"Choose the Happy One"

 Fashi gave a very interesting discussion after the meditation tonight. He talked about how, as long as we do not think that the person in front of us is a separate being who is 'creating' our emotional states, we can choose how we feel and react to the situation arising in mind. But there are several conditions that need to be unpacked. The first is about the method of being fully aware of the body at all times as a way of being present. Fashi mentioned that it is not easy to use a method such as watching the breath when a person is engaged in daily conversation, but the feeling of the body's movement becomes the anchor for what a person does. As an example, I am currently using my fingers to type into the keyboard, and that becomes the main focus for my body in the moment.
    The second principle that Fashi mentioned is to know that whatever we encounter is arising in mind, so there is no reason to like or dislike what we see. Here is an example I can think of: if a person creates a terrible image, would she or he be scared by the image knowing that they created it? Another example is that if a memory comes to mind about my boss, I can know that this present experience is not interacting with the previous memory of my boss. If I am really knowing this, I can choose not to react to the image or identify the reaction as "me". As Fashi had remarked, why would I choose to be unhappy if I really know that these images are arising in mind?
    The interesting point is that even if anger were to arise, I don't identify the anger as myself. I think this is the third principle. If a person does this practice expecting to have a happy result, she or he will only feel frustration because  they are focused on the idea of 'becoming something'. I think this is the most subtle problem that can arise with spiritual practice: the expectation (and the condition) that if I do something, I will automatically feel happiness. But Fashi's point is to say that every moment is a choice to be happy. Happiness is not a result, but  a choice in the same way that we can choose to color a canvas  with either red or blue  colors. But because of conditioning, I believe that there is a tendency to see happiness as conditioned on specific things, such as having a nice job, a good education, good looks, and so on. If one re-frames the meaning of happiness as a choice, one is given a whole range of new actions and experiences that would otherwise not have arisen if one waits for happiness to happen in a passive way.