 
  BE

HAPPY

IN THE

NOW!

Why suffer in the miseries of

Yesterday and Tomorrow?
    BE

HAPPY

IN THE

NOW!

Why suffer in the miseries

of Yesterday and Tomorrow?

Copyright © A.i.R. Institute of Realization 2019

AiR asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this book.

ISBN 978-93-5351-817-2

All rights reserved.

No part of the content (of this publication except images) may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Printed in India by Navya Graphics

No-8, 12th Main,14th Cross, Lakkasandra Extn., Wilson Garden, Bangalore-560030

Publisher: AiR

Kemp Fort Mall, No-97, Old Airport Road, Bangalore-560017

Make a Vow!

To Be Happy in the NOW!
    CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2

Do you really want | Don't live in

---|---

to be Happy? | Yesterday's Misery

1-8 | 9-15

CHAPTER 3 | CHAPTER 4

Why live in | What exactly is

Tomorrow's Fears? | Happiness?

16-22 | 23-32

CHAPTER 5 | CHAPTER 6

What makes us | The mind jumps

Miserable? | like a Monkey

33-39 | 40-45

CHAPTER 7 | CHAPTER 8

Being in the | Choose to be

NOW | Happy

46-51 | 52-58

CHAPTER 9 : | CHAPTER 10

Overcoming | How to make

the Ignorance | Happiness a Habit?

59-67 68-76

CHAPTER 11

Living in Acceptance

and Surrender

77-83

CHAPTER 13

Don't shuttle between

Yesterday and Tomorrow

91-97

CHAPTER 15

Simple tips –

how to be Happy Always

109-120

POEM

129-131

CHAPTER 12

Enjoying the

Present Moment

84-90

CHAPTER 14

Be Conscious

of the NOW

98-108

AFTERWORD

How I remain

Happy all the time!

121-128

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

132-140
    PREFACE

Who doesn't want to be happy? The whole world is seeking happiness. But is everybody happy? People experience waves of joy and sorrow. One moment they are glad but the next, they are sad. Why can't we be happy all the time? Although happiness seems to be the goal of humanity, it seems elusive. People are chasing happiness, but it is like a shadow - the more you go towards it, the further it moves away.

Some people think that wealth, success and achievements are happiness. But are all successful people happy? Sometimes, a simple peasant with little money is happier than a millionaire.

What is happiness? Happiness is a state of being happy. Happiness is different for different people. Something that makes me happy may not excite you. People are trying to arrive at destination - Happiness. They don't pay attention to the journey and fail to realize that happiness is the journey itself, not the destination.

While most people think that achievements and success
    create happiness, some try to achieve peace and joy through contentment and fullment but still they suffer.

There are people who live a life of eternal bliss and joy. They seem to have mastered the secret of happiness. They have learned to overcome misery. Their life is full of tranquility and peace. What is the secret of this eternal joy, bliss, and peace?

It is being happy in the NOW. Every time we let the suffering of yesterday take charge of our life, we destroy the joy of today. When our thoughts anxiously jump into what may happen in the future, we lose the tranquility of the present moment. We seem to be like helpless monkeys jumping from one branch to another, from yesterday to tomorrow. And in the bargain, we lose the gift of being happy in the present. Is there a way to escape this monkey business jumping from yesterday to tomorrow, from the past to the future, in regret and fear? Yes, there is! It's being happy in the Now!

Let's start a journey to discover this new secret of eternal joy and peace.

You can be happy all the time,

If you learn to smile and not whine,

Not jumping from the future to the past, Be in the NOW and make happiness last.

1

CHAPTER 1

Do you really want to be Happy?

It's true that we all want to be Glad.

Who on earth wants to be Sad?

Because we think that happiness is the Goal,

We don't enjoy the Journey,

And there is misery in our Soul.

2
    Do you really want to be Happy?

Who doesn't want to be happy?

Every human being on earth wants to be happy. There is nobody who enjoys pain. Right from the time we are born, we seek to smile. Look at a baby and how she giggles when you play with a rattle. The desire for happiness seems to be instinctive. As we grow, happiness comes from our toys. The only difference between the men and the boys is the cost of their toys. As men, we may seek wealth, women and wine. Women too, want to be happy though their happiness may be based more on emotional factors. There is no sane person on earth, who would prefer pain to pleasure. Even our grandparents, though they have aged, seek happiness. We may belong to any nationality, religion or age. We may differ on all counts, but there is one thing on which we don't differ – we all seek happiness.

Difference between wanting to and wishing to

While everybody wants to be happy, the fact is that most people just wish for happiness. They wish that their dreams come true, they wish to be rich, to be loved, to travel the world. But they don't really want to. What does this mean? While they seek happiness, they don't really pursue it and fail to be in that ecstatic state of bliss and joy.

Mary wanted to go to Jerusalem, just like Susan wished to.

3
    Do you really want to be Happy?

Susan wished it for twenty years, but it never happened. Mary, however, was very passionate. She found out the cost, saved money, found a companion and made it to the Holy Land. What was the difference? Why did one achieve that state of fullment while the other remained with an unfullled wish? It is simple - unless we put a foundation on our wishes and make them wants, we will never be motivated to achieve the happiness goal. Thus, it is said, "If wishes were horses then beggars would ride." Yes, it is true that while most people wish to be happy, not all of them want to. They lack that passion and the persistence that can make them achievers of the happiness they seek.

The whole world is seeking happiness

If you peep out of your life window, what do you see? Everybody is seeking happiness, your parents and other family members, your friends, your colleagues, and even that customer in the restaurant next to you who is asking for a thin crust pizza with extra cheese. Each person that you observe looks very different, but what's not different is that they are all seeking happiness. Different people seek different things, but the objective of their seeking is ultimately happiness. A politician wants to win an election and a businessman wants to be a millionaire. A painter wants his painting to be in the world's best gallery just as an actor wants to make it to the Oscars. Have you thought

4
    Do you really want to be Happy?

why? Because this is what makes them happy. We all seek to do things that put a smile on our face and make our heart dance, don't we?

If you have not learnt anything,

But you have learnt one thing,

That the goal of life is to be happy,

Then you have learnt everything!

The pleasure-pain principle

There is a principle that operates across the globe. It is called the 'pleasure-pain principle' and implies that we human beings are attracted towards pleasure and we desist pain. No human being would voluntarily do something that will make him miserable. Even a little child who burns her nger in a re, is so terried by that pain that she dreads to go close to a candle. Why? Because the memory of the pain creates an everlasting fear. So do pleasant experiences make people continue to have a glass of wine or dine at their favourite restaurant. The pleasure has become a habit. We live and die with the pleasure-pain principle governing our life.

Are people truly happy?

Why is everybody seeking happiness? If people were truly

5
    Do you really want to be Happy?

happy, then the whole world would be in a state of t r a n q u i l i t y a n d p e a c e . U n f o r t u n a t e l y , e v e r y advertisement that you see, endorses unfullled desires of unhappy people. A new mobile, a new restaurant, a new car, are little baits to give people a burst of pleasure that they are seeking. Very few people are content. They may be happy, but they have forgotten to live a life of fullment. Therefore, most people on earth are not truly happy. This does not mean that they are unhappy, but they experience a constant see-saw of being glad and sad. They base their life's happiness on the achievement of their desires. Sometimes they are happy and sometimes they are disappointed. At the end of the day, they still seem to be hungry for happiness.

There is a way to be happy all the time

Very few people discover the secret of eternal happiness. They are the ones who realize that happiness does not depend on what you get, but rather on how you feel. They may not be the richest people on earth, but they are among the happiest because they learn to live with contentment. If happiness only depended on how much wealth we had, then the rich would be glad, not sad. Somehow, we human beings haven't been able to discover the secret of eternal joy. There is a way to live every moment with peace and bliss.

6
    Do you really want to be Happy?

The happiness journey

Happiness is not a destination. It is a journey and unfortunately, most people do not realize this. Somebody says, "I will be really happy if I get a Mercedes Benz," while for somebody else it is being in Paris in front of the Eiffel Tower. When they arrive at their destination, are they really happy? For the moment, yes! But the next day, they have a new desire that starts a new thirst for joy. Happiness is not about achieving a dream or desire. It is a journey, not a destination. Unless you enjoy every moment of the path, reaching the peak will not be of much consequence. The truly happy people enjoy every moment of life. That is true happiness. Others, who are happy only on days of celebration, their birthday, Christmas, and New Year, remain unhappy for most of their life. To them, happiness is all about that moment of achievement or celebration. Alas, they do not live happy lives!

What about you?

Are you truly happy? Do you live in eternal joy and peace or is your life experiencing waves of joy and sorrow? Don't be surprised if your life is like a merry-go-round that is passing pleasure and pain in circles. If you want to be truly happy all the time, you are not far from it. There are simple principles that can give you everlasting happiness. Discover the secret of being happy all the time.

7
    Do you really want to be Happy?

We all seek pleasure,

And wish to stay away om pain.

We want to be happy,

Again and Again.

It's sad but it's true,

While we wish to always smile,

We are not always happy, We have regrets in a pile.

8
    Do you really want to be Happy?

Chapter 1 - Summary

Do you really want to be Happy?

  * Every human being on earth wants to be happy. The desire for happiness seems to be instinctive. We seek pleasure and shun pain.

  * While everybody wants to be happy, the fact is that most people just wish for happiness and experience a constant see-saw of being glad and sad.

  * We base our life's happiness on the achievement of our desires.

  * At the end of the day, people still seem to be hungry for happiness.

  * A very few people who discover the secret of eternal happiness, are the ones who realize that happiness does not depend on what they get, but rather on how they feel.

  * Happiness is not a destination, it is a journey.

  * Truly happy people enjoy every moment of life. They discover simple principles that give everlasting happiness.

9

CHAPTER 2

Don't live in Yesterday's Misery

Of all sad words in the world,

e saddest are these - "It might have been."

Can you change the past?

You can only do your best till it lasts.

10
    Don't live in Yesterday's Misery

Don't curse, nurse and rehearse your past

Most people are miserable because they get stuck in an incident that had occurred in their life at some point in time. Someone hurt them. It was unfair. But it is over. Nobody can do anything about it. Unfortunately, most of us live in the 'curse' mode. We keep on cursing people who have been unfair to us in the past. What does this do? It spoils our present moment. There is poison in our heart and a frown on our face. Not only do we curse the situation, but we also nurse it. We let our thoughts, feelings, and emotions dwell on that memory, only to nurse the hurt. The hurt festers and makes us even more miserable. Not only did it make us feel devastated in the past, but it is also making us suffer now. To add insult to the injury, we rehearse this again and again till our last breath. There are people who carry a hurt for ten years, some even for twenty-ve years! They just can't forget the misery of the past. What an easy way to let something steal our present moment of joy!

Why live in yesterday's pain?

Is there any sense in living in the pain of yesterday? Why can't we reverse the situation rather than curse it, nurse it and rehearse it? We know that the past is gone forever. It cannot be changed. Though our intellect clearly knows

11
    Don't live in Yesterday's Misery

this fact, our mind continues to make us miserable, thinking about the past. Does it make any sense, living with the painful memories of the past? We don't want to be miserable, but we sink into the past so easily, losing our present moment to an irreversible situation. One must reect – "Why must I live in yesterday's pain?"

Yesterday doesn't exist

If you analyze, yesterday doesn't exist. It existed as long as it was 'today'. Just like a dream, when it is over, it is over! Yesterday is the 'today' that has gone, never to return. Somehow, we believe that yesterday still exists. In reality, only the memory of the past day remains. If yesterday actually existed like New York or Paris, we could go there. But can we? No, we can't! Nobody in the world can go back to yesterday.

Then why live in yesterday's miseries, when in reality, yesterday doesn't exist? Why can't we shut the door and lock up the past and look forward to the present moment with joy?

Who takes us to yesterday?

Unfortunately, we have a carrier of misery that effortlessly carries us to the past and makes us miserable – our own

12
    Don't live in Yesterday's Misery

mind. Our mind loves to make us miserable, producing thoughts and hurts of the past and makes us dwell in sorrow. We, like helpless slaves of the mind, continue to be miserable, living in the past. Our mind is a negative thinking expert. It can constantly produce thoughts from our memory to remind us how miserable we felt and how deeply we were hurt. What we don't realize is that as the mind transports us into the misery of yesterday, it is robbing our joy of today.

Why regret that I lived miserably yesterday?

Rather, why not commit and resolve to live happily today?

You can't change the past

You may be the wealthiest man in the world or the president of the most powerful nation but you can't change the past. The past is gone forever. Nothing can bring back the minute that is just over. Even the greatest scientists in the world cannot take us backwards. Then why do we constantly look at the tragedy of the past? Why do we mourn our losses? Somebody broke your heart. Why keep looking at the broken pieces and cry? Can you change what happened? While you can't change what happened, you can denitely ruin the present moment, remembering your romantic tragedy. Some people seem

13
    Don't live in Yesterday's Misery

to enjoy the misery of the past, while others persistently try to change it in their minds. Nobody can change the past. But a large chunk of humanity lets the past destroy the present.

Let go of yesterday

If you really want to be happy, learn to let go of yesterday. Don't live in the past, because neither does it exist nor can it make you happy. Yes, if there are moments of joy and bliss that you would like to ponder on, then go ahead and be happy now with these joyous moments but don't keep on repeating thoughts that will make you miserable. We can't go back to yesterday. It is gone forever, never to return. Most of the time, our mind takes us back to yesterday's hurts. In fact, it steals the present moment with yesterday's thoughts. We must make it a habit of living in today. It is dangerous to live in yesterday's joy for this habit of going back will eventually make us cry. If the Creator had made our life such that we should look at yesterday, then probably we would have had two eyes behind us. Instead, we have been blessed with two wonderful eyes to look forward. So move forward in life and enjoy the beauty that exists ahead of you.

Happiness is in the NOW

Blessed are those who realize that happiness doesn't lie in

14
    Don't live in Yesterday's Misery

yesterday or the past. The intelligent ones know that happiness is in the NOW, in 'Today'. As long as we are dragged into the past, we commit two crimes – rst, we live in the misery of yesterday. Second, we lose the opportunity of being happy today. Resolve to be in the NOW, with joy, bliss, and peace.

Why live in yesterday's pain?

In the past, what does one gain?

ose who spend the

present moment in yesterday, are losing their Peace in vain.

15
    Don't live in Yesterday's Misery

Chapter 2 - Summary

Don't live in

Yesterday's Misery

  * Most people are miserable because they get stuck in the past.

