The Quest for Happiness

I sent this quote to a friend the other day. I felt that it was totally in keeping with the teaching of the Perfect Masters and Meher Baba. “But the whole point is to get pleasure and be able to keep it. Whoever can do this has nothing to learn. But the way to it is lies through suffering.” – G.I. Gurdjieff

My friend replied that he read it and shared it with his wife. He said that she would replace the word pleasure with joy. I too was somewhat ambivalent about Gurdjieff’s use of the word pleasure, though I understood that he was speaking at a particular time to a particular group of people. I asked my friend if he thought that the word happiness might be a good substitute. He replied that happiness was very consistent with Meher Baba’s teachings.

But whether we call it pleasure, joy, happiness, bliss, peace, etc., can we agree that if we look deep inside ourselves for the goal and motivator of the actions of our lives, that it is in fact the quest for this pleasure, joy, happiness, bliss, peace happiness?

I find everything in Gurdjieff’s statement significant. First, the qualification, “and to be able to keep it.” This is significant because it has been my experience that in life, nothing stays the same for very long. Moments of happiness, joy, bliss, etc. are fleeting, as are the moments of suffering that often follow.

There is a story I heard from Christopher Freemantle about the great King Solomon (a Perfect Master). People would come to him with their problems. He would listen but say nothing. He just sat there listening while slowly turning an ornate gold and jewel-encrusted ring around his finger.

There was one man who had come to him many times with his problems. They were indeed serious and weighty problems. As usual, King Solomon said nothing, just sat there turning the ring. One day the man could take the Master’s silence no longer and complained. Hearing the complaint King Solomon removed the ring from his finger and passed it to the man. Inside the ring was engraved, “This too shall pass.” This too shall pass, this too shall pass, this too shall pass…

In life, in the world, everything passes, everything changes, and every stick has two ends. Every stick has two ends—that’s another saying I heard attributed to Gurdjieff. It speaks to illusion’s reality of duality. At the other end of the stick of pleasure is pain, at the other end of the stick of attraction is repulsion, at the other end of the stick of wealth is poverty, etc. You can’t pick up just one end of the stick without picking up the whole stick. You always get the whole stick.

Perhaps we begin by trying—to take one end without the other. This can go on for many many lifetimes, but eventually we realize it is impossible. So then we may attempt to do away with the stick altogether, to not pick up the stick in the first place. This is the road of austerity—denial, but the problem is that denial id just one end of a stick, and always on the opposite end of the stick is indulgence. We can go through many lifetimes like this, going back and forth between denial and indulgence. It’s like a pendulum. But the pendulum itself is subject to the law of duality, and that which moves will eventually become still, though this may take hundreds of lifetimes. And this is just an example of one pendulum…

At some point, however, one begins to understand that they are trapped and cannot do without help. One might begin to take religion more seriously or seek out help through therapy, spiritual teachings, spiritual teachers, etc. Perhaps one learns about and is encouraged to try the technique called non-identification or non-attachment. In other words, to not try to do away with the stick, but to pick it up and yet remain unattached to the experiences of either of its ends. This can work, but it is extremely difficult, and virtually impossible without help, and even with real help, it too, can take many lifetimes.

And so, we see the significance of the words, and be able to keep it. To be able to keep anything implies a transcendence over duality itself. Once we have achieved this then it follows that one has nothing to learn.

But Gurdjieff said that the way to it lies through suffering. Why suffering? And is not pleasure on the other end of the same stick whose end is suffering? And therefore, does not suffering itself continue to embroil one more and more in duality? So why suffering?

Meher Baba put it this way, if you are having a wonderful dream and wake up, you want to go back to sleep and recapture that dream, but if the dream is unpleasant, you only feel relief that it’s over and have no interest in revisiting it.

