The separation from the source of happiness is not only in space, but it is also in time, so it is something that is going to come into our life tomorrow, or the next day, or the next week, or the year after, or when we finally graduate, or when we reach middle age, or when we get that big house or Cadillac. Because it is always in the future, we are always separated from the source of our happiness and never feel complete. The realization that we are the source of our happiness, and that we can create it at any second, gives us a sense of completion.
… Joyfulness accompanies the experience. There is no tomorrow about it because of the sense of completion. If someone enjoys the presentation, so much the better. That is only frosting on the cake because it is not essential.
What one does in the world has to be accompanied by the sense of completion in the doing of the thing itself. The payoff is not something that is an aside, something that is outside or separate from the doingness; it is the experience of it in this moment. The completion is with the experiencing right now, not something separate from it. In that, one is then aware of the lovingness of all experience. That is the way one is with experience. It is the loving of life in all its expressions, including its disappointments. It is the ups and downs, the continual learning process of making the mistake and learning from it, so it is nothing but a mistake.
One might say that depression is nature’s way, God’s way, and our own psychology’s way of saying to us that the way we look at our life is not okay. It is our psychological, biological, and spiritual way; it is our body, mind, and spirit saying, “Look at what is out; look at what needs to be fixed. Please understand me out of your compassion; heal me; heal all of it.” The defect is an inner sense of separation that we will not be complete and whole unless we become united with something ‘out there’ or in the future. The ego moves from incomplete to complete. In contrast, the Self moves from complete to complete. True happiness is always in the ‘right now’ of this moment. The ego is always anticipating completion and satisfaction in the future “when a desire gets fulfilled.”