  * Does it make any sense in living in the pain of yesterday? We know that the past is gone forever. It cannot be changed.

  * Still, like helpless slaves of the mind, we continue to be miserable, thinking about the past.

  * We don't want to be miserable, but we sink into the past so easily, losing our present moment to an irreversible situation.

  * We believe that yesterday still exists when in reality, only the memory of the past remains.

  * If we really want to be happy we should learn to let go of yesterday.

  * We should resolve to be in the NOW, with joy, bliss, and peace.

16

CHAPTER 3

Why live in Tomorrow's Fears?

Tomorrow never comes they say,

en why those imaginary bills should I pay?

Let me live in the NOW with Peace,

Whatever the future unfolds, it will pass with ease.

17
    Why live in Tomorrow's Fears?

We all fear tomorrow

Every human being lives in today but thinks of tomorrow. There are both hopes and fears about the future. While hopes maybe considered positive, there is always a fear of our hopes being dashed. And above that, there are larger fears that dominate our mind.

What is Fear? It is FEAR – False Expectations Appearing Real. There is actually no danger, just an imaginary fear. But we human beings have made it a habit to live with fear. Our mind is programmed such that the false expectations appear to be real. What is the fact? The truth is that there may be no danger. Think about it – how many of your fears actually came true? Very few! Unfortunately, we human beings lose the present moment of joy, living with the fear of the future.

Tomorrow never comes

Haven't you heard that before? Some people wonder how that is possible. Have you ever lived in tomorrow? Yes, only in your dreams! Tomorrow can come only as 'today' when it arrives. In reality, there is no tomorrow.

Unfortunately, while there is no tomorrow, we live in constant fear of it. "I may fall sick, I may die, I may go

18
    Why live in Tomorrow's Fears?

bankrupt, I may lose the love of my life." These are amongst the thousands of fears that steal our happiness. When tomorrow hasn't yet come, when it hasn't yet become today, then why worry about it? Why should we even think of it? We should learn to cross the bridge when we come to it. When tomorrow comes, we must believe that we shall have enough strength to face it. Has there ever been a day in your life which killed you? Of course not! You being alive is proof of that.

Why fear?

There was once a person who went to a new town and took up a new job. Everyday, when he would get off the bus to go to his new home, a bulldog would chase him and he would run all the way to his house because the bulldog was so erce. And every day this ritual continued. He kept on and on, running day after day, until one day somebody told him, "You know fear, FEAR - it's False Expectations Appearing Real. Face your fear." So, the next day when the bulldog was chasing him, he turned around and attacked the bulldog. When the bulldog jumped at him opening its mouth, he saw the bulldog had no teeth! Then he chased the bulldog, because he realized he had been living in fear.

But most of us live in fear, don't we? We fear tomorrow but tomorrow doesn't exist. Why are we worrying about something that is not yet born? Our tomorrow is like a

19
    Why live in Tomorrow's Fears?

bulldog which has no teeth but because we don't realize the truth, we live in fear. All the time we worry about tomorrow. We are worrying about what might happen. And this is the ignorance that makes us live in misery and sorrow.

A few of us are lucky to realize the fact that fear is like a life size replica of a crocodile. It is not a real danger. It anticipates a danger and destroys our happiness. In reality, fears are just illusions! They are like a mirage in the desert. You are in a train and suddenly, you fear that your train is moving and your partner is outside. Actually, your train did not move. It was the train that was beside you that moved. But for a moment, you jumped up in fear. We human beings let fears destroy our happiness, be it fear of the night, of darkness or death. Fear is a joy stealer and it makes us live in the future. Why not live in 'today'? We must develop the habit of not living in 'tomorrow'. This is the best way to destroy fear.

Imagination creates misery

What makes us miserable? The gift of imagination has the power to make us creative just as it can make us miserable. If we control our sixth sense and live in the moment, we can use the power of the superconscious to inspire creativity, telepathy, hunches, and creative ideas to

20
    Why live in Tomorrow's Fears?

succeed. However, if we let our imagination wander with worry into 'tomorrow', it can imagine great misery. It can dream of unbearable dangers that could destroy us. It can imagine a sickness, an accident or even a devastating re. Such is the power of imagination. But this negative imagination doesn't exist in the present moment. Try living in the NOW and you will nd that the imagination is controlled with creativity. We must destroy the habit of living in 'tomorrow' to escape from the misery that negative imagination can create.

Live in this moment

Do you truly want to be happy? Then resolve to live in the NOW. 'Today' is beautiful and NOW is amazing. Enjoy it! Why drift into tomorrow's miseries? If you really want to be happy, then resolve to live in the present moment. 'The present' is a gift. That is why it is called the present. Don't lose it by living in a tomorrow that doesn't exist. Catch hold of your rascal mind that pulls you into the illusion called tomorrow.

Be happy moment by moment

If you really want to be happy, you can! It's easy. Just be happy NOW. Is that difcult? Of course, not! Then repeat this simple secret of happiness. Again, be happy now. You

21
Why live in Tomorrow's Fears?

will nd it is easy. Being happy, moment by moment is not so difcult. When you try to be happy in yesterday's memories and try to live in tomorrow's hopes and fears, you fall into a deep gorge of misery. Don't live in tomorrow. Live in today, live in NOW and you will experience joy.

If tomorrow was real, en I could go there. But even if I search, I can't nd it anywhere.

en why should I worry About the morrow I think? Being anxious, being worried, Why should I blink?

22
    Why live in Tomorrow's Fears?

Chapter 3 - Summary

Why live in Tomorrow's Fears?

  * Unfortunately, while there is no tomorrow, we live in constant fear of it.

  * When tomorrow hasn't yet come, then why worry about it?

  * When tomorrow comes, we must believe that we shall have the strength to face it.

  * Only a few are lucky to realize that fear is an illusion. Fear is a joy stealer and it lives in the future.

  * We must destroy the habit of living in 'tomorrow' to escape from the misery that negative imagination can create.

  * The 'present' is a gift. We should not lose it by living in a tomorrow that doesn't exist.

  * If we really want to be happy, it's easy - just be happy NOW.

23

CHAPTER 4

What exactly is Happiness?

Happiness is not the money,

And the fame you get a er a chase.

Happiness is the peace and tranquility,

at puts a smile on your face.

24
    What exactly is Happiness?

Let's try to dene happiness

Happiness is different for different people. If you try to dene it, happiness is a state of being happy. Therefore, you cannot be happy yesterday nor can you be happy tomorrow because you can't be in a moment that has already gone or a moment that is not yet born. You can only be happy now. There is no way you can be happy on your last birthday but you can be happy now thinking about the good time you had. In fact, you can't even be happy tomorrow. You can only be happy now, thinking about tomorrow and what you are planning to do. Therefore, the most important aspect of happiness is that it exists only in the present moment.

Happiness differs from person to person

It is strange but true, that one man's fruit is another's poison. I may love to sit on a silent beach, but you may hate it. You may love the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong and New York, but I dread the very thought of it. Happiness is unique. Different people become happy in different ways. Of course, many people have common happiness triggers, but everybody doesn't have the same happiness recipe. Happiness also evolves with age. As we grow, we leave behind those things that used to make us happy. And further, as we age, we change again.

25
    What exactly is Happiness?

Happiness for a rich man maybe quite different compared to a poor man. Even happiness for women is not the same as men. The Japanese maybe happy with karaoke, while the Swiss maybe joyous skiing. Happiness differs. Don't think what makes you happy will make me happy too.

Happiness is not only about money

Some people believe in the illusion, "If only I had a million dollars, I would be happy!" This is a myth because not all the millionaires are truly happy. While money is very important to live, and to acquire pleasures, it is not the true bliss of life.

Once, a wealthy businessman was passing by a river. He was drawn towards a sherman sitting beside his boat, talking and playing with a little boy.

The businessman asked, "Why aren't you shing? Why are you are just sitting and playing with the child while you should be working hard?"

"Sir! I have nished my work. Now, I have plenty of time to play with my kid as I have caught enough sh for today," replied the sherman.

"Why don't you catch some more sh when you have spare time?" enquired the businessman. "What would I do with them

26
    What exactly is Happiness?

when I already have enough sh for one day?" questioned the sherman with a smile.

"If you catch more sh, by selling them you could earn more money," said the businessman.

"Why do I need more money? By the grace of God, I have enough money to satisfy the needs of my family," said the sherman.

"With that extra income, you could buy a bigger boat. With that boat, you can explore deeper waters, go to the oceans and catch more sh. By selling those sh, your nances and assets would grow. Then you would make enough money to buy strong nets. With those nets, you could catch even more sh and make more money. With that money, you could own two or three boats or maybe four boats. Eventually, you could have a whole eet of boats and other shermen to help you out and you will become rich," told the businessman. "There will be abundance and prosperity and you will be wealthy."

"Then what would I do?" asked the sherman.

"Then," said the businessman, "you could really enjoy life."

The sherman looked at the businessman with a puzzled expression on his face and asked, "What do you think I am doing now?"

27
    What exactly is Happiness?

The businessman was speechless.

Strange, isn't it? We all want to be happy and satised, but instead of nding happiness in the simple ways of life, we deliberately switch to complicated methods. We try so hard to attain that contentment which is easily available within our reach, that we lose the joy that lies in the present moment.

Of course, money can buy a bed. But it cannot guarantee sleep. It can procure special medicine, but cannot ensure good health. It can buy an expensive diamond, but it cannot buy love. Therefore, while money is very important, it is not the currency that can buy happiness.

Far greater than all the material possessions that I possess is - My Freedom to Choose, My Freedom to Live, and My Freedom to be Happy!

The 3 peaks of happiness

Over the last three decades, I found that happiness has three peaks. Most of us seek the rst peak of pleasure and achievement. We run behind success, money, name, fame, and power, believing that this is the only way of being

28
    What exactly is Happiness?

happy. Of course, it does give us happiness! There is no doubt about that. But can pleasure and achievement give us true and eternal happiness?

I personally achieved a lot of success and money. But I realized that this was just the rst peak of happiness. I analyzed thousands of people and wrote my rst book – 'I Wanna be Happy'. I shared simple tips on how one can be happy. But I was still evolving from the rst peak to the second. As I spoke to people, I found that those who were content with reasonable monetary resources were far happier than the rich and famous, who were hungry and craving for more. Those who lived with greed were not as happy as those who were able to fulll their need. Therefore, I concluded that while money and achievement constitute the rst peak, the second, loftier peak was, living a life of contentment and fulllment.

The second peak is a peak where people are fully content and satised. Their happiness does not depend only on pleasure. Rather their joy is built on a foundation of peace and tranquility that is born with a universal connection. They live with love and laughter and ll their life with positive emotions. They discover the true meaning and purpose of life and they are content with their little success. What makes them happy? Their faith, hope, belief, and enthusiasm inspires them to smile. To them,

29
    What exactly is Happiness?

making money is not as important as making a difference. The second peak of happiness has far more showers of joy and is lled with peace and tranquility.

As I evolved from peak to peak, I went on a quest to nd out what was beyond the two peaks. I am grateful, that I discovered the third peak of happiness. While the rst two peaks promised pleasure and peace, the third peak made me search for purpose. My quest made me realize that the rst two peaks evolved in the levels of happiness, but both experienced misery and pain. Was there a way to transcend sorrow and live in eternal bliss? I was blessed to realize the third peak which promised not only everlasting bliss but also the elimination of all misery and sorrow. One who wants to evolve to the third peak must read the book – '3 Peaks of Happiness'.

While there are three peaks of happiness, one thing doesn't change. Happiness is only in the NOW. Whichever peak one may be on, if they try to nd happiness in yesterday and tomorrow, they are sure to be disappointed.

It doesn't cost too much to be Happy - if the currency of your heart is the blowing of the breeze and the swaying of the trees.

30
    What exactly is Happiness?

Happiness simplied

Happiness is actually a simple subject. We complicate it. In the beginning, we are happy. Unfortunately, we feel a state of incompleteness. This creates desire. All desires are not fullled. When some are fullled, we become happy. But when they are not, we become disappointed and miserable.

What happens when our desire is fullled? We go back to the original state that we had already enjoyed – a state of peace and tranquility. Our ignorance makes us crave for more and takes us on this journey. We do not believe that happiness is in the NOW. Somehow, we are convinced that we will become happy only after we achieve something. This is a myth. We can be happy in the present moment. The breeze, the trees, and the seas cost nothing but can give us tremendous joy. The simple wagging of a dog's tail or a warm smile from somebody can create happiness.

Somehow, we have complicated happiness and in doing so, we lose the present moment of joy. Think about it. It is very simple to be happy right now. Then why not just be happy?

It's all about being happy NOW

If you want to be happy, nd a way to be happy now.

31
What exactly is Happiness?

There are hundreds of ways, if you focus on the NOW. The moment NOW escapes you, it takes happiness with it. We become busy thinking and blinking, but our happiness is sinking. Stop! Resolve to be happy right now. Stop whatever you are doing and smile. Give somebody a smile. Help somebody. Appreciate somebody. Love somebody. You will nd bundles of joy around you. But if you want to complicate happiness, then it is easy to be miserable.

If happiness was just achievement,

en the rich and wealthy would be glad.

But look around and you will Mnd,

at many of them are sad.

32
What exactly is Happiness?

Chapter 4 - Summary

What exactly is happiness?

  * Happiness differs - what makes one happy might not make another person happy.

  * Many people may have common happiness triggers, but everybody doesn't have the same happiness recipe.

  * There are three peaks of happiness – the rst peak is all about money and achievement, while the second peak is living a life of contentment and fullment.

  * There is also a third peak which promises not only everlasting bliss but also the elimination of all misery and sorrow.

  * Happiness is actually a simple subject but we complicate it.

  * Somehow, we are convinced that we will become happy only after we achieve something \- this is a myth.

  * We should resolve to be happy right now. We will nd bundles of joy around us.

33

CHAPTER 5

What makes us Miserable?

ere can be no smoke without re,

ere can be no misery without desire.

34
    What makes us Miserable?

Analyze your miseries

If you look back at all the things that made you unhappy, what was the cause of your misery? Do we become miserable just like that? There are some physical pains that come from a disease, hurt or accident that are beyond our control, but these do not continuously make us miserable.

If we reect, our mind creates situations to make us unhappy. The most common factor of misery is disappointment. It starts with an expectation that becomes a burning desire. If the desire is not fullled, we become miserable. We are constantly creating desires and therefore misery is knocking at our door every now and then.

