Happiness and Buddha Nature

From Krishna Das' forthcoming book, Chants of a Lifetime:
"Ultimately, we'll come to live in a state where our hearts are so expansive, so open to love, that everyone and anything is free to come and go without being judged or pushed away."

What Am I?

What am I?

There are so many things I sometimes identify with that are not me.  I am not my car or my house.  I am not my computer.  I am not any of my belongings.

I am not my friends or my family.  I am not any of these precious relationships, no matter how closely I may cling to them.

I am not this hand, this foot, not even this heart and lungs, not even - dare I say it - this brain through which all my experience surges ceaselessly like a storm of lightening.

I am not this thought that is passing through my consciousness at this instant.

That which I am would exist if all these things were destroyed, or if they had never existed.

I am none of these things that seem to distinguish my being from any other.  I am Universal Spirit; I am Oneness; I am that which is real and has no opposite; I am Life.  Existence coalesces around me, individual elements lose their identity. I am the swirling black hole at the end of this Universe into which matter falls and becomes undifferentiated energy, or at the birth of the next spewing individuality newly re-formed.  I am Universal awareness, spinning the mandala of existence, consciousness without duality, without judgment, surpassing time and space ... I am no thing but that without which no thing, no condition could appear ...  I am that I am.

Knowledge of Immortality

I know there is a universal Spirit of which my own awareness is an integral part. I know this Spirit consists of joy and love. I know these things because I also know my body must die and dissolve, and that part of my consciousness that depends upon support from the physical body must pass away.‏

Knowing my physical mortality allows me to accept the inevitability of physical death and move past it.  It is insane to fear the inevitable.  Still, even calm acceptance of mortality is far from the exuberance of joy and love. If physical existence were all we had, then the sure knowledge that life is limited would be sobering, if not saddening. 

Yet in meditation, and any time that I sense my connection with Spirit, joy and love are all that I feel.  These cannot have their source in the body or the mind that depends upon it. They can only emanate from a Source that is eternal, omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.  That Source is Spirit, God, Life, or Oneness . . . I am, the unnamable.  Mortality does not dampen my enthusiasm for Life because I am an individual manifestation of this universal Spirit.  I am as immortal as God Itself, because God and I are one.

The God In You, the God In Me: Love Without Attachment

The God In You, the God In Me: Love Without Attachment

Focus on Spirit

Place your entire attention on Spirit, and no harm can come to you.

Have you ever noticed that when you are completely absorbed in a thought or an activity, other concerns disappear?  The egoic mind uses this phenomenon to distract us from Spirit.  However, you can turn the tactic around by concentrating on Spirit.  When you do, all worldly fear, pain, and distress vanish.  The bliss that is found in meditation is like a light banishing the darkness.  Mind, body, and soul become attuned to the harmony of the Universe, which naturally expels negative thoughts and attitudes, and the physical and mental ills that they produce.

Banishing Fear and Insecurity

Some people live closely guarded lives, fearful of encountering someone or something that might shatter their insecure spiritual foundation. This attitude, however, is not the fault of religion but of their own limited understanding. True Dharma leads in exactly the opposite direction. It enables one to integrate all the many diverse experiences of life into a meaningful and coherent whole, thereby banishing fear and insecurity completely.

- Lama Thubten Yeshe, "Wisdom Energy"

Defining Prosperity

If you define prosperity as having everything ego wants, you can never be prosperous.  If you define it as having what Spirit needs, you are likely to find you are prosperous already.