The mind has memories of the past and imaginations about the future. It even has ideas about the present moment. But all of these are just thoughts and have no reality beyond the mental realm. Real life doesn’t take place in the mind, although thoughts are part of life. Real life unfolds moment to moment as an experience, and experiencing doesn’t belong to the mental realm. The mental realm, however, often clouds and colors experience, sometimes so much that all we experience is thought. Our thoughts remove us from the experience of life rather than enhance that experience. The egoic mind (the aspect of the mind that serves the ego) isn’t interested in experiencing this moment but in talking you out of experiencing it and bringing you into its realm.
(more…)

“Radical” means “of or from the root; going to the foundation or source of something.” Radical happiness, then, refers to the happiness that comes from our source, rather than from external things or experiences. The externals come and go, while this radical happiness is always available. What a gift that we are given happiness at our core! However, it is a gift — a treasure — that we have to discover for ourselves because the egoic mind (that part of our mind that is all about the ego) keeps us from experiencing it. It keeps us busy paying attention to its plans for happiness and busy with all the activity that those plans will require. We exhaust ourselves in exchange for fleeting moments of happiness. When that happiness fades, the egoic mind convinces us that getting something else will finally end our restlessness and discontentment with life. We don’t realize that the egoic mind is the very source of this discontentment and therefore not capable of bringing us a solution.
(more…)

Everyone wants to be happy. This is one thing we have in common: we are all looking for happiness. When we finally feel happy, we discover that, like everything else in life, it comes and goes. What we really want is happiness to stay forever—we want to feel happy constantly. The egoic mind—that constant voice in your head—makes this impossible. Have you noticed how discontent the voice of the egoic mind is? It complains, judges, and longs for things to be different. It’s definitely not a happy camper. The good news is that you are not that voice!
(more…)