‘The pursuit of happiness’ is a most ridiculous phrase…

“There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.”
- Anthony de Mello (1931-1987)

We insist on wasting our precious time (and lives) chasing after this thing called ‘happiness’ instead of simply choosing to be ‘happy’…

“People spend a lifetime searching for happiness; looking for peace. They chase idle dreams, addictions, religions, even other people, hoping to fill the emptiness that plagues them. The irony is the only place they ever needed to search was within.”
- Ramona Anderson (1887-1949)

Stop it! Stop the nonsense – Stop pursuing happiness, create it!!!…

Easier said than done, you say…

Not true!

…easier done as well…here’s a very simple take on ‘being’ happy:

1. Believe in yourself: Get in touch with who you really are – don’t waste your life trying to be what others think you should be. Learn to identify with (and respect) your unique, exceptional and distinctive qualities – don’t blindly and thoughtlessly emulate that which ‘popular culture’ propaganda identifies as the ‘in’ thing. Know that being happy is a choice, choose it…

“If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert.  He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator…”
- W. Beran Wolfe (1900-1935)

2. Be open (and in harmony) with yourself – and think beyond your mundane, routine, lip-service of an existence: Explore the unknown – don’t run away from something just because you’ve never done it before. Seek out people, places, ideas, and activities that resonate with your perception of happiness, peace, and tranquility. Life is one big exciting mystery that’s been patiently waiting for you to solve it – get on with it…

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
- Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869-1948)

3. Live in the present: The past can’t be altered by sulking, the future can’t be conquered by worrying – the present is yours to experience, live it…

“Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!”
- Kalidasa (circa 300-470 AD)

4. Lighten up: To all my fellow rat-race runners out there – stop taking yourselves too seriously all the time…stressing about something is not going to make it better – nor is over analyzing it…

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.”
- Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

“Never take life [too] seriously. Nobody [has been known to] get out of it alive anyways.”
- Author Unknown [adapted]

5. Smile: Like it or not, smiling has been empirically proven to have an immediate (and powerful) positive effect on your mood and emotions…a smile cannot create happiness, but it can (very rapidly and easily) lighten you up to a point where you start naturally ‘feeling’ better…try it!

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-Present)

6. Accept reality: The good and the bad and everything in between are interdependent phenomena – stop kidding yourself and learn to accept them and seek to learn from (and grow with) them…it’s your life – the good, the bad, and the ugly – in totality, it’s simply amazing and wonderful!!! – experience it…

“What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.”
- Leo Buscaglia (1924-1998)

7. Be grateful: The foundation of true happiness is contentment – be very thankful for what you have, and know that what you don’t have is also a blessing…be sincerely happy for others (and what they have) – and you’ll not feel the need to envy or to be jealous…contentment is bliss, practice it…

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.”
- Frederick Keonig (1774-1833)

“I cried because I had no shoes and then I met a man who had no feet.”
- Author Unknown

8. Be yourself: Just be yourself…when you stop ‘measuring’ your own worth against someone or something else, all that ‘discontentment’ in your life simply disappears – like magic!

Be brutally honest with yourself (no compromise there), align your goals and objectives with who you really are (not with who your parents or friends or significant others or your society or culture think you should be), and make that sensible choice of living your life as YOURSELF…that’s it…

“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.”
- James Openheim (1882-1932)

9. Develop HEALTHY relationships: Choose who you associate with wisely – don’t just choose to ‘go-with-the-flow’ or to ‘fit-in’ – there is no need for that…none whatsoever…be completely honest and sincere in ALL your relationships – and seek to develop every one of your relationships into meaningful, progressive, and mutually beneficial ones – anything less, and it’s not worth it…

“If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years.”
- Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

10. Choose to GIVE more than you receive: Generosity is much more empowering than we imagine it to be – the essence of the form we exist within is, in all its glory, the epitome of beneficence – just contemplate on your own existence for a bit and you’ll see what I’m trying to illustrate (regardless of whether you believe to have been ‘created’ or whether you fancy yourself as having made a ‘big-fat-bang’ of an entry into the cosmos)…

