So, the other day I was just watching Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith. It is an excellent movie, and I recommend seeing it if you have not already seen it.
It is on just about any list of the most inspirational movies of all time.
Spoiler Alert:
Long story short, Will Smith and his child are stranded out on the streets with very little to no money.
Smith goes through horrible times in which he’s not sure where he and his kid are going to sleep at night, or where they are going to find the money to eat.
They are beggars.
Finally, towards the end of the movie, Will Smith finds his dream job and shows that he was able to conquer the struggle, which leads him to being able to take care of himself and his son.
However, I have to say that the moral of the movie is not quite right, though many people look at happiness in the same way that is portrayed in this movie.
The reason that so many people love this movie is that they can relate it to their struggles in life, and it gives them hope that there is a way out, no matter how seemingly horrible the situation may seem.
This is very true when it comes to the surface level of the world; however, it does not lead to internal freedom.
Let’s first take a look at how a lot of people view happiness. Most people would say that just as success is defined in infinitely many ways & so is happiness.
In fact, a lot would leave you to believe that your happiness is defined by your success and prosperity in life.
Nobody may tell you directly that money, fame, and fortune equal happiness. But their energy has a very subtle, and oftentimes, not so subtle, way of showing that they feel success does equal happiness.
Well, it turns out that this very word happiness has been creating an image in your mind keeping you from true internal freedom, which is what everyone truly wants.
The first thing that you must know is that there is no such thing as acquiring happiness.
To acquire happiness means that you first don’t have it available to you in this very instant.
The pursuit of happiness has a very basic fundamental error in the message, and that is that there is no such thing as the pursuit of happiness.
The moment you try to find happiness is the moment that, I can guarantee you, you will find unhappiness.
“But, happiness is right around the corner for me, I can feel it.”
This statement is what a lot of people think or feel. Well, I love to say it, because it’s for your own good, that your happiness is NOT right around the corner.
“Well, how could I ever find happiness if there is no pursuit to it?”
This is the basic fundamental foundation of what I write about and the fundamental foundation of internal freedom.
And that is to be aware of the present moment.
“Live in the present” has become so cliché that our brains have become numb to it.
This is why you should not try to live in anything, but to be aware of the moment that you are already in, and thus to be aware of life.
Life requires no doing; it already is here, you just have to realize it.
Being aware of the present moment is not some philosophical way of living or a deep way of thinking; in fact, it is the complete opposite of philosophy or thinking.
Being aware of the life that exists as a conscious presence is that your mind has finally let go of its attachment to always thinking.
What you are is the awareness of this moment, and in this observing presence is access to all of the joy and happiness that one could want, because it is what and who one is…
The reason that you are this moment, and not what you think you are, is because you have never had any DIRECT evidence of anything before this moment or after this moment.
Anything that you cannot have direct evidence of is an illusion.
Anything you try to pursue means that you don’t believe that you have it already in this moment and that somewhere in the future lies “My” happiness and “My” freedom.
So, the moment that you set out in pursuit of happiness means that you have allowed the illusion of the future to separate what you already are in this moment, which is life and freedom.
The mind will not understand what is being pointed too, but it will not TRULY KNOW it until it is observed through conscious observing presence.
Everyone still questions why people are unhappy, unsatisfied, unfulfilled, and it’s because we think we can find fulfillment in things such as…
1.People
You believe that you have the ability to love someone. This is an illusion also because love is all that is.
So, it gives you the belief that you can pick and choose who you are going to love and not, leaving conditions under your parole.
With this being said, you can DEEPLY CARE, for someone but this is not love.
Love is all that is, not based on what is going on in the objective world.
Deeply caring for someone is not the same as giving them internal freedom, and here is why.
We perceive individuals in this world using the mind, but those individuals cannot experience freedom for us, and we cannot experience freedom for them.
Conscious presence or internal freedom can only happen through your body because it is your body that this one omnipresence is occupying.
2. Materials
Materials such as a car, a house, a boat, a TV, a video game, a computer, a phone, and any other physical objects do give you pleasure, which can occupy the mind for a little while.
However, they can’t truly fulfill you in that if they stood on their own, they would mean nothing.
If you had a nice house and nobody to show it to, then what value would it have?
And even if you did show it to people, they would never feel the same about it after your house-warming party.
It would just become another thing in the world of things.
There is heightened experience with things that are new, but the instant that they are new is the instant that the perception of value goes down.
But anything new that you can perceive will never be newer than it is in the very first instant, it will become older and older by the second, losing its perceived value.
Placing your fulfillment on something that changes in value will lead to pain.
3. Thoughts and Beliefs
A new belief is just like gaining a new material, it can give you a heightened sense of experience, but the older it grows, the less value it has.
No matter how seemingly RICH your thoughts seem, no matter how seemingly knowledgeable and grand your thoughts seem, they are coming and passing so quickly that you cannot pinpoint an exact experience that lasts.
4. Past and Future
We love taking pictures, we love past memories, we love to dream and to DREAM BIG, but none of these can set you free. And by free, I mean when internal fulfillment happens as a result of nothing happening, and that fulfillment merges with your paradigm.
The past is already gone the moment you think about it, and the future has already become the past when you think it.
The point is that, outside of the mind, the past never happened, and the future will never come because there is only one place in which you can directly be, this present moment.
So, to think that your memories (which you can never relive) are giving you fulfillment, they are not, they are brief moments of pleasure that pass as the thoughts pass.
And to think that whatever dreams you can achieve in the future, be it materials and people, also cannot fulfill you.
Joy does not come from what you do. It comes from realizing that your joy is realized now and flows into what you do, whether that be creating goals, achieving perceived success, and overcoming hard times.
With this being said, if you are struggling through hard times as Will did in the movie, it is not about trying to be fulfilled or act like everything is fine.
It’s about not running away from the way the pain that your situations are causing you.
It’s about accepting them as they are in order to wake up to this instant. When this happens, then your life situation will begin to look a lot easier.
So, you want happiness?
“A man asked Gautama Buddha, “I want happiness.”
Buddha said, “First remove “I,” that’s Ego, then remove “want,” that’s Desire.
See now you are left with only “Happiness.” – Gautama Buddha
When Buddha says remove “I”, what he is referring to is removing the false sense of self or the “Me” that wants happiness. The “me” is a mind-created idea , which is illusory and in constant flux.
This means you will still have a “me” (or an idea about you) to communicate in this world; however, your belief in it being you in the total sense will be no more from this point moving forward.
When the idea that the mind is who you are vanishes, then it allows for the mind to empty out, and in this very instant, the “I” or “Me” goes away, desire vanishes, followed by this false illusion of what happiness is goes away, and happiness and reality are seen as the same one thing.