More than being miserable now, we are living in the miseries of the past. There may be a hundred disappointments which are over. But the mind doesn't let go of them. We keep rehearsing the past and refreshing our misery. This guarantees enough misery to ll our life.

What is the real cause of misery?

Misery is, therefore, directly proportionate to our disappointments. If we control our disappointments we can control our sorrow. We can be happy and peaceful as we are but we let disappointments rule our life. They ood

35
    What makes us Miserable?

our memory and release toxins. These poisonous thoughts steal our happiness.

What causes disappointments? Desire! If there was no desire, then there is no question of having any disappointment. The human mind is constantly wanting, seeking, desiring and craving. We don't really need to do this. Somehow, it is a habit. Unfortunately, all desires are n o t f u l  l l e d . T h e u n f u l  l l e d d e s i r e s b e c o m e disappointments and remain in our life. Isn't it common for us to recall all our past hurts and lose our present moment of joy? We may hate to do it, but somehow it just happens. It seems like the mind drifts into memories of those disappointments and suffers there. How can we get out of this cycle of desire and disappointment?

Why choose to be miserable?

If we had a choice to be happy or unhappy, what would we be? This needs no answer. It seems our ignorance opens the door to misery by permitting desires to rule our life. To m a k e i t w o r s e , w e l e t o u r m e m o r y s a v e a l l disappointments and they keep popping up. "Why did she break my heart?" "I did so much for him, but he cheated me." "I can't believe how people can be so ungrateful." Such memories don't seem to leave us. But this is a choice. Because we live in yesterday, we let these

36
    What makes us Miserable?

memories create misery. What must we do? We need to delete these thoughts by closing the door on yesterday. We must not look back on the miseries of the past. They are over, nished! We must choose to start afresh and ll our life with happiness. Before you make a fresh cup of coffee, don't you wash your dirty mug? Imagine, how your coffee would taste otherwise. The mug of our mind seems to be dirty for ages and the stink becomes unbearable. For a change, don't shampoo your head. Just shampoo your mind.

We don't need to be unhappy

There is no need to live unhappily in the memories of the past. Sad, as soon as we wake up, the mind jumps to our latest heartbreak or to an imminent fear, and we lose the present moment. There is a sudden gloom over our bright day. We let so many memories hijack our happiness. But we don't need to become unhappy like this. With strong conviction, we must not permit the mind to go backwards. It is a choice and we must be conscious of what we choose. Some people seem to helplessly sway into their past miseries. This is their choice. They can put a break on the past and accelerate into the present moment with fresh, peaceful and happy thoughts. "Today is a great day!" "I am going to be happy today!" "I am looking forward to my meeting this morning." "I am going with my friends to a great movie." "I have an interesting challenge at work." It

37
    What makes us Miserable?

is possible to ll our thoughts with enthusiasm and optimism. But this is a choice.

Look at some people. Everything seems ne with them, but there is no smile on their faces. Their life seems to be full of gloom. Physically they seem t, but their mind is full of rotten thoughts. Subconsciously, they have permitted their life to become miserable. But there are some people who are cheerful, they have a bright smile and are singing and dancing as they move from moment to moment. This too is a choice!

Decide to be Happy when you start your day.

Commit to put Joy in whatever comes your way.

You may be hurt by what people say,

But don't let anyone spoil your day.

Living peacefully in the NOW

Essentially, we must realize that the present moment called NOW, belongs to us. Consider it to be like a life bucket that is empty. We can ll it with garbage of the past, or put some new and fresh excitement into it. The NOW belongs to us. But do we take charge of our 'present'?

Many people lose the present moment to misery. The wise live peacefully and joyously. They nd ways to ll the

38
    What makes us Miserable?

present with peace. It may be silence, soothing music, loving friends, exciting opportunities or simply, prayer. They focus on the good things that they have been blessed with. They count their blessings and create peace in the moment. Peace generates happiness. There is no place for misery in their life. Even if a problem arrives, they don't let it rob them of their bliss. Of course, they have eliminated past memories that overcast their life with unhappiness.

Misery is not God's gift to us. It is not a compulsory evil of our life. It is a choice and it becomes a habit. The miserable are always miserable and the cheerful don't know how to live with sorrow. Take stock of your life and eliminate all the miseries that you have been carrying. They may be past disappointments and hurts. They are over! The past doesn't need to spoil your present. Find ways to be happy, today and NOW.

If the past was what we were meant to see,

en behind, not in ont, our eyes would be.

39
    What makes us Miserable?

Chapter 5 - Summary

What makes us Miserable?

  * The most common factor of misery is disappointment which starts with an expectation that becomes a burning desire and if the desire is not fullled, we become miserable.

  * We are constantly creating desires and misery is knocking at our door every now and then.

  * If we control our disappointments, we can be happy and peaceful as we are but we let disappointments rule our life.

  * More than being miserable now, we are living in the miseries of the past, rehearsing the past, and refreshing our misery.

  * We can put a break on the past and accelerate into the present moment with fresh, peaceful and happy thoughts. Misery is a choice and it becomes a habit.

  * The past doesn't need to rule your present. We should nd ways to be happy, today and NOW.

  * Misery isn't God's gift to us. Even if a problem arrives, we should not let it rob our bliss.

40

CHAPTER 6

The mind jumps

like a Monkey

When you let your mind like a Monkey Jump,

What you actually do is put your Joy in a Dump!

41
    The mind jumps like a Monkey

The mind has a unique feature that makes it comparable to a monkey. Just like the monkey doesn't sit still and jumps from tree to tree, branch to branch, the mind jumps from thought to thought. It doesn't know how to remain still. Such is the mind!

It's the mind that makes us miserable

Can you believe this statement? It is true. Our mind is our biggest enemy. Why? It keeps on jumping from one miserable thought to another. It steals our happiness. When we stop it from a past experience of sorrow, it jumps to a fear of the future. It makes us imagine things and robs our peace. We don't realize it, but the mind is a joy stealer. It destroys our happiness of the present moment by jumping into the past and then into the future.

There is a new thought every second

Can you believe it? The mind is thinking a new thought practically every second. This can be over 50,000 thoughts a day. It is this constant thinking that creates stress and worry. The mind doesn't know the meaning of peace. Unless we stop our mind from this constant rumble and mumble, we suffer.

Unfortunately, we human beings seem to be in a race to be an ace and we continue this chase from womb to tomb. If

42
    The mind jumps like a Monkey

our mind is not constantly producing thoughts, we think it has become sick. We must reverse this. It is this aggressive thinking that is the primary cause of stress and agony. Happiness is born from peace that comes from slowing down the mind. We must slow down our pace.

We all program our gadgets - computers, mobile phones, but we don't program our mind in such a way that we can REJOICE and BE HAPPY.

The mind pulls us into yesterday

Reect on your mind. You are sitting peacefully. But your mind takes you into the misery of yesterday. It drags you into the problem of last week. It even makes you sink into a situation that is years old. What you don't realize is that by doing this, it has robbed your present moment. The present moment was yours to be happy. But by jumping into the past, it deprives you of being happy in the NOW.

The mind plunges into tomorrow

Like a monkey, the mind plunges. It swings into a problem that may appear tomorrow. There is no real problem, but it imagines one. It takes all possibilities and converts them into fears. The mind is a negative thinking expert. If you have a rash on your skin, the mind will warn you that it may be cancer. If your neighbor had a car accident, it will

43
    The mind jumps like a Monkey

make you fear that your brake too, may fail. It imagines all possible dangers.

It's a negative thinking expert. The mind jumps from one fear to another and by doing so, it steals our present moment of joy and peace. Can we not stop this jumping business of the mind and be happy in the NOW?

Somebody just robbed your 'present'

You had a present, a moment called NOW. It was meant to be full of happiness, and pleasant thoughts. You should have enjoyed the bright sky, the fresh wind, and the beautiful owers. You could be with loving friends or following your passion at work. But you didn't. You were dragged away from the present into a misery of the past or a fear of the future. Alas, you lost your present moment of joy. Not just one moment, you lose this treasure again and again until nally, life escapes you.

We must make the monkey into a monk!

Do you really want to be happy? Then catch your monkey mind and tame the monkey into a monk. Stop your mind from its monkey business. Tie it and don't let it jump into past miseries. Rope it in such a way that it doesn't jump into future fears. Make it calm like a monk. Reduce your MTR – your Mental Thought Rate from 50 thoughts a

44
    The mind jumps like a Monkey

minute to 40, then 30. Try to focus on one thought at a time. Most importantly, try to be conscious of the NOW. Make happiness your priority. Reducing the MTR will automatically bring peace into your life. You don't need to jump into the miserable thoughts of your past. The past is over, and there is no need to think of it. You don't need to live in the fear of the future. There is no tomorrow! You know that only today exists. If you make your monkey into a monk, you can be assured of peace and happiness in this moment, in the next and in every moment that unfolds.

If there is garbage in your mind,

and it's full of junk,

It's time to tame your monkey mind,

and make it into a monk.

45
    The mind jumps like a Monkey

Chapter 6 - Summary

The mind jumps like a Monkey

  * Our mind is like a monkey that's constantly jumping into the past and then into the future.

  * Our mind is our biggest enemy. It makes us imagine things and robs our peace.

  * It thinks a new thought practically every second which can be up to 50,000 thoughts a day.

  * Unless we stop our mind from this constant rumble and mumble, we suffer.

  * Happiness is born from the peace that comes from slowing down the mind and its thoughts.

  * We need to reduce our Mental Thought Rate (MTR) and try to focus on one thought at a time.

  * If we make our monkey-mind into a monk, we can be assured of peace and happiness.

46

CHAPTER 7

Being in the NOW

e NOW is Peaceful and Blissful,

But how easily we lose our Joy.

We slip into Yesterday and Tomorrow,

Looking for another Toy.

47
    Being in the NOW

This is a simple secret of happiness. It is so simple, that one may wonder, "How something like 'Being in the NOW' can guarantee eternal happiness?" But it can. It is a sure way of living with peace and joy.

It's a big challenge

While it seems so simple, being in the NOW is a big challenge. We are slaves of our mind and we rarely achieve this state of being in the NOW. The fault is not ours. The fault is that of our mind. Before we know it, it slips into a thought of the past. Gone, our NOW is kidnapped! By the time we catch the kidnapper, the mind, and bring it to the table, it gently jumps into the future. It hijacks our life to a new destination. Yes, it holds us to ransom, and the biggest problem - we don't even know it. It is a big challenge to be in the NOW. But if we can, we can be assured of peace and happiness.

The NOW is peaceful and blissful

Just for now, focus on this moment. Breathe some fresh air, as you count your blessings. Just look through your beautiful eyes and enjoy the nature you see. Stop and hear some amazing music. Don't think. Stop your mind from drifting away. Just be in the NOW and do what you love to do. Maybe it is making love, but don't let your mind think of how your heart broke when you made love last year.

48
    Being in the NOW

Just enjoy the present moment. If you prefer, just sink your teeth into your favourite fruit and enjoy the moment. For you, it may be just playing the piano. Whatever makes your moment blissful, just for now, do that. You will nd so much joy and peace.

Why lose this moment?

When the NOW can be so beautiful, why lose it? It is sad that we don't even realize that we are losing moments, moment by moment. The NOW is ours, but somebody robs it and the NOW is gone. We let our NOW get destroyed. Not just that, instead of being happy and peaceful in the NOW, we permit our NOW to be lled with misery and sorrow. What a shame! We must resolve not to lose this moment. This moment belongs to us, it is ours. It is our biggest treasure. It is this moment and the next and the next that actually constructs our life. Moments create days, days create weeks, weeks create months, months create years and all of these create our life. If we lose the moment, we lose life, a life that was meant to be peaceful and joyous.

Think of Today, not Tomorrow.

It's time to be Happy! Don't live a life of Sorrow.

Find out those things that make you Glad,

And eliminate those that make you Sad.

49
    Being in the NOW

Happiness is all about NOW

We can't be happy in yesterday. Neither can we be happy tomorrow. We have forgotten to emphasize that happiness is all about NOW. We conveniently say that happiness is about 'being' happy. It is wrong. It is incomplete. Happiness is a state of being happy NOW. The most important word in the denition of happiness is the word, NOW. All that belongs to us is NOW. We can't go into the past and be happy. Nor can we dig into the future. Sure, planning a vacation for the future can make us happy NOW and thinking of the lovely drive we had last week can give us happiness NOW. But we can't go back to last week, nor can we enjoy our future vacation NOW. Happiness belongs to NOW. So if we want to be happy, we must discover the truth that we can be happy right NOW.

How can we remain in the NOW?

Is it possible to remain in the NOW? Yes and No! It is possible, if we capture our mind. But this is not easy. The mind is used to being a monkey. It will not stay still. As we are enjoying the NOW, it will make us worry about something. Such is the mind! But we must not lose hope. Being in the NOW needs practice. As the mind drifts, we must gently bring it back. I can promise you it will jump again. When we start, we won't have any NOW. Slowly,

50
    Being in the NOW

we will have more and more of NOW. The eventual goal is to have NOW all the time. That is the state of eternal peace and joy.

But this is the biggest challenge of life. To start, enjoy moments of the present and be inspired to have more of it. Realize that the mind is our enemy. It steals our NOW and with it, the peace and joy that exist in the NOW. It takes us into miseries of the past and fears of the future. This is not our choice. This is the work of our mind. If we want to be in the now, enjoying bliss and tranquility, then we must realize this truth. We must separate ourself from the mind, and watch our mind. Let's start now. Don't do anything. Pay attention to the mind and see how it jumps. Gently bring it back to the NOW. We will realize how beautiful NOW is. Once we start this practice, slowly but steadily, we will start living joyously in the NOW.

How can we remain in the Moment,

And stop the jumping Mind,

From creating Stress and Anxiety,

inking thoughts of a different Kind?

51
    Being in the NOW

Chapter 7 - Summary

Being in the NOW

  * Being in the NOW is a simple secret of happiness and it is a sure way of living with peace and joy. However, it's a big challenge.

  * We are slaves of our mind and we rarely achieve this state of being in the NOW. We should stop our mind from drifting away.

  * This moment – is our biggest treasure. We must resolve not to lose this moment. This moment belongs to us, it is ours.

  * The most important word in the denition of happiness is the word, NOW – a state of being happy – NOW!

  * The biggest challenge of life is that our mind doesn't stay still. We must use our will power to stop the mind from wandering and constantly thinking. We should make it still like a lake where there is no thought.

