"Don't worry, be Happy"

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"Self is always Present,

Bliss is always Present.

 

You are not to work at attaining it,

just remove the obstacles by which you can't see it.

 

The hindrance is only one:

 

Attachment to the past."

 

~ Papaji

 

 

 

By conceptually separating bliss and play from effort and struggle,

we have already created an arbitrary and imaginary division in mind

which does not exist in truth. There is only one thing happening,

ever. Our interpretative tendencies will superimpose every kind of

head onto the head we already have, but by observing this habitual

reactivity from the "point of view" of our irreducible truth -- the

simple recognition that We Are -- it will eventually become obsolete,

as will the sense of self which seems to be the doer of effort,

worship, play, or struggle.

Happiness is our natural state. All the testimonies of the awakening

ones throughout the great legacy of truth have coincided with this

realization. Nevertheless, there is a curious and chronic taboo

against such simplicity of happiness, not just in our culture in the

west, but pervading most cultures. It is, of course, based originally

on an innocent misunderstanding, an interpretation on perception that

seems to validate separation. It seems to support the presumption of

an individual entity inherently independent from happiness, so that

happiness becomes an object of pursuit, rather than being recognized

as one's very condition, prior to any sense of conflict or opposition

within beingness itself.

The process of inquiry has been recommended by merciful ones as a way

to investigate the whole house of cards -- not to gain some new

realization of truth, but to simply see how the assumption of belief,

cultivated through random conditioning and fixation on the past, has

led to the confounding illusion that we are somehow apart from What

Is, dis-eased, and must compensate for this "sin" by making some kind

of transition through various means and methods to attain the very

happiness we have always been.

There is, again, a curious paradox here -- like leaving Eden to find

Eden. However, it has been observed that this recognition cannot be

understood by mind. The "best" the mind is capable of is the

experience of the concept of Awareness. It cannot experience the

infinite freedom of Awareness Itself, since it cannot separate itself

from Awareness in order to establish such a subject-object dichotomy.

Thus, to Papaji's quote can also be added one from his Benefactor:

 

"Happiness is our real nature.

That happiness does not depend on

our possessions or achievements.

 

Existence is the same as happiness and

happiness is the same as being.

 

That which is called happiness alone exists.

Knowing that fact and abiding in that state of Self

enjoy bliss eternally.

 

Perfect bliss is the absolute.

 

Perfect peace is the Self.

 

That alone exists and is consciousness.

 

Self is not other than perfect happiness.

 

That which is called happiness is only the nature of Self.

 

One's own reality,

which shines within everyone as the Heart

is itself the ocean of unalloyed bliss."

 

~ Ramana

 

 

LoveAlways,

 

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