The Way to Love: Meditations for Life

Has it ever occurred to you that what you call your happiness is really your chain? For example, are you calling somebody your happiness? As in, “You are my joy.” It could be your marriage, your business, your degree, whatever. In whom do you find your happiness? Whatever the answer is, that’s your prison. Oh, this is hard language. But reflect on

Hardly anyone has been told the following truth: in order to be genuinely happy, there is one and only one thing you need to do—get deprogrammed and get rid of those attachments. When people stumble upon this self-evident truth, they become terrified at the thought of the pain involved in dropping their attachments.

Steps in Psychological Work Leading to Change 1. Letting go of neurotic ego attachments, control, and entitlement NOT: “This has to come out my way.” BUT: “I let go of having to have this come out my way.” 2. Unconditional Yes to what is occurring in events, feelings, circumstances: “I allow this fully. I trust it without having to know why.”

So it is necessary that we don’t run from life, that we actually face what’s happening in an honest and sustained way. When we do this, we come to see that we truly do come to nirvana by way of samsara. This doesn’t mean we stay stuck in samsara. Instead, we unhook ourselves from it. We un-Velcro our samsaric and illusory thoughts, and by doing so,