subject: Different Paths To Happiness [print this page] I happen to have a confession to make: I am a bit of a rebel. Yes I understand as a life coach I'm "purported to" have specific behaviours, perceptions and frames of mind (particularly in public!), and guess what, as a Buddhist I'm expected to have a different (though overlapping) set. But if you want an article along the lines of "It's all about going with the flow maximising your opportunities accepting the will of the universe striving for outcomes peace and love might be fabulously rich happiness comes from inside you can have it all now!", then bad luck ... That just is not what my life's like!
Luckily, as soon as we hack through the jungle of B-grade cliches we find that modern self-development and real spiritual paths both offer resources and concepts that will be able to radically transform our time on this planet. There is so much really worthwhile stuff, as a matter of fact, that it could be difficult to choose from the options, so my goal in this article is to look at what spirituality can stand for, and why you might choose to explore it a bit more.
To start with, here's a rapid questionnaire:
Initially, do you consider happiness comes from inside?
And, simply out of curiosity, do you behave like you do, i.e. do you target more attention on what's inside, or on other stuff?
The majority of you will have answered yes to the first question, and assuming that you are quite truthful with yourself I'm guessing that an even bigger majority will have said no to the second. Oops! Is it not remarkable the way we see the map, that says "Turn right", and still we drive left instead?
Modern self-developers usually say "you will be able to have more wealth, a satisfying career, great relationships (etc. etc.) and spirituality (+/- "whatever that means to you")". Spirituality turns out to be an item on the objects-that-make-you-happy menu, one more shiny "thing" to "gain". But how about if spirituality can imply something else? After all, the Buddha didn't say "you can have gold, power, dancing girls, much more cattle and enlightenment"; he said "here is a way that will take away your sorrow and provide you huge happiness, and it is completely about changing what is happening in your head".
Spiritual ways stress (if I may paraphrase the "Go to Jail" card in the famous board game Monopoly) that you will be able to "Go straight to Happiness; do not pass Go; absolutely no need to collect $200", and that this is not just possible but even the absolute best choice you can ever make in your life.
Tempted?
I guess that one reason I attract clients who are genuine about their happiness is as I too believe that time spent on the "external" stuff is usually unnecessarily slow.
