What is happiness and success in your life ?

What I'm about to say may seem pompous to you, but it's true. The minutes that follow may be the most important ones in your life. If you could figure out what would come next, you could reach the secret of awakening. You would be forever happy. You would never be miserable again. Nothing would have the power to hurt you anymore. And II say it to you truly: nothing. It's like spilling black paint into the air - the air stays intact. It is impossible to paint the air in black. Whatever happens, we remain intact, we remain serene.

There are human beings who have reached this goal, they have reached what I define as "human being". This is something completely different from the absurdity of being in the form of a puppet spread and stretched in all directions, meaning being a person who lets events or other people tell her or him what they need to experience. And so one experiences what others tell him and defines it as its vulnerability. Ah! A person is just a puppet. Do you want to be a puppet? The button is pressed and you go up - do you like it? But if you refuse to identify with any label, much of your concerns will simply disappear.

Later we will talk about fear of illness and death, but people are mostly worried about their careers. One insignificant 55-year-old businessman drinks his beer at a coffee shop and says, "Look at my school mates - they really made it!" What an idiot! What did he mean by "succeed"? They can see their name in the newspaper. Does that mean that they succeeded? One is the president of some society; another was elected for Chief Justice; some third one became this or that. Monkeys, they're all monkeys.

Who decides what it means to be successful? This idiotic society! The main concern of society is to keep itself in a state of immobility, that nothing changes! The sooner we understand this, the better for us. They are sick, all right. They're crazy, deranged. Someone becomes a head of a mental institution, and he's very proud about it, though that doesn't mean anything. Being the president of a society has nothing to do with success in life as well.

Life can only be successful only when we wake up! Then no one should be asked to apologize, nothing to explain to anyone, you totally don't care what people think or say about you. You no longer care - you are happy. Here is what I think is success in life. Having a nice job, or being famous, or having a great reputation has nothing to do with happiness or success. None! It is completely irrelevant.

In fact, a so-called successful man has only one concern - what his children think of him, what his neighbors think of him, what his wife thinks of him. He should become famous. Our society and our culture are putting it in our heads day and night.

These people made it! What did they do? They managed to make fools of themselves, because they used all their strength and energy to achieve something of no true value. They are terrified and confused, puppets like everyone else. Look at them as they walk the stage. See how upset they are when they spot a stain on their shirt. Is that what you call success? They are controlled, manipulated. These are miserable, miserable creatures. Life gives them no pleasure, because they cannot and don’t know how to live a life. They are constantly tensed and worried. Do you call it human? Do you know why all this is happening? For one reason only: they are identified with a label. They identified their "I" with money, work, occupation. And that's their fault.

One lawyer gets a bill from a plumber and says, "Hey, you cost me two hundred dollars an hour! I don't make that much money, as a lawyer!" The plumber replied, "I didn't make that much money when I was a lawyer!"

You can be a plumber, a lawyer, a business man or a priest, but it does not reach your essential and inner "I", it does not touch you. If I change my interest tomorrow, it's like changing clothes. I remain intact. Are you your clothes? Are you your name? Are you your profession? Stop identifying with those things that come and go. When you truly understand this, no criticism will hit you, not even praise or flattery. When someone says to you, "You're quite capable," what is he talking about? He talks about our ego, about our conditioned, false "I", not about our true "I". This "I" is neither strong nor weak, neither it can be defined as successful or not unsuccessful. It is neither of those two labels. These are things that come and go, depend on the criteria set by society, the conditions and circumstances we are subjected to. These things depend on the mood of the person who turns to you at some point. They have nothing in common with our "I", which is none of those things. Until then, our accustomed, indoctrinated "I" is, more or less, an egoist, a fool, infantile - in a word, a real ass. That's why when you say to yourself, "I'm such an ass!" you've known this for years! The ego is conditioned - what did you expect? And why do you identify yourself with your ego? You fool! It's not your "I".

Do you want to be happy? Long lasting happiness has no cause. You cannot make me happy, you are not my happiness. If you ask the awakened person, "Why are you happy?" a person would reply, "Why shouldn't I be?"

Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the entire empire belongs, until they become dirty and polluted by the stupidity of society and culture. In order to achieve happiness, nothing needs to be done because happiness cannot be achieved. Does anyone know why? Because we already have it. How can we chase after something that is already in our hands? Then why not tasting it? Because you have to deprive yourself of something, you have to reject something first. You have to discharge your illusions. You don't need to achieve or get anything in order to be happy. On the contrary, you need to reject something. Life is easy. Life is wonderful. However, it somehow only lasts alongside with your illusions, ambitions, your greed and demands. And do you know where all this stuff comes from? From identifying with all possible labels given!

Author of text: Denic Saska