Meher Baba and all the Perfect Masters I have studied are very consistent on this point, life as we experience is a dream—the dream state of God. It is all illusion and delusion and however real it appears to us to be, it is not real. Yet, it is a necessary stage that the soul must experience on its journey from its deep sleep to its real, fully awake, I am God State.

If life was always pleasant, enjoyable, etc. there would be no impetus to awaken. Meher Baba explained it this way, he said that a growing dissatisfaction with life and all its dualities, both unpleasant and pleasant, combined with a growing interest and eventually all-consuming love for God is the dynamic mechanism of this awakening.

Gurdjieff used this analogy. You live in this beautiful house with many rooms on many stories. Those rooms contain unbelievable experiences of beauty and bliss. But you chose to live in the basement—the dark dank basement—and have all but forgotten even the existence of the other stories and rooms. Instead, you busy yourself making efforts to find the most pleasant places in the basement to pass your time fighting and arguing with others about meaningless things. Gurdjieff concluded by saying that the only way out of the basement is to ally oneself with someone who found their way out of the basement and is willing to show you the way.

What is the basement? It is gross consciousness—consciousness of what we call the physical universe and all its physical forms from galaxies to subatomic particles. Gross consciousness sees only the gross expressions of subtle energies and the mental projections of thoughts and feelings and desires. It sees only the outside.

What are the upper stories and rooms? They are the seven planes of higher consciousness: the first three being the planes of subtle consciousness—of energy. The innumerable powers, experiences, and possibilities of this story—this subtle world—constitute the various rooms on that story.

What is the next story—world of consciousness—beyond the subtle? It is called the Mental World and it is consists of two planes—rooms—the first being the plane wherein lies mastery of thoughts and the second being the plane wherein lies the mastery over all feelings, emotions, and desires.

Beyond this Mental World is the Seventh Plane, the plane of God Realization/Self-Realization. It is the end of the soul’s journey. It is the fully awake state of the soul. It is eternal, infinite, and the abode of all Knowledge, Power, and Bliss.

Those whose consciousness is of the subtle sphere can help others to reach that sphere, but they cannot help others to achieve states beyond their own station. Likewise, those whose consciousness is of the higher mental sphere can help others to reach that sphere, but they cannot help others to achieve the states beyond their station. Finally, to achieve the Goal, it is necessary to enlist the help of one who has themselves achieved the Goal—a Perfect Master.

The evolution of consciousness proceeds through association and disassociation of the soul with all the lower gross forms from stone to man. Throughout this journey, suffering is experienced. With the achievement of the human form the process of reincarnation begins. In this process, human forms, male and female, black and white, weak and strong, rich and poor, etc., etc., are experienced, discarded, and then replaced in an effort to free the consciousness of the soul from its identifications with these very forms.

Throughout this phase of the journey the experience of suffering continues. And even when the consciousness of the soul enters involution and experiences the various planes, suffering in first a subtle form and then in a mental form continues. Suffering is there throughout the entire journey of the consciousness throughout the entire dream state of the soul—what we call creation consciousness.

But what exactly is the nature of this suffering? It’s a complex thing, for there are many different forms of suffering, and not all of them are necessary! This is the important thing. Not all suffering is necessary!

“But the whole point is to get pleasure and be able to keep it. Whoever can do this has nothing to learn. But the way to it is lies through suffering.” – G.I. Gurdjieff

That’s how we started this topic. In the dream state of creation, duality manifesting itself through constant change is the king, and so the ability to keep anything would be quite an accomplishment. Gurdjieff as well as the Masters are all in agreement that suffering is essential to achieve constancy, but as was discussed, there are many kinds of suffering and not all of them are necessary. In fact, almost all suffering is unnecessary and almost all suffering is unwanted. So then, why do we go on and on suffering and suffering? Gurdjieff often said, “The most difficult thing for a man to give up is his suffering.” What an irony; what a contradiction!

