Well Being with Don Oakley Don Oakley

"True Freedom does not mean that we are entitled to do anything our minds fancy. It is both a freedom “from” and a freedom “to.”  It is a freedom from being led around as if on a leash by our conditioning. And it is a freedom to express ourselves authentically and fully. Such definitions are compelling, but how they can be realized is what will be explored in Don’s presentation..”

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Freedom from the ups and downs of Life is possible, but it comes at a price. That price is a relinquishment of any demand that Life conforms to what I want. Too steep a price? The alternative is bondage, disappointment and frustration.

We can spend a lifetime waiting for something to happen in the future that will resolve all of our problems and yield a perpetual state of comfort and happiness. The only difficulty with that strategy is that we live life in the present moment day-to-day and the future remains firmly parked out on the distant horizon that we never reach. Our essential beingness can never be absent. If it were essential and if it were absent even for a moment, we would cease to be. Therefore, If it can never be absent, it must be present now in each moment. Waiting for a future moment denies what we seek in the only place it can be found.

Our Natural State is peace, contentment and happiness. Because many of us spend much of our time being unhappy, it is evidence that we are doing something to ourselves, inadvertently, to pull us out of our Natural State of equanimity. By becoming aware of these ten common ways we make ourselves unhappy, we can loosen their grip and return us to our natural state of happiness.

We can seek for a long time before it may occur to us to ask, "Who is it that is doing all this seeking?" Often, we are so convinced of the goal to be achieved that we never stop to ask who is the one pursuing it. But, in spirituality, that is the entire question. If we get that one, everything else falls into place.

Spirituality is simple. Not easy, but simple. It is difficult because the human mind is fascinated by and addicted to complexity. The thinking mind can be a helpful ally if used correctly, but it is essential to know when it is useful and when it is counter-productive. And it is easy to become confused when over-thinking something that couldn’t be simpler: be what you already are but be that knowingly.