3P Random Reflections Blog

In a recent popular blog, the writer gave his answer to the question "If happiness comes from within, why should you pursue anything in life? Why should you pursue goals, achieve anything, connect with others, exercise, eat good food … if you don’t need to do any of that to be happy?"

I loved the question, but wasn't satisfied with the answer. The writer explained that despite our innate happiness, we live a life of choices, and that if we only had the choice between #1 service to others and #2 watching TV/doing nothing, then we would choose #1 because it's better. He eluded to the fact (maybe unintentionally) that we would be "less or bad" if we chose option #2.

And although I do see the connection between our innate happiness and service to others, I don't quite see the motivation as being the same. And so I thought I'd take a stab at explaining my answer to the question.

When we are experiencing a higher state of consciousness (feeling unconditional love for all people and all things, seeing the infinite and miraculous nature of life, time, and space), it's true that there is absolutely no need to do or achieve anything. We realize the insignificant little blip that we are, within the scope of infinity, and we are humbled by it and grateful to be a part of it. We see our innate worthiness and have no ego/insecurity to placate.

However, the reason that we understand our worthiness is because we also see:

• How we are all the same, being made up of the same stuff, the same vibrating energy of life
• How we are all perfect, each a unique example of the amazingly complex perfectly functioning human system
• How we are all connected, all a part of that same energy
• And ultimately, how we are all one, and how we are all love

In that spiritual state, or even in any human level of consciousness where we have any awareness of that state (unconditional love, compassion, being part of a greater whole), we naturally want to alleviate the suffering of ourself and others. And so we tip the scales toward service and connection in ways that inspire us in the moment... A desire to develop and share a creative gift that gives joy to ourself and others, building a company that provides gainful employment for ourself and the community, planning a family reunion for everyone to connect, doing exercise to honour our amazing human-body-home, feeling grateful for the tastes of nature's bounty, or even the motivation to relax and commune with nature.

But, we don't live most of our lives in that elevated state. And so in the more frequent insecure moments when we're not realizing our innate worthiness and happiness, we are instead motivated by our natural human insecurities: A desire to develop and share a creative gift that gives us fame and money, building a successful company that gives us pride and status, planning the family reunion because we "should", doing exercise to avoid sickness or pain, enjoying good food because it is comforting, or watching TV to relax and distract our minds from our stressful thinking... And all of this is completely natural, because it's just our human form, acting in response to each one of the infinite thoughts and infinite levels of consciousness, in each unique moment.

However, in the moments when we once again realize our worthiness, and feel our intrinsic connection to all humanity, we have the natural egoless desire to serve in some way. And so it's not really a choice between "do nothing or serve", it's simply responding to whatever level of consciousness we are in, in the moment, which sometimes leads more toward insecure action or inaction (fear), and sometimes more toward worthy service to ourself and others (love).

Either way, having an insight into the Principles of how we experience reality, means we understand the inevitability of this up and down nature of life, and with that understanding, we get to more often realize our common connection to humanity, and tip the scales more toward love and service.

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