The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thought about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking.

Separate them from the situation, which is always neutral, which always is as it is.

Do not seek happiness.

If you seek it, you will not find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness.

Happiness is ever elusive, but freedom from unhappiness is attainable now, by facing what is rather than making up stories about it.

The Ego creates separation, and separation creates suffering.

The Ego is therefore clearly pathological. Apart from the obvious ones such as anger, hatred, and so on, there are other more subtle forms of negativity.

They are so common they are usually not recognized as such, for example, impatience, irritation and nervousness.

They constitute the background unhappiness that is many people’s predominant inner state. You need to be extremely alert and absolutely present to be able to detect them.

Whenever you do, it is a moment of awakening, of disidentification from the mind.

These are stories the Ego creates to convince you that you can not be at peace now or can not be fully yourself now. Being at peace and being who you are, that is, being yourself, are one.

The Ego says: Maybe at some point in the future, I can be at peace – if this, that, or the other happens, or I obtain this or become that.

Or it says: I can never be at peace because of something that happened in the past.

The Ego does not know that your only opportunity for being at peace is now. Or maybe it does know, and it is afraid that you may find this out.

Peace, after all, is the end of the Ego.

How to be at peace now? By making peace with the present moment. The present moment is the field on which the game of life happens. It can not happen anywhere else.

Once you have made peace with the present moment, see what happens, what you can do or choose to do, or rather what life does through you.

There are three words that convey the secret of the art of living, the secret of all success and happiness: One With Life.

Being one with life is being one with Now. You then realize that you do not live your life, but life lives you.

Life is the dancer, and you are the dance.