For just a moment, allow me to be very direct. i want to ask you a few questions. Please do not be offended.
When will you stop fighting your appearance? when will you enjoy your child? Will there ever be a time in your life to drink in what your friends have to offer-- it seem so little, but have you received even that little? when will you first feel a breeze passing over your cheek? will there finally come a meal in which you will taste, really taste,your food? Just where are you going anyway? all you will ever discover about the future is that it remains the future-- and so why do you still turn it over and over in your mind like some delicacy? this life of yours is not an easy habit to break, but do you really wish to continue missing almost everything of value only end up on your deathbed wondering why you never took the time to love?
You and I no longer have time for games. Let us be done with guilt and fear. There is a song to sing. There is a life to live and people to enjoy. In your heart you know that something lies beyond all this pettiness and chaos. it really is possible to live in this world and still be happy. Far more than is possible, but let us begin with that.
we are speaking here of your approach to life. You are not yet approaching it because you have not yet recognized where it lies. Where is happiness found? you have a thousand assumptions about this you have not yet questioned. You are currently living those assumptions. Almost everything you think and do stems from them. And that us the way it has always been. if this book is to be different, you must understand one thing: It will take enormous effort for you to walk past your ordinary way of doing things. And yet, once you have decided to make the effort, and have committed yourself completely, all of it will eventually become surprisingly easy. Martyrdom, drudgery, testiness, suffering, tension have nothing whatsoever to do with the effort you must make. There is no organization to join, no doctrine to subscribe to, no person or book to follow.no cause to give money to. A decision must be made. It can made now. It is simply this :" I will begin."
And What must you begin? You must try to be kind now--not appear kind, but be kind. You must make the effort--no, the struggle--to be happy now,and not first gain what you need in order to be happy. Some people have an experience, such as a narrow escape from death,in which they suddenly see the importance of opening their hearts to the present. And for a time they are transformed. But so often this fades and is lost, and they left not really knowing why it passed. This must not happen to you. You cannot just add what I am talking about to your life. It must be your life.
the words are so flimsy. An experience is needed to give them substance. Consistent effort will bring you that experience. Just a slight glimmer at first. A kind of happiness you had forgotten was possible. At the start of your journey it will seem to come and go as if by magic. But gradually you will begin to recognize its independence of all the happenings you thought were prerequisite.And then the moment will finally come in which it will drawn on you: Nothing has to go right for me to be happy. People don't have to behave themselves for me to love them. I am free."