Meditation for Thursday 16th April 2026
People come to meditation for many reasons including the hope that by meditating regularly that their lives will be happier. While this is a worthwhile goal it needs to be unpacked. We need to understand what we mean by happiness. A shopping bag that announces ‘happiness is shopping at Chadstone’ may not fulfill one’s happiness quotient!
Francis Bacon the 16th century English philosopher said that if we can improve things on earth so that we are not living in a ‘valley of tears’ then we can achieve happiness.
When we meditate with the aim of seeking happiness and we don’t experience much of a change our practice can become intense and create anxiety. We are fighting for happiness and are a little concerned that we might die without knowing whether we have been happy or not. This is the reverse of past generations who didn’t have the same expectations for happiness, at least this side of the grave!
The kind of anxiety about whether we can achieve a happier life brings unhappiness.
If we meditate always with the intention of seeking happiness, we’ll be disappointed because we’ll never reach it. It’s like the horizon that’s receding as you approach it, as you move forward.
So tonight, as we settle down to meditate, we need to remember not to seek happiness or at the very least not to actively seek it.
As we open our hearts to meditate let’s be open to others. When this is our intention, we open ourselves to life.
We do know that when we persevere with meditation that joy becomes part of the experience. Joy is different from happiness as it can manifest itself in the midst of turmoil. It’s a handy tool when things in life go wrong!
And now let’s embrace stillness and spend time meditating remembering that we open ourselves to life by opening ourselves to others.
Meditation
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A reminder to check out the programs on offer through the Carmelite Centre.
www.thecarmelitecentremelbourne.org