Why Are You Here? II — Nature of Mind

So, Peace, Love, and Happiness. If that is what we all want, why does it seem so hard to find?

Perhaps it is because we are “looking for love in all the wrong places?”

We don’t have to look far to find the right place. Actually, we don’t have to go anywhere to find the right place. We don’t even have to do anything to find the right place. In fact, the only place we can find the peace, love, and happiness we are looking for is within. All our external sources of experiences and relationships are temporary and conditional. We cannot rely on external “things” to bring lasting happiness, because “things” don’t last.

So, how do we find what we are looking for? We use our practices of mindful awareness and loving-kindness to experience our inner world; the nature and activity of the mind. As we become more familiar with our patterns of thoughts and feelings, we can see their temporary nature and understand that we cannot rely on them to provide lasting happiness. This gives us the confidence to continue practicing to discover our true, unchanging nature.

With practice, we begin to see that there is something of our experience that doesn’t change. We are always “aware” and our awareness is the continuity between all the moments of experience we perceive. That awareness or pure consciousness is unchanging, aware, peaceful and always present.

If we withdraw our attention from sights, sounds, feelings, and other perceptions, then what is left is the experience of our basic space of awareness, the natural openness of the mind. This is the source of peace and happiness.