  * The eventual goal is to be in the NOW all the time. That is being in a state of eternal peace and joy.

52

CHAPTER 8

Choose to be Happy

Happiness is a Choice But this is known only to the Wise. Happy and sad, like a pendulum we Swing, And let in our life miseries Ring.

53
    Choose to be Happy

To be happy, one has to resolve to be happy. Happiness doesn't always happen on its own. It often needs a little effort. If you really want to be happy all the time, you can. Not just momentarily, but you can make happiness a habit, a way of life.

Happiness is a choice

Some people are unhappy. They may not accept it, but they have chosen to be so. If you accuse them of the fact, they will throw a t. "How dare you say that I want to be unhappy? I am not crazy," they will say. But the truth is that they are crazy. They choose things that make them unhappy. They remain with people that cause them misery. Happiness is a choice. It doesn't depend on what happens to us but on the way we react to it. It doesn't depend on what we get, but whether we are content with it. Therefore, happiness is a state of mind we choose to be in. In fact, it is an art. For those who learn it, they seem to have a knack of being happy all the time.

Happiness is a choice,

you cannot choose what happens,

But you can choose your reaction to it and be Happy.

Don't go back to yesterday

One of the principal causes of misery is that we go back to

54
    Choose to be Happy

the past. We live in yesterday's sorrow and that is a choice. We are not compelled to be in yesterday. Then why do we go back and become miserable in the past? It is because we let our mind pull us back. Instead of choosing to be in the present moment, we permit the mind to drag us into time that has gone by. Even if it is a good time, there is no point in going back there because it is over. The moment we go into the past, we tend to get caught in the shackles of bad memory. Not just one, but one nightmare will connect to another till we lose our moment and our day. If you want to be happy, then make a conscious choice of not looking back. Look forward. Resolve not to wonder why something has happened the way it happened in the past. Learn not to question and justify the tragedies of the past. Instead, choose to be happy in the present.

Don't jump to tomorrow

While we mustn't get dragged into yesterday, we must also not slip into tomorrow. Tomorrow is known for its fears and imaginary problems. We will get stuck in the pain that doesn't exist. We must choose to be in the present moment. It may mean a quick reection on the past or planning for the future, but be conscious in the present. Be aware of NOW and 'today'. Don't lose it to 'tomorrow'.

James was in Switzerland. It was snowing and it was beautiful and his girlfriend asked him to come out to enjoy the snow. He

55
    Choose to be Happy

requested for a few minutes to plan their next holiday, a cruise to Greece. He got busy with the travel agent, comparing options of tickets and the several cabins available in the cruise. As he was on his laptop, he attended to several other ofcial emails. He didn't realize how the hours had gone by, till he received beautiful pictures of his girlfriend dancing in the snow on his mobile. He tried to nish everything soon. After sometime, his girlfriend came back and told him that he had missed. She was beaming with excitement and joy. When he smiled and told her about their next holiday and the hours he had spent planning their next cruise, "Oh my God," she exclaimed. "That happens to be my parent's wedding anniversary," she said. "We can't go."

James lost glorious moments of the present to a future holiday that did not exist. Most of us are like James. We are so busy in the future, that we lose the present moment and with it, joy and peace.

Enjoy the moment

Why can't we enjoy the moment? Why can't we choose to be in the NOW - happy and content? When we go on a holiday, we notice that people are busy trying to take pictures to upload on Facebook or Instagram, instead of enjoying the sunset, the skies, the clouds, and the breeze, and singing along with the waves in the ocean. They hope that when they meet their friends in future, they will discuss their exciting holiday. Ironically, they never had

56
    Choose to be Happy

an exciting holiday, because they were too busy clicking pictures. They hardly experienced the bliss that nature displayed. The moment was so beautiful, but they did not enjoy the moment. They were trying to create an imaginary future moment with friends after the holiday was over. This moment was guaranteed to give happiness and bliss, but they traded this moment for the next episode that they would probably have in the future with their friends.

Be happy moment by moment

Happiness is about being in the moment. The only way to be happy, is to be happy moment by moment. What do we have in front of us – just this moment! We can choose to be happy, or let the moment pass. If we slip into yesterday, the moment is gone. If we are thinking of tomorrow, we lose the moment again. But if we capture the moment, the present moment and resolve to be happy, we can. Then, comes the next moment. Again, it's a choice, to let the moment slip by or to be happy. Those who capture each moment and live joyously, moment by moment are the ones who enjoy true bliss and peace.

It's a choice. Make it a habit

We should not just make 'being happy in this moment' a choice. We need to program our life such that we become

57
    Choose to be Happy

habituated to live happily moment by moment. We should try to be happy NOW. There will be some interruptions, I can assure you, but if we stop our mind from living in yesterday and tomorrow, we will be far more peaceful and happier. But we have got to make it a habit, there is no other way. Those who have not learned to live moment by moment in the NOW, are either living in 'yesterday' or 'tomorrow'. If we look at their face, we can see a frown and stress on their eyebrows and no smile on their lips. They are anxious, fearful and stressed out with what has been or what is going to be. They can't change either of the two, but instead, they can choose to be happy NOW, which they don't.

Do you really want to be happy? Then make it a choice to live moment by moment in bliss and joy. Realize the truth that 'yesterday' can't be changed and there is no guarantee about 'tomorrow'. Understand that the only treasure we possess is the 'present'. Enjoy the present moment, the NOW. Those who don't, live with ignorance in misery and pain.

Make it a habit to live in the NOW,

You won't lose this moment, now take the Vow. Promise not to live in a Yesterday that is Gone, And not to be miserable in a Tomorrow not yet Born.

58
    Choose to be Happy

Chapter 8 - Summary

CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY

  * Happiness is a choice. It doesn't depend on what happens to us but how we react to it. It doesn't depend on what we get, but whether we are content with it.

  * Happiness is a state of mind we choose to be in. If we want to be happy, we should make a conscious choice of not looking back justifying the tragedies of the past. Instead, we should choose to be happy in the present.

  * We should not jump to tomorrow because tomorrow is known for its fears and imaginary problems.

  * We should not just make 'being happy in this moment' a choice, rather we should make it a habit.

  * If we really want to be happy, we should choose to live moment by moment in bliss and joy.

59

CHAPTER 9

Overcoming

the Ignorance

Why do we suffer in life, do you know?

Why does our stress and anxiety grow?

Because we jump to the future om the past,

e joy that is ours, just doesn't last.

60
    Overcoming the Ignorance

Why is it that people lose the present moment of joy? Although it is easy, why do people let 'the present moment' of joy escape and exchange it for 'fear of tomorrow'. It is our own ignorance.

Why do we suffer?

If we analyze, the main cause of our suffering is fear of the future and the inability to accept the past. Of course, human beings experience both pleasure and pain. It is part of life. Sometimes, we become glad and sometimes sad, just as there is sunshine and rain, loss and gain. This is part of life. We must learn to accept it joyously. When we do not accept whatever happens and we curse it, nurse it and rehearse it, we magnify the sorrow a hundred times. If we watch a television channel that is covering a terrorist attack where two people die, we will actually think that two hundred people have died, because the camera man has the art and the video editors have the goal to keep viewers engaged, with different angles of the same scene. They repeat the incident again and again, till we are brain-washed. Our mind is no different. It takes one tragedy of our life and replays it a hundred times. What we don't realize is that each moment it is replaying the misery, it is stealing away the present moment of joy. Either the mind drags us into the sordid past, or pushes us into the future and makes us fearful. The mind makes us suffer again and

61
    Overcoming the Ignorance

again, enveloping us in a shadow of ignorance.

We live in ignorance

Unfortunately, most of us live in ignorance and lose moments of joy. Instead of activating our intellect, the faculty of discrimination that can use the power of the will to live in the present moment, we permit the mind to take charge of our life. We are all gifted with an intellect to discriminate the myth from the truth. If we put our intellect in charge of our mind, then the intellect ties down the mind, and stops it from jumping into the past and future.

The only way to overcome ignorance and enjoy the present moment is to sharpen our intellect and make it the commander of our life. If we do not make the intellect take charge, we will live and die in ignorance and our life will be full of misery and sorrow. The intellect is our tool to help us realize the truth and be in the NOW, with joy and peace.

The past doesn't exist

Think about it. We can go to New York, Paris or Hong Kong. They exist. But can we go back to yesterday, last week or last year? We can't! Still we go, because our mind blankets us in ignorance and we regret what happened

62
    Overcoming the Ignorance

yesterday, crying about our heart-break last week or mulling over our business loss of the last year. These incidents are over. They are the past, gone, and nished! We can do nothing about them, but we can foolishly spoil the present moment by thinking about them. Yes, we can use our intellect to fall in love again, only this time more intelligently. We can start a new business with careful planning, but it makes no sense in regretting the past. We can use the present moment to learn a lesson or two, but living in the days gone by is foolish for it steals the present moment of joy. Etch this out in stone, and in your heart and mind – that the past doesn't exist. It makes no sense living in the past!

The future is a myth

If you really want to be happy, analyze the future. Does it exist? We worry so much about tomorrow's exams. We fear a legal notice for a case that is coming up next week in court, and we are anxious about payments that we have to make in the coming year. These anxieties, fears and worry, steal our happiness of today. No doubt, they are concerns and we must address them when they arrive. We may need to meet the lawyer today, reply to an email tomorrow, or meet somebody to sort out an issue after four days. But constantly living with anxiety steals our present joy. We must use our intelligence to realize that if something is going to happen, it will happen. We can do

63
Overcoming the Ignorance

nothing about it. But by worrying about it, we only become anxious and lose our ability to plan. Don't we know that we are capable of doing only one thing at a time

– planning or worrying? If we have a cheerful and positive attitude, we can be peaceful and plan better. But if we let anxiety rule then we will be stressed emitting poison that steals our peace and happiness.

Finally, whatever will be, will be! We must do our best. Isn't it foolish to lose our present moment of joy for a possible future disaster?

From their own personal experiences, people realize that they used to worry about so many things. Then they discovered that their fears were far more numerous than actual dangers. The real disasters were very few, but the fears and anxieties were plenty. It's better to stop living with fear and life will be so much more peaceful. One should not become indifferent to the negative situations that lurk in the future, but put them in proper perspective. We should keep on reminding ourselves of a situation wherein we carry a tiny pebble in our hand and have a look at it from a certain distance. We notice that the pebble appears very small. But if we take it very close to our eye, it gets magnied and appears to be humongous. So, we must stop doing this with our problems and decide to use our intellect to live peacefully in the present moment.

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    Overcoming the Ignorance

The future is a myth. It doesn't exist. We must learn to let each day come as it comes. We should learn to live with faith and courage. Sometimes a beautiful prayer helps

Lord, help me to remember today, that nothing will happen tomorrow that you and I can't handle together.

What is time?

Time is the distance between two moments. We are used to looking at time on a clock and talk of minutes, seconds, and hours. But if you really see, time is just a unit of measurement, between the moment that is, and the moment that has just gone by. Unfortunately, because we live in ignorance, we are busy trying to calculate time and soon our time in this world is over. We forget to live every moment joyously. In reality, what time do we possess? NOW - this moment, not even today! Is there any guarantee that we will have the whole of today? Still we plan for the next decade, when we are not sure we will see tomorrow. The only thing that belongs to us is NOW, this moment and because we have got so zapped by the concept of time, we ignorantly behave like we are the master of it. Those who live joyously, live life moment by moment, knowing that time is nothing but a log of events. In reality, neither does 'yesterday' exist nor does 'tomorrow'. In fact, time doesn't exist! Only the present

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    Overcoming the Ignorance

moment does, enjoy it!

Overcome the ignorance

Our biggest challenge is to be happy and to overcome the ignorance we live with. We are all trying to be happy tomorrow, but we can't. We can only be happy NOW, and we are losing our happiness to a tragedy of the past, which is absolutely foolish! Our challenge is to overcome the ignorance and stop living in yesterday and tomorrow. Our challenge is to have the wisdom to live in this moment, in tranquility and peace, dancing with joy. As long as ignorance dominates our mind, we will be miserable. But if our intellect is strong enough to overcome the ignorance, our life will be full of peace and happiness. It is very simple, there is no past and future. We ignorantly live in this illusion which actually is a myth. It is like a mirage in the desert that doesn't exist. It is not difcult to understand that we cannot go to tomorrow, but we can go to the beach. The beach exists, but 'tomorrow' is just an imagination of 'today' that will come after this day is over. If we overcome the ignorance, we can be happy in the NOW, all the time, moment by moment.

Be happy in the NOW

Don't you want to be happy? It's very easy. Be happy NOW. Find out what can truly make you happy and do

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    Overcoming the Ignorance

that NOW. Stop your monkey mind from jumping to yesterday and tomorrow. Eliminate the fears and anxieties of the future, just like you wipe off the regrets of the past. Live in the present moment, NOW, with bliss and peace, enjoying life, moment by moment. Fortunate is the one who overcomes ignorance and does not shuttle from the past to the future, from one misery to another.

From misery to misery don't shu le in Vain. In yesterday and tomorrow what will you Gain? If you live with ignorance, there will only be Pain. Smile in the present moment - be it Sun or Rain.

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    Overcoming the Ignorance

Chapter 9 - Summary

Overcoming the Ignorance

  * Unfortunately, most of us live in ignorance and lose moments of joy.

  * If we analyze, the main cause of our suffering is fear of the future and the inability to accept the past.

  * The mind drags us into the past, or pushes us into the future and makes us fearful.

  * The mind makes us suffer again and again, enveloping us in a shadow of ignorance.

  * The only way to overcome ignorance and enjoy the present moment is to sharpen our intellect and make it the commander of our life.

  * The intellect is our tool to help us realize the truth and be in the NOW, with joy and peace.

  * Our biggest challenge is to overcome the ignorance and stop living in yesterday and tomorrow.

  * If we overcome ignorance, we can be happy in the NOW, all the time, moment by moment.

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CHAPTER 10

How to make

Happiness a Habit?

Anybody can be happy once in a Way,

e Sun will appear even on the days that are Grey.

ere will be times when bills we cannot Pay, But make it a HABIT to be Happy Today.

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    How to make Happiness a Habit?

Everybody is happy once in a way, but the challenge is not to be happy occasionally. We must learn to adopt a 'Happiness philosophy' that puts a smile on our face all the time.

