Copyright (C) 2002, Stephen Knapp
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the written permission from the copyright owner and the publisher, except for brief quotations for review or educational purposes.
ISBN: 1-930627-04-1
Published by:
The World Relief Network
P. O. Box 15082
Detroit, MI 48215
U.S.A.
Website: http://www.Stephen-Knapp.com
Other books by the author:
The Secret Teachings of the Vedas
The Universal Path to Enlightenment
The Vedic Prophecies: A New Look into the Future
How the Universe was Created and Our Purpose In It
Toward World Peace: Seeing the Unity Between Us All
Facing Death: Welcoming the Afterlife
Proof of Vedic
Culture's Global Existence.
Contents
CHAPTER ONE: GETTING STARTED TO FIND OUR WAY
CHAPTER TWO: ARE YOU REALLY HAPPY?
CHAPTER THREE: CONTROL YOUR THOUGHTS TO CONTROL YOUR FUTURE
CHAPTER FOUR: STARTING TO GET CONNECTED TO YOUR HIGHER SELF Happiness from Helping Others * Using Wealth Properly * Happiness in Knowing Your Self * Happiness in Love
CHAPTER FIVE: HOW OUR CONSCIOUSNESS DETERMINES WHAT WE WANT FOR HAPPINESS
CHAPTER SIX: WHAT KEEPS US FROM BEING TRULY HAPPY All Suffering Exists Only Within the Illusion * The Wrong Aim of Life * Wrong Ambitions and Their Hidden Results
CHAPTER SEVEN: HEY, ADD SOME SUBSTANCE TO YOUR LIFE, IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE KEY TO REAL HAPPINESS
Getting Back to Our Spiritual Nature * The Way for Attaining a Spiritual Existence * Enjoying the Pleasure Within * Happiness from the Spiritual Path * Happiness in Reciprocation from the Supreme
NOTES / GLOSSARY / REFERENCES
CHAPTER ONE
Getting Started to Find Our Way
Thank God you have picked this book up. You must take a serious look at it. It will give you a key to a destiny that few can hope to find in this world. We all want to be happy, right? Why else do we want to live in this world? And many people are looking for the key to real happiness, and most find variable forms of it. However, no one can find true and lasting happiness until they realize who and what they really are, and the true purpose of this life and this creation. These have been some of the greatest mysteries of the world, and many have tried to get a glimpse into this understanding.
The paths to various levels of such realizations are many, but the goal has been reached by few. Fortunately, some of those who have reached this goal have shared their knowledge with others, and have helped to point the way. I was blessed enough to meet such a person and was shown one of such paths. Now I want to share what I have learned with you. So please listen carefully.
This book is not merely about how we need to more fully appreciate what we have, although that always helps. Naturally, we all need to look around and count our blessings and realize that things are not as bad as they could be, or that we have a good situation. But what this book is about is how we can widen our perspective by changing our consciousness.
There are millions of ways to proceed in this world in one's attempt to find various levels of happiness. And they all have different results, some obvious, and some much less than we would hope for. So which one would be the most efficient, the best, is the answer for which we should look.
This book will act as a link to the many avenues that provide varying levels of happiness, amusement, or preoccupation. Beyond that is the path to real happiness. Many people become quite satisfied on one or more of these avenues. Other people, however, need more than this. There are those who feel that having followed a particular avenue to material happiness, no matter how beautiful the road may have seemed, has merely lead them to shallow results. Or even to a sort of prison or dead end in which they feel stuck or disillusioned with no means of escaping or changing the situation. This book can act as a viewing station from where we can see the ultimate end of the particular avenues to material happiness that this universe offers. It also provides the means by which we can go beyond the results of these worldly avenues for something far more important, far more pleasurable, and far more realistic, provided you have the capability to understand the true nature of this world and the true identity of yourself.
The material world can be compared to a fancy trap that we fall into. Once we receive a human body, a whole field of activities in this dimension opens that provides us a choice of many directions we can take, each one leading to another area we can investigate for the pursuit of material enjoyment and emotional fulfillment. As anyone can see, there are many interesting things around us, all kinds of activities, goals, pleasures, as well as intrigue and problems, some of which can attract us and occupy many years of our lives. Nonetheless, there is another secret about this place. That secret, therefore, is to find the means, the path, that can take us beyond mere material amusements and preoccupations, and back to our real spiritual nature, our actual home, to our genuine, eternal and blissful position. That's where the real happiness can be found.
Finding real happiness on this higher level is also like a power. It is a power because it is totally individualistic. No one and nothing can take it away once you have it. That spiritual happiness is also universal because it is the energy that pervades the universe, and the essence within everyone. It is natural because it is our pure state of being. It does not rely on the constant catering to the senses, which can never go on indefinitely. It is what everyone is looking for. It is the only thing that can provide a lasting feeling of total fulfillment because it is connected to our real identity, beyond the body, mind or intellect. So when we are not in that state of individual and independent happiness, then something unnatural is keeping it from us, or interrupting that flow of natural joy within us. Getting free from those disturbances that intrude into our spiritual focus is what we can learn to do.
As we can see, for most people, much of our happiness in this material dimension is based on solving all of the problems that occur in order to make our lives smoother, more peaceful, and, thus, happier. Then when we get the chance to take it easy, we enjoy watching a sunset, a walk on the beach, take the dog out, or some form of entertainment. But merely trying to enjoy our leisure between solving problems is not real happiness. Neither is giving pleasure to our temporary mind and senses real happiness. It is more of a preoccupation while our life drifts by. The goal in this life is to find the clues that will show us the right path to complete freedom, wherein lies the real happiness for which we always search. It is on that level of reality where we can be who we really are as spiritual beings. Otherwise, as spiritual entities in a material world, we are like fish out of water. No matter what kind of material facility we have, or how much we get, it is nonetheless an incompatible situation. It never really fits us nor gives us what we need to be truly happy and fulfilled, and to attain the freedom to be who and what we really are. That will only happen when we begin to regain our natural position in connection with our spirit, or the spiritual dimension.
Even if you have never been interested in such topics, this book can open your eyes to possibilities, the likes of which you may have never known or ever pondered before. Quite honestly, that is exactly what happened to me. I was simply looking for a few answers, a higher level of understanding for what to do with my life, and before I knew it, I was being shown such lofty levels of seeing the world, and higher realms of existence and consciousness like I had never known nor previously considered. Then I knew there was no turning back. It was as if a door had been opened to me that allowed me to see through the veils of illusion that are the basis of worldly existence for most people. Suddenly, for me everything changed instantly. The world was not the same, nor was I. Everything came together and made sense. No longer was the world my problem. Other people were not my problem. What I had done in the past was not my problem. It was only my point of view that was the difficulty. It was merely the way I viewed myself and things around me that was incorrect. And that was determined by my upbringing, or by the knowledge, education, and information I had been presented or acquired in my life. Or maybe I should say that it was the lack of information that had kept me within the confines of the same illusions as everyone else--everyone else except for those few sages who had taken the path to go beyond the illusions that restrict and confine so many of us.
Therefore, my writing of this book is also a display of gratitude for those sages and masters who have taken the path to such higher levels of consciousness and reality, and particularly to those who have taken the additional responsibility to try to show the rest of humanity the way, in spite of the lack of interest that much of this society seems to have. Especially for my own friend and teacher who took me in and made such sacrifices to help and guide me. For him I write this book. He had also ordered me to help others. And I certainly hope this book can do this for you. In this way, only by helping you can I help myself.
[Available on: http://www.stephen-knapp.com]