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“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you’re doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.”

~~~ Dale Carnegie

Here’s hoping that you had a great weekend. I know there were holidays in some countries, so if you had one I hope it was good for you. Before we got sidetracked over the past two weeks with our brief excursion into “Ron’s Buddhist 101″ course, we were talking about happiness — and how deeply you truly desire to have it in your life. We looked into our constant need for more — or better — and how those needs were getting in the way of finding the happiness we all seek. It’s that darn ego again. Once we find ways to quiet that craving for more and more, we will find that we don’t need more things to make us happy — because we already are.

Before we proceed with today’s article, let’s do a short meditation. This guided meditation is especially pertinent to what we wrote about today, so I hope you’ll stop here and take these few minutes to dwell in the peace of the Present. It is about 10 minutes in length. I should warn you that it does cut off rather abruptly at the end. Take a couple of deep breaths and relax your body and your mind.
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Here’s a link just in case the video doesn’t play when you press the “Play” button.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR6bOMeBBd4

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Yes, we are already happy. That is the truth. I hope you can find it in yourself to believe it. The real you — the essence of you — has always been happy and it has always been possible for you to feel this happiness. Whenever you can stop thinking or stop paying attention to your ego-mind, there it is: peace, compassion, contentment, happiness, and joy. It turns out that the only thing in the way of your happiness is your thinking that takes you away from the NOW and into the past or the future.

As we talked about in the articles about Buddhism, this involvement with this ego part of you is the cause of suffering. This ego-you and suffering go hand-in-hand; you can’t have one without the other. So, the choice is clear: You can be involved with all your egoic thinking and suffer, or you can be involved with the real you and be happy.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been following the discussions on the Oprah Soul Series with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. Those of you who have been reading this blog will recall that I showed you a video about Dr. Taylor’s amazing experience when she had a stroke. She experienced complete peace — or in her words, “Nirvana”. You can find that video in the post I did a few weeks ago. Scroll down to the last part of that article and you’ll find it. Here’s the link to the article:

http://www.theleaderinside.com/meditation-finding-the-present.html

I also decided to get her book, “My Stroke of Insight” and am reading it now. I highly recommend it. What Dr. Taylor describes in the video and also in her book is how, since her stroke, she is now able to go to the Present — the Now — at will. She pays close attention to her thoughts and to her feelings generated by those thoughts. If what she’s thinking causes any negative or stressful feelings in her body, she just says, “No thanks! I don’t need that in my life!” She then dismisses that thought and returns to the peaceful present.

The same holds true for any actions she’s considering. If the thought of taking that action causes her to feel discomfort - or just doesn’t feel “right” — that action doesn’t happen. If it does give her a good feeling to go ahead with that action, she moves forward knowing it’s the right thing to do.

So, the goal for all of us to learn to be more aware of our thinking and how we feel about what we’re thinking. If those thoughts are causing us discomfort, stress or negativity, then dismiss them, and move on. If you’re thinking about embarking on some activity, but you have that nagging feeling of negativity in the pit of your stomach, that’s your signal that there may be something in that activity that will cause you to feel unhappy. It may be that you need to say, “No thanks. I don’t need that in my life!”

There’s a quotation from Dinah Craik, from A Life for a Life, that has a phrase worth repeating here.

When it comes to our discursive thinking that takes us away from our inherent happiness ……

…..”Keep what is worth keeping and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away”.

I’d love to hear your comments on this. At the very end of this post (after the commercials and the tags) you should see a place where you can leave your comment. It will be a link that says “No Comments” — or “Comments”. Let me hear from you. Thanks.
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Those glimpses we get of peace, love, acceptance and happiness when we’re meditating will soon grow into more than glimpses if we keep practicing. Keep those feelings alive. A meditation can be as simple as one, deep, conscious breath. When something happens in one of your moments to cause you to suffer, just stop and take one of those breaths and remember, “This too shall pass!” Another thing that is wonderful, especially at this time of year, is to have a fresh flower where you work. Just stop from time-to-time and look at it — don’t label it — don’t judge it — just be with it for a couple of moments. It really does work. I’m looking at mine as I write this.

“Each flower is a soul blossoming out to nature”

~~~ Gerard de Nerva

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If you’re new to us here, be sure read the entire series about meditation. If you look on the upper left of the sidebar, you’ll see a list of the categories. Click the one called “Meditation” and you’ll be able to read the articles you missed. They start with the January 24, 2008 post. The video meditations that I included with the earlier articles may no longer function. I’m sorry about that, but those are out of my control. Hopefully, they’ll all still be working.

