September 2021

PERSONAL HAPPINESS
     We're going to talk tonight about a subject that you hear so much about in the home, out in the world, and especially in your own life. And that's the very popular subject of personal happiness.
     Look around, first of all, and see how many people you know who are authentically happy. Look inside yourself. Study yourself very carefully even now, as you are seated here. Look inside your own mind, your feelings, look inside and see whether there's a whirlpool there of one kind or another. Or see whether you're in command of yourself.
     Now it’s very important as we go into this topic of happiness that you bring into it the very valuable tool of studying self-deception at the same time. What a curious world we live in, in which people who are successful, who are prominent, who have important titles, who are doing active things, who have lots of things to talk about, lots of things to amuse them, lots of places to go, that they automatically and without thinking put the label of happiness and peace of mind onto it, never seeing their irritation when they don't get what they want. Never seeing how afraid they are that they're going to lose someone, or lose something, never seeing how they have a certain plan, a certain goal, and they're so eager for this goal to come true, this wish to be fulfilled. And they never see that all the strain, the tension, and the wishing is the exact opposite of what they have labeled themselves, which is a ‘happy person.’
     So the study of self-deception is essential at the start, if you're ever going to discover what authentic happiness is. It's a long, long road, and a very difficult one ― but a necessary one, and really a lot of fun.
     For any man, for any woman, to go into self-deception ― his own, never mind the other man, we've got enough on our own to work on ― to go into self-deception and see how we have simply put a label on ourselves and carelessly, and foolishly, called it a state of happiness.
     A person will say, “Look, you asked me whether I'm happy. Of course I'm happy. Do you know how many things I have to do today? In fact, I'm so busy I can't get half of them done.”
     He's trying to tell you that his life is full, isn't he, that it has meaning! “Oh, I have so many things to do.”
     By the way, his great terror would be if something came along and took away all these activities, wouldn't it be? Because what would I do with myself? But, of course, he doesn't know that, which is why, as we study happiness tonight, never forget that the majority of people are living in a state of pseudo happiness, which they don't understand and which they have never gone into. Otherwise, they would begin to break out of it, which we are trying to do here in this class.
     Another form of self-deception connected with personal happiness is that we always think that it can be – listen to this please – we always think that it can be acquired. And acquisition is always connected with time thinking. That is, “I will be happy when....” Now you fill in the when. The very fact that you bring the time element in it, and say, “I will be happy when...,” doesn’t that say that I am not happy right now?
     Now, isn't it curious how few people can ever get to the point of clear self-honesty in self-investigation, where they can catch themselves in this act of deceiving themselves regarding their happiness. They're always pushing it ahead of themselves. You will never have it made as long as you plan your happiness; as long as you think it is something that can be acquired, something that you can earn by your own efforts.

A MAGIC MESSAGE TO TELL YOURSELF
     You don’t belong in this world. Your physical body inhabits it. Your Spirit has nothing to do with it. I’ll tell you, that’s a magic message for you to tell yourself every day, and that will be the start of the regeneration of your nature.