Frustrated?

Vanity of vanities, says the preacher.

Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!

What does man gain from all the toils

at which he toils under the sun?

-Ecclesiastes I (ESV)

Are you feeling frustrated with yourself yet?

I hope so!  I am not being mean when I say that. 

I sincerely hope that you are getting frustrated enough with yourself that you are willing to change.  I want you frustrated with life and I want you watching yourself be frustrated.  I want you frustrated with the stuff going on in your mind as you come to terms with the craziness and the never-ending loop of negative thinking that goes on in there.  I want you frustrated in your relationships, realizing that other people  are not making you happy and knowing somewhere that that isn't their job anyway.  I want you feeling frustration over the fact that no matter how hard it is, how much of your time and energy it takes to get what you want from out there to make you happy...that it never lasts.  Either you can't seem to get everything needed or when you do it just doesn't last.

I just want you good and frustrated.  I want you shouting out, "My life just isn't working for me!"

Why would I wish frustration on someone?



Because frustration  is the doorway to change.  Frustration is a sign that something isn't working and maybe, just maybe you are ready for a change.

Frustration with self is built into our existence-to drive us out of identification with form.

Eckhart Tolle

What has to change?

Not the things out there.  It would be impossible to change everything around us so it suits us and keeps us happy forever.  Life doesn't work that way.  What we need to change is our thinking and our perceiving...how we see the world! That is what has to change.  Change is an internal game just as our reason for frustration is not an external one. Frustration  cannot be blamed on the outside world.  It is our minds that are responsible for our negativity and through our minds we can put that frustration to bed, once and for all.

Circumstances cannot keep you happy, people cannot make and keep you happy.  No matter how much money you earn or how many things you possess...you will not be happy ( or unhappy) because of them. The past can't bring happiness back to you...and the future cannot make you happy because it never comes.  Isn't that darned depressing?  Frustrating?

I hope so because once you get to that point of realization... the light comes in.  You stop striving and fighting and struggling and grasping at forms be they tangible or just thoughts.  You slip out of time focus and settle your tired old butt down into the moment.  That is a beautiful place to understand things clearly.

What will make you happy?

I look at the word "happy" as an ego adjective rather than a spiritual one.  What would make you peaceful, joyful, "alive"?  That is a better question.

The answer is: this moment you are in and Life doing what ever Life does in that moment.  That is what can make you much more than "happy". Realization of who you really are...which is whole, full, well and complete...will bring you peace.  In fact it is the only thing that can  wipe away the frustration and bring you peace.

What will bring you joy is not a thing you can hold in your hand or the achievement of a goal that takes you from this moment.  It is what is inside you here and now. 

That something is Life.  Feel it. Appreciate it!  Enjoy it!  You will find no frustration there.

All is well.