Finding Your Key To Happiness

“Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one’s self?” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today I would like to share an old Sufi story about the wise man Mulla Nasrudin. Nasrudin is a satirical Sufi figure who was a populist philosopher remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes.

Here is one of my favorite tales of Nasrudin:

Someone saw Nasrudin searching for something on the ground.
“What have you lost Mulla?” he asked.
“My key,” said the Mulla. So they both went down on their knees to look for it.
After a time the other man said, “Where exactly did you drop it?”
“In my own house.”
“Then why are you looking here?”
“There is more light here than inside my own house”

I love this tale because I know that almost everyone can relate to the Mulla.

I think it’s safe to say that most of us will spend our whole lives searching. Searching for love, money, happiness, success, and many other worldly desires.

This search takes place mainly in our external world, a search that leads us further away from what we actually want and from who we really are. We feel that once we attain these worldly desires life will be grand, everything will be ok, and we will be deeply fulfilled.

I think that many of us deep down know that things like money, becoming famous, and becoming powerful, will be really nice but that ultimately will not give us the peace of mind and deep fulfillment that we crave.

We have plenty of celebrities who have attained everything there is to attain in terms of material wealth, and make it clear for everyone to see that it’s still not enough.

Alexander the Great gained the whole world, but in the end, he realized he gained nothing, the world was still not enough. He still remained unfulfilled, a part of him felt utterly empty, and his life in his eyes was meaningless.

Just like Mulla, we are all searching for fulfillment in the wrong places. We have been distracted by all the bells and whistles that society conditions us to believe will give our lives meaning. Deep down just like the Mulla, I know that you know where you dropped your key, but you still keep searching for it in other places because it feels easier, it seems better.

How To Find Happiness Within Yourself

Our attention is focused on the outer and not the inner. It’s only a matter of switching that focus.

Your key to fulfillment and peace is not somewhere out there, it’s somewhere inside you. You dropped the key in your own house, but where is your house? You dropped the key such a long time ago and have wandered so far away from your home that you have forgotten the way back.

Searching for your key to happiness is difficult because you never knew you had the key to it in the first place, it’s always been there you just need to do a little digging.

It’s not a matter of finding but of rediscovering. In your journey to happiness, you get lost by believing that your identity is the personality that exists through the likes and dislikes that society has conditioned you to have.

You mistaken your personality to be who you are, it’s all you know now. But if you deeply inquire you will see that most of your personality was given to you, it was artificially made, hence why it can never satisfy you.

We crave the “real”, the essence with which we came into this world. The return to innocence, when we felt complete when we did not lack anything, did not want to become anything.

So the question then becomes, how do you get back into your home? A home that has everything you will ever need.

Meditation and proper self-observation will help you to get in tune with who you really are. Being solely identified with your mind and thoughts, you live an egocentric life, your life is just on the periphery, very superficial.

The moment you realize that this is what stands in your way of growth and fulfillment, you begin the process of your inner journey. Do you start asking yourself what your is mind? What is thought? Who am I? What am I?

You start to learn to observe and really learn from yourself and the world.

There is nothing wrong in having material wealth, or success, but expecting to receive deep inner fulfillment from achieving worldly desires will only lead you to much disappointment.

If you can find inner fulfillment then you can pursue your worldly desires with a completely different approach, with a lot less struggle. When you are only identified with worldly desires you will lie, cheat, and manipulate your way to the top, only to find that you had to sell your soul for it.

It’s time to find your way back home.

I enjoyed writing this for you, it surely was not a waste of my time, so I sincerely hope it is not a waste of yours…what are your thoughts on this post?…join the conversation below……thank you, and be well….

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