Happiness, the border between soul and mind

Petrachi Oana-Andreea

I would like to begin with one of Shakespeares quotes which I think is suggestive for the
contests of my presentation: Happiness is not a matter of events; depends upon the tides of the
mind.
If I had to give a definition of happiness I must say three words: inner peace, love and
soul. Nowadays the majority of people are unhappy and almost all of them search for this kind of
release: happiness. But what they dont know is that you dont have to do something or to think
of this: the only way to achieve this state is to open the gates of your soul.
In order to understand a little this concept, in next lines, I will try to explain to you a little
some aspects like negativity, like the influence of material things and society and other.
In my opinion we have a big problem: the society or better say this democratic system
turns us into robots. We are the slave of the society. We cannot speak about liberty or peace.
Democracy gives us only an appearance of liberty. In fact it is all about money and power. It is
incredible how the power can change people into machines and so does the money. Do you
realize that we are permanently manipulated by the state? Why people forget the essence of life.
Why peoples kill one another? How is that possible? We are not aware of this process. We know
but we are not aware of this cruel reality. We are stuck in the money game because society
teaches us this lesson. It demonstrates us day by day that without money we are nothing, we are
starving.
Under these circumstances we forgot to give thanks to nature for its generosity, for its
love for us, for the fact that it keeps us alive. How much do people enjoy the things that are really
worth?( for example: the sunlight, the stars, the animals, the flowers). We must learn that all
around us is a miracle, like Einstein says there are two ways to live your life: as if there were no
miracles or as it all would be a miracle. We are completely blind: we forget of ourselves, of our
soul, of our liberty which are the most important ingredients for our entire live.
I have to ask you a question: how long do you dedicate time to yourself (for your soul),
being release from thoughts, being only in your heart, in your soul and in your mind? Do you
know how important it is to do this? Lets focus a bit on this idea.
People like Saint Augustine, Shakespeare, Aristotle, Mencius, Eckhart Tolle, told us about
all things that generate our final pursuit: happiness.
St. Augustine say us about the vulnerability of material things of this world. Do you think
that happiness depends on material things? That kind of joy when we possessing something what
we deserved is only something ephemeral. As Shakespeare say: happiness is about the way we
want see things.
First of all we have to make the difference between soul and mind in order to understand
the principles of real happiness and real love, the gates to wisdom and peace. The main mistake

that we do is that we confusing mind and soul. We should understand that the mind has no place
in souls business. For example, every moment we make assumptions which can be true or false.
In case that these are false, our mind and soul are poisoned with negative energy which destroys
us every day and this only because of brain which make assumptions.
For a better understanding Eckhart Tolle explain us: In a nutshell, we are unhappy
because we are trapped in the small, limited confines of our egotistic personality identified with a
false self that is not what we really are. The ego is endlessly preoccupied with past and future,
which are also false realities in the sense that neither are ever happening now. The less we are
experiencing ourselves and life in the present moment, which is where reality exist, the more
unreal and false our life is and the less happy we will be. Understanding, this will begin to help
liberate you from the ego and its trappings and live increasingly in the aliveness of the present
moment.
The secret to happiness is letting go of judgment and resistance to the way things are.
When we accept and align with what is, we are not resigning ourselves to a fate we may or may
not like. We are empowering ourselves with peace, tranquility and a sense of clarity that will
allow us to make wise, non-reactive choices about our conditions.
The great Indian philosopher and spiritual teacher J. Krishanaurti expresses the secret of
how to be happy in a lecture he gave near the end of his life. He said to his audience; Do you
want to know my secret?...My secret is that I dont mind what happens. An interpretation explain
this words equivalent with: I accept present moment as it is./ The present moment is my friend,
not my enemy./ I am in alignment with what is, as it is, in this moment./Whatever is happening in
this moment is OK.
Secondly, Happiness is a life in pursuit of wisdom like Aristotle said. In my opinion the
happiness is the final purpose for every people. And dont forget that beauty comes from inner
balance. This is why when we fall in love we are so open-minded, so generous and we feel that
the entire Universe is ourselves.
In conclusion I can say that we are in a permanently incertitude about our purpose in this
world, but the only certitude is that we exist. We dont know other way. Eminescu, our national
poet said that We can have everything lacking all and nothing having all. Love is the most
relevant feeling for which deserves to dedicate our entire life. Like in Bible is said I have nothing
if I havet love.

Bibliography
[1.] Eckhart Tolle, Power of present,