BEING HAPPY IS NATURAL
Being happy is natural
Question
I seem to feel stupidly happy all the time now. It is almost ridiculous. I look in awe at the garden at night and walk about in it just appreciating the feeling of night-time. Insects land on me and instead of brushing them off I feel like they're my friends. I feel waves of joy pass through me just walking around work. People are rude to me and I find it amusing.
— Sifu Tim Franklin, Shaolin Wahnam UK
Answer
Tim, you may not realize it, but you are one of the very few people in the whole world who have learnt and benefitted from an elite art. A lot of people learn chi kung, but only a very few have the opportunity to learn genuine chi kung, i.e. chi kung whereby you can purposefully work on energy and derive the benefits which chi kung classics say practising chi kung will give.
Fewer still have the opportunity to learn genuine Shaolin Chi Kung. What is so special about genuine Shaolin Chi Kung? It was the type of chi kung taught in the Shaolin Temple, which had been the imperial temple for all the emperors of China.
The elite chi kung has opened your heart and purified your spirit. Hence, you are joyful all the times, and at peace with yourself and with the whole cosmos. Actually, to be joyful and peaceful is natural. But many people find this odd because, due to habitual stressful living and other factors, they have been conditioned to be tensed, anxious and even depressed.
They also find it hard to believe elite chi kung can give such good results so quickly because most of them are used to degraded versions of chi kung where its essence has been lost. You may have an idea how degraded chi kung has become when you find that typical practitioners may have practiced chi kung for many years yet have no experience of chi, or that some people think they can teach chi kung to others after having learnt it from a book.
Question
The greatest problem with this is that I don't feel I want to work at all! I want to go outside and be in the gardens and just walk about near the trees, or be with my girlfriend. I also feel a little light-headed sometimes.
My girlfriend says it doesn't sound like a problem at all, but a blessing and I should enjoy it, but I'm worried that people are going to start thinking I'm simple and that friends won't know how to react to me being this happy, and that it isn't conducive to work. In fact it's almost scary as I can't be sure I'll return to normal again. It feels like I've taken an ecstasy pill or something... Is this a normal reaction to have?
AnswerYour reaction is quite normal, like someone who has laboured all his life yet is poor, and now he finds himself suddenly with a lot of money. It is normal if he does not want to work, and just enjoys himself with his new-found wealth.
But you have to check yourself against this abuse. Although you have a lot of money or a lot of energy, you still have to work. Now, with plentiful of energy and freshness of spirit, you do not labour at your work, you enjoy it.
Your girlfriend is right — you are blessed. But you are mistaken to worry that people will think you simplistic and friends will find it hard to relate to you when you are happy. In fact the opposite should cause you concern. If you are complicated and unhappy, people and friends will find it hard to work with you.
Simplicity is a virtue, and being happy is a much sought after goal. As you have already known and experienced, the chi kung exercises which give you these wonderful results are very simple. Indeed, many students have expressed amazement that such simple exercises can give such profound results.
Being happy is conducive to work. You should also work for other people's happiness. One sure and simple way to do so is to be kind to them. It is normal to be happy and healthy. Do you want to be sad and sick all the time, or most of the time? That will be abnormal. Clear your mental blockage and enjoy your happiness, good health as well as work all the time.
The above is taken from Questions 2 and 3 July 2002 Part 3 of the Selection of Questions and Answers.
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