CHAPTER SEVEN
Hey, Add Some Substance to Your Life,
It's Time for a Change
by Stephen Knapp
As we learned in the last chapter, we are often absorbed in the wrong level of reality, or focused on that which exists outside of our real spiritual nature. So this is why when unexplained dissatisfaction occurs, much of the time it is simply because of the lack of reality and the superficial nature in material existence. You go around and around, so busy with so many things and in the end you still wonder if you've missed the point. Has the boat gone on without you? Are you still stuck hoping that things will change? Do you think that life has passed you by? Are you getting older and still wonder where is your place in the world? Or maybe the children have grown up and left home, leaving you and the house feeling empty. Or maybe you're still a young person trying to figure what the heck to do with your life, besides find a career and make lots of money? You want something that has meaning.
Before you continue with this chapter, make sure you have read or reviewed Chapter Four about starting to get connected to your higher Self. What is discussed there are the prominent forms of happiness. And beyond that, we need to understand, as introduced in the previous chapter, that material happiness for the spiritual being in this world is incompatible. It may work for a while, depending on one's level of consciousness. Yet, if one continues to evolve, a person is likely to find that what once provided him or her with pleasure has outgrown its usefulness or meaning. Thus, it does not give the same level of fulfillment as it once did.
Often times we can see that a big part of material happiness is merely whatever little pleasure one gets from counteracting sources of distress.1 Lack of distress may be good enough for some people, but it is not real happiness, and at some point in the lives of many, they will begin to ask why they may be feeling empty and at a loss for fulfillment. This feeling is merely the reasoning from your higher Self that you need to look elsewhere, inward, for fulfillment, not to merely continue working for accomplishments and success on the material level. Such feelings mean that you are already discovering how there may be some comfort in material achievements, but real happiness that truly touches the core of who and what you really are exists on a higher level.
The first reason why people are often unfulfilled is that they may be stuck with things or situations that appears to be holding them back, back from whatever else they would rather be doing. Thus, the urge to escape is a dominant feeling in such circumstances. Escape to what, is the next question. Sometimes people have a good idea what they would like to escape to, while others just want a change of situation. They don't always know what they want. But they do want to be free from what has become a stifling or stagnant circumstance. This is often what a person notices about themselves when they first begin to feel unfulfilled, no matter whether you are young or old.
This is not unusual in life. Why? Again because it is a voice from your higher Self giving the call. You have to understand that the needs of the soul will always be like a guiding voice, or a conscience asking whether you have all you want. Have you attained what you desire? Have you reached your goal? Have you acquired self-sufficient happiness? In all honesty, if you are simply serving your mind and senses, such a state of contentment is not possible for any long duration. There may be short periods of exhilaration. Or the thrill of the moment in a prize to be won, the heights to achieve, or the success to be had. These are great when they come, but they also surely go. And still, for many, they wonder what more is there. What's next?
The reason for this is that the first need of the soul is complete freedom. The real secret is to focus on the needs of the soul, your real identity. If a person is more than the body, then the only means of complete fulfillment is to reach that portion of the person which is higher than the mere physical machine in which one resides. And as long as you are in the material body, or identifying it to be your true identity, it is not easy to attain that state of complete freedom. It is like being in a row boat, and rowing furiously to get farther out into the lake, while not realizing that it is still anchored to the shore. In this way, there may be times when your Self gives you the beckoning, and you have the feeling that much of what you done has contained so much useless labor, as if there has been little that has touched the real YOU. The soul wants to be free from the limited realm of material bondage.2 He even wants to be free from this entire universe, including the constraints of time and space. But complete freedom can be attained only when making the connection with the spiritual domain, with the one Complete Being, the Supreme Spirit. The soul will always hanker for that direction because it is the natural state of being for the soul, to serve and connect with the Supreme Soul. That is the purpose of religion and yoga. Its meaning is to unite, to unite the individual soul with the Supersoul. Therein lies the happiness for which we hanker. Therein we become truly connected with all that is, with our Higher Self, and with the divine nature which gives the ultimate freedom. No other state of being provides such bliss, ecstasy, or such unfathomable exhilaration.
Some of this may be new information to you, or seem foreign, or even sound silly. Yet, you have no idea how many lifetimes you have gone around this universe, always looking for happiness. You also have no idea how many more lifetimes you will keep going around if you continue to look anywhere else than the spiritual domain for the happiness that you seek. Therefore, now that we are in this human form of life, we should try to engage ourselves in the means by which we can evoke our own divine consciousness, and attain our own self-sufficient happiness. We need to take up engagements that give us liberation to the region beyond this material confinement, wherein there is complete freedom. That state can be attained right now, in this body, and will allow us to be free from the binding effect of any situation in this world. In other words, for those of us who attain this state of awareness, no matter what may occur in life, we look at this planet as if we are but a tourist traveling through a foreign country. We may be here, but we know it is all temporary. We may try to do something to help if there is a tragedy, or spread the seeds of spiritual knowledge, but we also know that our own existence will soon be elsewhere, at least in due time. Nothing lasts forever, except that which is beyond the temporary, that which is spiritual in nature. And that is what we should cling to. That is what keeps us free. That is what gives us the happiness for which we have always sought. Now that we have found it, or have the chance to attain it, we should not let it slip away.
