Whenever you ask anyone, let’s say for instance, you have a class, and you have a group of students, and you ask them, what do you want out of life?
And many times, people will say, I just want to be happy.
In other words, I want to be at peace.
But we all know that when we achieve consciousness at 20 years of age or so, that life, gosh, it’s really confusing, and we’re afforded all these possibilities, and many times we’re kind of on a preordained track, if you could call it that.
We’re going to go to university, and many times we just don’t know why, but everyone tells us this is the ticket to success.
Success meaning, of course, happiness.
So we do our four or six or eight years, and we get to the other side, and then we get a job in whatever field, perhaps we’ve been trained in, many times not, in the modern society.
I ask many people, what did they study in their career, be it may they’re working in the service industry, or whatever it is, their career has nothing to do with their training, whatsoever.
But that said, there they are, there I am.
And now, I’m going to, of course, make some money, hopefully save some money, meet Mr.
and Mrs.
Wright, buy some property, if that’s possible, eventually retire, and live out my golden years in a state of tranquility and peace, but all you have to do is to walk down any street in any major city, pretty much all over the world, in my experience, and people are not happy.
And you read in the newspapers, this person or that person, rich beyond God, famous, killed themselves.
What?
I thought you were happy, but obviously they’re not happy, so…
What is the ultimate secret?
Well, it would seem to me that as a human being, there’s a fight going on inside of me between the bestial self, the animal self, the appetitive self, as it’s called, the appetite.
Perhaps that’s sex, drugs, rock and roll, food, good times, and the more cerebral self, the more peaceful self, the person that goes to the synagogue or the temple and tries to link up with God Gaia or the universe.
So these two forces are inside of me all the time.
And I think the wise person, as we label them, the wise person or the sensitive person has come to a point that they’re able to overcome the appetitive self, the self that wants all these things in the world, and really has a link with something beyond me.
Many people call this, of course, God.
Now, that said, I think the path to God has many rivers.
And of course, I was raised as a Roman Catholic, as a Christian, if you will.
But I think if you’re not open to the many paths to God, you don’t really understand what reality is, do you?
So, peace can only be provided by the self.
Sadly, in a bizarre way, because all these external things, yes, they give you happiness, but they don’t seem to give you anything.
If you yourself are not willing to say, this is giving me joy, if you believe in the conflict around you, which all of us have, some more severity than others, depending the time in life, then if you believe it’s external, you’re foolish, I feel.
Because there is no one like me, never has been, never will be.
And if I reach out and touch you, and this can be in the most intimate of touches, you are still external to me, because I cannot jump inside your brain.
And yes, soul mates are close.
You wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning and you look across at the other person and then you embrace.
And 10 years later, you’re divorced or you’ve broken up and you ask yourself why.
That’s because the other person is truly independent from you.
So 18 years old, tell your fellow classmates, your friends, your younger siblings that yes, you can attain this peace, this peace that you so desire, this happiness that you so desire, but it’s a gift that you’re going to have to give yourself.
Now, in life, you can either be a hero, or you can be a victim of circumstances, be it may my skin color, my race, my ethnicity, my socio-economic background, whatever it is.
You know, many times we suddenly wake up at 20 and you think to yourself, my gosh, I’m good looking, I’m from a wealthy family, I’ve got, as we say, a ticket to ride, which is an idiom that means I’m going to be successful.
But then you look at that person 50 years later, they’re a failure and they’re unhappy, and they’ve had three or four marriages and it just goes on.
Personally, I had a friend in high school who was a talented man.
He should have been the most successful musician ever.
I should be saying, you know, I know such and such, I knew such and such when he was a young man and everyone would go Leon, come on man, that’s a lie, that’s impossible, but it is true.
And today he’s dead.
He never achieved the potential, the fame, all of those things that should have come to pass because of bad decisions, drugs and alcohol, perhaps bad relationships, it doesn’t matter.
He didn’t find his peace, his happiness in life and he should have.
He really should have.
It was before him.
So you think to yourself, work on me and you will ultimately find the peace and the happiness that you want.
And you know what they say, you know what they say, critical thinking is everything, especially if you want to find your peace and critical thinking is great, truly great.
You take care. God bless. Bye-bye.