Time to Shift?

Aren't we in perpetual motion, like rats in a maze, trying to secure comfort, safety, stability, security, happiness? And how successful are we?

“Much of our youth is spent seeking, enjoying … even indulging in sensual pleasures. Our definitions of happiness revolve around worldly accomplishments and delights, and so we seek and enjoy gratification at this level. And it makes perfect sense. We are operating out of a worldly understanding of happiness and, as such, worldly delights fit the bill. But as we age we begin to notice how … for all our effort … we never seem to settle into a state of lasting satisfaction.” Gloria Taraniya Ambrosia

“Habituation to any goal – sex or power, say – is literally an addictive process, a growing dependence on the biological chemicals that make these things gratifying.” Robert Wright, evolutionary psychologist

“We have all had the experience at one point or another in our formal meditation practice when we are completely at rest and the mind is inwardly at peace, without any movement toward a desired object / thought or away from an undesirable object / thought. This lack of movement is a lack of thirst in a very physiologically identifiable sense, and the lack of thirst is its own reward, for it brings a peace of mind that cannot be adequately categorized. Here, lack has been turned upside-down to function as fulfillment without craving for sensual pleasure.

We can translate what we see as a lack in these processes into a fulfillment that comes from resting in non-clinging to anything at all in this very moment.” Mu Soeng

Mu Soeng, Gloria Taraniya Ambrosia, Andrew Olendzki. “Older and Wiser. Classical Buddhist Teachings on Aging, Sickness and Death.” Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, 2017.

What if, as evolutionary psychologists suggest, our normal, "every-day mind" level of consciousness was designed exclusively to help our cave-dwelling ancestors survive & mate? What if this level of consciousness simply cannot relate to evolved human dimensions like depth of meaning, love, peace & joy? Could it mean that, with our present "every-day mind" level of consciousness, it's not even possible to experience true happiness?

The world's wisdom traditions - at least their mystical / monastic / shamanic members - have always been concerned with accessing, stabilizing & embodying a higher, more evolved level of human consciousness which is completely at home in the dimensions of meaning, love, peace & joy.

Learning to shift into this level of consciousness (which Loch Kelly calls awake awareness), stabilizing in it & embodying it may well be the key to true happiness.

"Awakening and awake awareness are part of the human lineage we all share. Everyone can experience awakening and awake awareness while maintaining his or her own beliefs, philosophy, and theology. You don’t have to join any religion, or leave your current one, in order to awaken.”

Loch Kelly. “Shift into Freedom. The Science and Practice of Open-hearted Awareness.” Sounds True, 2015.