A woman wants to know how she can find lasting happiness when her happiness is so easily disturbed by what she sees going on in the world.
Rupert says: ‘The causeless happiness you speak of is not a feeling that rises up without a cause – it is your nature. It’s not a feeling that comes and goes, it’s the ever-present nature of being. It can be more or less obscured by our thoughts and feelings, just like in a thunderstorm, when dark clouds obscure the blue sky – but it’s always there.
‘The mistake we make is to think that a patch of blue sky is a blue cloud amongst the grey clouds. That’s not the way it is. This is the common understanding of happiness – that happiness is just an emotion that fluctuates with suffering. But happiness is not an emotion; it’s the background of all emotions. It’s always there. It’s you. It’s your nature.’
*This video is from one of Rupert’s in-person retreats at Mercy Center, 10–17 March 2024. For more information on upcoming retreats (many of which can be attended online via livestream) go to:
0:00 Lasting Happiness 1:37 Can Happiness Be Causeless? 2:49 Happiness Is Not a Feeling 4:13 Happiness Is Your Nature 5:21 The Blue Sky of Happiness
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In the last year or less, I have felt a happiness unlike happinesses I have felt before.
And it felt like a causeless happiness. It's different. It's so different.
And I've been in great joy with it and it with me.
But what happens once in a while, there's this haunting by the weeping mothers of starving
and burnt children in Gaza. It just, it haunts me. And I feel this supposedly causeless happiness
damped down. And I'm going, well, how can it be causeless if I am feeling this haunting?
And I heard earlier in the week about being careful of what you take in,
but it doesn't feel right to turn my head away from this. It feels like it's a double violation,
not to face it. I feel like I could face it full on without hearing no evil secrets.
Melody, sorry to interrupt. I didn't mean to imply when I said that, that one shouldn't
be aware of situations such as this. That's not what I meant by being careful about what
one takes into one's mind. I didn't mean you should just turn a blind eye to what's
taking place in the world or in society. That's not what I meant.
Okay. Okay. Thank you for that. I was referring to watching trash on TV.
Okay. Okay. I don't have a TV. So I want to, and I think it's possible that I could
face them, face this openly and head on and not avoid it because it makes me feel uncomfortable
and still feel that inherent joy rising up. But I haven't, it keeps coming, a wave keeps coming to
dampen this down. So how can it be causeless if it seems to be affected by certain conditions
such as that? It's not really affected by it, but it's just
veiled by it. The blue sky is not affected when the clouds come over, but it is veiled by it.
The blue sky is just, it's causeless. It's got nothing to do with
the shape or the extent of the cloud cover. It's always there. The happiness that you speak of,
the causeless happiness you speak of, is your nature. It's the blue sky of happiness. It's
always there. Always. More or less obscured by our thoughts and feelings.
It's causeless just because it's not a causeless feeling. Happiness is not a feeling that rises up,
but without a cause. Happiness is your nature. It's synonymous with being. It is the nature of
being. It's just there all the time in everybody. It's not in everybody. It is everybody. It is the
nature of everyone at the deepest level. But for much of the time, it's obscured by layers of
experience. And if the layers of experience are thick and dark and dense, then the happiness is
almost complete. It's never completely obscured, but almost completely obscured. But it's always
there. Just like in a thunderstorm, the dark clouds obscure the blue sky, but it's always there.
The mistake we make is that because occasionally, more than occasionally here,
for many people, because there's occasional parting of the clouds, the blue sky shines
through. The temptation is to think that the little patch of blue sky is a blue cloud amongst
all the grey clouds. This is the common understanding of happiness, that happiness is
just an emotion that fluctuates with suffering. Sometimes there are blue clouds, sometimes there
are grey clouds. That's not the way it is. Happiness is not an emotion. It's the background
of all emotions. But it shines through the cloud cover of emotion and seems to be a feeling that
comes and goes. It's not a feeling that comes and goes. It's the ever-present nature of being.
It's the grey clouds that come and go and that sometimes obscure the ever-present happiness.
That's why you rightly say it's causeless. It's not a causeless feeling, but it's causeless
because it is the nature of your being. It doesn't need to be caused. The grey clouds are always
caused by something. But the blue sky of happiness is always there. It's always there. It's you. It's
your nature. You don't have to do anything to find it or get it or achieve it or acquire it.
It's just who you are behind the clouds of thoughts and feelings.
My next children's book, by the way, is called The Blue Sky of Happiness.
All this will be beautifully illustrated for you by our lovely Polish illustrator, Susanna.
That understanding is very helpful immediately. Thank you so much.