Realize the truth about happiness

Happiness is not just about money, wealth, success and fame. Pleasure does give us happiness but sometimes, it also robs our peace. Contentment and fullment can be far more rewarding in the happiness journey. While happiness is different for different people, our challenge is to keep misery away and not to let it destroy our peace and joy. Yes, there are three peaks of happiness. One must evolve from the rst peak - Achievement to the second peak - Fullment. Then one should climb the third peak - Liberation - freedom from misery and sorrow. When we evolve from peak to peak, we can raise our happiness index.

You can be happy all the time

If somebody told you that this was a myth, you can prove them wrong. A sincere seeker of peace and joy doesn't build his happiness on constant desires. If you want to be happy all the time, you would learn to live with contentment. However, we are gifted with a mind that is a rascal. It will jump from happiness to misery, as it swings

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    How to make Happiness a Habit?

like a pendulum. It doesn't sit still. If we can restrain our mind from swinging into anxiety, then not only will we be peaceful, but will also live with joy. Most people think it is impossible to be happy all the time because they have never experienced such bliss. They have always submitted to their desires and have experienced disappointments. They have never stopped at their need as they let greed take over the reins of their life. Most importantly, they never learned to live in the present moment, moment by moment, blissfully and peacefully. But you can! If you follow the principles of 'Be Happy in the NOW', you can let misery be a thing of the past.

Know what makes you happy

Do you know what makes you happy? Unfortunately, most people don't. Therefore, in my rst book, I had prescribed that people must carry a simple happiness card in their pocket that lists out ten things that would make them happy. Different things ll the 'happiness list' of different people as each person is unique. For instance, my happiness list would be as follows.

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    How to make Happiness a Habit?

What makes me Happy

  1. Singing my favorite happy song

  2. Spending minutes in silent prayer

  3. Playing with my pet dog

  4. Going for a walk with my loved one

  5. Being silent, counting my blessings

  6. Going for a retreat in to the mountains

  7. Taking a good nap

  8. Meeting my group of positive friends

  9. Listening to some jokes, watching fun videos

10. Listening to an inspirational talk

My happiness list has evolved since then and now has more spiritual things listed. Each one of us may have different things. It may be a good meal or a drink or watching a good movie or spending time with the kids. If we don't have a happiness list, then when the moment of restlessness comes, we don't know what to do and we sink into misery. We must have a 'happiness list' all the time and we must try to do things that make us happy!

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    How to make Happiness a Habit?

Pull 'happiness triggers'

Each of us has several triggers that can unleash joy into our life. They are little triggers but they can create immense happiness. It may be just an ice cream or a cookie, but there are small things that can put a smile on our face.

Happiness triggers are different for different people and most people don't even know what triggers happiness in their life. Subconsciously, they will be able to separate what makes them happy from what makes them unhappy, but they don't maintain a ready list of triggers that they can pull when they want to. In fact, it seems people are too busy to be happy although they want to. Very few people focus on their happiness and do those things that give them joy each day.

If we really want to be happy, two things are very important. First, we must be conscious of our happiness triggers and have a ready list, not just in our mind, but also in our pocket, or our mobile phone, or laptop. The second more important thing is that we must have the resolve to pull these happiness triggers on a daily basis to keep happiness owing constantly in our life. There are a few people who unfortunately, think that too much happiness is not good. They even feel guilty to be happy all the time. Of course, they would not follow the suggestion of pulling happiness triggers every day.

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    How to make Happiness a Habit?

Kill 'joy stealers'

To be happy, it is as important to kill joy stealers as it is to pull happiness triggers. Sure, we must have a list of what makes us happy and we must pull those triggers. But what if there are some joy-stealers that are constantly stealing our happiness?

I came across several joy stealers along my journey of life. Some of them are fear, hate, worry, greed, anxiety, doubt, jealousy, anger, and revenge. Every time I was dancing in happiness, I could see one of these fugitives lurking in a corner trying to sneak in to steal my happiness.

On one occasion when I was celebrating my success, fear appeared and cast a shadow on my joy. Several times, my moments of bliss abruptly ended when anger took over. Once when I was excited about a great idea, my happiness was shot down by doubt.

If we really want to make happiness a part of our life, we must take stock of our joy stealers and eliminate their presence in our life.

To be happy, nd out what is making you unhappy and change that. Reverse, Re-choice and Rejoice!

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    How to make Happiness a Habit?

Flip from NEP to PEP

Another great way of making happiness a part of our everyday life, is to ip over from NEP to PEP. Have you heard of this? PEP is Positive Energy Power. When we live with positive emotions like faith, hope, love, courage, condence, enthusiasm, optimism and forgiveness, we create positive energy in our life. Surely, you must have experienced PEP in your life.

However, when we let negative emotions dominate our life, it creates NEP – Negative Energy Poison. We let negative emotions like fear, worry, anxiety, doubt, hate, revenge, jealousy, pessimism, and frustration intoxicate our life and make us miserable.

What has NEP and PEP got to do with happiness? I discovered an interesting secret: every negative has a corresponding positive, and if we make it a habit to ip from NEP to PEP, we can be happy. I used to ip from doubt to faith, from despair to hope and from hate to love. Instead of letting revenge dominate my emotions, I would replace it with forgiveness and instead of letting fear rule my thoughts, I would ip over to courage. This habit of ipping from NEP to PEP has gifted me a lot of joy and peace.

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    How to make Happiness a Habit?

Make it a habit

The challenge of being happy all the time is to cultivate a habit of being happy. Don't let happiness be a once in a while thing. Don't let it be something intermittent. Let there be a continuous ow of joy in your life, which is not interrupted by constant attacks of misery and sorry. Of course, there will be problems. A problem-free life is an illusion, it doesn't exist. But just because you have problems, it doesn't mean you have to be unhappy. Everybody has problems, but we must learn not to confuse our problems with our happiness. Problems come and problems go, and we must watch them without letting them destroy our joy and peace.

Those who make happiness a habit become experts with their happiness triggers, eliminating joy stealers. They ip from NEP to PEP. But most importantly, they learn to enjoy their life - moment by moment, in the NOW, making being happy, a Habit!

Don't just be Happy once in a Way. Smile & Dance whatever they Say. It's no use if you do this just Today. Make this a Habit, do this Everyday!

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    How to make Happiness a Habit?

Chapter 10 - Summary

How to make Happiness a Habit?

  * We must learn to adopt a 'happiness philosophy' that puts a smile on our face all the time, rather than being happy occasionally. It's about making happiness a habit.

  * Most people think that it is impossible to be happy all the time. They have never experienced such bliss. But how does one get liberated from misery and sorrow and remain happy ALL the time?

  * It is a good idea to have a 'happiness list' – a list of the things and activities which make you happy all the time.

  * We must identify our happiness triggers and destroy the joy stealers. We need to ip over from Negative Energy Poison - NEP to Positive Energy Power - PEP.

  * Finally, we need to make happiness a habit and learn to enjoy our life moment by moment, in the NOW, not just once in a way, not just today but every day!

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CHAPTER 11

Living in Acceptance and SUrrender

In every moment of Life,

When you Accept rather than Wonder,

And replace Hope with Surrender,

You can be Happy all the Time.

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    Living in Acceptance and Surrender

What is the secret to be happy in the NOW? If it's so easy, then why are people living in misery? People have not discovered the two keys that unlock this secret. These two keys teach us to be happy no matter what. They do not let the miseries that have gone by drown us, nor do they let anxiety destroy our peace. What are these keys?

Accept, don't wonder

The rst key is acceptance. Unfortunately, we human beings wonder at everything that happens. We question why this happened and why it did not happen in the way we thought was correct.

George was looking at a creeper with several melons on it and he wondered as he looked at a mango tree, "Why does such a big mango tree carry such small mangoes while the little creeper is burdened with such big melons?" he thought. Suddenly, a mango fell on his head and he prayed, "Thank God, melons don't grow on trees!"

We have no business to wonder. We have to learn to accept. Acceptance is a way of happiness. If you reect, you will realize that whatever has happened, has happened as per a plan or through other's actions and circumstances. Whatever happened, is over; it can't be changed! Why wonder? How would it help? The best way is to live with acceptance.

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Living in Acceptance and Surrender

We look up at the sky and wonder why it is raining. We wonder why someone sent us a rude email. We wonder why our secretary has not come to work. We keep on wondering, but what we don't realize, is when we wonder, we lose the moment of peace and joy.

Instead of wondering, if we let acceptance be our mental attitude, then we would be peaceful and happy. We would know that whatever has happened, has happened because that was the best thing to happen. In any case, we can't change it. But we can ruin our present moment of peace and joy by just wondering at whatever happens. We must do what best we can in the present circumstance. We shouldn't wonder! We should make it a habit to accept and we can be happy in the NOW.

Replace hope with surrender

The second key is to surrender. Most of us don't know how to live in "Surrender." Our life is lled with fear and anxiety. We really worry about what is going to happen and this worry destroys our peace.

Whatever is going to happen, is going to happen. We can at most, do the best we can. But constantly worrying about it doesn't help.

Tim sent a message to his girlfriend and she did not reply. She

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Living in Acceptance and Surrender

had read the message. He saw the indication, but somehow, this time, there was no response from her which was unusual. Tim got worried. Had his girlfriend ditched him? What happened to her? Had she eloped with somebody else? Hours passed by and the day turned to night. Tim couldn't sleep. He was worried. Heartbroken, he went to sleep in the early hours of the morning. The next day he got a call from an unknown number. It was his girlfriend. Her mobile phone had dropped into the river as she was reading his message the previous day. She spent hours trying to retrieve her mobile but she couldn't. Tim's worries, unnecessarily, made his day miserable.

We are all like Tim. We worry about every little thing and we become anxious. This is because we don't know how to live in surrender. Because of this, we lose our present moment of joy and peace. If we want to be happy in the NOW, we must replace hope with surrender. We must not go on hoping for things to happen the way we want them to happen. They won't! Several people due to various circumstances create a 'tomorrow' which is different from what we expected it to be. Learn to accept it. We must do our best in the present moment, but not worry. We must learn to surrender if we want to be happy. Otherwise, our life will be full of anxiety and fear.

A Divine Power controls the show

Do we control what happened yesterday and what is

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Living in Acceptance and Surrender

going to happen tomorrow? We only control what we do with our hands in this moment. But we don't control everything that happens in the world, just like when we go for a movie, we can decide with whom we are going, which theatre and which movie, but we cannot decide what is going to happen on the screen. We can choose popcorn or coffee, but we cannot decide what the actors will do in the next scene. We have no control on whether the people sitting in the theatre are suffering from a contagious viral fever. Then why worry about it? We can, instead, choose to watch a movie at our home theatre if we so prefer.

Our life is like a movie. Things are constantly happening. But we have no control over our life movie. There seems to be a Divine plan that is unfolding moment by moment. If we resist this plan from unfolding, we will be miserable. But if we accept the plan knowing that there is a Divine Power that writes the story-board of our life, we can be dancing with joy.

We can't change the past or the future

Can we change the past? Of course we can't! Everyone knows it. Some of us even believe we can change the future. Unfortunately, we can't. We can only control the present moment, and use our intellect to do our best. But

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Living in Acceptance and Surrender

imagining we can control the future, is a sure way to be miserable. There are factors beyond our control that are responsible for the future. We have to learn to live with acceptance and surrender, the two keys to being happy.

Live blissfully

Why not live blissfully in peace and joy? We have a choice. If we accept rather than wonder and replace hope with surrender, we can enjoy this show called life. We can enjoy every moment as it unfolds. We are not even sure how many more moments we have. But we have this moment – it is ours! Isn't it ridiculous to lose this moment that belongs to us, worrying about a moment that may never come? Isn't it sad that we think of the past which we cannot change rather than accepting whatever has happened, and be grateful for the present moment, and be happy?

If you refuse to accept the Past

Which you cannot Change,

And refuse to Surrender to the Future

at's not in your Range,

en you are sure to live with

Misery and Sorrow, and that is so Strange.

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    Living in Acceptance and Surrender

Chapter 11 - Summary

Living in Acceptance

and Surrender

  * There are two keys that unlock the secret to being happy in the NOW.

  * These two keys teach us to be happy no matter what. They do not let the miseries that have gone by drown us, nor do they let anxiety destroy our peace.

  * The rst key is 'Acceptance'. We have to learn to accept instead of wondering. Acceptance is a way to happiness.

  * The second key is 'Surrender'. We must learn to surrender if we want to be happy. Otherwise our life will be full of anxiety and fear.

  * We only control what little we do with our hands. We don't control everything that happens in the world.

  * There seems to be a Divine plan that is unfolding moment by moment.

  * We have to learn to live with acceptance and surrender, the two keys to being happy.

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CHAPTER 12

Enjoying the Present Moment

Carpe Diem means Seize the Day!

Make the best of it in Every way...

Don't lose a moment come what may

Forget about tomorrow...

Just Live Today!

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    Enjoying the Present Moment

The simplest secret of happiness is to be happy moment by moment in the present. Most people let the moment pass without enjoying it. They lose the moment and with it lose the opportunity of being happy.

We lose our greatest treasure

Most of us think that our money, our material possessions, and our relationships are the important assets that we possess. We don't realize that our greatest treasure is the moment we have. If we don't have this moment, then nothing belongs to us. If we lose the next moment, and it is snatched away from us, whatever we thought belonged to us would cease to belong to us. Our most important treasure is the moment. Still, we lose it needlessly. We could be happy enjoying the moment, but we let the moment get destroyed. How does this happen? The moment is ours to enjoy. If we don't use it, then we lose it and with it, the opportunity to be happy. We have a choice to be happy moment by moment, enjoying every moment, but unfortunately, we don't.

Carpe Diem

This lovely phrase Carpe Diem challenges us to 'Seize the Day.' Why has this phrase become a global favourite? Because most people lose the present moment worrying about the future. So Carpe Diem reminds us to make the

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    Enjoying the Present Moment

most of the present time. The Roman poet Horace expressed this in 23 BC but it has still not been understood by humanity 2000 years later. In Latin, Carpe Diem is also translated as 'pluck the day' which means living life to the fullest.

Carpe Diem – Enjoy the day – seize the moment – live in the present, is such an inspiring phrase known to the world but practised only by few.

