The Five Huaquas
Happiness Is . . . .
by Jan Holmes
Happiness is in Pleasantville
Remember the movie “Pleasantville”? It played in theaters a few years ago before it went to television. It probably played around the world as well. At any rate, in Pleasantville people were always happy because they had everything they needed and life was predictable and smooth. No problems were to be found in Pleasantville because nothing new and different or out of the ordinary ever happened there. People were always nice and considerate, they never got angry, the weather was always perfect, and one and on. The movie was shot in tones of gray to emphasize the sameness.
Then one day two teenagers, a boy and a girl, dream themselves into this dreamscape and upset the equilibrium. Spots of color start to appear. Oh, dear!
Happiness is not a destination
Happiness, one of the five huaquas (health, hope, happiness, harmony, humor), is very elusive and fleeting, hard to pin down to a tangible something. It is not something we can set out intent for, exactly; rather it is the by-product of how we live our lives.
When asked what they really desire in their life, many people will say, “I just want to be happy”, as though happiness were a destination. They tend to think of the five huaquas in terms of tonal everyday reality: When I get married, I’ll be happy. When I move to Seattle, I’ll be happy. When I make a lot of money, I’ll be happy. When I get bigger breasts, I’ll be happy. When the weather cools off, I’ll be happy. When I meet my soul mate, I’ll be happy.
Millions of humans strive to arrive in what I call Happyville where they can live happily ever after. However, happiness is dependent on where we focus our attention, and if we focus only on the mundane substance reality, we starve our souls.
The Five Huaquas: |
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Huaquas are soul qualities
The five huaquas are also, and perhaps most importantly, spiritual qualities, nagual qualities, soul qualities. We gain ever higher levels of these qualities when we stretch and grow in all aspects, when we shift our focus from the personality in tonal existence to the evolution of our soul. If we are to walk the razor’s edge without falling off and thus enter the Fifth World in 2012 as balanced humans in dharma, we must begin to focus on our soul hungers and consciously assemble our world to feed those hungers. A message transmitted to us through ThunderStrikes from Stella Many names speaks of the hungers of the soul. (See “Hungers” in the Reading Room).
The following excerpt from Song of the Deer by ThunderStrikes and Jan Orsi explores the difference between tonal happiness and soul evolution.
We seek happiness in the “good life.” We work hard for credentials, promotions, status, money, security. The irony is, however, that many successful and wealthy people who are out there every day actualizing and getting wealthier and wealthier are supremely unhappy. Why? They are living the pretender life of their molded, sculpted, and armored self instead of the sacred dream of their spirit personality. All their accomplishments are not evolving the destiny of their soul.
Whether you like it or not, your soul will not be denied, for its sole purpose for being here as a spirit personality in physical form is to grow and evolve. It is not here to build a bigger house, become president of the corporation, own a summer cottage, bask at Club Med, or retire at sixty. The sacred dream of your soul is not your career, how much money you make, or even the contributions you make for the good of the collective. These may satisfy your desires and bring you the fulfillment and joy of accomplishment and pleasure, but they should not be the defining meaning and purpose of your life. They do not define who you are. They are adventures and rewards on your journey, not your destination.
The soul’s focus and intent is not to get happy. Happiness can be a companion that shows up sometimes, or maybe often, on your journey. But if you stop your progress and focus on happiness, happiness disappears like smoke. Recall the teachings of the Dark Arrows, Light Arrows, and the Rainbow Arrows. We do not acquire the Rainbow Arrows by focusing our attention on them. As we do our personal work, facing the challenges of change and growth with a good attitude and approach, we slowly drop the Dark Arrows and pick up the Light Arrows. At some point the gift of a Rainbow Arrow comes to us like a blessing. If we then stop our progress because we think we are in Happyville and seek to go no further, the Rainbow Arrow will also disappear.
The journey never ends.