Secrets of Spiritual Happiness
The Difference Between Relative and Spiritual Happiness
By Sharon Janis
Play this chapter in realplayer audio
First, I'll describe three basic levels of regular old relative happiness:
- Body-based: This lowest level of relative happiness relates to the more animalistic nature of human beings, such as experiences of happiness that come from the satisfaction of raw desires. People who are stuck in this level of happiness tend to be ravenous and are always looking for immediate pleasures, without much regard for troubling consequences.
- Mind-based: The second level of relative happiness involves a bit more intelligence. You look to create a good life, and are willing to forgo some of the more animalistic, instinctual, and self-indulgent pleasures in order to achieve greater long-term happiness. For example, you're willing to go to work every day so you can have a home and enjoy the good things in life.
- Heart-based: The third level of happiness has more of a spiritual element. You've purified your understanding, awareness, and motives enough that your happiness comes from greater things, such as love, devotion, and service to humanity and to those you love. In this level, you may also begin to taste the nectar of spiritual happiness streaming forth.
Beyond these three levels of relative happiness exists the realm of spiritual happiness.
Spiritual happiness is a deep contentment and joy that exists peacefully beneath all the superficial waves of ephemeral life. Spiritual happiness comes from having a greater vision of how you fit into the bigger universal picture. Spiritual happiness brings a sense of gratitude and faith that allows you to dance beneath, above, and throughout the ups and downs of life.
One way to describe spiritual happiness would be to say that ordinary happiness comes from getting what you want, while spiritual happiness comes from wanting what you get. Ordinary happiness depends mostly on what happens in arenas that may be beyond your control, while spiritual happiness is potentially in your court.
Spiritual happiness shines most brightly when we are in harmony with God and the universal flow. Instead of waiting for God and the universal flow to get in harmony with us , we can take a more proactive stance and create the intention to become in greater harmony with God's will and the flow of nature.
You can use whatever religious or non-religious image or term you choose for envisioning this unknowable perfect flow of God's will. What is most important for supporting and nurturing your experience of spiritual happiness is the state of mind that comes from seeking to be in universal harmony.
Spiritual happiness is ultimately up to how you look at things. Another tangible way to shift into spiritual happiness is to train ourselves to be grateful for everything that has or has not come into our lives. Of course, this exercise is easy to do for the good things that are in keeping with our desires, however, even tough times can be deserving of our gratitude when we are living from a higher, more spiritually awakened awareness.
Spiritual happiness involves entering a bigger picture view, in which we can see the ups and downs of life as paint strokes on this magnificent canvas that is our own individual and unique story.
With spiritual happiness, we trust in universal goodness, while resting in the humility of knowing that we see only tiny slivers of a grand and infinite reality. With humility and trust, we can stop living life as a tug of war with Universal Reality. While striving to flow in harmony with the unknowable essence of life, we walk lightly, yet powerfully upon this earth. We can more easily let go of whatever falls away, and embrace whatever comes with a happy heart.
Who so trusteth in the LORD, happy is he.
- Proverbs
Having spiritual happiness doesn't necessarily mean that you walk around letting anything fall upon you without making any efforts to also create what you want. It's a balance. You put forth sincere efforts, and if some of your efforts don't bear fruit, you nevertheless have faith that all is well, that everything ultimately happens for the best, and that God will provide whatever you need at the right time, and in the right way.
From a stance of faith and surrender, we are able to act with confidence, patience, and a positive attitude. Because positive interpretations of the events we experience can actually help to create positive outcomes, finding our natural state of spiritual happiness and optimism is bound to bring unexpected blessings into many areas of our lives.
Spiritual happiness will also offer great peace when it is time to leave this world. In fact, one of the most precious qualities of spiritual happiness is that it will stay with you at the moment of your death (but don't wait until then to look for it!) With spiritual happiness, you'll be able to depart from this life journey with a deep sense of gratitude and satisfaction, rather than weeping and lamenting with guilt and disappointment over the past, or with fear of the unknown abyss ahead. You'll be waving farewell, while moving forward courageously and happily into the great light of your Beloved, of Heaven, and of your own sublime soul.
The treasure of spiritual happiness is available to us with just a few shifts of understanding, a bit of expansion in our awareness, and some refinement of our thoughts and actions. This is what many great spiritual philosophers have declared, and it has also been an ongoing lesson and experience on my path.
More Chapters from Secrets of Spiritual Happiness
Additional Works by Sharon Janis
Click on a book or CD cover to enjoy it online
(most in their entirety):
Home Page | Contact | Site Map | Books | Spiritual Commentary Blog | Secrets of Spiritual Happiness | Links | Chanting and Devotional Singing | Inspiring Videos | Sanskrit Spiritual Scriptures | Workshops | Photographs | Kirtan Chanting | Chai | Sacred Music Concerts | About the Artist | Disclaimer | About Night Lotus | Purchasing Our Works