Do include meditation in your daily life. If you’re just starting out, make it a 10 minute meditation. If you’ve been doing this for a while, try to do a minimum of 20 to 30 minutes. The longer you can maintain your focus on just your breath, the better. And, remember, anytime you take a deep, conscious breath — a breath where you’re putting your focus on that breath — that’s a meditation. Do it often every day — especially when you’re feeling stressed. I guarantee, you’ll find more peace and happiness in your life if you’ll do this.

“Those who really seek the path to Enlightenment dictate terms to their mind. Then they proceed with strong determination.”

~~~ Buddha

Namaste!

And, as I always say in closing — remember these words …

You are the most precious gift you can give yourself. Every day look in the mirror and say, “I’m available to more good than I have experienced, realized or imagined ever before in my life!” Do this every day while you look into your own eyes.

You are special — and you are loved. You are the greatest gift you can be.

Shanti … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)

“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”

~~~ Buddha

~~~ Ron
http://www.theleaderinside.com
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Even though the live webcasts of the Eckhart Tolle New Earth classes are now concluded, you can still download the entire course. It’s being called “The Best Summer School Course Ever!” I highly recommend it. It’s completely free. All you really have to do is get the book, “A New Earth — Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” by Eckhart Tolle. You can access the course online at:

http://www.oprah.com/obc_classic/webcast/archive/archive_download.jsp.

You’ll find everything you need there — all 10 classes. If you happen to have iTunes on your computer, you can also access the course by subscribing to it through the podcast link in iTunes. Check it out. Several million people around the globe took part in this amazing spiritual teaching. I hope you’ll soon be one of them. This is how we can create a new consciousness on the New Earth.

“Feeling will get you closer to the truth of who you are than thinking. ”

~~~ Eckhardt Tolle —

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In my meditation I often use what I believe is a powerful aide to deep meditation. It’s the The Holosync Solution. I knew that meditation was a vital element to nurturing my soul — to opening myself to the universe — and this tool has allowed me to achieve and receive the benefits of deep, long-term meditation — and to achieve it much more quickly. If you’re having trouble “getting meditation to work for you” - then the The Holosync Solution is what you’re looking for.

Regular, daily meditation can give you …

(1) Increased intelligence and creativity.
(2) Lower stress levels — and with that — increased ability to handle whatever the world tosses your way.
(3) New levels of self-awareness and inner peace.
(4) The healing of emotional issues at the deepest levels.
(5) It is the proven path to finding the peace, love and compassion within all of us –

— it’s definitely worth taking the time for this powerful practice every day.

With a One-Year 100% Iron-Clad Guarantee, you can now do so with no risk whatsoever — just click any of the links that say … The Holosync Solution