In 1979, I was talking to Adi K. Irani in his little office in the Avatar Meher Baba Trust Compound in Ahmednagar, India. He was saying that we are all traveling on a train that would bring us to the Goal, but we are not driving the train. All that is necessary for us to do is to stay on the train and bide our time in a pleasant and helpful way. But sometimes, Adi said, we might be enticed to get off the train. He said that Meher Baba would let us get off the train, but also, in His Infinite Mercy, He would always allow us to get back on the train. I suggested that though getting off the train was, in fact, unnecessary, once that option was taken, we would have to shift from calling it unnecessary to calling it an unnecessary necessity. Adi seemed to like that.

Leaving the train in search of pleasure always leads to suffering, and this suffering is unnecessary, but the wisdom gained from countless experiences of getting on and off the train eventually leads one to learn to stay on the train and not be lured off by the false hopes of desires. What is the most unnecessary suffering of all? My experience tells me it is worrying. Worrying is the most unnecessary suffering of all. I recall the old saying, “a coward dies a thousand deaths, a hero only one.”

 Of course, staying on the train also has its share of suffering, but this suffering is necessary.

So, what is suffering? Suffering can be physical, suffering can be mental, and suffering can be emotional. None are pleasant, and if we are honest with ourselves, none are really welcome—at least for most mere mortals. As Adi used to say, “A kiss and a kick from Meher Baba are one and the same, but I still prefer the kiss.” Don’t we all?

Now, it may seem from the way I’m talking that I actually understand what it is I’m saying, and perhaps at some level I do—understand the why and the what of suffering, its necessity, and its unnecessary necessity, and maybe most importantly, that it is all just an illusion—a dream. I can even tell myself—remind myself—of this in the midst of my own suffering.

But if this is true and I’ve learned the lesson, then why do I keep suffering; why do I need to keep suffering? So, I must be missing something, for as Hafez said, “He never tries His slave in vain.” Then what is it that I’m missing? I believe that the answer is simply this, all my understanding, all my knowledge of suffering, is limited to that section of mind that controls thinking and thoughts. The other section of mind, the domain of feeling, emotion, desires, etc., does not know the truth that the thinking section of mind knows, and it is for this knowing by the feeling section of mind that suffering continues to be essential.

But like any remedy to be effective, it must be the right remedy—in this case, the right suffering and this is where the Master comes in. The Master, being Infinitely knowing, sees into every corner of the soul’s cloak of illusion and knows what the exact prescription is that will free the soul from its cloak of illusion.

There is a story about a disciple who is telling his Master about a friend he says is very spiritual. He reads spiritual books, meditates, and is seen to do good. The Master says, “Oh he sounds very spiritual, but then, gesturing with one hand he says, “but let me grab him by the throat and throw him up against the wall,” while with his other hand he makes a fist and gestures as if he is about to punch the man in the face, and says, “then we will see how spiritual the man really is!”

I know the story sounds a little crude, but the point is clear, head knowledge is fine, but it’s not enough. We need to know with the whole of ourselves and this is where life comes in. It is life that can take us to the door, but at the door one’s progress comes to a halt and the help of the Master becomes essential. It is the Master who can pull us through the door to the Goal.

Gurdjieff often evoked the analogy of a carriage, a horse, and a coachman.

 “A man as a whole with all his separately concentrated and functioning localizations, that is to say, his formed and independently educated ‘personalities,’ is almost exactly comparable to that organization for conveying a passenger, which consists of a carriage, a horse, and a coachman.” – All and Everything – Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson, page 1192

 

In this analogy, the carriage represents the physical body, the horse represents the organization of human feeling, and the driver represents the whole totality of the manifestations of human mentation—what is generally described as thinking.

It is precisely the training of the horse that is the work of the Master. The horse cannot be trained with the same methods that work for the driver. The Master works with and through life to train the horse and for this, some suffering is necessary. But suffering, in and of itself, is never the point and unnecessary suffering, by its very nature, is never necessary. The Master works to eliminate unnecessary suffering and through the Master’s Love and Compassion, helps support the wayfarer through the trial and tribulations of the necessary suffering. The Master is always Infinitely Merciful and Eternally Benevolent.

