“… Of all forms of life only we as humans are striving for happiness …” ~ Hans Meijer
Part 1 of this series closed off with the intent to further explore the following points:
a) How to make it understandable that non-duality is what people are looking for
b) In what way can people come to the realization of their oneness with the Absolute
c) The meaning of religion
d) Looking forward
How to make it understandable that non-duality is what people are looking for
Of all forms of life only we as humans are striving for happiness. I mean, animals are totally conditioned by their instincts. We are partially and have some ‘free will’ left which we can use to fill in our own life. It is up to us whether this free will is a blessing or a disaster (in this context ignoring internal and external influences).
In the previous post (Part 1 of this series) I said that our identifying with ‘visible phenomena only’ is the cause of egoism, which I consider to be our original sin.
To understand this please consider the following: generally speaking we are not familiar with meditation, which means that we identify with all impressions which enter our mind, from outside or from within. This identifying with our daily reality of transient events and things happens automatically, because the (non-alert) mind clings to everything that enters consciousness. At the same time all of us are born with the urge to become….. ‘what we potentially are’.
Not being aware of this hidden reason for our striving for happiness we assume that we will find happiness from the impressions that enter our mind. However, no matter how we cling to these impressions, lasting happiness is not to be found.
Not understanding that we are on the wrong track, our needs increase continually which makes us egoistic. All evil (‘sin’) comes from man´s egoism.
Our natural striving for happiness expresses itself in different stages of life in different ways. Everyone knows this, but who knows what happiness is? When you have achieved something of which you thought it would make you happy, then after some time you need another goal to go for.
And, as you may have noticed yourself, this continues as long as you go for ‘transient events and things’.
So, what can we do, to avoid that at the end of our lives we still have not found happiness?
We should become aware that ‘visible phenomena only’ will never give us the happiness we are looking for.
Did you notice however that visible expressions of nature like sunrise, mountains, oceans, children’s eyes etc. give us a certain feeling of happiness? If so, accept these ‘hints’ to be an invitation to look for happiness in ‘nature’s permanent manifestations’.
I wonder if I may suggest to you here to consider to accept that happiness in general is only to be found in permanent, non-changing things. A loving family, a group of like-minded people, a reliable partner, these are things that make life worth living.
The reason why it is like this, is that we identify (feel one) with family, people or partner. We are lucky when life gives us this kind of happiness, but we also know that situations like these are temporary and fragile.
Above I said: At the same time all of us are born with the urge to become….. ‘what we potentially are’.
With this I mean to say that our pursuit of happiness aims at more than the examples given here. It will be clear, however, that I also do not mean that fulfilling our potential to become an actor, a banker, a pop star or whatever profession, can be our guarantee for happiness. There must be more and yes, there is.
Please consider this: ‘There is no human being in the world, no animal, no plant – literally nothing in the world – that came into being by itself. Man is ignorant of the fact that he is an expression of a ‘cosmic, conscious, creative principle’. This unknown primal cause has become all that lives—including us, as human beings’.
This quote from my book ‘Initiation into Reality’ (Part II 2.01) might be a reason for you to argue about, but in that case I suggest you read the explanation in the book itself.
For now I just want you to become aware that the whole of creation must necessarily have a first cause. However, as you know, the first cause discussion always leads to the ‘cause´s cause’ question (the chicken and the egg).
There is only one ‘reality’ which has no cause and that is the ‘eternal now’, the timeless Absolute (see also my article: Truth Will Set You Free: Time Does Not Exist both Parts 1 & 2).
Although the understanding of the Absolute lies beyond our mind, experiencing the Absolute is possible.
For thousands of years all kinds of mystics, saints or seers have witnessed of an absolute, unchanging primal cause of life. Whether this primal cause was pointed at as God, Allah, Brahman, Nirvana or another religious concept, all names refer to the same, unnamable, absolute, primal cause of life (if not, it cannot be the first cause).
Our ‘relationship’ with the primal cause can be made clear as follows: whatever object we see, we see its form but actually it is the material from which it has been made (a jewel is gold, a table wood, a shirt cotton etc.). Likewise all living creatures are ‘made from’ the Absolute, although our normal consciousness is only aware of the form and not of the formless Absolute itself.
The message of the seers from all times in this context is: ‘in becoming aware of what you really are your mind finds peace and fulfillment’.
That is the happiness of non-duality that all people are looking for, that is what makes life worth living and that is also in which our ethical consciousness is rooted.
This exploration continues in Part 3 … where the author, Hans Meijer, will address: “In what way can people come to the realization of their oneness with the Absolute.” … and concludes in Part 4 where he addresses the last two points: “The meaning of religion” and “Looking Forward” …
“Your own Self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world.” ~ Ramana Maharshi
We are again honored to share Hans Meijer’s next guest post series. Hans is the author of the book Initiation into Reality – available for purchase on Amazon. For more on Hans’ work, please visit his website Initiation into Reality. This guest post series is authored by (& copyright of) Hans Meijer
Hans will be available for any Q&A and will also address any comments from the visitors/readers.
The text content of this series (without all the images here) was previously published (as a single post) in Science and Nonduality and Awaken.
Ramana Maharshi Quote at the end: Ramana Maharshi’s Wikiquote page.
Images: All images are edited (dimension & logo inserted) 1) Happy by jill111, CC0 Public Domain, 2) Autumn leaves by Rula Sibai, CC0 Public Domain, 3) Spiral by Kahirul Nizam, CC BY 2.0, 4) Sunrise by Pok_Rie, 5) Buddha by PeteLinforth, CC0 Public Domain, 6) Universe by Comfreak, CC0 Public Domain, 7) Meditation by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0.
To all Readers/Visitors,
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As noted at the bottom of the post, Hans Meijer, the author of this post, will be available to directly respond to any of your comments.
Stillness Speaks will add comments as appropriate.
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