Happiness, Joy, Bliss

 One day Nasrudin was searching for something in the yard which was full of sands. When the neighbor asked what he was looking for, without turning his face he said: "I am looking for a needle". After the neighbor helped him for one hour, they still do not find the needle. This time the neighbor begin to be impatient and asked: "where was the needle fall?". Again Nasrudin replied without turning his face: "the needle fall inside". This made the neighbor really angry: "if the needle fall inside why do you search it outside?". With innocent face Nasrudin murmur: "because inside is dark and outside is bright".

Happiness

To be honest, Nasrudin's story is the story of most people. Searching for happiness outside, but the true happiness is inside. Billions of human beings try to find happiness by pursuing outside like food, entertainment, tourism. And all people who pursue happiness outside will certainly get lost.

Anyone who have exhausted chasing outside will understand, happiness starts from a seed called inner contentment. Without the seed of contentment, one will go around in an endless circle. And the inner energy that can plant this seed is deep gratitude. Always see life from the blessings side, that's how the door of gratitude is opened.

This seed of contentment then is maintained in a garden called love. How bad your past, how terrible your wound, how deep your suffering, take good care of them with love. Radiate love to all of your misfortunes, shortages, accident, imperfections. Always remember, there is no coincidence, there is only guidance. Focus on the guidance not the punishment.

Joy

When seed of contentment have been treated well in the garden of love, then it can grow into a full experience of joy. Happiness is an inner feeling when certain desire is partly fulfilled, in the deeper level happiness means perfect inner contentment, and joy is much deeper. It is a flash of light that telling soul the journey back home.

Pain, suffering, wound are sacred bells which reminding that soul lives too far away from home. This holy bell also give a pointer where home is actually located. Many people look for home in holy places or holy person. Like bell, holy places and holy person can only disclose the sacred teachings that need to be embodied.

When the sacred teachings such as love, kindness, compassion are deeply embodied by putting the teachings into practise, then there is a flash of insight about home. The signs are simple, the closer you are to home, the more peaceful you are inside. The closer you are to home, the more love bloom in your heart. The closer you are to home, the less you are interested in pursuing outside.

Bliss

One of the profound teachings that guiding soul home is Tantra. And a sacred symbol that is often used in Tantra is sex. Borrowing the findings of psychologists who study sex like Delgado, orgasm as the peak of sexual experience is a series of experience that exist entirely inside. More precisely, it happens in the sexual center in the brain. For women, it occurs in the right hemisphere, for men it occurs in the left hemisphere.

This finding becomes one of the scientific evidence that the true happiness, the true joy are actually happen inside. At the level of happiness, orgasm means the fulfillment of sexual desires. At the level of joy, orgasm is a flash of light about home. Whenever the masculine and the feminine energy are melted in a single soul then there's a flash of home. In Greece, it is called anima-animus, in China it is called Yin-Yang, in Bali it is called lingga-yoni.

And bliss (Anandam), it is far above the desire, it is not just a flash of light, but the light itself. While at the level of happiness orgasm happen in the sexual center in the brain, at the level of joy orgasm is a flash of light pointing home, at the level of bliss the one who experience orgasm is the Witness. It happens not on the right brain, not on the left brain. The location of the Witness is beyond time and space. It can not be explained, but it can be experienced. In a poetic language, bliss is only available in the here in the now.  Borrowing from Lao Tzu: "One who understand does not speak, one who speaks does not understand". Welcome home beautiful souls.