In fact, from the very beginning of the soul’s journey of consciousness, from its earliest associations with pre-human forms—all the way back to and before the stone form, the Master is working. The Master is always working, but mostly, behind the curtain. Only at certain times, and this is generally when the soul is reaching the end of its journey, does the Master appear to the soul in order to establishes a personal relationship. This personal relationship is necessary to guide and energize the final steps of the soul’s journey. The acceptance of the Master’s help by the wayfarer is the critical factor, for this acceptance represents the acceptance of Reality by Illusion—the giving up of Illusion’s hold on the soul’s consciousness as limited and separate from Reality—from God—from Self.

 

“You are like a stream that flows through all of time seeking union with

the sea. Nearing journey’s end, the stream flows into a vast desert and

is trapped in the sands. Weakening more and more, it struggles

on, but finds its way blocked by great mountains. Hopeless

and helpless, its life ebbing into the sands, the stream cries out,

‘Oh help me Lord!’ and is answered by the voice of the wind.

‘I am the wind; you must give yourself to me. In my arms I will carry

you over the mountains as a cloud and as rain you will merge with the sea.’

 

‘But I will die!’

‘You will not die! Only your dream of yourself as stream will end.

Besides, where is your choice?

A stream you can no longer be.

Give yourself to me or be lost to the sands forever’.

And so, totally helpless and without hope, exhausted beyond belief, the

stream gave itself into the arms of the wind and was carried as a

cloud beyond the mountain’s peaks. The cloud drifted over the sea

where seeing itself reflected in the water below, began to weep.

‘I await you. Come,’ welcomed the sea.

And the cloud released itself as tears of joy   

and fell as rain into the sea.

‘We are not we, but one,’ spoke the golden sea and the stream, being stream no more, heard the voice and recognized it as its own.”  – From The Voice of the Stream, a poetic rendering by Michael Kovitz of a Sufi story

 

                                                                                                     © copyright Michael Kovitz 2023

 

Happiness

“Owing to their exalted states of consciousness, some of the advanced aspirants are adorable; but they are, in no way, comparable to the God-realized persons, either in respect of the spiritual beauty and perfection of the inward state of consciousness, or in respect of their powers.

"All aspirants, right up to the sixth plane, are limited by finite consciousness; and they are all in the domain of duality and illusion.

"The aspirants are mostly happy:  it is derived from their contact and communion with God.  For some, the joy of inward companionship of the Divine Beloved is so great that they are unbalanced in their behavior, with the result that they might, in their un-subdued state of God-intoxication, abuse people, throw stones at them and behave exactly like ghosts.

"Their state is often described as that of the Unmatta.  Owing to the exuberance of the uncontrolled joy of inward contact with the Divine Beloved, they are utterly regardless of the worldly standards or values:  and owing to the utter fearlessness, which comes to them through complete detachment, they often allow themselves such self-expression as would be easily mistaken for untoward idiosyncrasies and immoderate unruliness.

"It is only when the soul attains God-realization on the seventh plane, that the soul gets full control over its joy:  the unlimited happiness, which is eternally his, does not, in any way, unbalance him because he is now permanently established in the poise of non-duality. No longer for him is the extravagance of newly found love and joy:  the occasional unsettlement owing to the on-flow of increasing joy at the closer proximity of God is also over because he is now inseparably united with Him.  He is lost in the Divine Beloved and merged into Him, so that he becomes one with God:  he becomes the infinite ocean of unbounded happiness.” – DISCOURSES BY MEHER BABA 1941 – 42; 2ND Edition: Pp 3 – 4, Copyright AMBPPCT

I came across this beautiful and inspiring quotation from Meher Baba the other day. There is so much in it, but the first thing that caught my attention was the line; “The aspirants are mostly happy:  it is derived from their contact and communion with God.”

