Paradise Within

 

paradisiacal - adjective - ideal or idyll, heavenly (Google).

Often it seems as though this life's journey is a search for the paradisiacal, but most view the endeavor to be as challenging as the pronunciation of the word: a mouthful of six syllables, the emphasis being on the fourth. But is it really all that tough?

Yesterday, I decided to drive down to the local Dollar Tree, a store that I equate with a treasure chest as there are usually all kinds of material gems for a dollar a piece. When I walked into the front door, a display of items suggestive of the tropics caught my eye as I was looking for campy, fun treats with which to spoil my great nieces, who appreciate anything regardless of price or level of taste. I headed straight for the brown plastic pineapple drinking cups, complete with frilly green, cloth crowns and straws that grow from them. As I reached out to examine one up close, my attention was diverted to a placard standing beside the pineapple cups. Decorated along its margins with colorful images symbolic of equatorial habitats, it read, "Welcome to Paradise." And on cue, I asked myself, Is paradise a place that you aspire to inhabit or is it something else more obtainable?

To me (and probably to a lot of Buddhists), paradise on earth (at least–I don't know about Heaven) is not a physical entity. It is the state of happiness within and not without of you. To reach the internal paradise, joy, you have to release all negativity that perhaps has sprung from past disappointments. Is this easy? No, but nothing in life is. But as I have written time and time again, your state of mind is determined by choice. Simply put, you choose to think the way you do and to perceive the past and present the way you do. Others may alter your choices, but ultimately you are at the helm of your own happiness, your own psychological paradise. A mental illness or two could inhibit your train of thought; however, if you are sound mentally, changing your viewpoint is doable. 

Paradisiacal is indeed hard to formulate as a word and as a state of being. If you wish to embrace the pronunciation and the idyllic mindset, all it comes down to is diligent practice (which may include mediation) and a mind open to practice. Happiness is on the horizon, well within your grasp, but only if you want it to be.

(By the way, in case you are wondering, yes, I did buy the sign. For a dollar, I couldn't go wrong with a corporeal reminder of paradise's accessibility on earth.)

#word-to-words, #spilled thoughts, #vocabulary, #good advice, #personal essay, #vocabulary