Something to ponder from Subhan
Gerald Jampolsky said, “You can be right or you can be happy.”
Clearly the implication is that it’s an “either/or” proposition.
Experience tells me that when the mind is bent on insisting that it is “right,” there really is nothing like happiness available. Rather, there is rigidity and seriousness and even conflict involved. And the one asserting that he/she is right is more important than whatever right really is.
And, when happiness is there, there’s really no need to insist on being “right!” Happiness is right! It is the sense of just being and of being at home with oneself! That’s all that really matters. Everything else is mind-stuff wanting to assert itself, that only gets in the way of happiness.
Osho said it another way: “Nobody is bothered about truth. Who bothers? – it is a question of who is right, not a question of what is right. But then people are identified, and not only ordinary people, even people who are religious.”*
It seems the mind is always trying to find winners and losers, and to identify them in whatever situation arises. It doesn’t look for what is right, because that exists outside of the personality. And, above all, the personality or ego has to be supported and defended. So who is right – and the corollary, who is wrong – becomes the only important thing to the mind.
May your day today be filled with the gift of being happy – for being alive and at home with yourself!
* Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 4, Ch 3
Featured image by Yan Krukau
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