In creation—in life—there is the duality of pleasure and pain, but I don’t think that Meher Baba meant pleasure when He said happy. What’s the difference? My immediate response is that pleasure and pain are experiences of the mind connected to the realm of the senses. What is happiness? It is an experience derived from contact and communion with God—it is the experience of the heart connected to the Divine—the Eternal—Sat-Chit-Ananda—and the personifications of this state in the human form of the Avatar and the Perfect Masters.

What is the heart? As with the mind, we are not talking about a physical organ; the heart and the mind exists somewhere else—in a dimension beyond time and space. Like wind is invisible and is only sensed by its actions, the mind is only sensed by the average person through its actions in the domain of thought and feeling, while the heart is invisible for the average person except through the experiences of love and longing for the Beloved in all His many shapes and forms.

I’m using this term, ‘average person’, to denote a human being who is conscious only of the Gross World consisting of gross forms. Meher Baba tells us that there are actually three worlds, the other two being the Subtle World of energy and the Mental World of thought and feeling. Meher Baba tells us that souls can achieve consciousness of these two higher worlds and become conscious of themselves as energy and their world as energy, or become conscious of themselves as mind and their world as mind.

It is these subtle and mental conscious individuals that Meher Baba is referring to when He said, “Owing to their exalted states of consciousness, some of the advanced aspirants are adorable; but they are, in no way, comparable to the God-realized persons, either in respect of the spiritual beauty and perfection of the inward state of consciousness, or in respect of their powers.”

For as awesome as are the powers and experiences of these advanced souls, they still are creatures of illusion because they do not yet experience themselves as God. The sixth plane is the highest plane of illusion and the individual who is experiencing the highest part of that plane experiences his world—

“through complete consciousness of feelings and thus has no thoughts at all, but actually feels that he is conscious of the feeling of seeing God face to face continuously in everything and everywhere. He ‘sees’ God continuously but cannot see himself in God as God. Therefore he cannot reconcile his feeling-of-sight of God with his own identity with God; and thus he longs for, feels for, has pangs for union with God Whom he sees face to face.

“This identification with the second state of Mind—feeling—is the predominant aspect of divine love which ultimately leads to union with God.” – Meher Baba, God Speaks (2^nd Edition), page 52.

Which brings us to the subject of love; but as Rumi once said;

“And when the topic turned to the subject of love, the pen broke and the paper tore.”

There is a relationship that exists between happiness and love; but I find that it is not such a simple thing to understand; for if all the various forms of pleasure—and pain—are often mistaken for real happiness, even more so the many expressions of desire are often mistaken for love. It’s not that love is not present in those expressions, it is no doubt there in all of them, hidden in all of them, like the force of gravity is invisible except through the affect it has upon all physical acts and actions performed on our planet, but the love of the average person is often so conditioned and obscured by qualities like lust, greed, and selfishness that the real love, the unconditioned love, is all but invisible and imperceptible to the one whose love is conditioned.

And what about the various objects of love—do they shape or limit the type of love and the quality of love depending on their attributes? There is an interesting story about the Realization of the 14^th Century Persian Master named Hafez (Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī).

The story goes that when Hafez was a young man, before he was God-Realized, he saw a beautiful princess and fell in love with her. But being physically unattractive and also poor, his chances of winning her love were, as they say, “zero to none.” But Hafez knew of a certain penance which if successfully accomplished would give him great powers that would assure his success of winning the love of the princess.

The penance is called Chilla-nashini and consists of drawing a circle around oneself on the ground and then remaining in that circle for forty days and forty nights. While in the circle one does not eat—some say not even drink water—and tries to remain awake while practicing meditation and prayers.

After forty days an angel of God came to Hafez and asked him what he wanted. Overcome by the divine beauty of the angel, he totally forgot about the princess thinking, if an angel of God can be so beautiful, how beautiful must be God Himself! “I want to see God!” replied Hafez and the angel arranged for Hafez to meet a Perfect Master who, after a period of time in the presence of the Master, bestowed upon Hafez God-Realization and the sight of God.

