Happiness in All Moments

  Is it possible to be OK in all moments? This is hard to do, unless we tackle the underlying sense of discontent. When my mindset is that of a subtle grasping, then for sure, an attitude of unhappiness and discontent is going to color my life. Even when I don't have some direct thought of wanting something to be different, the overall dissatisfaction of craving will create an overall mood tone that influences the day. It comes down to believing there is something to be grasped, as opposed to the someone who grasps. It might take the form of the sentence, "I would be happy if only things were a little bit different" (my health, my job, my knowledge level, etc.)

   Underlying the discontent is the belief that the world is made up of objects and, by extension, we are "nothing" without an object to grasp. That sense of nothingness creates a seed of discontent in the mind, which then leads to wanting to prove that we exist to ourselves as objects. I believe it was psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan who described how children at an early age learn to identify themselves with a unified body--something in the mirror that they can point to that truly says "this is I". Without that sense of a unified body, the child feels buffeted by so many thoughts and emotions that are hard to handle and process. 

     I think the antidote is simply to embrace what is, fully and truly, as it is: welcoming its textures, and savoring it. This doesn't mean we don't change things for the better, but it means that there is no need to grasp what was inherently ungraspable to begin with.