How to Be Happy/Peaceful Independent of External Circumstances

First of all, what is happiness? What is peace?

Let’s shake up these questions a bit and see what spills.

Happiness is a word that points to an experience.

If you ask what happiness is to many people, initially you will get varying answers, which may be close or far from each other, or even identical in the rarer cases. This is because every person has built up a different reservoir of experiences throughout their existence, some of which they can recall and some buried deep within their consciousness. So, at the moment, they will answer you depending on how they access this reservoir, of course being affected by their state of being and their surroundings.

Maybe person A had been happiest when they were in that special date with their girlfriend, and person B while they had just completed their life’s masterpiece, and person C when they had helped save a dolphin’s life in the beach. They will tell you their version of what happiness means to them, they would be able to recall an experience where they were happy or happiest naturally or if probed with a question or two.

And what would their answer mean to you? How would that answer reflect in yourself? You would probably do something similar to what they did, remember some experiences or speak about what happiness means to you.

Some people will talk about feelings, and tell you happiness is a feeling they feel and possibly go on to describe the feeling.

If you find an enlightened master, they may tell you … well anything 🙂 but perhaps they will speak about deepest blissful states, or the light of God or feeling one with God. Perhaps they won’t.

Well it is me who is talking about happiness, so let’s continue 🙂

A state of being, that can be accompanied by feelings, thoughts, physical experiences, let’s expand more, every imaginable state of mind, emotion and physical expression.

So at one hand we have a state of being and at the other, accompanying experiences, and in fact these are not separate but one. Yet, the accompanying experiences may change, while the state of being seems to be changeless. I mean, I may feel less or more joyful, but the state of being remains the same. I may feel sad, depressed, but the state of being remains the same.

Let’s now begin to answer, ‘What is peace?’ :

Peace is tranquility, a state of silence, a state of non-motion of the inner atmosphere, the mind, the emotions, and if you want to go physical, the physical body. And this peace can also go deeper, where your experience can become space like, dark, seeing nothing or blackness with 360 degree view, feeling little or nothing, seeing or feeling no sensation in the body. I once briefly reached this state while I was trying to astral project and reach God.

So, peace can be also defined (according to me) as a state of being accompanied by tranquil states of mind/emotion and body.

Again on one hand, the state of being, and on the other, accompanying experiences, this time of a calm, tranquil nature.

When defining happiness, the state of being was the same, and the accompanying experiences (mental/emotional/physical experiences) were more vibrant, joyous in nature, perhaps they were more active, moving in nature.

I have gone deep into the answer. So why did I try to define happiness and peace? To create a basic understanding, to establish a context to answer the question of how to attain them.

In my definition, there is the state of being and there are the accompanying experiences of a tranquil nature for peace, and vibrant, joyous nature for happiness. Now how to attain them?

Well, I think the state of being is default. It is who you are at the most basic level. There may be deeper states than the personal experience that I had, this darkness 360 degree field of view where mind/emotions/physical sensations are quieting down. I haven’t gone to the full depth of this experience. But I attained this by seeking God, the answer of the meaning of life in my own way, throughout my life, and at the end I was really desiring to find God and I did the best thing I knew at that moment, I tried to astral project trying to reach God. And more than 5 years passed from that experience and I have learned and tried meditation practices, and my experience of the state of being deepened and solidified. I will go into these in later posts in more detail, when I feel I will be able to justice to the topics.

And for the accompanying experiences of tranquility or joy, vibrancy.. How to attain them? I think this is a question that everyone will answer according to themselves. Many will tell you that certain experiences invoke peace within them and joy,vibrance in their mind/emotions/body. So they will say that certain experiences bring peace or certain experiences bring joy/vibrance. What I am going to say is, that they are not wrong, but there seems to be a deeper truth. I feel that peace that is tranquil states of mind/emotions/body and happiness that is joyous/vibrant states of mind/emotions/body starts from deep within the default state of being, as if it is flowing from within to without. And you focus on this flow, this point where the flow starts, as deeply as you can, and whence you focus on here, the accompanying experiences gain the qualities of peace and happiness gradually. It is as if you are tapping into the Holy Grail, the truest juice of life. Many will recognize that this is most widely called as Love. Unconditional Love.

So how to be happy/peaceful independent of circumstances?

Find the source of happiness within you. Start your search, intend this. This will gradually turn your focus as you navigate your version of accompanying experiences, and they will begin to get transformed, and you will simultaneously become a better navigator, homing in and in to the source. The Source as they say in the movie Matrix. By the term The Source, I point to the location where the flow of Love enters or perhaps already exists deep within your state of being. I haven’t been able to go to the deepest possible experience yet, but I am pointing to it as much as I have arrived.

Yes, so how to attain peace and happiness? Seek, desire, concentrate, intend. Home in to the target while becoming a better and better navigator. And navigators can get confused and/or seemingly sidetracked. But.. by doing the exploration, their maps improve and improve, and eventually they home in to their target. Is this your path? Would your life be meaningful when you have given yourself to this seeking? Would you be more happy, more peaceful when your knowledge of happiness/peace increases navigating the most unexpected waves that occur in the seemingly chaotic terrain of the ocean of life? Or perhaps you may dive deep one day after you have navigated and mapped the surface. It is up to you. The choice is yours, just as the choice to have stayed with me until the end of my attempt to aid in creating one more memory in your mind that you can add using the pencil of your attention and intention to your already emerging map of your personal truth.

So, Hail once more and see you next time fellow navigator 🙂

I intend to keep my maps developing and I love to share them with you here 🙂

Update June 29 / 2015: 

I want to share with you videos of people who embody truly remarkable states of peace and happiness.

One of them is Lincoln Gergar, a person from whom I learned much over the last years. He has both great peace and happiness, a true example of the peace and happiness I am talking about in this article:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L40JZPPUQ_A

The other example is a wonderful couple: Akahi&Camila. In the following video, you will see that how much happiness a man can contain and share with others from Akahi, and a wonderful serene peace from his Soulmate Camila. I don’t remember seeing a happier person than Akahi in this video, except perhaps the deep bliss I see in Lincoln sometimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0-0QWI6FeM

Akahi is a great example of vibrance and joy and Lincoln and Camila are great examples of tranquil states of being I have talked about in this article. And they both exude peace and happiness in different hues. Enjoy.