“It is only when the soul attains God-realization on the seventh plane, that the soul gets full control over its joy:  the unlimited happiness, which is eternally his, does not, in any way, unbalance him because he is now permanently established in the poise of non-duality. No longer for him is the extravagance of newly found love and joy:  the occasional unsettlement owing to the on-flow of increasing joy at the closer proximity of God is also over because he is now inseparably united with Him.  He is lost in the Divine Beloved and merged into Him, so that he becomes one with God:  he becomes the infinite ocean of unbounded happiness.” – DISCOURSES BY MEHER BABA 1941 – 42; 2ND Edition: Pp 3 – 4, Copyright AMBPPCT

Love is a kind of meditation and in meditation one brings an object—a form—to mind and dwells on it. The form can be physical or mental; it could be an idea or an idol—a person or a possibility. Whatever the object or form, the mind being very impressionable begins to take on the attributes and qualities of the object or form upon which it dwells.

Dwelling on the beautiful princess would entrap Hafez in the realm of the physical—that which passes—that which evokes sensations of pleasure and pain. There is no real happiness there.

Dwelling on the angel of God would lead Hafez to subtle consciousness—the third plane—where incredible powers and happiness abound. Compared to the most enjoyable experiences offered by gross consciousness, the experiences of the third plane are so superior that no real comparison can even be made. Even so, these experiences are still in the realm of illusion and are mere reflections of the infinite knowledge, power, and bliss of God.

To be the knower of God’s infinite knowledge, power, and bliss, one must know God, but in order to know God one must become God. Of course, the irony of the whole thing is that one already is God, but just doesn’t experience oneself as God and the double irony of the whole thing is that to go from no experience of oneself as God to the real experience of oneself as God, one must first journey into and through the state of experiencing oneself as something other than God—as stone and vegetable and animal and man.

And so the Self and the self are inextricably bound together on the journey. That is why the one who journeys has been called the Holy Ghost – God as man—Divine as ghost—God dreaming Himself as man.

“A hundred times I felt that I held your garment firmly in my hands;

“When I opened my eyes I was amazed to discover it was my own garment I was holding!” – Ashgar

“Grandfather, I have been thinking about happiness.”

“Ah, you have been reading Ayushya’s blog on the subject?”

“Yes, his blogs always make me think.”

“And feel?”

“Yes, they always inspire me.”

“Indeed!”

“And so in his most recent post he quoted Ashgar.”

“‘A hundred times I felt that I held your garment firmly in my hands;

“When I opened my eyes I was amazed to discover it was my own garment I was holding!’”

Yes, grandfather, that is it; I have read it before…”

“Yes, it is quoted in Meher Baba’s book Godspeaks.”

“Yes, but in the context of Ayushya’s blog it has taken on a new meaning.”

“How so, my dear?”

“So, every morning, I repeat the three prayers that Meher Baba gave us. And, as you know, the first prayer is called the ‘Parvardigar Prayer.’”

“Indeed.”

“And, to me, it is a reminder of what lies beyond the world of my own mind and it has the effect of lifting me out of myself.”

“How so, my dear?”

“Grandfather, when I observe the working of mind through my usual thoughts and feelings, I see that it is always involved in creating happiness, but not real happiness, but worldly happiness. It is always concerned with the state of my body, and is always attempting to devise ways and means of achieving pleasurable experiences—physical or even mental. It is always engaged in solving problems—working things out.”

“Yes, that is so for me as well.”

“But the ‘Parvardigar Prayer’ reminds me of what lies beyond my concerns—reminds me that there is a Reality, a happiness, an eternal, infinite, state beyond this world— beyond this cathedral of birth and death, and that, in fact, the only real purpose of this body and mind, which so consumes so much of my attention, my time, and my energy, is to unburden my consciousness so that I can finally experience that eternal reality.”

