Vow of Happiness

Priests and Nuns of all denominations take all kinds of vows as they move along their paths. The most notable, of course, Vows of Chastity/Celibacy and Poverty... there are also vows of Silence and many others I'm sure. I've decided to engage and commit to a Vow of Happiness or Bliss...

I've been listening to an audio book called The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. I had plenty of time yesterday as I drove up to the Priory in Chestertown, NY for a day long retreat "The Gift of Change" hosted by a friend, John Daubney. (He also wrote an amazing book you may want to check out Those Who Walk With Fire.)  Anyway, the Singer book points out that there is not much else to do or that we have control over in life so why not focus on being happy each day. That's hugely simplified and there's a lot of great talk about Death and it's relationship to life and our concept of happiness... Fun stuff, truly! 

It did really get me thinking about what is stopping me from being happy. How I feel after exercise and healthy eating is GREAT... so what's my problem!? Singer talks about a need to relax and release. The energies that appear when we are "unhappy" are leftover shit from the past that we need to just relax into and let go of. Yet another level of awareness. Notice the feelings or thoughts then relax, release, be present and breathe!

I know I'm on the right path when I find or remember things from my past that dovetail with the current epiphany. (John D. said yesterday things/experiences good and bad tend to circle and repeat until we absorb them fully). I had a bumper sticker on my 1995 Ford Contour, my first post-divorce vehicle, "Follow Your Bliss"...  so I looked that up this morning and found this on Joseph Campbell.

"Follow your bliss" one of Campbell's most identifiable, most quoted and arguably most misunderstood sayings was his admonition to "follow your bliss". He derived this idea from the Upanishads: Now, I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: Sat-Chit-Ananda. The word "Sat" means being. "Chit" means consciousness. "Ananda" means bliss or rapture. I thought, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know whether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being." I think it worked.

He saw this not merely as a mantra, but as a helpful guide to the individual along the hero journey that each of us walks through life: If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are—if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.

Campbell began sharing this idea with students during his lectures in the 1970s. By the time that The Power of Myth was aired in 1988, six months following Campbell's death, "Follow your bliss" was a philosophy that resonated deeply with the American public—both religious and secular.

Damn I have to run! Weight Watcher's meeting 8am Saturday. I'll try and finish this post later! I want to talk about what happened at the Priory Retreat in Chestertown yesterday two more God Knods!!  Crazy amazing ones!

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