Thursday 1 March 2012

What Matters: Be Happy Now

An Easiest Way to True Happiness
amidst most painful circumstances:

Choose to enjoy the present moment,
and you will create the best life.

Chased by a bear a samurai runs off a cliff.
Falling he grabs a branch: just providential.

Few inches above his head the bear claws,
few inches below his feet a lion leaps up, while
two groundhogs gnaw at the branch he clutches:
in despair he watches his lifeline ending.

The samurai takes deep long breaths and
sees a bunch of strawberries beside the branch;
and notices one great, red, and juicy berry;
hanging by one hand he stretches his free hand,
reaches over, plucks it, puts it in his mouth;
chewing slowly he enjoys it saying:'ah delicious!'.

When we pursue a life of vision with commitment,
crises and turmoil will surely surround us.
The bears of the past and the lions of the future
and the groundhogs of the present attack us all round.

Amidst the terrible and crucially painful stresses,
the simplest way is to enjoy gratefully the lifeline,
the surprise gift of the most precious present: NOW.
Enjoying the present prepares us best for the next Now.

To be happy is to be grateful and to appreciate the gift of NOW:
focus the mind on what is joyful. beautiful and pleasant;
just smile: let the heart throb warm and glow in the eyes;
for when the eye is sound it will see beauty all around.