How to be happy

A patient told me a few days ago that he had seen a therapist previously for treatment for his depression.  He quoted the therapist as saying "You have to choose happiness".  He commented that if he knew how to do that he already would have.

I agree with him.  We can't "choose" happiness. Happiness happens while we're busy doing other things.  Happiness is something that has already happened while we weren't thinking about it   But there is something we can do to make it possible.

We can choose to let go unhappiness.  When Buddhists say "suffering is optional", that is exactly what they mean.  It is possible to let go our old resentments, hatreds, grievances and fears.  Dwelling on them and making them part of us is how we make happiness impossible.  We can simply let them go.  We don't have to let them define our lives.  If something in our past seems unfinished, we can choose to finish it and let it go.  We can give up the hope of having a better childhood.

 Happiness can happen by itself when we're not busy being miserable.

Religious Corruption

Driving past a large church, empty during the week for the most part, I was struck by how much money church-goers spend on possessions.  While I am not a Christian, I am fairly well acquainted with Christian beliefs, and I began thinking sbout how anti-Christian such behaviors are, yet how widespread.  Early Christians met in small groups, much as the Jews of their day. They met in one or another's home;  they knew each other and reinforced each other's faith.  They knew what modern day Christians have mostly forgotten:  ten percent of their money was to be spent to help the poor, the sick and disabled, the children in need.  It was NOT to be spent on buildings and salaries and decorations and automobiles for the minister.  Every penny spent on such things is in direct contravention of what Jesus taught.  Whatever your religious practices, you should not call yourself a practicing Christian unless you  are doing what Christ instructed you to do.  One need not be a Christian to dislike hypocracy.

Election corruption

As long as we require politicians to finance their campaigns by soliciting voluntary contributions, we are supporting a system in which every single elected official owes more to the money men than to his electorate,  We absolutely know that the elected politician owes a debt to the contributor.  How could we possibly think that they can vote independently from their debts?  Yer we allow it, while self-righteously condemning the corruption and bias in public office, as if we didn't know what was going on.  We  are exactly as corrupt as they are.  Unless and until we are willing to stop this practice we cannot expect to have politicians in office who can genuinely vote on the issues in an unbiased way.

So let's stop complaining about corruption in a system we have complacently allowed to become corrupted right in front of our eyes.   We allowed it.  We need to stop it.  We cannot expect it to be a better system until we ourselves change what we are allowing to happen.