Deepak Chopra tweeted, “If we seek happiness first, everything else will follow.”
What do you think “everything else” is?
Money?
Love?
Health?
The message implies that if you want specific things the way to get them is through happiness. This sets up a qualifier. I’m seeking happiness, but really I want that shiny new car. The seeking isn’t authentic. Happiness is sought with the expectation that it should bring other positive things with it.
This is exactly the way to become unhappy.
The real secret is…
Seek love first and who cares what follows. 
There is a principle in Buddhist philosophy called, dukkha. Loosely translated, dukkha means, “Life is suffering.”
This means that life will always have challenges, pain and stress. It’s part of the deal for being here in a human body. We can’t get out of the particulars with happiness or any other personality trait.
I am so tired of gurus connecting a person’s character to their experiences in life.
Being happy isn’t a guarantee that you’ll never have to leap past obstacles or heal a broken heart. You still might get sick, lose a job, end a relationship or endure a natural disaster.
As we saw this week in Oklahoma, tragedy knows no judgment of “happy” and “unhappy.” Heartbreaks like this remind us that life is sacred. It is to be treasured just for being life. It needs no qualifiers. All that is asked of us is to react to life with compassion. To care. To help. To love.
We need to stop the incessant push to be better, faster, quicker. Invincible doesn’t exist, no matter how happy you are.
The point is to find resilience and inner peace that can carry you through the rough patches. It’s not about finding a magic trick to get out of them.
I’m sorry Deepak, life just doesn’t work like that.
We don’t need a call for happiness. We need a call for love. Through our actions. Through our words. Through our prayers.
Seek love first and who cares what follows.
Shared at:
