Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Universal Responsibility

...Universal responsibility is ...is the realization that even our enemy is entirely motivated by the quest for happiness.
-Dalai Lama

We are all seeking "happiness"...which I personally(and hesitantly)  describe as a freedom from suffering and a certain contentment with life...whether we know it or not.  Even those who purposefully  cause us harm or distress are seeking it, in misguided ways. They somehow may misconstrue that if they make us suffer, unhappy, or eliminate us altogether they will succeed at their personal or collective mission, which in turn would make them happy.  Their ultimate goal, however , is  not to cause harm to others or the planet but their own happiness.  They are seeking a freedom from suffering (maybe our enemy truly believes we are the cause of that suffering) and a certain contentment with life (maybe they erroneously believe that the world will be a better place without us in it) .  It certainly is more than a little crazy but we are all a little crazy, are we not,  when we undertake this pursuit of happiness?

Many of us are persistently  and relentlessly seeking it indirectly through the attainment of worldly success, material gain, and recognition from others. We keep pursuing it and pursuing it "out there" and wonder why we never find it in a lasting way, other than for  a few moments  of "Oh yeah!  I did it!" which is too often followed by a "Now what?"

What the attacker succeeds at doing  will not bring happiness for more than a brief moment of accomplishment, achievement and recognition amongst his allies with the same mission...but not happiness. What the majority of us do in our outer world seeking, does not bring happiness either.

Happiness...(man I really don't like that word for some reason lol) ...is not found out there.  It is not found in attack or defense, in what we do or what we gain from the outside world. This sense of suffering is really not found there either so the outer world will not eliminate our suffering or make our life worthy of contentment.  Life is already worthy and we are the ones responsible for eliminating our own suffering.  Both suffering and this so called happiness are products of the mind.

Our thinking has created a veil over the truth of who we really are beneath these notions of suffering or happiness.  Who we are is peace, joy, love. We already have everything we need to be happy and life, no matter what it throws at us, cannot harm or hurt this inner being.  The more we pursue our happiness elsewhere, the more we will suffer and the farther away from the contentment we seek, we will be.

Hmmm!  It is our universal responsibility to realize that we all want happiness even if we go about it in a less than effective way.  Redirecting our own personal missions inward is a start.  If we exemplify that happiness is found there and not in attack or outer world pursuit, than maybe the world will follow suit.

All is well.

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