“Indeed, my dear, and so the new meaning you have found in Ashgar’s couplet?”

                                                                                                                                       

“Yes grandfather, through re-reading this couplet in the context of Ayushya’s blog on happiness, I see that it is the mind itself, my mind, that is holding on to itself—even when it pursues the ‘happiness’ it believes to be the real happiness that Meher Baba tells us is not only possible, but, in the end, is inevitable.”

“So the mind holds onto the garment, but the garment is also the mind, and so the mind holds onto itself believing that it is holding on to God?”

“Yes Grandfather, that is it.”

“So the mind is the veil between oneself and one’s Self?”

“Yes Grandfather, it is as Rumi says; ‘The mind is a great and a wondrous thing,

That can bring you to the door of the King;

But then, like shoes before entering a holy place, it is removed and left at the door.’”

“Indeed.”

“It is such a relief—such an unburdening—when in meditation I am present in my body, and bring my mind to the Name and Image of my Beloved Baba, to know that in that moment there is no more work for the mind to do, no more problems for it to solve, and nothing more for it to accomplish.”

“Yes my dear, to bring your mind to Meher Baba’s Name and Image, is to come to the door of the King. All that is then necessary is to wait at the door until He, Himself, comes to the door and removes your shoes and brings you into His eternal abode.”

“And that is the grand finale; the shoes—the mind—goes, but consciousness remains. He alone can do it; without Him, the final step of the journey, cannot be taken.”

“Grandfather, Auntie brought back some tea from Pune, would you care for some?”

“Indeed my dear, indeed.”

“Ayushya, it is always such a joy to see you—would you like to join Grandfather and me in a cup of tea?”

“Likewise for me, I so enjoy the companionship and our conversations. And yes, I would love to take some tea with you here in your lovely garden.”

“Grandfather and I were just talking about your most recent blog on happiness and I would like to ask you a question.”

“Of course.”

“So, we were discussing how meditating on Baba’s Name and Form brings us to, as it were, ‘the door of the King,’ where we wait in joyful anticipation of the pleasure of His eternal company.”

“Yes, well put, that joyful anticipation is real happiness, only exceeded by the joy of union with Him.”

“Indeed! And so my question for you is; in light of the theme of your current blog, what do you suggest is right relationship to action—to life in the illusory world that we find ourselves in?”

“Ah yes Mera, that is always the question; ‘How to be in the world but not of the world?’”

“Exactly.”

“I have a few thoughts on the subject that I am happy to share with you, but first I must preference them by saying that there is no formula for how to live in the world, because life is like a dance with a partner whose steps you can never anticipate—one just has to be in the moment of the dance and respond to its changing rhythms. Of course, we bring our knowledge and experience to the dance—this knowledge and experience having been acquired over lifetimes of learning, as Baba tells us, ‘to dance to His tune.’

“Years ago, before coming to Baba I was, as you know, in what was called, The Gurdjieff Work. Occasionally there was a ‘work day’ and we were all given tasks, primarily physical tasks, to perform. There was also an internal task to do perform in conjunction with the physical task.

“So on one occasion I was told to paint the outside frames of second story windows. To accomplish the task I was given long ladders, paint and brushes, buckets, drop cloths, rags, etc. My inner task was to do my outer task in such a way that if at any moment I was called away, I could immediately finish what I was doing and leave my space clean. To me, this inner task was a lesson, a microcosm, of how I needed to live my life. I needed to act in life, but I also needed to act in such a way that whenever I was called away, either by death, or some other Master, I could leave my work—my life—cleanly without a lot of ‘things’ left undone.”

“That is very interesting Ayushya; could you tell us how remembering your inner task affected the way you did your outer task of painting the window frames?”

