Kriya Yoga Satsang with Yogacharya: Decide to Be Happy
Nothing need change for us to know and affirm the soul’s natural joy. We don’t have to ignore suffering. Instead, we can bring our awakened, compassionate heart to those around us once we decide to be happy.
- Yogacharya Ellen Grace O'Brian
Commit to Happiness
"Can we actually decide to be happy?" In this third lesson of a series of five, Yogacharya O’ Brian asks this provocative question. Watch the video below to find out the answer, and to join in the joy and laughter that manifests as we receive her message.
She asks us if we are ready to decide to be happy. Laughter fills the room. She says,
“When we make the decision to be happy we shine our light into the world in a powerful way.”
She quotes the timeless teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda from Man’s Eternal Quest. “Many people may doubt that finding God is the purpose of life, but everyone can accept the idea that the purpose of life is to find happiness. I say that God is Happiness. So why shouldn’t you try to acquire that Happiness? No one else can give it to you. You must continuously cultivate it yourself.”
Yogacharya says, “The ego is committed to unhappiness.” She breaks down how the ego typically has a complaint and looks for something wrong or something missing. “What is actually missing is our connection to the true Self.” Wholeness and unconditional happiness is inherent to the soul, not the ego.
She invites us to ask ourselves what we are committed to, “Happiness or unhappiness?” This simple question reveals the locus of your attention – whether it is currently in the ego or in the soul.
Learn How to Be Content
“The teaching doesn’t say you have to be happy. That’s a side effect. The teaching says learn how to be content. We can learn how to be anchored in the fullness of the divine Self and be content. Once we learn that, we can experience supreme happiness, which is unconditional. It doesn’t depend on other people or circumstances. It arises from the nature of our own being.”
Contentment is one of the five niyamas, observances on the path of Kriya Yoga. More about the path of Kriya Yoga can be found in her online course—Dharma 365!.
Deciding to be happy is choosing to be content. And it is also the practice of surrendering the sense that we are an ego, a separate self alone in the world. “When we give in to being happy, a surrender occurs and we begin to see how good life truly is. We decide to open to divine love and joy, and it starts meeting us everywhere. We can’t contain it. We can’t remain small.”
Yogacharya reads one of her poems from her book, The Moon Reminded Me. As I absorbed this poem, written from the overflowing fullness of soul contentment, and surrender to wholeness, I noticed my own fullness. Complete contentment instilled me with happiness like the beauty of the full moon.
I’ve given up the ledger,
remain hopelessly in debt.
Every time I say thank you,
a new gift appears at my door.
Your love has cured me
of the madness that imagines
I am generous.
Now I know
I am a spring overflowing
a lark singing through the night
and yes, the full moon shining,
a brilliant borrowed light.
Listen to Yogacharya’s voice, watch the video, and cultivate contentment and happiness.
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