The Only Way to Live

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What am I talking about in this book? I am talking about a very simple problem: What does a human being, reasonably comfortable in life, fully aware that life means living from moment to moment, and never knowing whether the next moment will bring pain or pleasure, want most in life? Happiness? Of course.

Then one must ask oneself: "Why am I not happy all the time?" It is common sense that one cannot expect not to ever have any kind of pain physical, psychological or financial. With this understanding then, "Why am I unhappy?"

I would urge you to think about this question seriously.

If you did you would come to only one simple conclusion:

"I am not always happy because the 'other' will not always do what I want him or her to do. And it is totally impractical to expect the 'other' always to do what I want him to do. Therefore, is it impossible for me to be happy?"

The answer to this apparently unsolvable problem was given by the Buddha 2500 years ago: "Events happen, deeds are done, but there is no individual doer of any deed."

If one was able to accept, totally, that everything is a happening according to God's Will or the Cosmic Law, then there would be no question of blaming anyone for anything neither 'me' nor the 'other'. The result sounds fantastic: no burden of guilt and shame for 'my' actions, nor any burden of hatred for the 'other' for his actions.

The absence of the load of this guilt and shame, pride and arrogance for one's own actions, and hatred, envy, and malice towards the 'other' for his actions is, itself, the presence or existence of happiness.

If one is able to accept, totally, that everything is a happening according to the Cosmic Law, and that how a happening affects whom - for better or for worse - is also according to the Cosmic Law, then it is clear that no one is responsible for the condition one is in, that, in fact, we are all mere instruments, through which life happens.