Enjoy today

Are you enjoying today? Is your 'today' lled with joy and peace or have you already started your day on the wrong foot? Don't feel embarrassed. Most of us do. We jump into the day and we worry about what people say and think that the skies will be cloudy and grey. Don't lose today. Catch hold of it now. Correct your attitude. Whatever may be happening around you, let it not affect your own happiness. Happiness is how you feel. The world around you may be in turmoil, but if you learn to count your blessings and live in peace, you can be joyous. Make a commitment to be happy today and it starts by enjoying the now. Find a way to be happy now. It may be a happy thought, a happy song, a happy friend or any happy trigger that can make you smile. Do it now! Then don't let go of the commitment to be happy. Be conscious of your resolution that you want to be happy now. You want to ll

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    Enjoying the Present Moment

today with happiness.

Make gratitude your attitude

If we live with an attitude of gratitude, we can become happy instantly. We forget to count our blessings and thus lose the attitude of gratitude. We criticize and complain when we compare our life with others. We don't count our blessings for the seven wonders that we are gifted with, wonders that are more wondrous than the wonders of the world – our eyes, our ears, our nose, our mouth, our hands, our head and our heart. Imagine if we lost one of them, how would life be? Still there are many people who are blind, deaf or dumb. We must appreciate that we are blessed. We must be grateful. This simple attitude of gratitude can make us happy.

God I am grateful today,

For all things that cash can't pay!

What would life be without eyes to see!

Wonder, without music, how happy could I be?

"Thank you Lord!" are the words I say,

Every moment on this Gratitude day.

Be in the NOW

The biggest challenge is to be in the NOW. If only we can

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    Enjoying the Present Moment

do this one thing, we can enjoy the present moment. We slip out of the moment and we are lost somewhere. Then, how can we enjoy it? If we are not conscious of this moment, and we open the bucket of this moment to let regret and fear ll it, then the moment is full of negative garbage. It is important to protect the moment. Our moment is our biggest treasure. We have no other goal but to ll this moment with joy. But we can only do it if we become conscious of the moment and we don't lose it to our enemies.

Be happy always

It is not difcult to be happy always. It's all about staying happy moment by moment, isn't it? But don't let go of it when the next moment unfolds. Let's be happy and continue being happy moment by moment, then we can be happy forever. If we can be in the moment, we have achieved the objective of being happy always. We don't have to be happy 'yesterday' – we can't! We can't be happy 'tomorrow' as it doesn't exist. We all know the fact that the only thing we have is the present moment and we know it is possible to be happy in this moment. That's all we need to do. When this moment turns into the next, we must not lose the moment that arrives. We must grasp it with love and make the best of it. Living moment by moment joyously, we can be happy always.

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    Enjoying the Present Moment

If with an a itude of gratitude

you choose to Live,

Being happy in the NOW

you Love and Give,

en you can be Happy all the while,

If only in Each Moment you choose to Smile.

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    Enjoying the Present Moment

Chapter 12 - Summary

Enjoying the Present Moment

  * The simplest secret of happiness is to be happy moment by moment.

  * We don't realize that our greatest treasure is the moment we have.

  * Whatever may be happening around us, it should not affect our own happiness.

  * Happiness is how we feel. We need to make it a commitment to enjoy today and it starts by enjoying NOW. We should not let go of this commitment to be happy and always be conscious of our resolution that we want to be happy now.

  * We must appreciate that we are blessed and we must be grateful. This simple attitude of gratitude can make us happy.

  * It is not difcult to be happy always. All it needs is that we must develop the habit of being happy moment by moment, every moment we live.

  * When this moment turns into the next, we must not lose the moment that arrives, and we must remain joyous.

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CHAPTER 13

Don't shuttle between Yesterday and Tomorrow

If you shut the door on Yesterday And close the door to Tomorrow, And you live life Moment by Moment, ere will only be Joy and No Sorrow.

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Don't shuttle between Yesterday and Tomorrow

If we want to be happy in the NOW, there is only one way. We must shut the door on 'yesterday' and not open the door to 'tomorrow'. We must live in a day-tight compartment. If we live in the moment, we can be happy.

Kill the monkey

Who looks back at 'yesterday' and who peeps into 'tomorrow'? It is the monkey in us, our own mind. It has a dirty habit, it tries to jump on a tree called 'yesterday' and in the next moment, it plunges on to a branch called 'tomorrow'. Unfortunately, while we can't go to 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow', the monkey mind can. While it jumps from the past to the future, it robs away our present moment of happiness. We must try to kill this monkey, but in reality, we can't. As long as we are alive, we will have thoughts. Bundles of thoughts together become the mind. If we sit quietly and try to nd the mind, we can't! We must realize the truth - the mind that seems to be a naughty rascal is an illusion. The only way to destroy the mind is to transcend it.

The weapon is the intellect

How does one transcend the mind? The only way to capture the mind is to take charge of our thoughts. Two methods help us to be in the NOW.

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Don't shuttle between Yesterday and Tomorrow

First of all, we have to reduce the speed at which thoughts are produced in us. This is referred to as MTR, our Mental Thought Rate. The slowing down of the mind can be done through silence, meditation, and focused thinking. Once we have a lower MTR, what next?

Then we must put our intellect in charge of our thoughts. Our intellect is our weapon that discriminates each thought. If we sharpen this weapon to be fully effective, it will stop the monkey from jumping to 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow'.

Don't suffer in yesterday

What is the point of jumping back to 'yesterday'?

Victor was blessed with everything one could wish for. He was rich, healthy, had a good family and a great business. But he was unhappy because he had a mind that loved to look back. "Why are you unhappy, Dad?" his son asked him. "Oh, I feel so sad that we got only 19 out of the 20 contracts that we pitched for," he replied. "But Dad, isn't it great that we got 19?" asked his son.

"Why are you not able to sleep, Victor?" his wife asked. "It is because our daughter used to drink and come home late every night." "But Victor, thank God, she stopped that three months ago!" his wife said. "Yes, sure, but I wish she never did it!" said Victor.

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    Don't shuttle between Yesterday and Tomorrow

Then Victor would pray to God. "My best friend Tom died. I feel so miserable after he left me last year!" Tom was Victor's pup, a St. Bernard.

Victor had everything going good in his life, but he had a mind that lived in the past. Of what use is it for us to live in the past? Apart from making us miserable, does it help in any way? It just makes us suffer yesterday's misery today!

Don't be anxious about tomorrow

Somebody asked Roger, "Why do you keep looking at your mobile phone?" He replied, "Oh! There are so many replies that I am waiting for. My son has not replied to several messages that I had sent him yesterday. I had sent a business proposal and I am eagerly waiting for a response to that. I had asked my assistant to book movie tickets tomorrow and I wonder what happened. I also told my travel agent to book my travel tickets for next week and he has not yet reverted." Roger said, "You don't understand. I am waiting for dozens of responses. People are so slow, that I have to constantly look at my mobile."

Roger seemed to suffer from the disease of "Anxietus," being unnecessarily anxious about the future. Can he control anyone's responses – he can't! Then what is the point in going on worrying about people's replies? Things will happen – that should not affect his present moment of joy and peace. By constantly looking at his mobile, Roger

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Don't shuttle between Yesterday and Tomorrow

was only creating stress for himself losing the present moment. He could make a call, send a message to follow up but constantly looking at his messages was of no use.

When we become anxious of the future, we lose the present moment of joy. We replace our peace of the present with anxiety of the future. The future doesn't exist. It is an illusion. But we create stress by imagining everything with pessimism and we become anxious and unhappy. There is no point going into the future, we can't! We can do everything possible now with our best efforts, but we can't do anything beyond. What we can do is to not destroy our present moment of joy.

Be happy today, NOW

Happiness is not such a complicated matter but we complicate it by shuttling between the past and future. We keep thinking about what is over and we keep worrying about what is yet to come and, in the bargain, we murder the present moment. We kill the joy of 'today'. We destroy the peace of the NOW. What a pity, isn't it? Instead of living blissfully and peacefully in the NOW, we keep on doing a postmortem of what is over, and we keep on imagining what may never happen. We must stop this shuttling business. We must stop going from 'yesterday' to 'tomorrow' like a pendulum. That is the best way to be happy in the NOW.

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    Don't shuttle between Yesterday and Tomorrow

ere is no way to be happy in the Future,

ere is no joy that you can taste going to the Past.

But if you shu le between Yesterday and Tomorrow,

en your peace and joy will not Last.

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    Don't shuttle between Yesterday and Tomorrow

Chapter 13 - Summary

Don't shuttle between

yesterday and Tomorrow

  * If we want to be happy in the NOW, we should not look back at 'yesterday' and also should not open the door to 'tomorrow'.

  * Unfortunately, while we can't go to 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow', the monkey mind jumps between the past and the future.

  * If we sit quietly and try to nd the mind, we can't! The only way to destroy the mind is to transcend it.

  * How does one transcend the mind? We can do it through silence, meditation or focused thinking and reduce the speed at which thoughts are produced in us, our MTR - Mental Thought Rate.

  * Once we slow down the mind, then we must put our intellect in charge of our thoughts.

  * Happiness is not complicated but we complicate it by shuttling between the past and future, like a pendulum. We must stop this.

  * We must be happy in the NOW

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CHAPTER 14

Be Conscious

of the NOW

Either we can be Conscious of the NOW,

Or we can be grazing like a cow.

Chewing thoughts one by one,

Losing life till it is done.

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We must be conscious of the NOW. This is the ultimate secret of being happy always. How is this possible? What does this mean? We must get hold of NOW as if we are grabbing it by the neck and we must not let the NOW escape. This is very difcult, actually impossible because all the time the mind is stealing our NOW and robbing us of our present moment of peace and joy. Then, how can we be conscious of the NOW all the time?

Don't be the slave of the mind and senses

The problem is that we are the slaves of our senses. They are looking outwards. The eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and skin - all of our ve senses are sensing the world outside and sending messages to our mind. This does not permit us to remain in the Now. The NOW escapes to eeting thoughts as they zoom by. The mind jumps like a monkey from thought to thought. In the bargain, we lose consciousness of the NOW. To get hold of the NOW, we need to stop thinking and this is practically impossible. Even if we shut all of our ve senses, we may be able to reduce the thought rate but the mind will still think. It just doesn't stop thinking!

Even when we sleep the mind doesn't stop, it dreams. It takes us to a fantasy world or makes us scream in a nightmare. We get the experience of bliss when the mind

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stops thinking. That happens after we wake up from a dreamless sleep and we feel like we have slept like a log. We feel so refreshed and blissful.

Now understanding this background, how can we be happy all the time? We can be happy all the time if we are conscious of the truth that it is only possible to be happy in the present moment. If we are not conscious of the NOW, and we let the mind swing us away from the present moment, we deprive ourselves of moments of joy.

Grab one happy thought and live in the moment

Do we want to carry all the load of the past and the pressure of the future or do we want to be happy in this moment, thinking of just one happy thought? That's the secret! To be able to grab hold of one happy thought of the NOW and not let the mind rob our happy thought replacing it with a miserable one of the past or the future.

We may be walking on the beach blissful, joyous, and peaceful, but if we are not conscious of that beautiful moment and if we are not committed to being happy, then the mind tries to steal our consciousness. Don't let that happen! Be conscious of your peace and bliss, and that's the ultimate secret of being happy all the time.

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Realize your true self

We must be conscious of our real self, the Divine Spirit that we actually are. We are not the body, nor the mind, though we have a body and mind. We are encapsulated in a body-mind complex but we must be conscious of who we truly are \- the Consciousness itself. This is being conscious of ourselves in the NOW.

Suppose we are going to eat strawberries on the beach. Let's enjoy that with our full consciousness. Let's not be distracted from the joy of eating strawberries. Normally, we don't enjoy the act of eating strawberries - our attention wanders. When we are eating the fruit, the eyes see something else and the mind jumps to what the eyes are seeing, and we lose our consciousness. Then we hear something and our mind thinks of the past. We touch something in our pocket and our mind jumps to the future. The mind is an expert in stealing the NOW and we fail to live being conscious of the present moment, enjoying it.

Our goal is happiness

We lose our happiness and the moment of joy because our mind takes us away to a not-so-happy thought or concern, fear, worry, regret - whatever it is! The mind robs our happiness, by destroying our consciousness.

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If our goal is happiness and our ultimate objective is joy, then why lose it even for a moment? Realistically, to live, we have to open our senses and mind, but we should not lose our consciousness. We must be conscious of the NOW, and be happy in the moment. Whatever happens, why should anybody or anything rob our peace and happiness?

We are not conscious of the present moment

Sadly and most unfortunately, this is happening all the time. We are unable to be conscious of the moment and our resolve to be happy in it, fails. We just slip away into misery and sorrow. Sometimes it may be anger that makes us slip away, and we lose consciousness of the present moment. We don't even realize it.

We spend so many minutes in frustration and irritation that we lose our happiness to some silly matter. Much later, we become conscious and regret it. But, by then, our moment of joy and peace is gone. We lost so many happy moments to a joy stealer. This is because we were not conscious of 'that' present moment.

Be conscious of valuable moments

If we want to be happy in the NOW, all the time, our

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challenge is to be conscious in the present moment and not lose our consciousness. Somebody may say of course, "I am conscious, and I am not sleeping." But this is not the consciousness we are discussing. We are talking of being conscious of the present moment. Being conscious of our happiness and peace, being conscious of the joy stealers that try to rob our moments and with it our happiness. We must be conscious of our happiness, our joy, peace, and bliss. We must be conscious of our moments, our life, and our objective. We must be conscious of the surroundings, the stealers who make us disappointed and miserable. Stop the joy stealers by being conscious!

If we are not conscious of our life, moment by moment, we cannot be happy all the time. It's all about living life moment by moment and this is possible if we are conscious of each moment. Come what may, we can be happy and peaceful!

Accept whatever happens being Conscious of the moment

If we are conscious of the truth, that nothing is real, that everything is transitory, then we won't lose our happiness. For instance, somebody stole our book, it's gone. It was a precious book, no doubt, but we can't seem to nd it. Our normal reaction would be to fret and fume over it and

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become miserable. Now, we are conscious of the moment and we want to be happy. The book is stolen and it can't come back. Maybe we left our book in a train yesterday. It's gone. We must be conscious of the fact and accept it. We can make some effort trying to recover the book, but not become miserable about it. Trying to recover the lost book by losing hours and days in misery only robs our peace and joy. Instead, shouldn't we accept the fact and then peacefully do what we can, without worrying about it?

It is possible if we are conscious of the moment and the situation. If we become slaves to circumstances and thoughts, we cannot be conscious of our valuable moments. That's our challenge to be conscious of the NOW.

