You Won't Find Happiness In The Future

We keep waiting for the lasting happiness that we hope to experience, one day. But can we ever find happiness in the future? The questioner often feels controlled by thoughts about the future and doesn't want experiences of joy to end. He asks how to stay in the present moment and keep his mind from wandering off into the future.

Rupert invites him to imagine that there is no future — that this is the only moment there is. Can you be unhappy without referring to the future? You feel that you are unhappy in the present, and you escape from it into the future, but it's the opposite: you are only unhappy when you are thinking of the future.

It is impossible to be unhappy in the now. And given that the now is all that we ever have, it is not difficult to be without suffering and to be at peace.
If you find yourself escaping from the now into the future in order to avoid your unhappiness, you have misunderstood — you are creating your unhappiness by venturing into the future. Take refuge in the now.

All our entire suffering is contained in a single thought — the current thought that takes us away from our current experience into the past or future. Isn't that the key to everything you truly long for?

This clip was taken from one of Rupert's in-person retreats at the Garrison Institute, March 27 - April 3, 2022.