Contentment from the inside out

[Fireside_Hindu]

Thank you for your responses. It seems most are at as much a loss for how to describe the practical steps to inner contentment as I am. I like Vinayaka's suggestion of repeating a short but meaningful mantra when stress or worry comes to mind.

Based on an experience I had this morning I think another idea (closely related) is incorporating a meaningful and intentional distraction when unease arises.

I was walking to temple from the train station, and was a bit early so I stopped in at a 7/11 for coffee. I had been puzzling over this question of achieving contentment at the time. The Indian man who owned the store saw my bindi and immediately came to chat with me. He was so pleased and pleasant to talk to. We discussed Hinduism for quite some time ( a little in hindi as well). It was a wonderful way to start the day.

We did not talk about contentment, but leaving the store I felt the tension of the morning fall away and I forgot all about the things that were troubling me.

I realized this man had distracted me from myself. He had pulled me out of myself by engaging with me on a common topic (Hinduism/Spirituality). I am certain devi sent him to get me out of my own head.

Now, obviously this relief came from outside myself but I am wondering if there is a way to take what happened and internalize it? Is there a series of thoughts or a place I can go with my mind that will not only distract me for a little while, but actually improve my overall feeling of contentment long term? I am still feeling light and un-burdened by the things that have been troubling me up to now. Maybe it is temporary, but maybe I can harness it.

 

[Sw. Vandana Jyothi]

It seems to me the very notion of "striving" is quite the antithesis of contentment. The word itself conjures up feelings of discontent for "where I am" or "what I have," invoking feelings of "motion toward something"--not necessarily anxious motion but wouldn't that ultimately be weighed in the scales of thwarted desire? Just how badly do "I want" what I don't have, that for which I strive? The misery meter for unfulfilled desire in my experience doesn't increment in a straight line; seems much more like the Richter scale.

Doesn't matter the realm of desire, spiritual or material. It is the incessant cycle of desires--those thwarted and those fulfilled (eventually perceived as a monotonous rhythm; FH? I think you can relate? )--which wraps it tentacle around the soul and binds it to The Wheel.

So I made a list of my desires, not with the intent of ending all desire at once, but for analyzing which ones might serve to help me achieve my goal of Self-realization in the long run (and would be discarded later) and which, if I thought about them actually fell right then into the realm of, "Say what?! Do I need this? Why do I care?!" For example, approval from others. Who needs it? Or its look-alike: do I do what I do so I can carve another notch on my "good deed" belt? Wrong motive (desire for admiration and praise). The only question to ask is, is my God happy with the effort? Yes, I think so. OK, there it is, that's the start of building unassailable contentment. The contentment being talked about here will be found only in the Divine and in the search for the Divine, in nothing else and certainly nothing mundane. Life becomes enjoyable (OK, sometimes merely endurable, but that counts, right?) when the mind's nature to separate one's "regular life" from one's "spiritual life" is held in check.

It is true that to reject that which comes unthought and unsought to one is not dharma, either. Its manifestation is not due to the play of one's desires. With discrimination, keeping in mind the advice of the sages with respect to what is to be enjoyed, how and when, grant oneself permission without guilt, as God does (insists on it, actually), to enjoy... but lust not after enjoyment. This is the route to contentment.

 

[George-ananda]

He (God) can send thoughts to one's mind that are highly protective when one is in danger. He can also warn you of dangers. I have experienced this through the devotional yoga of total surrender to God.

Right, but isn't that what people call devotional yoga where one worships a deity and is succored and aided by their deity?

 

[Vinayaka]

He was so pleased and pleasant to talk to. We discussed Hinduism for quite some time ( a little in hindi as well). It was a wonderful way to start the day.

We did not talk about contentment, but leaving the store I felt the tension of the morning fall away and I forgot all about the things that were troubling me.

I realized this man had distracted me from myself. He had pulled me out of myself by engaging with me on a common topic (Hinduism/Spirituality). I am certain devi sent him to get me out of my own head.

Part of it's right there, I think. Engaging other people is always beneficial to get your mind off of yourself, and things like 'finding contentment'. I personally think its really important to give yourself some selfish down time. Make sadhana on Sundays optional for example.

Over-analysis is a killer.

 

[Aupmanyav]

I realized this man had distracted me from myself. He had pulled me out of myself ..

You were not focused on ego (self), that made you happy. Being focused on ego is myopic.