pay for them..

Competition is still another restriction. The most satisfying things are in great demand and short supply, things such as success, power, recognition, which means we must compete for them with others: and then there are always a lot more losers than there are winners.

Next, there’s indecision. Often we just don’t know what will give us satisfaction, and even when we think we know, we’re often wrong.

In addition, many pleasurable pursuits are dangerous, unhealthy, illegal or immoral. Let’s face it, the list of restrictions seem endless. There must be a better way!  

The Better Way

According to spiritual scientists, the basic goal in life for every human being is the complete elimination of suffering and the permanent experience of happiness. Every single thing we do each day is done in the hope that it will help us to get more satisfaction out of life. To increase our pleasure and attain personal fulfillment we pursue a profession, enter into relationships, educate ourselves and take part in recreational activities. Even when we eat and sleep, bathe and clothe ourselves, we do so because we realize that an attractive, well-cared-for body is an essential asset in our pursuit of happiness.

As we have already learned, however, uninterrupted satisfaction is impossible to obtain through the pursuit of external things, due to the many restrictions outlined above. Such a course requires us to constantly alternate between sporadic satisfaction and periods of pain or frustration.

At this point, it becomes almost irresistible to conclude that the goal of human life as stated above is simply unattainable—that some people get closer than others, but no one is ever completely successful. This belief is very fashionable nowadays, but despite its popularity, it is false. In fact, countless people have succeeded throughout history, and millions more are presently on the road to complete success.

The method is simple. Instead of seeking to taste our inner wellspring of bliss through contact with external things, why not just eliminate the middleman and tap the inner source directly? This way, all restrictions are removed and our experience of complete gratification becomes undiminished and continuous. At the same time, we cease to identify with that part of our being which is subject to pain, thus achieving a state of total bliss, completely free of suffering. Moreover, this goal is obtainable right now, in this very lifetime—not in some heavenly hereafter.

The process through which one attains it is commonly known as spiritual science or Yoga, and the specific practice which activates this process is called meditation.

What we are discussing here is not mere conjecture. Yoga is a very exacting science, though admittedly a subjective one whose research is conducted in the laboratory of our own body rather than in the outside world. Though not a religion, it is decidedly “spiritual” in nature, meaning that its primary concern is with that part of our being which cannot be labeled as either “body” or “mind”

A valid scientific experiment is one which, when performed in a specific manner, produces the same results every time, regard of who performs it. In Yoga, too, predictable results are guaranteed  provided the practitioners conduct their systematic inner research with proper guidance and in the prescribed manner laid down by the Rishis of India—the ancient spiritual scientists who pioneered this field.

Through meditation, many of the world’s greatest beings have explored the inner realm before us—beings such as Socrates, Confucius. Milarepa, Buddha, Lao Tsu, Shankaracharya, Zoroaster, Patangali,  Nanak, Mohammed, and Jesus. Most of our religions have been built around the teachings of such masters, but when they were alive they did not teach religious dogma, they simply shared what their inner explorations had revealed to them, their descriptions of that realm all agree on several vital points:
 

1. The source oh all happiness, love, peace, power and wisdom lies within our very own being.

2. The essential nature of this inner wellspring is absolute existence ( it exists eternally, without beginning or end), absolute consciousness (its awareness is cosmic, having no limitations or restrictions), and absolute bliss (since it is actually made of pure joy, its pleasure is unlimited, uninterrupted, and not dependent upon anything else).

3. Once we gain access to this inner kingdom, we will attain perfect satisfaction, permanent contentment, and an end to all our pain and suffering.

4. In addition, the moment we enter this realm of supreme truth, we will perceive that everything in Creation—our self included—is rooted in a single reality; we will come to know that the universe is a living, knowing, joyful entity, and that the essence of this cosmic entity is contained in each and every one of its innumerable parts.

5. This experience, which has been shared by countless great beings throughout history, may be enjoyed by any one of us, through meditation
   
   
   
    

   Background Music
   By
   Deva Premal and Miten

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