— The Holosync Solution
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“Just as the dawn is the forerunner, the vanguard of the rising sun, so too, possession of virtue is the forerunner, the vanguard of the rising of the Noble Eightfold Path.”

~~~ Buddha

Last week we started our discussion about Buddhism and how it relates to meditation and also how the basic teachings of Buddha can show us ways to discover true happiness in our lives. Well, we didn’t actually get quite that far, did we? We outlined the first three Noble Truths — the first — that life can be filled with suffering. The second — that the origin of that suffering is our craving for pleasure and our endless “wanting” of things. The third — was that there is a way to end this suffering in our lives.

We left it there last week — which means that this week we need to talk about the Fourth Noble Truth.

But first, here is your meditation for this week ….
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This is not truly a meditation. Rather it’s a wonderful song written and sung by Dave Carroll. It will run for about 4 minutes. The reason why I’m including this song here is because it’s based entirely on the amazing book, The Power of Now, written by Eckhardt Tolle. The name of the song is, “Now”. I hope you enjoy it.

Here’s a link just in case the video doesn’t play for some reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ1wtftL3nA

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Now, let’s get on with our discussion of the basic Buddhist teachings with ….

The Fourth Noble Truth: To rid yourself of suffering you must follow The Eightfold Path. In order to have a way out of the madness and the stress of life as a human on this Earth, according to Buddha you must follow the Eightfold Path. This path will help you to live in a way where desire, ill will and ignorance will not control your every waking moment. Don’t worry too much if you don’t quite “get these” paths. Rather, just become familiar with them, the understanding of them will come in time as you bring them into your lifestyle.

As you’ve probably guessed, the Eightfold Path has eight parts to it. I thought about splitting the Paths into two separate articles for this blog, but decided against doing that. These need to be seen together in order to have a better understanding of how they relate to each other.

The Eightfold Path

The Eightfold Path describes the way to the end of suffering as taught by The Buddha. It’s a practical guideline to become more ethical and to improve yourself with the goal of freeing yourself from attachments, wanting and delusions. Following this path can lead to understanding the Truth about all things. Since I learned about Buddhism with my self-generated Buddhist 101 course, I feel that these steps plus the Four Noble Truths constitute the gist of Buddhism. There is a considerable emphasis put on the practical aspects, and it needs to be said that a regular meditation practice, along with right living, is vital if we want to achieve a higher level of existence. These steps are not intended to be sequential — it’s not about Step 1 — then Step 2 — then Step 3, and so on. Rather these are all interdependent parts that work in a close relationship with each other. For those of us who have learned to live our life as Westerners, these steps are not easy. They’re simple, but they’re not easy.

1. Right View — this is the beginning and the end of the Eightfold Path. It simply means that we should see and understand things as they really are and to be accepting of what is. It’s about learning to be in the Present — in the Now. It means to grasp the impermanent and imperfect nature of worldly objects and ideas, and to understand the law of karma. It’s not about being smarter — anymore than wisdom is not a matter of intelligence. Right view begins with the intuitive insight that all beings are subject to suffering and it ends with complete understanding of the true nature of all things. This step on the path will yield right thoughts and right actions, thereby helping us to improve our view of the world.

2. Right Intention – While right view refers to the way we can learn to think about wisdom, right intention refers to the choices we make, i.e. the kind of mental energy we use to control our actions. Right intention can be described best as commitment to ethical and mental self-improvement. Buddha distinguishes three types of right intentions: 1. the intention of renunciation, which means resistance to the pull of desire for things, 2. the intention of good will, meaning resistance to feelings of anger and hatred, and 3. the intention of harmlessness, meaning not to think or act cruelly, violently, or aggressively, and to develop true compassion.

3. Right Speech — Right speech is the first principle of ethical conduct in the eightfold path. Ethical conduct is viewed as a guideline to moral discipline, which supports the other principles of the path. The importance of speech in the context of Buddhist ethics is obvious: words can break or save lives, words can make enemies or friends, words can start a war or create peace. Buddha explained right speech this way: 1. to abstain from false speech, especially not to tell deliberate lies and not to speak deceitfully, 2. to abstain from slanderous speech and not to use words maliciously against others, 3. to abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others, and 4. to abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth. Right Speech means to tell the truth, to speak friendly, warm, and gently and to talk only when necessary.

4. Right Action — This path refers to deeds that involve bodily actions. Unwholesome actions lead to unsound states of mind, while wholesome actions lead to sound states of mind. Again, the principle is explained by Buddha in terms of abstinence: right action means 1. to abstain from harming other beings, especially to abstain from taking life (including suicide) and doing harm intentionally, 2. to abstain from taking what is not given, which includes stealing, robbery, fraud, deceitfulness, and dishonesty, and 3. to abstain from sexual misconduct. To look at this from a positive point of view — right action means to act kindly and compassionately, to be honest, to respect the belongings of others, and to make sure that our close, intimate relationships do not cause harm to others.

5. Right Livelihood — Right livelihood means that one should earn one’s living in a righteous way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully. In the studies that I’ve read, The Buddha mentions four specific activities that harm other beings and that one should avoid in order to follow the path of Right Livelihood: 1. dealing in weapons, 2. dealing in living beings (including raising animals for slaughter as well as slave trade and prostitution), 3. working in meat production and butchery, and 4. selling intoxicants and poisons, such as alcohol and drugs. Furthermore any other occupation that would violate the principles of right speech and right action should be avoided. (Right Livelihood explains why so many people who are living a Buddhist lifestyle are vegetarians or vegans.)

6. Right Effort — Right Effort can be seen as a prerequisite for the other principles of the path. Without effort, which is in itself an act of will, nothing