In your own life, in your culture, in the things you read about or talk about or think about – how much has to do with what’s outside of you? What things, if we could just have them or be them or do them, would solve our problems?
Enough money
More money
The right job
The right product
The right strategy
Less stress
More time
More sex
Different sex
A different spouse
Any spouse
Kids
No kids
Less clutter
More stuff
A bigger house
Any size house
A decent place to live
A new car
A childhood that didn’t suck
Better laws
Better ways to get everyone to follow all the laws
Jobs for everyone
Universal healthcare
A different president
A different body
A different life
A different world
The cosmic joke is that none of these things can solve our problems. None of these things can actually make us happy.
The way we feel isn’t caused by anything outside of us. Nothing outside of us can change the way we feel.
What we feel is caused by what we think.
Our experience is created by our thoughts and the meaning we attach to those thoughts.
The cosmic winning lotto ticket at the end of the rainbow that we all have, at all times, is that there will always be a fresh thought, and we can always attach new meaning to it. We can be happy from the inside out.