So, in our normal constitutional position as a spiritual being, free from this body and material consciousness, the living entity is fully satisfied and focused in spiritual bliss. It is this state that is called brahma-bhuta or atma-nandi, the state of self-satisfaction. It is only when we become conditioned by material contact and identify our physical body as being our real identity that we lose the atma-nandi state of being. It is then when we express ourselves through the means of lust, anger, jealousy, greed, and innumerable bodily desires. After that, the trouble begins.3 This is why, in essence, everyone is hungry for real spiritual satisfaction. Everyone is looking for happiness, there's no doubt about that. But the only happiness that touches the soul is that which is connected with the spiritual dimension.
We all know there are two kinds of happiness. One is material happiness, which is the goal of those who are materially engrossed in seeking ways to satisfy the mind and senses. When one grows tired of being the servant of the senses, which are never totally satisfied, one reaches the stage of thirsting for real happiness and contentment, which can only be attained through spiritual satisfaction, the second type of happiness. The only means to reach this is through spiritual activities that directly affect the soul, which is our real identity, beyond the dictates of the mind and senses.4
It is because the living being is covered by the material body and does not see the happiness that exists within his Self, he runs after happiness that is thought to be elsewhere in connection with the material world. This process can be compared to trying to quench one's thirst by some other means than drinking water. You may find so many things and activities to occupy your mind, but in the end you are still thirsty. It is like a bird in a cage. You may do all you can for the cage, but if you neglect the bird inside, the bird will still need attention or will die. Similarly, we may be engaged in a multitude of thoughts and actions, yet in the end our soul is still waiting for us to bring our attention to the real needs in life, which are spiritual. Certainly, we must feed and clothe the body. These are real needs. Yet, since the body and everything connected with it are temporary, with a beginning and end, the real needs are more than that, more than bodily concerns. They are for that which does not die, which is eternal. Thus, that which is within is waiting for you to focus your attention to it. Until then, material happiness tends to be fleeting. It may last a while, but often leaves us still looking for additional fulfillment, or wondering why we are not completely satisfied.5 Basically, in order to be content with materialistic activities as the basis of one's pleasure, you must forget your real identity as a spiritual being. You must become so engrossed with the external situation around you that you forget or mislead yourself from looking within. Unfortunately, this forgetfulness of our real identity paves the way for desires for the body, and the emotions that follow, such as greed, anger, jealousy, and the fear of death.6 However, that need to look within will wait for you and at some point come out in some other way. That is when in the midst of life, an event or tragedy may manifest which will force you to look at things in a different way. At that point you may suddenly begin to understand how you need to change, or what more you need to add to your life in order to make a difference to yourself, or a difference to those around you as well. You need to add some substance to your life, spiritual substance.
As we proceed with this line of thought, maybe you can begin to realize now that happiness or distress through the material senses has little meaning.7 It can take a person years, or even lifetimes, before he or she perceives the fact that pleasure from the senses alone is not what gives real happiness. The distress or happiness that is determined by the mind has little reality because they come and go continually. Real happiness is never interrupted, nor is it temporary because it is related to the eternal soul. Once our material senses are purified, then our spiritual senses are revealed. It is through these which we can experience spiritual exhilaration and joy.8
This is why it is further explained that after having attained the human platform, if one simply engages in fruitive activities that often necessitate great struggles and are meant only to increase the pleasure of the senses, all of which are impermanent and have little substance for the soul, then that person is considered to have been cheated. He is cheated out of a valuable life and given only temporary prizes and sensations that disappear with time, or are inherited and enjoyed by someone else when he dies. The human life is considered a valuable boat that can take one to the realm of true happiness. It can deliver one to complete freedom from all materialistic limitations and further cycles of birth and death.9
This is one key point to consider, that even if people achieve material happiness, they do not know how to avoid death.10 A prime factor in disturbing the plans of the materialists is this great interruption called death. It puts an end to everything that one has worked to attain. Thus, it is a cause of great disappointment for those who are so attached to this world that they do not want to leave. And this is a major deterrent for one's spiritual progress.
For this reason it is advised that if one wants to be truly happy, one's life should not be totally aimed for material gain or gratification of the senses. This does not have the capacity to make a sensible person happy. One should strive for a life of simplicity, few complications, self-preservation, good health, and work to assist others, especially those who are less fortunate or struggling with life. Beyond this, one must practice spiritual life to reconnect with one's higher Self on the spiritual platform.
The key point to understand is that once one knows the misery that hides in material existence, one should work to be free from the implications that may complicate one's life and engage in those spiritual practices that allow one to rise above the unhappiness that the ever-changing world can give. This happiness is found within, ever-existing in the Self, free from all the turmoil or confusion that lies in the externals around us. The spiritual living entity is naturally transcendental to material existence. It is only the false ego, the misidentification that one is the temporary material body, that makes one think that this material world is our real home, wherein we can make a situation so we can be totally happy and completely fulfilled.11 There may, indeed, be moments of contentment in material activities, but one should not work simply for the fleeting moments of pleasure, but for the ultimate goal of bringing oneself to a higher plane of consciousness wherein there is the natural happiness of the higher spiritual Self. By adding this sort of real substance to one's life, one can reach a level of complete and never-ending joy and fulfillment.12 This is the value and need for adding the spiritual path to one's life.
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