The Happiness Podcast

41 - You Have Been Programmed for Unhappiness

Has  it  ever struck you that you have been programmed to be unhappy and so, no matter what you do to become happy, you are bound to fail? If you wish to be happy the first thing you need is not effort or even goodwill or good desires but a clear understanding of how exactly you have been programmed. This is what happened:your society and your culture taught you to believe that you would not be happy without lots of money, power, success, approval, a good reputation, love, friendship, spirituality, God. What is your particular combination?

42 - The Big Lie We Were Told

A big lie that we were told when we were kids is the following: You need to be loved. When you’re a kid, yes, granted, that’s okay. Let’s not quarrel about that. But what if you’re sixty-four years old? You’re twenty-five years old? They’re still telling you that you need to be loved. You need to be a success. You need to be approved. You need to be appreciated. It's rubbish yet everybody’ goes on believing this. There’s only one emotional need you have and that is to love. 

43 - What Does It Mean to Love

What does it mean to love? It means to be sensitive to life, to things, to persons, to feel for everything and everyone to the exclusion of nothing and no one. For exclusion can only be achieved through a hardening of oneself, through closing one's doors. And the moment there is a hardening, sensitivity dies. 

44 - The Love in a Tree, a Rose and a Lamp

God makes his sun to shine on good and bad alike and makes his rain to fall on saints and sinners alike; so, you must be all goodness as your heavenly Father is all goodness." Contemplate in astonishment the sheer goodness of the rose, the lamp, the tree, for there you have an image of what love is all about. How does one attain this quality of love?

45 - How to Drop Attachments

How does one drop an attachment? People try to do this through renunciation. But to renounce some bars of the music, to blot them out of one's consciousness creates exactly the type of violence, conflict and insensitivity that clinging does. Once again you have hardened yourself. The secret is to renounce nothing, cling to nothing, enjoy every thing and allow it to pass, to flow.

46 - The Positive Side of Suffering

Think  of  some  of  the  painful  events  in your life. For how many of them are you grateful today, because thanks to them you changed and grew? Here is a simple truth of life that most people never discover. Happy events make life delightful but they do not lead to self-­ discovery and growth and freedom. That privilege is reserved to the things and persons and situations that cause us pain.

47 - Have You Ever Felt Disgusted with Life?

Have you ever felt disgusted with life, sick at heart of constantly running away from fears and anxieties, weary of your begging rounds, exhausted from being dragged about helplessly by your attachments and addictions? Have you ever felt the utter meaninglessness of working for a degree, then finding a job, then settling down to a life of boredom; or, if you are an achiever, settling down to a life of  emotional   turmoil   caused   by the things that you are chasing after? If you have, and is there a single human being who hasn't, the divine flame of discontent has arisen within your heart.

Now is the time to feed it before it gets stamped out by the routine chores of life. Now is the Holy Season when you simply must find the time to get away and look at your life, allowing the flame to grow as you look, refusing to let anything distract you from this task.

48 - A Guided Meditation for the Pandemic

Yesterday you had occasions to be happy that you weren’t even conscious of. Do you see them now? It is inconceivable that anyone could be grateful and unhappy. Thank the Lord for each event of yesterday and notice the effect this has on you. And the things you call unpleasant, undesirable — search for the good that comes from these … the seeds for growth they carry … and find reason to be grateful for them too.  Finally, see yourself moving through each portion of today in gratitude —and happiness.

 

49 - Having Trouble with Relationships?

Are you having trouble with people? You find somebody selfish, moody, unreliable, rejecting, stupid, intolerable, irresponsible, insulting? Think of the troubles you have with human relations. Do you know the root of all of those problems? Hold onto your chairs.

50 - A New Mind, A New Heart to Meet the Pandemic

The pandemic has changed the world as we have known it.  What Anthony de Mello offers in this podcast is a change of mind, a change heart that opens to a new way of looking at the world, a new way of looking at life, at everything.  It is a simple way of being in which peace and happiness become your constant companions, even as you relate to all the changes the Pandemic imposes.