Happiness is NOW!

Several years ago, when my b-school prepared us for the job placement program, we were asked to come up with a tagline that describes our philosophy. The tagline would appear below our names and call out the philosophy we follow. As my classmates started to write very catchy and wonderful taglines for them, I was forced to find one for me. I had no clue how to create a tagline and I slept that night with a confused brain. Next morning, the placement representative appeared in front of me and asked me to write my tagline in the paper he showed. Without a tagline they would not print my profile in the placement brochure that ultimately decides my future. Two years of management classes, eight trimesters, forty plus subjects, sleepless nights of assignments, exams… nothing matters, but that moment decides the future – what a predicament! I grabbed the paper and wrote my tagline there: “Present moment is inevitable”. 

When I was attending my job interview from campus, one of the interviewer asked me the meaning of that tagline. I smiled at him and said, “Whatever I have done in the past or whatever I promise to do in the future are meaningless unless this moment you think it is worth hiring me – I will have to surpass this moment”. And they hired me!

When the days passed, I got to know the deeper meaning of the present moment. Wise people and great books told me the beauty of the present moment.

Imagine you are in rush hour and you are stuck in your city’s worst traffic jam. The delay means you are going to be late for a very important meeting. You have choices. Do you choose to worry yourself into a frenzy and arrive not only late but stressed? Or do you choose to accept the reality of the moment as it is, in all its inevitability? In which case, you could then relax and take whatever action you possibly can to improve the situation.

There is one thing that everybody is seeking for, and that is happiness. The real happiness is there in the present moment. The nature of the mind is that it leaves all the pleasant memories and it grabs onto those few unpleasant events and chews on it. If you are happy now, the past will not torment you and the future will take care of itself.  

German-born Eckhart Tolle, author of the bestseller, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, spent two years sitting on park benches “in a state of the most intense joy” after an epiphany. He emphasizes the importance of being aware of the present moment as a way of not being caught up in thoughts of the past and future. Just observe your mind when it is dwelling on the past: A mind stuck in the past is either regretful (“I wish it hadn’t happened like that”), angry (“It shouldn’t have been that way”) or trapped in glorifying the past (“It was so wonderful”).

A person without a job thinks, “When I get a job then I’ll be happy,” but a person with a job often thinks, “When I get a promotion, then I’ll be happy.” Someone who is single thinks, “I’ll be happy when I find my soul mate and get married,” but a married person may think they’ll be happy when they have children, but those with children often postpone their happiness to a time when their kids have flown the nest! Happiness in the future is an illusion.

 

Have you noticed how when you are doing something you love you become so totally immersed in the present moment? During these times, thoughts of the past or the future don’t come into your mind very much, and if they do they pass away more quickly. It is happiness for me when I play football with my four year old son in the park on Friday evenings. This is because I do not think of anything else at that moment and we play a 100% football!

Happiness can only be met when we embrace the present moment.