All that lives is striving for happiness; yet a thousand and one pains and fears attend upon every pleasure which man seeks through the ignorance of exclusiveness.
Interpretation
The pursuit of happiness is universal, but it is often accompanied by challenges and fears stemming from a narrow perspective.
In this quote, Meher Baba emphasizes that the desire for happiness is a fundamental aspect of life for all living beings. However, he points out that this quest is frequently marred by various pains and fears, which arise due to a limited understanding of life that fosters exclusiveness. Essentially, he is reminding us that while we all seek joy, it is essential to recognize the complexities and struggles that often come with it, urging a broader and more inclusive perspective in our pursuit of happiness.
In practice
This quote could be used in a motivational speech about the challenges of pursuing happiness.
The experiences are so innumerable and varied, that the journey appears to be interminable and the Destination is ever out of sight. But the wonder of it is, when at last you reach your Destination you find that you had never travelled at all! It was a journey from here to Here.
Love has to spring spontaneously from within And it is no way amenable to any form of inner or outer force. Love and coercion can never go together; But though love cannot be forced on anyone, It can be awakened in him through love itself. Love is essentially self communicative; Those who do not have it catch it from those who have it. True love is unconquerable and irresistible, And it goes on gathering power and spreading itself, Until eventually it transforms everyone whom it touches.
Suffering is essential for the elimination of the ego, just as it was necessary for you to scrub and scrub in order to wash the stain from my coat.
There is no greater romance in life than this adventure in realization.
What I want from my lovers is real, unadulterated love, and from my genuine workers I expect real work done.
Happiest is he who expects no happiness from others. Love delights and glorifies in giving, not receiving. So learn to love and give, and not to expect anything from others.
Oh, how desperately bored, in spite of their grim determination to have a Good Time, the majority of pleasure-seekers really are!
Happiness is the death of the ego. If you want to remain a separate entity from existence as almost everybody is trying to do, you will be afraid of being blissful, cheerful. You will feel guilty in being blissful. You will feel suicidal because you are committing suicide on the psychological level, on the level of the ego.
You will never find a truly happy self-centered person. They simply don't exist.
To wish happiness for others, even for those who want to do us harm, is the source of consummate happiness.
A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.
Is it not clear, however, that bliss and envy are the numerator and denominator of the fraction called happiness?
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