“Genuine Happiness”

“When one has gained inner stability, then a quiet joy constantly fills one’s life. One no longer depends on external developments to bring happiness; one is already happy. The sun may shine or the rain may fall; the stock market may rise or it may drop; wrinkles, gray hair, and illness may come, but the underlying bedrock of happiness is not shaken. This is the meaning of real happiness: enlightenment, freedom from struggle, liberation from the captivity of the caresses and blows of worldly events. One who has realized the Self as Spirit, eternal and infinite, need no longer fear anyone or anything because he has understood himself and all other entities as Spirit; there is no longer any separation between an invented “ego” and imagined “others.” Everything everywhere is Consciousness, Spirit, God, Brahman, the Absolute, Creative Intelligence, or whatever name one chooses to give It. An enlightened Being can no more fear another human being, animal, natural force, or situation than he could fear himself: for to him there is no distinction drawn between “self” and “others.”