I think above is one of the most beautiful and powerful sentence I have been gifted with. It sounds so simple, but yet as I ponder upon it, it grows more and more complicated. I think there are three concepts worth discussing only from the above sentence: "happy", "journey", and "ending".
Let's start with the end. "Ending". Is there even an end? There is, of course, an ending to our physical body, but that is not the end end (if you know what I mean). For we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. What about end results? Achievements? Sure - they are even all the more temporary. Once you've reached the peak of the mountain you're climbing, your eye wanders to the neighboring taller mountain. What's next?
Next, let's get happiness out of the way. What is happiness? I'd like to think of happiness as a good combination of feeling good, a sense of well-being, and joy. Joy is, without a doubt, a feeling you obtain when you sense that you've grown - that the you today is somehow better, stronger, or more mature than the you yesterday. And well-being can be as simple as snuggling in a thick warm blanket in a cold snowy day. All this, though, depends on each individual's level of consciousness - what makes one person happy and joyful doesn't always apply to the next. And that is fine. What it means, though, is that we need to honor each person's individual definition of happiness and joy, as we recognize that we are each swimming in different streams of the river we call consciousness. So, yes, sure, we don't need anything to be happy. But until we arrive to the consciousness that we can truly live it as such, it's unwise to stop living and striving and start denying our materialistic self.
Finally, the journey. The journey is all that is. This is, folks, the essence of the human predicament. It is a happy predicament, as we are living in rather nice, peaceful, and advanced times. But that's it - it's our mandate to continue with the journey. Because the journey is all that is, and is all we have. When we reach a "destination", it will get replaced with another. And it goes on and on. It's no different than the game I'm playing, Stardew Valley, a video game where one becomes a farmer and manages one's own farm. My avatar wakes up everyday, does a bunch of farming, fishing, foraging, interacts with villagers, cooks, builds, mines, fights monsters, and then, without fail, goes to bed and wakes up the next day. Time is infinite, and while of course there is the natural impulse to squeeze the last juice out of the proverbial lemon, what is the point in that if there is no fun in doing so? There are room for "inefficiencies", or what I'd like to call, "serendipity". My avatar gets lost in the mines, forgets that the supermarket closes on Wednesdays, got his crop eaten by crows... All good, my fella. For why worry if time is infinite, and that you know for sure that you'll go to bed tonight, and the sun will rise again tomorrow?
So - enjoy! For now, my take is that I shall try to focus on feeling good first - and it takes some discipline, but I believe it will (and has) pay off. This is the time to give my best, in all aspects of my life - to do just enough, and then some. Because what better time to be than now? What is more important than your physical and mental health? And what tastes more delicious than a warm bowl of happiness and joy?
And I was told that it gets better - as the journey progresses, consciousness expands. It gets easier and more effortless and more pleasant.
Lastly - just to "contradict" what I said above (just a 4 minute watch!):
Enjoy :)
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