MTS Newsletter & Past Issues

The short answer is: because it is who you are and understanding is not a prerequisite for experience. It's not about knowing it; it's about living it.

The longer answer is: Well… It starts with some questions. Where does happiness come from?... Where does it reside?... What does happiness depend on?... Your circumstance - your affluence - what people think of you - a good meal - pleasure?

The challenge with any one of these things is that they all fail eventually. Not to say that all of these things do not have anything to do with happiness - of course not. They are the triggers that remind you of happiness. The mistake that we all make is confusing the trigger with the feelings. Assuming that the trigger is the cause of the feelings, when in reality it is the feelings that allows you to enjoy the trigger.

Of course, this just seems perfectly reasonable that when "X" happens and you usually feel happy, then "X" must be the cause of your happiness. But what happens when all of your "X's" go away? Can you still be happy? Is there happiness?

The answer is in one of the questions. Can you BE happy? It's not can you DO happiness or experience happiness? Happiness is in the being first. If you cannot BE happy then it does not matter what you do or is done to you. It is the being that is the key, which you permeate your actions with. That is who you are.

So once again the question arises what does happiness depend on? It depends on you. Whether you can BE happy, and not expect happiness to come to you, or is out there for you to find it. It is up to you to realize that your happiness does not depend on anything you do, or can manage, or figure out. In fact what happiness truly depends on is your ability NOT to manage and figure things out, to really surrender to the flow. Happiness is a state, NOT a destination or a thing - it's a state of being - a state of the universe.

Like the universe, happiness does not make sense to the individual; it resists our organization and interpretation. It is open, boundless and incomprehensible; in fact that is why happiness makes you happy. It reflects your true nature, the unending consistent expression of the universe.

Trying to understand happiness or give it reason makes it fleeting and transitory, like trying to grab water. You want your happiness limitless and without end? Take your confinement of what happiness should or should not be, where it comes from, or how it is reasonable or not, and let it go. Jump in the water instead of trying to grab it. Go with the flow instead of looking at it. Yes, it's not about knowing it, it's about living it!

BE UNREASONABLY HAPPY - THAT IS THE WAY