- So usually, happiness exists as part of the play of opposites. You experience the happiness because something makes you happy. And then that thing that made
you happy either leads you, or the very thing that made you happy suddenly makes you unhappy. Marriage, for example. (audience laughing) (bell dings) And for some reason, by some
strange synchronistic event, I have two questions here, which may be by the
same person. (chuckles) "Are you happy?" (audience chuckles) And then the other one, "With so much sadness in the world, how can I feel joy and be happy?" Am I happy? (audience laughing) No, I wouldn't call it happy. Some people might use that
word to point to a deeper state of connectedness with being. But conventionally, happy really
is the opposite to unhappy. And so you go from happy to unhappy is... (audience laughing) And then something happens and they go... (audience laughing) You know the two masks for
theater, comedy and tragedy? The two masks, one is a comedy. (audience laughing) And then there's a tragedy. (audience laughing) So usually, happiness exists as part of the play of opposites. You experience the happiness because something makes you happy. And then that thing that made
you happy either leads you, or the very thing that made you happy suddenly makes you unhappy. Marriage, for example. (audience laughing) Or a relationship. Before you start living
together, you're happy. When you start living together,
you're unhappy. (laughs) So if it's not happy,
what are we talking about? If you let go of thinking
and remain as the awareness, then that awareness emanates
a certain peace, alive peace. Joy, peace. A peaceful,
joyful sense of aliveness. Inner peace, maybe a
better word than happiness but one would have to add to it. It's an alive peace. It's not the peace of having
deadened yourselves to emotions or anything like that. It's an alive, intensely alive peace. You can sense it even if it's
only just a glimpse right now. Surrender thought, and
of course, right now, if you're not thinking about
the problems of your life, there are no problems in this moment. There's only a sense of
beingness or aliveness. And that is the connectedness with being. And so you transcend the opposites between happiness and unhappiness. I have a chapter in the course... Not in the "Course in Miracles." I didn't write that. Well, (laughs) in a way
I did because all books are written by the one consciousness. But anyway, in conventional
terms, I didn't write it. I don't claim authorship,
"A Course in Miracles," but in a deeper sense,
of course, I did write it and you did too because we
are the one consciousness. So in "The Power of Now,"
there's a little subject called Beyond Happiness and
Unhappiness, There's Peace. So instead of being
subject to the fluctuations of happiness and unhappiness,
there's that peace where you realize the
essence of who you are. And so you're no longer ego-based. Form identity, yes but not identification with form identity, so it doesn't turn into ego. And then you function in
this world from that place of inner peace, and whatever
you do or who you're coming into contact with, let
your actions, your thoughts become a manifestation of that. And if more people enter that place, then more people become
peaceful to human beings, and do not contribute to
conflict in the world. The madness of the world. Don't contribute to the
madness of the world. Come back to the question. "With so much sadness in the world, how can I feel joy and happy?" Now, yes, there is a huge amount
of suffering in the world. Why is there suffering? Because humans are disconnected from the source of who they are, and that is the fundamental
source of suffering. That's how it arises. So if you say, "I refuse to be happy until there's no more
suffering in this world." Okay.
(audience laughing) So the the end of suffering, then I'm waiting for it out there. And you might even come very active. I'm going to bring about
the end of suffering. You do good things,
but you haven't thought about the end of suffering in yourself. So how is the end of
suffering going to happen? Even if you do good deeds,
which is a wonderful thing, but if you are unhappy doing good deeds, then that unhappiness also flows into how you do those things and your interactions with other people. The shift in this world,
the end of suffering, to use the Buddhist terminology, the Buddha described his
teaching as pointing the way to the end of suffering. That's the Buddhist teaching. He never used a negative
term end of suffering. Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven which is within you. He used a positive term. They're both talking about the same thing. So the end of suffering
has to begin with you and then it spreads then
because that changes the way in which you experience the
world, it affects others. And then your relationship with other human beings
changes fundamentally. Because only when you are in connectedness with the
essence of who you are, can you have harmonious
relationships with others, and can you have this
deep sense of goodwill towards other human beings
not conditional upon whether they happen to agree with you or belong to the same political party, or belong to the same religion, or belong to the same nation. It doesn't depend on
that, the same tribe, no. To have a goodwill or benevolence towards all humans that
you come into contact with no matter what their conditioning is. That can only come from that
deep connectedness with being and where you do not
automatically and unconsciously judge others the moment you meet them, or even in an abstract way,
judge an entire group of people as less than human, as evil. I mean, even in Europe,
that was not that long ago. First half of the 20th century, entire nations came into violent conflict, and so there was
unbelievable unconsciousness and collective ego on a massive scale. So it needs to start with
you then this benevolence, this goodwill changes the
way in which you interact with other humans. And that changes on a small scale. And then gradually other
human beings here and there can also go to that place within
and then start to live it. The end of suffering, and
let's forget about happiness. (Eckhart laughing)
(audience laughing) Let's talk about peace. So it starts with you. Be the change. Somebody said it. Was it
Nelson Mandela or Gandhi? I don't know. The one
consciousness said it. Be the change that you
want to see in the world. So if you want to see peace,
you have to embody the peace. The end of suffering
needs to start with you, your suffering, that's the end
of suffering on the planet. And then you can show
the way to others too. You don't necessarily have
to become a spiritual teacher but you may, but in some way,
you don't even need to fully embody that shift in consciousness, fully enlightened master. No, even just to be undergoing
the transformational process. You already begin to teach, so to speak, even though you you might not teach in the conventional sense of the word but whoever you're
coming into contact with, you affect with your
state of consciousness. The "Course in Miracles" says, "You become a teacher of God." (chuckles) (water spattering)
