Let Happiness be your guide..

Dear all,
we all reach a stage in life where we need to question our own existence, and reason to be. It is a natural thing. For some of us this maybe just a fleeting pre-occupation, maybe borne of a troubled time in our lives, or maybe a need to reach out for love and consolation. The question may pass back deep inside us when we again become more happy, or become lost by the complicated lives we create for ourselves. But one thing is for sure, the question never really disappears?

Everyone from Socrates, to Descartes, to Buddha, to your brother and sister, to your neighbour, has asked these same questions about themselves, and their purpose and existence in life. The ever lasting feeling that something, some important question remains un-answered?

Religions play a great part in dealing with such questions, and helping people when they become lost and afraid. They bind cultures and communities with compassion and love, and can be a great healer. Unfortunately, the divisions between these religions are also the cause of disagreements between them, and have been the cause of wars and troubled times throughout history. The message from every religion throughout time is "compassion and tolerance" of others and their beliefs - unfortunately practice makes perfect?

It is worth noting here, that since the appearance of Buddhism some 600 years B.C, there has never been a single war in the name of Buddha. Buddhism is a philosophy rather than a religion, perhaps therein lies the answer to this.

I believe the path to truth lies within us all, for how can we ever hope to find the truth, our truth, outside of us, in another? Therefore as Jiddu Krishnamurti says; "Truth is a pathless land". There may be no Guru or priest that can give us, or find for us, the answers that we truely seek. However, history has provided many special people who have sought their own truth and enlightenment, and have helped us all to understanding, and have helped us to question. Buddha and Jesus/Jeshua were just two of these special people, that we should give thanks to.

We may think of the path to truth like the "yellow brick road", where we travel from A to B, whether straight or twisty - yet maybe the journey is more like being lost in a desert, where we may go in any direction, at any time, and find the truth under any rock at our feet?

If your search for enlightenment provides you with inner peace and Karma, and finds you happiness, then this, in itself is more than any gift one could hope for. Be happy in yourself, find love and respect for yourself, then you will have love and compassion for all.

Like the wisdom the great wizard of Oz gave to Dorothy when she was lost - Just click your heels together, and remember "there is no place like home", maybe you never really left home at all?

Peace and Love.