Why Suffer That Which Does Not Exist?
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
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Joy . It is a much-prized word. Today even so-called spiritual leaders everywhere are propagating that joy and peace are the ultimate goals of your life. But to enjoy even your dinner tonight, you need to be peaceful and joyful. So, are peace and joy really ultimate goals or are they the fundamental requirements of your life?
There is no one who has not known a single moment of joy . It is impossible, because without a moment of joy , one cannot live. The issue is actually pretty simple. If you had a choice, would you choose to be joyful or miserable? What you want for your neighbour may be debatable, but what would you want for yourself ?
The answer is definitely joy . If you desire joy , and have experienced joy , why would you need a yogi to guide you to it?
Whenever i ask that question, people reply, “Yes, but ...“. A litany of reasons follows: “... my mother-in-law my boss (whatever) ...“. It is to kick that `but' that you need a yogi! Today there is substantial medical evidence to show that your body and brain work at their best when you are brain work at their best when you joyful. When you spend a full day without a single moment of irritation, agitation, anger or anxiety , your ability to use your intelligence actually goes up by a hundred per cent.But the problem is that most of the time human beings are suffering the circus of their own mind. When i first went to the United States, i found everyone talking about `stress management'. It baffled me. I always thought we managed things that are precious to us our family, business, wealth, health. Why would anyone want to manage stress? It took me time to grasp that people have assumed that stress is an inevitable part of their lives! Stress is not a part of your life. It is your inability to manage your thought and emotion that causes stress. It is said that the DNA difference between a chimpanzee and a human being is just nzee and a human being is just 1.23%. Physiologically , that is how close we are to our simian cousins! But in terms of our intelligence and awareness, we are worlds apart. And this, ironically , is the problem. You have an intelligence for which you do not have a stable enough base. So, being joyful becomes a challenge because you do not know how to handle your own cerebral capacity . You are suffering what happened 10 years ago or what may happen the day after, which means you are suffering the phenomenal capability of your memory and imagination. In other words, you are suffering that which does not exist! Human beings are a mess because they have not taken charge of their own faculties. If your body and mind were to take instructions from you, how would you keep yourself ? Joyful no doubt about that. Your mind is the most sophisticated gadget on the planet, but you haven't read the user's manual! We have engineered the world in a million different ways. That makes us the most comfortable generation on this planet. But are we the most joyful generation? Definitely not.
Make the shift. Joy and peace are attained not by attending to external realities, but in accessing and organising the inner nature of your being. That is when you realise that joy , compassion and peace are not esoteric principles or moral values. This is the way a human being is made. Now you are no longer in pursuit of joy; instead your life becomes an effortless expression of your joy .
There is no one who has not known a single moment of joy . It is impossible, because without a moment of joy , one cannot live. The issue is actually pretty simple. If you had a choice, would you choose to be joyful or miserable? What you want for your neighbour may be debatable, but what would you want for yourself ?
The answer is definitely joy . If you desire joy , and have experienced joy , why would you need a yogi to guide you to it?
Whenever i ask that question, people reply, “Yes, but ...“. A litany of reasons follows: “... my mother-in-law my boss (whatever) ...“. It is to kick that `but' that you need a yogi! Today there is substantial medical evidence to show that your body and brain work at their best when you are brain work at their best when you joyful. When you spend a full day without a single moment of irritation, agitation, anger or anxiety , your ability to use your intelligence actually goes up by a hundred per cent.But the problem is that most of the time human beings are suffering the circus of their own mind. When i first went to the United States, i found everyone talking about `stress management'. It baffled me. I always thought we managed things that are precious to us our family, business, wealth, health. Why would anyone want to manage stress? It took me time to grasp that people have assumed that stress is an inevitable part of their lives! Stress is not a part of your life. It is your inability to manage your thought and emotion that causes stress. It is said that the DNA difference between a chimpanzee and a human being is just nzee and a human being is just 1.23%. Physiologically , that is how close we are to our simian cousins! But in terms of our intelligence and awareness, we are worlds apart. And this, ironically , is the problem. You have an intelligence for which you do not have a stable enough base. So, being joyful becomes a challenge because you do not know how to handle your own cerebral capacity . You are suffering what happened 10 years ago or what may happen the day after, which means you are suffering the phenomenal capability of your memory and imagination. In other words, you are suffering that which does not exist! Human beings are a mess because they have not taken charge of their own faculties. If your body and mind were to take instructions from you, how would you keep yourself ? Joyful no doubt about that. Your mind is the most sophisticated gadget on the planet, but you haven't read the user's manual! We have engineered the world in a million different ways. That makes us the most comfortable generation on this planet. But are we the most joyful generation? Definitely not.
Make the shift. Joy and peace are attained not by attending to external realities, but in accessing and organising the inner nature of your being. That is when you realise that joy , compassion and peace are not esoteric principles or moral values. This is the way a human being is made. Now you are no longer in pursuit of joy; instead your life becomes an effortless expression of your joy .