I don’t know about you, but of all the ‘miserable’ people that I know on this planet, every one of them seem to manifest (at their core) the characteristics of selfishness, greed, and inconsideration – and of all the ‘happy’ folks that I hang out with, every one of them strives to be generous, sharing, and giving…that is the truth (about happiness) as I know it…

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
- (Prince Gautama Siddhartha) Buddha (563-483 BC)

In conclusion, my dearest friends:

“The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it.”
- Charles Percy Snow (1905-1980)

- The Ranting Dream

Comfort makes cowards of us all

We’re all too familiar with what we call our ‘comfort zones‘ – where we mentally condition ourselves to accept our self-imposed limitations (and those imposed by others) and confine our existence to a predictable, mundane, routine, and ‘easy‘ ride to nowhere in particular…

We foolishly convince ourselves that by doing so, we’re going to lead a ‘risk-free‘ and ‘steady‘ life – and ignorantly hold on to the false sense of security created by these self imposed mental boundaries – and further impose this ignorance and stupidity on our partners, children, peers, and all those with whom we share this planet…

Our organized businesses of religion and politics – well aware of this weakness – are quick to exploit it for their own greed and profits by feeding us with all the misinformation we need to reduce our presence on this planet to the meaningless, fear-driven, mundane routines that they are today – toiling endlessly for the profit of those manipulating and brainwashing us into believing that any endeavor (or even the thought thereof) outside our ‘comfort zones‘ would be detrimental to our well-being…

What we fail to realize is that the ‘comfort zone‘ that we so dearly protect is but a facade – a facade behind which we let our insecurities, fears, prejudices, and self-limiting attitudes thrive…

I’ve had the misfortune of knowing folks who continued doing what they did for decades, day in and day out, heads buried deep in the sand, plugging away in their self-imposed ruts, doing the same mundane, ritualistic, repetitive tasks – 10, 15, 20 years of their lives – drawing from (mostly perceived) past successes to justify the ‘safety‘ and ‘effectiveness‘ of their behavior – hence their case for not wanting to even think beyond the ‘status-quo‘…

A popular argument I hear about why we continue holding on to our comfort zones is because these comfort zones apparently evolve from our ‘experience‘ and ‘expertise‘ over time – thereby allowing us to do what we do ‘very well‘…

In my humble opinion though, there is absolutely nothing that our ‘experience‘ and ‘expertise‘ (or even the ‘comfort zone‘ that may evolve thereof) can do for us when dealing with the many different attitudes, personalities, situations, and challenges that we encounter every day…we may be able to draw from our experience and expertise to articulate responses to the stimuli we face – that may eventually lead to (mostly self-perceived) favorable outcomes – but the overall result of our interaction with the world has nothing to do with our ‘comfort‘ levels…nothing at all…in fact, if we dig deep into our history, we’ll see clearly that all those who we still remember today – those who have made a ‘difference‘ on this planet – a difference significant enough that we celebrate (or curse) their existence many decades after their passing – were all ordinary people, no different from us, who simply chose to step outside their ‘comfort zones‘…

When was the last time you saw a Mustang on the road and thought about the unionized assembly crew that clock in at 9AM and out at 5PM, Monday to Friday, taking their two regulated breaks and one hour lunch every single day – who, by their experience and expertise, put together this beautiful shiny toy for your pleasure?

Now how many have heard the name ‘Lee Iacocca‘ mentioned at least once in their lifetime???

Many know that Lee Iacocca, years before taking on the head-hauncho job at Chrysler, was the dude who stepped out of the box and championed the creation of the Mustang in 1964 while serving at Ford – those who actually made his vision come true were the ones who – working within their comfort zones, and showing up to an organized and routine assembly line every single morning to put all their experience and expertise into the project – created the Mustang…yet, all credit for making the Mustang a reality within a short 18 months goes to Lee Iacocca and his chief engineer, Donald Frey – the dudes who lived their entire lives OUTSIDE their comfort zones…

There are many books out there about Lee Iacocca and his extraordinary life and achievements, so I won’t bother repeating all of that in this rant…

