Conclusiones

cause of your work will equally lead to feelings of frustration at other times, and

consequently, physical illness. All situations and activities are transient experiences.

They cannot be sustained in an ongoing manner to perpetuate a sense of joy and

happiness. So, the experience of abiding, perpetual continuous happiness (peace,

love) cannot be found in relationships or by engaging in activities of the world.

In ordinary life when people experience moments of happiness, it is because they

somehow brought their mind to a more peaceful state than what it was before. The

amount of happiness experienced is directly related to the release of tension in the

mind. Most often this is experienced when a desire is fulfilled. What happens then is

that people erroneously credit the situation, person, location or object that served to

fulfill their desire and caused them to become a little more relaxed than they were

before, for their experience of happiness, rather than the mental relaxation which

was the actual cause of their experience of happiness. Thus, there is a yogic saying

that, “True Happiness is Peace of Mind.”

However, not understanding this, people are constantly running in life trying to acquire those objects and situations which in the past, their minds had linked with the experience of happiness. Of course this always will, eventually, end in frustration and failure; their efforts are in vain. Just as one cannot get apple juice from an orange, one cannot get happiness from that which does not and never has con- tained it. Understanding this, one can choose to embark on a spiritual journey to seek out the source of true happiness and learn how to experience it in one’s own life. This is the mystical journey of “Knowing Thyself” that the Ancient Egyptian Sages espoused as the only purpose of life. This is really the journey that everyone is on, only most do not know it, and therefore, rather than facilitating the process, they are creating obstacles for themselves on the path which they will one day have to surmount, and physical disease is one such obstacle. The purpose of physical disease is to push that person to change their negative habit patterns of mind and diet, thus becoming more sagely in their behavior (control of mind and the negative emotions of the mind, developing willpower to change, 39/524

learning about the nature of the body and its proper needs, learning to breath properly, etc.) For those who resist, the journey will take many lifetimes33 and experiences of frustration before they arrive at the questions which you have probably already arrived at, “Is this all there is to life? Is there no true abiding happiness in this world?” These are the questions the universe waits for everyone to ask, and in harmony with the universal law of nature, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” You will be led in accordance with your spiritual inclinations and personality, to specific books, like this one, and to a spiritual teacher. Now, instead of creating obstacles for yourself on your spiritual path (journey), you now seek to remove the old obstacles, and move in such a manner that you are in harmony with the spiritual laws of the universe and therefore, are not creating new ones. In addition, the spiritual teaching as if provides a map for you to make your journey easier and more expedient.

Your vehicle for this journey is composed of your body-mind complex, and there-

fore these must be kept in tip-top shape, i.e., fed with proper nourishment (fuel).

Thus, considering what to feed the body is not merely a matter of taking care of the

body to keep it healthy so it can continue its futile, and consequently stressful, and

therefore dis-ease causing, efforts in the world, of trying to find happiness through

relationships or activities. As a matter of fact, no matter how much proper food is

fed to the body, if one’s way of understanding and dealing with practical life does

not change, that is, if one does not develop a holistic spiritual perspective of life, but

continues to expend energy, both physical and mental, chasing after happiness in the

world of objects, places, situations, and relationships, no diet for the body will grant

the best health that is possible for that individual. There will always be an underly-

ing basis of frustration from not being able to get what you want, absolute comfort.

So there will always be a lack of ease (dis-ease) and a lack of relaxation (i.e., stress),

that will result in physical and/or mental “disease.” This is a crucial point to under-

stand. One must come to see the futility behind one’s efforts of seeking happiness

by trying to arrange a particular situation, or moving to a different location, or ac-

quiring a specific object or engaging in a particular relationship. When this point is

grasped, only then can one become free from the clutches of the world, and being a

slave to the senses. These can no longer bind you, since objects no longer dazzle

your mind. Now you are free and can use your time and energy to learn about, ex-

plore and practice the specific disciplines of mystical spirituality. These will lead

you to be able to get in touch with the habit patterns of your mind, and to gain con-

trol of the mind, to maintain yourself in an ever increasing state of serenity at all

times, under all conditions, and eventually to transcend the mind, and discover true

happiness, abiding happiness.

Understanding that the key to your experience of peace and joy in life is keeping the mind calm, you attempt to do this at all times, even in provocative conditions of ill-health. As a matter of fact, ill- health will be compounded by an upset mind, and worsen the dis-ease process. So, especially if one has any conditions of ill-health, it is of paramount importance that they submerge themselves in spir- itual disciplines, which will give insight into and techniques on controlling the mind, so that it can re- main calm.

Of course, maintaining a peaceful mind is quite easy when you are alone. However,