Chasing the Flashing Red Dot

We have a cat. A few days ago we found an excellent substitute for her love of 'chasing the ball'. A laser pointer!

Instead of a ball, which we have to pick up every time we throw it for her, we found that the laser pointer gets us to stay in one place while our cat runs around like a mad hatter chasing after the little red dot. It's amazing to watch! She never wants to give up. She runs after it again and again but always to find that it has moved on to a new spot. She gets to the new spot and finds it has moved again. Once again she chases after it. Never a moment of rest for her little legs. Her little heart beating fast she chases for about good 20 minutes and she drops on the floor in sheer exhaustion.

Watching my cat chasing the red dot, it came to my mind that we live our lives more or less in the same fashion. Of course, we don't chase a red dot but instead we chase after something we call 'Happiness'. If you look at what you do in your life, don't you find that you do what you do to be happy. You want to earn more money so you can maybe have a happy retirement or go on holiday or have a big house and fancy furniture. You fall in love and get married so you can live happily every after. You get a cat so you can watch her chase balls and be happy. Listen to music, go to the night club, buy new clothes, get a makeover and many more things. What for? Just to be happy!

Don't you find that no matter what you do, happiness, is elusive. You think you have it, to find that it's lost again. You go on holiday and you are happy but when you have to get home, it makes you less happy. You find that you have bought the house of your dreams to find that you have to worry about paying the mortgage or getting furniture or protecting it from thieves. You may even have the dream job, but it makes you get up everyday early morning so you have to get to work. You get a make over and find that you age anyway no matter how many makeovers you do.

I find this quite ironic. Why is it that when we finally think we can relax and be happy, we find 'oops' we need something else to be happy. We buy a new house and get a new couch, do up the garden so that we can relax. But when we finally sit on our new couch, in our new home, watching the garden, we think 'hmmm...I should get a glass of wine' or 'hmmm...I wish my best friend were here' or 'hmmm.....I should change the drapes'. What we have is no longer good enough. Our happiness lies in the next object: in having a glass of wine or our best friend being there. Why is it we can never find happiness and make it everlasting. Why is it so elusive?

It is because we are looking for happiness in the wrong place. Just like my cat can never get hold of the red dot, we keep chasing after red dots we call friends, money, clothes, house, car, food, love and all the other wonderful things we see when we go shopping or see on television or we have acquired from our up bringing. None of these things can bring happiness (maybe fleeting hapiness but not long lasting) because they are all subject to change. Friends can betray us, money can be stolen, house can be burnt down or re-possessed by the bank and my cat may find chasing balls is not fun for her anymore. How can you expect for something that constantly have the potential to change, especially the way you don't want it to, can bring you long lasting happiness? It cannot.

Now I don't mean to say that you should not have a house, a car, lovely clothes or get married but what I am saying is NOT to depend on them as your source of happiness. If you do, you will find that you get disappointed more often than not. Life and all that it contains is in constant flux. It ebbs and it flows.

So how do you find this long lasting happiness? That happiness has to be found within you. It's amazing how the world has conditioned us to look outside of ourselves for happiness. But nothing that is outside of ourselves will ever get you there. It is like my cat chasing the dot and finally lying on the floor exhausted. You can chase after all the wonderful things the world can offer you and still not find happiness and one fine day you will drop dead because of the chase. As Ajahn Brahm says the only people who rest in peace are the ones in the cemetery! Well that won't do you much good, would it now?

Start looking for that source of happiness from within. It takes time, effort and lots of patience to get to even have a glimpse of it. Even if you don't find it at least know that there is something more to life thatn what we see and what we can get hold of. But if you get a glimpse of it and most importantly find it, it can make vast changes in your life for the better and also for those around you. Most of all it can sustain you through ebbs and flows of life and all that it contains.