Hold the mind and don't let it wander

Being happy in the NOW is all about this. It's about being conscious. It's about not being carried away by our mind to the past and future, being in the present moment by holding the mind, and stopping the rascal mind from wandering. The mind is a monkey that keeps jumping and with it, it takes away our consciousness. It doesn't let us be still.

Being conscious is all about being still. It's about enjoying

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the moment, moment by moment, come what may. We don't need to be a millionaire to be happy. To be happy in the moment we can just be enjoying the trees, the breeze, and the seas. We must enjoy our surroundings, enjoy the people around us, enjoy every moment as it unfolds. We can do this only if we become conscious of the moment. How else can we be in the NOW? We can't! We can only be in the NOW when our consciousness transcends our mind. Otherwise, we will be like a puppet to our mind and it will make us jump and dance and we will never be conscious in the NOW.

We are 'human beings' not 'human doings'

Our challenge is to be in the NOW. Being in the NOW is all about CONSCIOUSNESS. It's all about holding on to each moment of life as it unfolds. It is nothing else, it's just BEING. That's why we are called 'human beings' not 'human doings'. But we are, in fact, all the time just doing and this doing stops us from being. It stops us from being conscious of our peace and joy.

This is the ultimate secret of being in the NOW - being happy in the NOW. It's about being conscious now, being aware, awake and living every moment joyously.

Happiness is actually simple, we complicate it. We can be

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happy, very happy and peaceful, but we are not. We are rarely in the present moment and this is the main cause of our misery and sorrow. We just try to do things as if life is a Race and we must be an Ace, and we get caught in the Maze.

Losing the present moment makes us unhappy

This entire book talks about how we jump from yesterday to tomorrow, from the past to the future. That's great but the last part is the ultimate secret, the challenge. It's about how to be still and happy in the present moment. We can do it if we learn the art of being conscious. We should become aware and alert of each moment. However, if we lose the moment, if we lose our consciousness, then nothing can make us happy.

So this is the key, the ultimate secret of being in the NOW. Once we are in the now, it's easy to be happy. So we must learn to be conscious in the NOW. When we lose our consciousness and we become upset, angry, and unhappy

  * what do we do? We take our happiness and throw it into a dustbin. We take our joy and ush it down the drain. This is because we have lost the consciousness of being happy. We could be blissful and joyous but then our mind, the rascal, the monkey - it takes us away from our peace, joy, and bliss. It robs us from our happiness; it robs us from our

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consciousness of that moment of joy and takes us away on a journey of sorrow and misery. That's why we should be conscious, conscious of the moment, conscious of the NOW, and conscious of being happy in the NOW. That's the ultimate secret about being happy in the now.

e mind is like a monkey,

It makes of us a donkey.

It jumps om thought to thought,

And thus Conscious we are not.

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Chapter 14 - Summary

Be Conscious of the NOW

  * We must be conscious of the NOW. This is the ultimate secret of being happy always.

  * The mind jumps like a monkey from thought to thought. In the bargain, we lose consciousness of the NOW.

  * We should be conscious of the present moment. If we are not conscious of our life, moment by moment, we cannot be happy all the time.

  * We must be conscious of our real self, the Divine Spirit that we are.

  * If we are conscious of the truth, that nothing is real, that everything is transitory, then we won't lose our happiness.

  * Once we are in the now, it's easy to be happy. That's why we should be conscious, conscious of the moment, conscious of the NOW, and conscious of being happy in the NOW.

  * This is the ultimate secret of Being Happy in the NOW.

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CHAPTER 15

Simple tips – how to be Happy Always

e Secret of Happiness -

Enjoy what you are doing

Or stop and do what you enjoy NOW!

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Simple tips – how to be Happy Always

We can be happy if we really want to be happy. It's not so difcult to live a life of joy and peace if we discover the secrets of happiness and make them principles by which we live. This chapter consolidates all that we need to do to be happy.

You must WANT to be happy

If we don't want to be happy, nobody can make us happy. We must have a passion for peace and joy. Happiness must be our priority. Sometimes, it makes us look selsh, but then, if we are not happy, how can we make others happy? We must really WANT to be happy.

Let Being Happy be a Priority.

Put Happiness above everything else,

Because it is the True Goal of Life.

Know what makes you happy

If we don't know what makes us happy, how can we be happy? If we just wish for happiness, it will never happen. We must do the things that make us happy, but if we do not know what makes us happy, how can we do it? We must, therefore, have a clear 'happiness list' that consolidates everything that makes us happy.

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Pull happiness triggers

If we want to be happy, not only must we KNOW what makes us happy, we must also DO things that make us happy. If you feel happy going to a beach, then go! Don't just sit and dream of it, wishing that you will go one day.

Therefore, if we want to be happy, we must pull the triggers that unleash bliss and joy in our life. These triggers are exclusive and will not work for everyone. But we know what makes us happy and we must do just that.

Eliminate joy stealers

What can stop us from being happy? Negative emotions can steal our joy. We must consciously eliminate these negative emotions from our life. Some of the joy stealers that we must eliminate are, fear, worry, hate, anger, revenge, doubt, and anxiety. There may be many more joy stealers that rob happiness. We must become conscious of them and eliminate them one by one. Sometimes, it is not an emotion, but a person or circumstance that steals our happiness. We must choose only those thoughts, feelings, emotions and people that make us happy.

Evolve from Achievement to Fulllment

If we live a life that is only seeking pleasure, we will have

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patches of sunshine, but our life will be scattered with sorrow. Sure, it is great to have achievement, monetary success, name, and fame as these give pleasure. But true happiness comes from the peace that is born out of contentment. We must learn to evolve from the rst peak of happiness, Achievement to the second peak, Fulllment that is built on the principle of being fully content and satised. Fulllment can give us far more joy and peace than achievement. We reach this peak when we live our life focusing on our need and not our greed.

Life is not just about chasing millions. It's about achieving happiness and nding fullment in what you do.

Be content and peaceful

If we want to be happy, we must learn to be content. There are people in this world who are very rich, famous and enjoy all the pleasures that one can dream of. Still, they are unhappy, because they live with greed. They are not content with what they have, although they may be amongst the richest in the world. Compare them with some humble people who have little but still are very happy because they are content and satised with their life. We must never forget that happiness does not depend on what we have, but how we feel.

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Living with positive emotions

Those who want to be happy ll their life with emotions that are positive. They live with faith, hope, and trust. They ll their life with inspiration and enthusiasm. They are courageous and create love and laughter. Such people forgive and forget. They are compassionate, humble and cheerful. If we really want to be happy, it's not so difcult if we choose to ll our life with such positive emotions. These positive emotions act as a fuel that generate happiness and peace in our life.

Don't be a slave

Some of us lose our happiness because we become a slave to Fences, Farces, Forces, and Faces. We let some fences imprison us and we give up our freedom. Sometimes, it is a farce, a superstition or a myth that steals our happiness. Often, it is people, some faces that just make us miserable, but somehow, we keep thinking about them or meeting them again and again, although we can avoid it. If not for these, we let some force corner us into misery. We must stop these '4F's' from making us miserable. We must take charge of each moment and destroy anything that robs our happiness.

Build a Universal Connection

Many people may not understand this one. But if we want

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to be happy, we must connect with the source of happiness. People think that happiness is in their hand. But it is not so. There is a factor beyond human effort that is responsible for our happiness. You may have everything in life that makes you happy but all of a sudden, you are aficted with a serious disease. It came from nowhere. But what can you do about it?

It was somebody's 50th birthday and they spent millions arranging a champagne lunch on a bright summer morning. All of a sudden, there was a storm that blew up all the arrangements.

This universe is managed by certain universal laws, controlled by a Power that is beyond human comprehension. Those who build a connection with the Universal Power, are blessed. It seems like some magical grace has been poured upon them, making them peaceful and happy. We must try building a Universal Connection - it has been one of my strongest happiness pillars.

Live with love and laughter

Happiness ows to those who are cheerful. They smile and make others smile. Love ows out of them like a natural waterfall. This simple recipe of happiness, to love and live, laugh and give and then forgive, ensures happiness for life.

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Faith, hope, and enthusiasm

There are certain happiness pillars without which our life will crumble to sorrow and misery.

FAITH \- Full Assurance in the Heart is one such pillar. If we live with Faith, we can be happy.

HOPE – Having only Positive Expectations, this makes us cope with all the troubles and sorrows of life.

ENTHUSIASM \- It is born out of the words 'En Theos' or 'in God' which means that God is within. It is the emotion that people choose to make them live with God. They trust in God, have faith in God and believe in God.

We don't know who God is, where God is or what God is, but God is. If we live with Faith, Hope, and Enthusiasm, God showers our life with happiness.

Make others happy

Once, in a conference, a group of 50 people was attentively listening to the speaker. Suddenly, the speaker stopped and decided to do a group activity. All the people were asked to stand in a queue. He then started giving each person a balloon and they were asked to write their names on their respective balloons using a marker pen.

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After this, all the balloons were collected and put inside another room. Next, they were asked to enter the room full of balloons to nd the balloon with their name written on it within ve minutes.

Everyone frantically started searching for the balloon with their name, colliding, bumping and crashing into each other, pushing their way through the crowd, thereby making the atmosphere of the room utterly chaotic. At the end of ve minutes, not even a single person could nd his or her own balloon.

At the end, the speaker did something different. He asked each person to just pick one balloon, call out that name and give it to the person whose name was written on it. Within minutes, everyone had their own balloon in their hands.

The speaker reected on what this exercise meant. This, he said, is exactly what's happening in all of our lives. Everyone is desperately looking around for happiness, but no one knows where to nd it. Our happiness lies in the happiness of other people. Give them their happiness, and in return, you will get your own happiness.

If we want a simple and instant way to be happy, here it is. Stop and make someone happy now. Make somebody smile, appreciate somebody, say something positive and kind, give somebody a chocolate or extend a helping hand. There is no simpler way to be happy than to make others happy.

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To be Happy and to make others Happy -

are the two best things to do in life.

Live with tranquility and peace

We must remember that happiness is built on a foundation of peace and tranquility. Where there is no peace, there can be no happiness. Therefore, we must learn to build a foundation of peace. We must remove unnecessary anxieties, worries, and fears by living peacefully in the present. We must not let anybody or anything rob our peace of mind, because with our peace, goes our happiness.

Aspire to reach the third peak

If we really want to be happy, we must evolve to the third and ultimate peak of happiness. The rst is Achievement, the second is Fulllment, and the third is Liberation from misery and sorrow.

This third peak is not for everybody. It is only for those genuine seekers who want ultimate and everlasting peace and joy. They go on a quest to realize the truth. Once they realize that they are immortal souls, they are liberated from all kinds of misery and live a life of eternal peace and joy.

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Freedom from misery

How do we achieve freedom from misery? By realizing that misery is born from the disappointment that is triggered by desire. If we are intelligent enough to live a life of desirelessness, we are sure to overcome disappointment and misery. Unfortunately, most of us crave and become a slave instead of seeking happiness which is already within us.

Be conscious of the truth

If we really want to be happy, we must be conscious of the truth that we have a body, but we are not the body. The body may suffer, but we don't need to suffer, although we feel the impact of the suffering. We have a mind, but we are not the mind. We should not entertain the turbulences that are generated by the roller coaster mind. If we become conscious of our true identity, one who watches the body and mind, then we can reach a state of Nirvana – a state that knows no suffering.

You are happiness

We often forget that we are happiness ourselves. We live and die like a musk deer. The musk deer roams the jungles in the Himalayas and constantly craves for the fragrance of the musk. It goes round and round in the jungle searching

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for it. Unfortunately, the musk deer does not realize that the musk it is looking for lies within the receptacle of its own naval. In that mad frenzy, searching for the musk, it falls off the cliff and dies. Hunters cut open the pouch that has the musk to retrieve it.

Like the musk deer, we too search for happiness that lies within us, but we are ignorant of this truth. If we want to be happy, we must realize this truth. Then, we will stop seeking happiness outside and learn to just "Be Happy".

Everything beautiful is Divine

A mystical way of being happy is to realize the secret of beauty. There is a beauty within us, the life energy itself that makes us the beautiful human being that we are. Every other human being also has this beautiful power. Not just a human being, the buttery and the bee, the ower and the tree and most of what we see, has this life energy that causes the beauty in it. Those who experience eternal bliss and joy see the universal beauty as one with them and become blissful, peaceful and joyous. As they live moment by moment, they are conscious of this truth that the beauty within them is the beauty which they experience all around and this makes them live with ecstasy.

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Ultimately be happy moment by moment

We have so many options to choose from on this journey of happiness and in reality, happiness should not be a challenge. However, the only guaranteed way to be happy is this – be happy moment by moment. It's great to learn all the other happiness secrets and let them assist us in living a happy life, but life is all about moments. And if we can be happy in the present moment - NOW, we can be happy forever.

Be happy in the NOW. Don't think of yesterday, don't worry about tomorrow. Don't suffer in the misery of the past and the future. Delete these from your life. Let only the NOW remain. Fill it with peace, joy, and bliss and you can be happy NOW and forever.

You can be Peaceful & Blissful,

Just Live in the Now.

Just Live Moment by Moment,

Without asking Why & How!

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HOW I REMAIN HAPPY ALL THE TIME !

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

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This is true! I am so Happy, so Peaceful and Blissful, and I remain in this state all the time. I, myself, transcended to this state of Eternal Bliss and Eternal Peace. After writing two books on happiness, 'I Wanna be Happy' and 'The 3 Peaks of Happiness', what made me write another book, my third on happiness?

The fact is that the whole world is seeking happiness. This is the goal of human life. Whatever we want, the ultimate objective is happiness. But somehow we are not happy all the time. We lose our joy to our own mind, our biggest enemy.

I have written so many books on self-realization, law of Karma, realization of the Truth and God, our world as the Cosmic Drama, and the mind. I realized that we are essentially, not happy because of a simple problem - we are not conscious of the present moment and ignorant of the Truth. We are constantly losing moments of happiness. Then I had another 'Aha!' moment. If only we can be happy moment by moment, we can be happy, genuinely happy all the time.

I went into a study of happiness again and decided to add another book to my library of authored books on happiness, with my own personal discovery, and experience on happiness. Let me share it with you.

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HOW MY LIFE HAS EVOLVED...my happiness journey

I too started my life like anybody, wanting success, money, wealth, pleasure, name and fame. Then I realized that happiness is different. It's not just about pleasure or money. I realized that true happiness came from making a difference. It came from spending money, not just earning it. So, I shut shop, and transformed my life. I started doing humanitarian, inspirational and spiritual work. This gave me true joy. But I realized this only at 40, after 25 years of my work life.