Donald Frey, an engineer by qualification, worked as an army officer (US Army, World War II), an assistant university professor while working towards his Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering, Vice-President and Chief Engineer at Ford, President of General Cable, Chairman and CEO of Bell & Howell, Member of the Board of Directors at 20th Century Fox, and is respectfully recognized for, amongst many other distinctions, bringing about the first high-volume integrated manufacture of video cassettes for the movie industry, and for being instrumental in promoting the first successful CD-ROM based information system designed for the General Motors dealer service. He continues living an exciting existence today serving as a Professor and doing research at Northwestern University and serving on the Board of Directors at Stonewater Control Systems…

How many engineers out there reading this rant have bothered thinking about an existence beyond their bi-weekly pay cheques???

…enough said…

Every time we choose to stick to our ‘comfort zone‘, we not only eat away at our core and distance ourselves from our true potential, but we also eliminate options that we might otherwise have in life – while ‘fitting in‘ to the mold may seem like a safe bet, the harsh reality is that there is no such thing as a ‘safe bet‘ in life -  all we do by choosing to remain within our ‘comfort zones‘ is cut ourselves off from knowing what our true potential is – that comfort zone is where mediocrity lives – that comfort zone is where insecurities thrive – that comfort zone is where cowards hang out…

…comfort makes cowards of us all…

- The Ranting Dream

…even more wisdom of the ages…

…a random collection…

The long-awaited revealing of a well-kept secret is becoming clear to you.
A dawn is breaking on your darkness.
Your own heart is the veil covering the Secret.
If you had kept yourself, He would not have been revealed to you.
But when you destroy your own heart, He enters it and discloses His holy revelation.
So, guarded by this revelation, an ever-nourishing dialogue will follow Its verse and prose delicious to Us both.
- Mansur Al-Hallaj

Die before you die
- The Prophet Muhammad

I want to put out the fires of Hell, and burn down the rewards of Paradise.
They block the way to God.
I do not want to worship from fear of punishment or for the promise of reward, but simply for the love of God.
- Rabia Basri

You have to live with the people in hypocrisy for them to stay happy with you
- Shams Tabrizi

I am like the ages — building today
And destroying tomorrow;
I am like a god, who creates and ruins;
I am sweeter than a violet’s sigh;
I am more violent than a raging tempest.

Gifts alone do not entice me;
Parting does not discourage me;
Poverty does not chase me;
Jealousy does not prove my awareness;
Madness does not evidence my presence.

Oh seekers, I am Truth, beseeching Truth;
And your Truth in seeking and receiving
And protecting me shall determine my
Behavior
- Khalil Gibran

Why does a date-palm lose its leaves in autumn?
Why does every beautiful face grow in old age?
Wrinkled like the back of a libyan lizard?
Why does a full head of hair get bald?
Why is the tall, straight figure
That divided the ranks like a spear
Now bent alomost double?
Why is it that the
Lion’s strength weakens to nothing?
The wrestler who could hold anyone down
Is led out with two people supporting him,
Their shoulders under his arms?

God answers,
“They put on borrowed robes
and pretended they were theirs.
I take the beautiful clothes back,
so that you will learn the robe
of appearance is only a loan.”
Your lamp was lit from another lamp.
All God wants is your gratitude for that.
- Rumi

From the tyranny of religious dogma
Love will set you free.
- Fakir Bedl

- The Ranting Dream

Why do we choose to be so ignorant?

Fine Print: this is a hard-hitting rant – stay away from it if you’re easily disturbed by (or in complete denial of) the truth!

