How to Be Happier

I would like to talk about our nature and how to achieve complete happiness. It is important to know that karma is a law that governs our lives and helps us grow consciously on the spiritual path. Today, we particularly focus on how to achieve happiness. First, we must ask ourselves: What is happiness? How is happiness achieved? What are the main causes of happiness? What strategies or spiritual yoga practices can we develop to achieve pure and sustainable happiness?
We all want to be happy; that is something we have in common. All human beings desire happiness and have different strategies to achieve it, but what we share is the primary desire to be happy and to move away from discomfort, pain, and suffering. So...

What can we achieve out there to guarantee happiness in this life?

The guarantee of happiness is merit. Merit means "positive karma." So, if there is merit, regardless of power or influence, regardless of purchasing power, regardless of the power of your intelligence, you have the power of karma, which is indeed positive karma and is the direct cause of happiness. It is the only guarantee of happiness.

And how do we generate merit in meditation? And how do we generate happiness in meditation? But first, we should ask ourselves something more fundamental: we all want to be happy, but why? There is always a reason. We have to suspect that within us there is a fire. So, if we all long for happiness, there must be something within us that already sprouts—joy, bliss, peace, well-being—because if not, we would not seek that happiness. A teacher once said something very daring: “When you are angry, more than anger, when you are furious and want someone who hurt you to suffer or stumble, it shows that there is a divine spark within you.” How is this so? Well, if you identify the other as your enemy and you want that person to suffer, you are simultaneously saying that suffering is bad, that you prefer happiness. But we want to discover that, after all, everything has the same origin, the same source.  

So this divine spark, we are really talking about the natural state of our consciousness. All of us have a primary state of our consciousness. When we say divine spark, it is not something magical; it is the simplest thing in the universe, this essence, this pure state. So, this nature, this pure state of consciousness, at a very deep level, is clarity and emptiness, that is, the lucidity of consciousness and its infinite state. We have this, and it is covered with concepts, emotions, false identities, masks, and more, but it is there. Even though we do not know or recognize it, we intuit that we are that light, that infinite love that has no limits and encompasses everything. We yearn to return to that state of abundance, that infinite state of peace and bliss. We all have this very pure state within us.

Now, to understand how to practice, we need to have the map. So this pure consciousness, which is now hidden within us, can actually be seen from three perspectives: The base consciousness, the consciousness that is consciously awakened, evolving, growing, and developing on the spiritual path, and that base consciousness that has self-recognized, which is called "Enlightenment." So, the same consciousness exists in three dimensions: In one, it is hidden, dormant, dirty with all kinds of temporary toxins, and you cannot see through it. Then there is a process of purification. Then there is the perfect state.

So, to illustrate this point, we understand that the same nature takes different forms and has different utilities. If our consciousness is dirty, full of toxins, and dormant, it disgusts us to see it, so we keep it away. No matter how hard we try to clean it, it still disgusts us because we still identify with what we had, with what we were. We do not see the nature; we only see the form. We do not see the essence; we only see the form. Therefore, we are that nature, that pure consciousness that has three forms: one form that is full of garbage, another form that is being used for reverence or spiritual practices, and the last form that shines, which is an inspiration for all beings. We really need to recognize our nature, to discover that pure state, and not be trapped or deceived by the forms. This gives us a huge clue about what spiritual development ultimately is and what meditation ultimately is. There are two very simple perspectives: one is constructive and the other is destructive.

In one perspective, we are dismantling the myth of the ego by removing everything that obstructs, everything that is not true, all the toxins, all the layers, so that only the essence remains. In the other perspective, we are building, evolving, developing, increasing our level of wisdom, our level of love, our level of focus. It is very important that we reconcile these two perspectives because we are talking about the same thing. When we raise our level of love, when we raise our meditative level, when our understanding increases, what we are really doing is getting closer to what is already inside, to be able to recognize it, to take the leap to experience that essence, because right now, we do not believe it. We believe we are corrupt, mischievous, evil, that we do not know, that we cannot. Meditation, on one hand, develops skills, virtues, and mental, emotional, and cognitive capacities; but on the other hand, we really just want to neutralize all distortions.

Consciously, we improve these qualities to neutralize all the layers that are obstructing our nature. Heaven is here and now; we just cannot see it. We are not aware of the pure truth; we are seeing it through conceptual and emotional filters that distort that reality. So meditation is a process of removing those filters, either by eliminating them or by generating another filter that neutralizes the original filter. What we want is to remove all the toxins and discover the peace and bliss that is already within us. Until we are here, until we are in harmony with our true nature, we will not be completely satisfied. It does not matter if you have the perfect partner, the perfect career, the perfect health, the perfect place, the perfect food. Even if everything is perfect in the outside world, if you are not aligned in harmony with that truth, there will be a mismatch, there will be discomfort, there will be an existential void, greater or lesser, but it will be there.

So, having that perspective, that understanding, and that foundation, let's now talk about how to meditate. One of the deconstructive techniques we use is to dismantle, rather than build. The mantra, the practice of the mantra, is often used with the breath to focus the mind, to calm it, and to achieve balance. Now, I would like to talk about the mantra as the focus of our meditative practice. The mantra is very advantageous; it has a lot of power to anchor our attention. Mantra means man = mind, tra = protection. While we attend to the mantra, our mind is protected by that mantra. A mantra is a phrase in Sanskrit. Mantras retain the original expression because the meaning is not as important as the vibration. That sound, that vibration, is blessed. So by adopting that vibration, that sound, we are developing that quality, awakening or activating that nature within us. When you hold or expose your being to a vibration that stirs us, everything that is not original, pure, or primary falls away.

The mantra has a resonance; it is in harmony with this primary nature, and everything that does not coincide with it breaks, dismantles, and falls away. So when we recite the mantra, we have to favor that process. That is, we stay in that vibration and let everything that does not match fall away. If a noise comes, let it fall by its own weight. If the idea that I am meditating comes, let it fall by its own weight. We do not want ideas, concepts, or images; we want to return to pure reality, we want to return to our essence.

So, it is a simpler way to operate than the everyday way, and sometimes simple things are harder for us because now we are complex, complicated people. We have to learn to operate on a very simple, very primary level.

And for many, it is even frightening to let go, to let go of the masks, to let go of identification with the body, to let go of the notion of space, to let go of the notion of time, to let go of the notion of being an individual trapped in flesh and bones. In meditation, allow yourself to be your true self, without the need for anchors, without identifying with things. Let everything fade away, crumble on its own. And it is a bit terrifying if we do it honestly. Because as you approach a light, you feel more love, more peace, but curiously, as we get closer to that light, it is too much love, too much peace, too much light. It is scary when you do not know what is up, what is down. Where am I? Where do I begin? Where do I end? So part of meditation is to recover that true essence. And we have certain concerns as we cling to, are tied to, our identity. This curiously tells us that spiritual development is, from another perspective, an evolution of identity. So if someone asks you, Who are you? What is the first thing that comes to your mind? Your name, your surname, your gender, your race, your species. Who are you? Then we will discover that there are layers of identities, we have many masks, we identify with many things, and that is not bad. It is bad to the extent that those identities trap us, bad to the extent that they limit us, bad to the extent that they do not allow us to identify with the base consciousness.
Spiritual development is not necessarily about letting go of or breaking or shattering identity. Rather, it is about freeing ourselves from its dominance and seeing those identities as roles, characters that our divine spark, consciousness, develops. Thus, meditation gradually gives us clarity, confidence in love, and the wisdom to grow and expand.

I am another you