HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY – WHAT EXACTLY ARE THEY?

Whenever I pray for myself or for others I always include peace, love, unity, prosperity, happiness. Yesterday I sat on my bed and stared through my window. It was daytime, noonish to be exact, and as usual the estate is quiet and peaceful. I began to think as I stared out my window, about life and what makes us happy.

The “us”, here means humans, I often think of us here on this planet. In my mind I began to answer the questions I was posing to myself. The most obvious answer was money. To many people having access to money was happiness. Some people in my head (the interview I was having there), said they just wanted to be comfortable, others said they wanted to live like a rock star, that would make them happy. Others wanted to be able to afford whatever they wanted and never worry again about money, to be able to splurge on whatever they desired. Then I began to visualize examples of people, two to be specific, in certain positions in life. I saw them clearly in my head.

The first person I saw was a man who lived in an open land. He was surrounded by nothing except nature, beautiful greenery, tall trees and green grass, some straw coloured, having been beaten by the sun. He was short about, 5ft 5 or 6″. He looked Asian, he had a shabby looking straw hat on his head. His pants were worn, and of khaki colour and was a little below his knees, and his shirt was the same colour, also worn and open, exposing his hairless chest which showed his rib cages. However he did not look starved or Mal-nourished. He had some lines on his face, which, although he had a boyish look, one could tell that he was perhaps in his fifties or older. He was agile in his movements and he walked across the common, as the heat of the day bore down on him unyieldingly. Not far off from him was a shack made out of bamboos which were brown, and a thatched roof the same colour.

A river was near by, so as he drew closer, the sun seemed to ease up its temper for a bit and if you listened carefully, although you could not clearly see the river, you could hear its waters rolling along serenely. Some birds flew over head breaking the silence for a moment, he heard them and so did I. We both looked up, he was unaware of my presence of course, but I was so very curious of him. I liked the serenity, the peace that I felt within his environment and what came from him. I could even feel his heart beating as he contemplated his next move. Upon seeing the birds, he stopped and took something from his back pocket. It was a sling shot, he bent and picked up a stone and skillfully fired it off in the air, a house bird fell (a pigeon). He wanted to aim again, but the other birds, warned by what just happened, scattered in bids to save their lives. He smiled as he picked up his kill, and pranced towards his shack.  I smiled too as I pranced along also.

We got to the bamboo shack, his house. It was square with hardly anything in it. There was some tree trunks as seats perhaps, some calabashes he seemed to use as plates, what looked like palm fronds on the floor used for as bed, some tools. Some wood carvings of images and in a corner were coconuts, a bunch of bananas and some fruits I did not recognize. He went inside for a knife, and picked up an old helmet he used as pot. He then went outside behind the shack and made a fire from wood and stones and set out to heat water so he could remove the feather from the bird he just killed.

A loud noise of a car horn brought me back to this reality, and I could see a small grey car going up the top of my road about to turn the corner. I tried all my best to go back to where the man was in my head, but I wasn’t allowed. That blank stare through my window, which was my key to this adventure was lost. It was as if I had a spiritual experience, an out of body one perhaps, what am I saying? Not “as if”……..I had a spiritual experience. I was allowed to enter this mans world as a non-physical and I glimpsed a bit of his happiness, his content.

The purity of his life was spectacular to me. In his world, he did not know poverty, he just knew survival, and so he had nothing to compete his happiness with. He was alive and so he lived as he could, content with what he had. And I, who was apart of the modern world, was momentarily captivated by his world, his life, his happiness, his peace.

In his world, he had all he needed to be him, nothing to stress him, or make him sad. He just lived. He was one with nature and nature embraced him and provided for him.

The second person was a fleeting thought, not an experience, but of the rich man, with all the he had, still pursuing more, but was stressed, probably not happy and in poor health. This is not to say all wealthy people are unhappy and in poor health, but with wealth, comes stress (unless you are spiritually grounded) and problems, even if it comes in the form of enemies, those are plenty and they come for free and are always uninvited.

That night, I laid on my bed watching Chopped on the cooking Chanel. During commercial, I reflected on my experience with the man in my head. I was reminded that the man came to me after I was thinking of peoples reaction to wealth, I had forgotten that. The visual with the man was so compelling, I had become lost to how I had gotten there. Chopped resumed, but I could not watch, and so I sighed, turned my back to the T.V and began to think again of rich people and their lives, and their obsession to have more. The Uncle Fester looking judge on chopped (the bald headed mean one) began to tell one of the contestants that there was a bone in his fish, his voice disturbed me, so I muted the channel. I am sure it is nice to be rich, but compared to the man I saw in my head, he had the best life, at least to me. At least to what I observed. So what exactly is wealth, happiness? It is a state of being. This is exactly what it is, a state of being! It is where our mind is, how our mind works.

How we see ourselves and our happiness or what ought to make us happy, is already prewritten by  the society we are apart of. This is when dealing with the material world. If you have the opportunity to become awake or even aware of your destiny, knowing that we all came in with a prewritten contract that we ought to fulfill, then we would be content with our lives as we walk through, knowing that all has its reasons. Money, wealth, riches, and all things in this life are all illusions, they really do not exist. However this post cannot convince you of this and I have enough wisdom, to not even try. So do a blank stare at this last sentence and continue to read on after a while.

How many of you know that you are wealthy, extremely so, yet you bank account Is negative?

How many of you realize that your reality of happiness depends on your outlook on life and what you accept?

How many of you realize that sadness is created by you, all is created by you?

How many of you, like myself, long for nothing?

Nothing entices you, well for me, I have one thing that entices me, and that is a book, but then I can write my own story and I am content.

How many of you need companionship to complete you, because society says this is the norm?

How many of you are willing to read the script from your destiny book and throw away what society tells you to do?

I hate and love question and answer post, so many of you get intimidated by it, it bothers me.

I want you all to scrub away the passion you have for everyone else expectations and look to you.

How many of you think this is possible?

I am extremely wealthy, but money does not define wealth to me.

My wealth is who I am, and the fact that I know why I am here, it is my knowledge.

What is yours?

Do not scoff at this post and think to yourself saying “who in life doan want to be rich”. This post is to allow you to inspect what really is wealth and does true happiness comes from it. We are journeying through a chaotic world, we ought to understand life on a deeper level. Society has shaped our thoughts and expectations, when was the last time you thought for your self?

I do not expect you to change your perception overnight, but think of the man in my head, the one I just wrote about. Imagine him if you can, see him and his world. Just close your eyes and try to see him as I did, and when you see him. Try to feel his energy, and the energy surrounding him. Do this when you are alone and calm, and if you are able to do this, try to examine your feeling and see if you agree with me, that he is wealthy, and he has embraced  his own kind of happiness. He is free.

Know that nothing in this world is elusive, all is at hand if you are willing to create it and see it for what it is. Our lives are simulations we have created from somewhere else, again, treat this sentence with a blank stare. One day, you will understand and when you do, teach!

Bí ọmọdé bá lóun gbọ́n ju àgbà lọ, ò dájú kò lè gọ̀ tó àgbà. /
A youngster who claims to be wiser than an elderly person, cannot claim to be more stupid…..Yoruba Proverb
[Be humble; respect the alternate view.]

Gbogbo ọ̀rọ̀ ló lésì, ṣùgbọ́n kì í ṣe gbogbo ọ̀rọ̀ làá fèsì sí. /
There’s a response to every statement, but not all statements merit a response……..Yoruba Proverb
[Stay focused; ignore distractions.]

All religion are valid as long as it teaches peace and love…. Obara Meji!

There no disappointments in life, only lessons learned!….Obara Meji