Then for 8 years, I lived a life of peace and joy making a difference rather than making money. However, I realized that this too was not the ultimate peak of happiness. I discovered the nal peak of happiness after my quest - my search for the true meaning of life.

Not only did I nd a life purpose, along with it I realized the truth that ultimate happiness with eternal peace came from liberation of misery and sorrow, which came from realization

First, I was on the rst peak 'Achievement', enjoying life only with pleasure. Then I evolved and went on to live a life of contentment and fullment in the second peak of happiness. Finally, I discovered the third peak, Liberation or Enlightenment, after the realization that we are not the

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body - we don't have to suffer the physical pain that the body does, and we don't have to suffer the emotional pain of the mind. We can be liberated from misery.

I scaled these mountains of joy, bliss and peace, and had another aha moment. What was that?

WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY ALL THE TIME

I was still unhappy at times...why, I wondered!

Then I realized it was the monkey, my own mind.

It was swinging me into the past and making me miserable in the memories of something that was over.

Next, it was taking me to the future with fears which were unreal.

I watched my mind. I tried to talk to my mind but it would not listen. It kept jumping like a monkey that it is. I realized that the problem was that I was not in the moment. This was an aha moment for me.

I said "no", I shall stop and be in the NOW, in this MOMENT and I found a new secret to be happy, to be happy in the NOW!

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I thought: why should I let my mind make me miserable in the miseries of the past and the fears of the future? Why should I let my mind live in a yesterday that is gone and a tomorrow not yet born? I did a complete study on this, and it helped me to remain in a state of constant joy and bliss, peacefully in union with the Divine. Today, I live a life of amazing peace, joy and bliss. Why? Because I live life moment by moment. I don't let my mind jump. I catch the monkey and tie it down. I live joyously, being conscious of the NOW.

I realize I am not the body and though the body suffers, I know that I am not the one who is suffering, but the home in which I am alive is undergoing some pain.

Then when the mind jumps, trying to make me miserable with negative thoughts, I separate myself from it. I know I am not the mind, I realize this truth and I go back to the moment, living moment by moment, in joy bliss and peace.

Earlier, I would become miserable in a thought of the past, my mind would nurse it, curse it and rehearse it, but now I reverse it, and in fact I just come back to the NOW, being truly conscious of the present moment.

I don't let the mind go to yesterday, or to the past. I don't

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even let it go to tomorrow or the future. I just let it enjoy the present moment. This gives me so much peace, joy, bliss.

BE HAPPY IN THE NOW is a simple but very effective way of being happy all the time, it's my personal journey, my own life experience and I consider myself to be fortunate to be among the happiest in the world.

I look around and see RICH people, very rich millionaires and billionaires, but I realize that they are miserable. They live with stress, worry, and do not truly enjoy life. In reality, they are so poor!

Is life all about money, success, power, fame? We can clearly see that we take nothing with us. We are in fact prisoners of our own mind, our own desires, that make us crave till our grave.

I feel sad for these rich people. They are the poorest of the poor. Then I see different people swinging with their monkeys, their own minds. I see them jumping into yesterday and tomorrow as they lose the gift, the gift of the PRESENT and I feel sad for them too. They don't realize it and the problem is that they repeat it again and again.

Sad, isn't it? We are slaves of our own mind, we don't know how to be happy because we don't know how to live

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in the now, in the present moment. If only we did, life could be a continuous river of joy and peace.

But instead, we enjoy WAVES, waves of joy and sorrow, because we jump from now to yesterday, from now to tomorrow. This constant jumping like a monkey makes us enjoy intermittent happiness, not a continuous stream of bliss and peace.

With this book, I hope to inspire people to live life moment by moment, as they commit to being happy, and evolve from one peak to another, from achievement to fulllment and then to liberation after the realization of the truth, but as they do, I wish that they don't lose a moment, not even one moment in unhappiness. I wish people live each moment of life with Joy, Bliss, and Peace.

We can be happy in the NOW... it's possible. It's not difcult, it's easy, no matter what, if only we realize that we can be happy if we are conscious of the NOW. This is the ultimate secret of everlasting Bliss, Peace, and Joy.

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Afterword - Summary

How I Remain Happy All The Time!

  * I live in the present moment, moment by moment, blissfully and peacefully. By following the principles of 'Be Happy in the NOW,' misery is a thing of the past.

  * I am HAPPY all the time because I have realized, "I am not the body, not the mind, I am the Life Energy, the Divine Power within."

  * Everything is an Illusion. Nothing is real. I enjoy every moment that unfolds as a Cosmic Drama of the Creator

  * I accept everything as the Divine Will and surrender to 'whatever will be!'

  * I am not a prisoner. I am free from desires and lust, duty and shame, living as a Liberated Soul in Bliss.

  * I am conscious of every moment and live it with joy. This is the ultimate secret of being happy always.

  * I live with faith, belief, and trust. I am enthusiastic.

  * I don't live with the regrets of the past. I don't live in the fear of the future. I live in the present moment 'NOW' - Quiet, Tranquil, and Peaceful.

  * Happiness is in the NOW. I am Happy NOW. I don't lose a moment in misery. So I am happy all the time.

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     POEM

What's the use of crying, in a Yesterday that's gone?

What's the point of worrying, in a Tomorrow not yet born?

Why not live in bliss and joy and peace?

In the present moment be happy, be happy, can we please?

Be happy in the NOW, this moment is a Gift

Smile and dance and celebrate, don't just exist or drift

It is in this moment, that we can choose to be happy and glad Let's not lose this moment, to memories that make us sad

Yesterday is a place, that we just can't go

The past is an illusion, it's like a dream- a stage show

There is no way of being happy, in a moment that has passed

The only thing it will give us, regrets that will last

The future doesn't exist, it's just another dream

It looks so very real, as long as we worry and scream

How can we be happy in an illusion of the mind?

Let's wake up to the NOW, let's not be blind

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Everybody wants to be happy, who doesn't want this gift?

Who doesn't want to enjoy their life with a lift?

Everybody wants pleasure, nobody wants pain

But they look for it in wrong places, stressed and in vain

Of course, we can be happy, in every moment of life

It's a choice for us to live, with happiness or strife

If we decide that we want bliss, joy, and peace

Then we must be happy before this moment will cease

Happiness is not only becoming a millionaire in this world

Are the rich the only ones happy? See this truth unfold

There are many who are fullled and content in life

Though they have little, they are happy and they smile

What's the secret of happiness? It's being happy in the NOW

Not shuttling from the past to the future, we must not go

We must learn to remain in the present moment with ease

Then bliss, joy, and happiness will blow like the breeze

Our mind is like a monkey, it jumps here and there It doesn't let us be happy, it wanders like a hare

If we truly want happiness, turn the monkey into a monk Being in the present moment xed like a tree trunk

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The way to joy is 'Surrender', to the Lord's divine will

Not living with hope and expectations, not worrying about bills

The future will unfold, as per the Lord's divine plan It's for us to be happy, whatever comes in our pan

Why live in regrets, of the past that's already gone

It's the Master's wish that happened, why regret all that's done?

The way to joy is to accept the Lord's divine will And not curse and nurse, and rehearse every ill

Happiness is simple, if we learn to live in the NOW

Joy and bliss are possible, for those who go with the ow It's not in the future, nor in the past, but in the present

We must realize that happiness happens moment by moment

Be happy in the NOW, that's the only way to be

Don't be worried in tomorrow, to there we cannot ee

Don't rehearse the past that's dead and gone

Be happy in this moment, as if we were just born

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    About the Author – AiR

AiR – Atman or the Soul in Ravi, is an embodied Soul whose only mission in life is to help people realize the Truth and God.

He was born on October 15, 1966 in Bangalore, as Ravi V. Melwani. At a very young age, he mastered the craft of business and became a very successful businessman who revolutionized retailing in India with the stores KidsKemp, Big KidsKemp, and Kemp Fort.

After making millions, he realized that life is not just about making money. He shut down his business at the age of 40, transformed his life to RVM, living by the RVM philosophy – Rejoice, Value Life, and Make a Difference. He started doing H. I .S. work – Humanitarian, Inspirational and Spiritual work. His mission was to 'Make a Difference' in this world before his journey was over.

As a part of the humanitarian initiative, a charitable hospital was set up in 1998 with an aim to provide free medical treatment and care to the poor, destitute, and

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    About the Author

needy. Over 700 homeless and suffering people are served and cared for in destitute homes and provided with free shelter, food, clothing, and medical care.

A School of Inspiration was set up that inspired the lives of many people through motivating talks, inspirational books and videos, and thought-provoking quotes.

A Shiva Temple was built in the year 1995 in Bangalore, which is now known as the Shivoham Shiva Temple. AiR now believes that religion is just a kindergarten of Spirituality, and we all have to go beyond religion to truly realize God.

One day, his Guru provoked him to introspect: What is the purpose of life? Is life just meant to seek pleasures and to live and die without any purpose? What happens after death? Will we be reborn? Where is God? Several questions like these took him on a quest, a search for the Truth. He gave up his life of Achievement and Fulllment in search of the nal peak of life: Enlightenment.

After a few years of intense search in retreat, deep in the mountains, he realized that we are not this body. We are the Soul, the Atman. He changed his name to AiR –Atman

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    About the Author

in Ravi. He metamorphosed to AiR and gave up his entire life as RVM and started living as an instrument of God doing His Divine Will. This led to several realizations that formed his new mission of life – to help people Realize the Truth.

Since then, AiR's life has been dedicated to reaching out and helping people to eradicate the ignorance that we live in. Truth is Truth but our mind does not realize that. With AiR's own realization, he has published several books, written bhajans, blogs, quotes, poems and taken up several other initiatives that can direct people towards the Truth. AiR's Vision is to make a difference in people's lives by triggering them to ask questions, and then to investigate, and eventually, realize God. He believes that unless people ask questions, they will never start a quest and even if they start the quest unless they really investigate, they will not realize the Truth. This Truth cannot be learned in a school, college or university, it must be realized. AiR has dedicated his life to helping people realize the Truth and God.

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    About the Author

Books by the Author – AiR

  1. Talaash – A search for the true meaning of life. Discover your true self

'Talaash' means Search or Quest. This book by AiR is his personal journey to realize the truth where he shares his realization that we are not the body and the mind that we seem to be. We are a power. The divine life force is known as Soul, Spirit or Atman. This search and quest by AiR made him transform his life. It is a quest that made him realize the truth. It might be just that book that inspires you to liberation.

2. 3 Peaks of Happiness

3 Peaks of Happiness by AiR is a simple book that talks about the quest of all humanity. Everybody wants to be happy. But is everybody happy? No. The reason is we are stuck on the rst peak of happiness – Achievement. 20% of the people are lucky to climb the second peak of happiness –

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    About the Author

Fullment, which comes from contentment. But there is a third peak beyond. The third peak of happiness will liberate you from the prisons of misery and sorrow and give you eternal Joy and Bliss.

3. My Guru, My Mentor, My God on Earth

My Guru, My Mentor, My God on Earth is a book by AiR in which he shares his experiences with his Guru who was not just his Guru and Mentor, but also his God on Earth. We all need a coach, a teacher to help us understand, guide us to live life and this book "My Guru" will inspire you to nd your Guru or to make your relationship with your Guru more fullling and meaningful.

4. I will Never Die. Death is not "The End"

In the journey of his life, AiR realized many truths. One of the truths was that he would never die. The body will die, but the one who lives in the body never dies. We are not the bodies that we wear; we are the ones

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    About the Author

who wear the body. Death is not the end. It is a bend to transcend. This book reveals the truth about Death.

5. Death is Not "The End". Death is "Liberation"

Death is Not "The End". Death is "Liberation"

– the second book in the series of books on death by AiR – touches upon the secret of the Kathopanishad, which talks about what happens at death. One of two things happen – if we think we are the body and mind as a doer, we are reborn. But if we think we are not the body and mind, but the energy, we are liberated to eternal joy and peace.

6. I am not I. Who am I?

I am not I. Who am I? – is a very interesting book by AiR, which talks of his quest and realization that we are not who we think we are. We have a house, but we are not the house. We have a car, but we are not the car. We have a body, but we are not the body. We may have a mind, but we are not the mind. Who are we? Realize the truth.

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    About the Author

7. The Mind is a Rascal

Can you believe that the mind is a rascal? You always thought that the mind is king – it is everything. But just try this. Sit quietly for an hour, and try to nd the mind. Where is it? You will nd the mind doesn't exist. This amazing book by AiR will teach us that the mind is our enemy. It is the one that makes us suffer. It is time to nd the rascal and to kill it. How do you do it?

8. A Cosmic Drama

This book authored by AiR challenges us to think that whatever is happening in life is not real. It is nothing but a drama. The earth is a big stage, and we are all actors who come and go. There is no need to worry and cry till we die. If we understand the truth, we can enjoy the show called life.

9. Who is God? Where is God? What is God?

Well, this might seem to be a simple set of questions, but

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About the Author

nobody really knows the answers. We all know that God exists. We pray to a God as per our religion but what is the truth about God? Has anybody seen God? Where is God? This simple book will change your perception and belief about God and bring you closer to this Power called God. It will help you realize God.

10. The A to Z of Karma

Most people are aware of the concept of Karma – the Law. What you give is what you get. But not everybody knows the A to Z of Karma, that we can actually transcend Karma, escape from it and achieve Moksha, Nirvana, Liberation or Enlightenment. This book reveals the secret – of eternal joy and peace - a life without any misery or suffering.

11. Who Are You & Why Are You Here?

'Who are you and why are you' here is a simple book which challenges us to discover the secret of our life. Most of us think we are

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About the Author

the body-mind complex, but in reality, we are not. The body will die and return to dust. Where is the mind, we cannot nd. Who are we in reality? And beyond that what is the purpose of life on earth. This book will give you all the answers.

  12. The 4th Factor - Discover the mysterious factor that makes the possible, possible!

Man thinks that he can make anything possible.

He believes that there is nothing in this world he

can't do. But he doesn't realize that his efforts

and equipment are not enough to decide the

results of his actions. Sometimes, he does his best

but things don't work out the way he wants. He

th

then realizes the importance of the 4 Factor, a

factor that makes the possible, possible and

  13. Be Happy in the NOW!

COMING SOON

  13. Questions you must answer before you die.

  13. Suffer No More.

  13. Success is not Happiness. Happiness is Success.

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