The World Day Against Child Labor is observed quietly every year on June 12…

Sadly, a recent estimate puts the number of children enslaved worldwide at 14 million – more than it has ever been in our history…

They must be the children of a lesser god, I guess…

Of course, I can rant all day, from first-hand knowledge, about how many innocent lives are ruined in the quest for that ’sparkling rock’ that we use to express our superficial never-ending love and commitment to that special someone (ironically most of that love and commitment ends up in divorce court within three years flat) – and please don’t argue about ‘clean’ diamonds – there is no such thing – I don’t care where it is mined; the truth is that there is a ridiculous amount of innocent blood spilled every single day in the undying greed that we have for this ’stone’…I’ll stop with the ‘diamonds’ rant here because this is a very emotional topic for me – it ticks me off to see the ignorance and denial in everyone’s eyes not caring one bit as long as they have a huge shiny rock on their digits – and I don’t want to write in an emotionally charged state…

Back to the harsh reality of child enslavement…

Having been to Central Asia, and having felt the suffering in the region first hand; I was very saddened to learn that in some countries in that region, the use of child labor is actually state policy – and children as young as 7 years old are injected into the ‘legal’ and ‘underground’ economies in some of these countries – fully supported by the ‘laws’ of the land…in their defense, these governments deny that children are ‘forced’ into labor, but do it out of their own ‘freewill’ in the spirit of ‘helping’ their families…and the rest of us living in the stupid, greedy, and ignorant ‘first world’ nod our heads in agreement with that pathetic explanation…

If an oil-well burns, the whole world is concerned and anxious for an immediate ‘fix’ – we tackle the problem from the ground, and the air, and don’t rest until the well stops burning; but if a little girl’s heart is ripped out of her living body and put up for sale in the underground human parts racket, no one cares…we do get ’sensationalized’ every now and then with fantastic stories of child abuse and enslavement, shake our heads for a brief minute, then flip back to the Simpsons – who cares?, it’s someone else’s kid…

What is really pathetic about all of this is that as a civilization (or should I say: “lack thereof”?), we’re okay with the status-quo – as long as I can get my flip-flops for less than 5 bucks, I’m cool with some innocent little 7 year old laboring away in a god-forsaken little hole somewhere for umpteen hours a day…

Then of course, the thriving ‘flesh’ trade – the one thing that the western tourist consumer just cannot live without – even innocent, helpless little victims orphaned by the tsunami were not spared for this one…talk about the power of ‘consumerism’, eh?

Poverty is cited as the main reason why little kids are forced into labor – the need to feed themselves and their families leaves them with no choice…then, of course, in places like Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, little ones are forced into government-owned cotton fields to pick cotton (for practically no remuneration) – a practice that has existed since the Soviet era…

An international organization, ‘Save the Children‘, estimated that about 200,000 Tajik children are dumped onto the cotton fields during the harvesting season…and in neighboring Uzbekistan, the government shuts schools down during the harvest and kids work under ‘police’ escort – picking the $ 1 billion worth of ‘white gold’ for their government…ironically, many of these kids don’t even have the capacity to own a decent pair of cotton socks…

Sure there is a lot of lip service – and everyone claims to be making amends – but the reality is that the ‘first world consumer’ keeps demanding ‘more’ for ‘less’ – and if things were done ‘ethically’; then the ‘more’ and the ‘less’ equation would do a horizontal flip on the page…and the first world consumer would never allow that to happen…

From a BBC World documentary on child slavery (that aired in two parts: Saturday June 14, 2008 and Sunday June 15, 2008):

“About 14 million children are enslaved today worldwide – more than at any time in history. Now, in a remarkable journey across continents, children tell their stories. Children are bought and sold like bags of sugar. They break stones in quarries, clean and cook for their owners, work the plantations and service Western sex tourists. They are beaten, abused, worked to death, and denied any contact with their family. This World presents an extraordinary snapshot of the children living in slavery around the world today as they tell their stories, revealing the nature and true extent of the global problem.“

Also, check out the following links:

TIME (Asia) Magazine’s Child Slavery Feature

The Polaris Project – For a World Without Slavery

There is a lot we can do to stop this nonsense – if only we cared a tad-bit more…be grateful that your own kids are growing up in a safe, enriching, happy world – then, after saying your thanks; take a minute out of your busy lives to save someone else’s kid who is being abused, tortured, and violated…try to understand (and implement) the Civil Society paradigm (in your daily lives), and educate those around you on the harsh consequences of our ignorant, self-centered, and greedy choices…this is not an optional act of charity for you to consider my dear friend; it is your OBLIGATION to humanity!

…and the next time you’re out shopping for that sparkling glittery rock, think about this rant…

- The Ranting Dream