“Yes, remembering the inner task caused me to work more thoughtfully and productively. I didn’t use three brushes when two would do; I tried to paint in such a way that I didn’t start different sections of the window frame at the same time—I would complete one section of frame before moving on to another; I tried to work in such a way as to avoid unnecessary accidents like dripping paint on brick or the street—things like that. I worked more purposely, with less identification, always maintaining one little part of my mind—my attention—on the inner task.”

To the question of remembering God, a Perfect Master once observed to his followers, “See those women carrying vessels of water on their heads from the river. As they walk, they laugh and talk, but all the while they keep some attention back so that they neither drop nor spill the water they carry. That is how to remember God in the midst of life.”

“More tea, Ayushya?”

“Yes please.”

“And please continue describing the lessons that have helped to guide you to a happy life.”

“Yes my dear Friend. I will continue. Another important lesson for me occurred many years ago when I attended a Tibetan Buddhist ceremony called, ‘The Black Hat Ceremony.’ It took place in a large room filled with many monks doing many things. In the middle of it all, on a raised platform, sat a man called the Karmapa. Karmapa is a title that indicates one’s state of consciousness and ones’ authority in the lineage. In fact, the Karmapa was the only man on the planet who had the authority to conduct ‘The Black Hat Ceremony.’

“The purpose of this ceremony was to transmit the Buddha’s divine attribute of Compassion to the participants. It was a very important ceremony and the Karmapa directed all the activity going on around him without appearing to be attached to either his own importance or the importance of what he was doing. He always looked relaxed, completely natural, and attentive.

“And that was the lesson for me. I realized that in my usual state when I was not attached to my actions, my actions were sloppy, but when I was attached to the results of my actions—when the results seemed important to me—was I more attentive. The lesson for me was that I needed to learn how to remain unattached to my actions and their results and yet still remain attentive to them.”

“And were you able to accomplish this? And did it make you happy?”

“Well Mera, when I could remember to try, then yes, there was a kind of happiness—a kind of freedom— but it was only when I met my Master, Meher Baba, that my life really began to change. Grandfather, what is it that Kabir said?”

“Because you have forgotten the Friend; that is why in everything thing you do there is a sense of strange failure.”

“Yes, that has been my experience, and conversely, I have discovered that in those precious moments when I am able to remember the Friend, regardless of whether my actions lead to worldly success or failure, I do experience a beautiful happiness, unlike any other I have ever experienced in life.”

“Grandfather?”

“Yes my dear.”

“I have noticed that you have not said much today. Can you share something of your august experience on the subject of happiness?”

“Look over there where the light passes through the leaves of the tree and falls on the rose. All of the happiness of this Gross World is merely an iota of the happiness that passes through the veils that separate the Gross World from the Subtle World. Likewise, all of the happiness of the Subtle World is merely an iota of the happiness that passes through the veils that separate the Subtle World from the Mental World. Beyond the Mental World is the real happiness, the Eternal Bliss of God. The difference between this Bliss and all other happiness is the difference between illusion and reality.  It is this Bliss of God that all of the three worlds seek and ultimately experience. Ayushya, will you please read the last paragraph of the quote Meher Baba’s that you began this series of posts on happiness?”

“Of course, my dear friend; Meher Baba said, ‘It is only when the soul attains God-realization on the seventh plane, that the soul gets full control over its joy:  the unlimited happiness, which is eternally his, does not, in any way, unbalance him because he is now permanently established in the poise of non-duality. No longer for him is the extravagance of newly found love and joy:  the occasional unsettlement owing to the on-flow of increasing joy at the closer proximity of God is also over because he is now inseparably united with Him.  He is lost in the Divine Beloved and merged into Him, so that he becomes one with God:  he becomes the infinite ocean of unbounded happiness.’” – DISCOURSES BY MEHER BABA 1941 – 42; 2ND Edition: Pp 3 – 4, Copyright AMBPPCT    

                                                                                                                                            (c) copyright Michael Kovitz 2016