Happiness is...

...to not want to change a thing.

...to not want to be anywhere else.

Even in the most simple situation, allowing the mind to wander at all rather than seeing "that right there" destroys perfection. Seemingly bad situations are only so when perception is tied to the objects and perceived qualities. A "right here" mind is so open as to attach to nothing and see only magic.

As a friend of mine today talked of how bad his day at work was I hit him with "we are on a rock flying through space!" and he got the point. There is so much magic in any one moment that to destroy it will false, paranoid, dwelling and self interest is crazy.

An ideal or developing spiritual mind is far more tame and requires only the slightest nudge to pull it into line. I like the way Allan Watts talks of a dance saying "it is not a race to reach the end of the dance, but to dance." and I often think of this as I cycle. Cycling is an activity where the end is not important, it is about cycling so by pedalling along you are drawn to be here now.

Also watching nature, seeing life getting on, grass standing back up after being trodden down, hearing a voice roar from a young birds mouth as if even he was shocked to hear it, watching an insect as it suddenly turns its head as animated as a cartoon, even the most tiny thing, the breath easing out of your mouth.

On the other hand TV is nothing to do with now! A TV viewer is deliberately, wantonly, and constantly, drawn away from now. The MTV generation go to a different "not now" every few seconds. But I must not spend too long on what is a removal from Now but more on staying with Now.

To describe being here is tough as it just is. You are never not here now but the mind is vainly trying to be somewhere else, vainly it says it could improve on this mere perfection! This "being here" has almost certainly been experienced by all of us but not always to the point of Satori. It may have been experienced but missed, seen as a passing good time and not as a state that can be eternal. The unique now of Satori, as opposed to just now, is being aware of the now without being drawn to anything within it, or being drawn to details but not to the why or how.

Now, with a bliss in mind, a stillness, a correctness. No will at all to be anywhere else.

When a person is there then they know true happiness and all ideas of wealth and gain seem laughable when such simple perfection is found. The whole world, all your past ideas, seem such a deluded joke in comparison to the vision of fascinating, perpetuating, perfection.

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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao