The Happy Ending that is Now

The litmus test of any spiritual path or practice is its ability to bring you to a state of peace, regardless of how life is unfolding.  Peace of mind is the definitive confirmation that we've transcended ordinary mind that rises and falls in step with life's ups and downs.   Despite my years and  many insights, I still have shreds of a desperate hope that my life will eventually work out; that a happy ending is out there; that I'll finally arrive and all will be well. Do you hold that thought?

I think the reasons we love movies and stories so much is that they fulfill our longing for a happy outcome in our own life, and we revel in a vicarious experience of everything being made right. The characters in the stories we love,  move through tension and conflict, to a climactic moment, followed by a completely satisfying resolution.  In a moment, all is suddenly well. 

But this is not the way of real life. I don't know anybody who's experienced such a pinnacle and stayed there. There is no permanent resolution to our lives, nor arriving point or a completion point. Even deep satisfaction with ones circumstances has limited shelf life.  Achievements, accomplishments, acquisitions, even the most successful outcomes imaginable, will not bring utopia. A girl marries the man of her dreams, and he becomes a man, with issues.  And her issues must still be dealt with.  The perfect other that will fill the void in us, is the stuff of make believe. Even the best stories in life, are just stories, and even great stories end, followed by a new story, with new challenges.

The Israelites wanted their freedom, and dreamed of a Promised Land where all would be well.  They escaped lives of slavery, and immediately found themselves in a wilderness. Finally after enduring the ardor of the wilderness they arrived at the Promised Land.  But then they had to live ordinary life there, day in and out.

The hero answers a call that takes her into challenge and initiations that transform her. She's rewarded with a boon. But alas, she must return to her community to fulfill the calling. Every arrival is the beginning of a new challenge.

Both Jesus and the Buddha experienced grand epiphanies, followed by onerous challenges.  They emerged better for having stayed the course. They were transformed by their journeys. So are we.  If instead of holding out for some imagined future we see our lives as grist for the mill of our awakening, as vehicles of transformation, we'll mark our progress in qualitative ways. We'll be transformed and be the better for having stayed present with all that arises on our paths. As long as we frantically long for some imagined future, angst and suffering remain with us.

There is indeed suffering in life, but suffering is not the purpose of life. The purpose of life is to change us; to challenge our limited notions about the way it is, and who we are, and our capabilities, and to expand our awareness of the greater Reality in which we live and that lives through us. This perspective, not the fantasy of the "happy ending" can bring us to a reasonable and sustainable contentment with life now.

To know that we have already arrived; that we've already made it, is to stake our place in the Kingdom of Heaven here and now- to be fully present in each moment, and embrace the journey that is our life, and welcome the challenges that are there to transform us. The day may come when you realize this and call off the search for the perfect life. On this happy day, you will find peace on earth. There is no waiting for this realization.  This day, as Jesus said, is at hand.