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Happiness
November 3, 2008
Happiness is lived one moment at a time. The wise person makes these moments last.
Every moment in life has three parts. The first is when it begins. The second is when it becomes qualiadelic. The third part is when it's over.
Okay. The first part is the easiest. Recognizing that this moment will be special. The next five minutes, or fifteen, or an hour, or more, will be set aside for a special purpose. Just what that purpose is may not be clear. We will have to return to this special, set aside moment more than once, and maybe many times, to make the purpose clear.
Maybe we just want to listen to our thoughts, so five minutes will be more than enough. Or maybe we want to plan a garden, so more time might be necessary. Now comes the fun part, the qualiadelic part. Our thoughts don't really stop, whether we're trying to listen to them or we're trying to plan a garden. But it's hard to keep them focused. They cycle over and over again, unenthusiastic, and maybe even in a negative spiral.
Inevitably, however, if we can continue focused on this special moment, this ritual, long enough, something will come to us. It may not even be related to our purpose, but it will be inspired. It will attract us. We are trying to listen to our thoughts -- and suddenly we are thinking about riding our motorcycle and escaping the sufferings of life. Or, instead of thinking about the garden we're lost in some great piece of music we love, playing in our head.
Grab it. Play with it. Drive the motorcycle back into the thoughts that were spiraling nowhere. Bring the music into the garden, let the vegetables or the flowers be the instruments, or let the landscape be like the parts of a symphony or song.
Then stop. It's over, for now. Take that symbol -- the motorcycle or the music -- and remember it. The moment is complete, and you take away the seed of happiness.
That symbol has qualiadelic power. It will help you return to that vaguely purposeful moment another time, maybe in an hour or maybe tomorrow. Next time, as you set aside the time for this ritualing, bring back the music or the motorcycle, and listen to your thoughts from there, or see your garden from there.
Your thoughts, from the perspective of the motorcycle, or the music, are your genuine thoughts. They are not your thoughts of old. They are fresh, and apart from the spiraling, irksome thoughts of before. They are separate from the habits of thought that have gone nowhere in the past, slowly. They are the real you, and the source of your happiness.
Each time you return to your rituals, revisiting your symbols and their qualiadelic power, the special purpose becomes more clear. The garden gets designed. You hear your thoughts more clearly. Happiness is in the listening, and as you return again and again, and the purpose gets more clear, it becomes a project, a work, a game, a way of being. In short, once the listening becomes a habit, the happiness becomes real. It transcends the listening and flows out into the doing.
Try to keep your symbols alive, but their power may fade. New qualiadelic symbols will come. Try not to change them too quickly, but never be afraid to let them go. Never be afraid to admit you are wrong. Never be afraid to step into the unknown.
Happiness is lived one moment at a time. The wise person makes these moments last. Wisdom consists of seizing the qualiadelic in our life's ritualing and playing with it.
Be Qualiadelic. Be Conscious. Change the Routine.
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