Conversations with Avant-garde Sages - The Wizard LLC

Conversations with Avant-garde Sages
they're pretty darned integral to feeling pretty content. I mean, it's
hard to say they don't contribute to happiness. That's how I feel.
FRANCIS LUCILLE: There is a difference and distinction to be
made between pleasure and happiness. Pleasures are short-lived
experiences, they are usually linked to sensual experiences.
Happiness is a peaceful condition in which we are not troubled,
and it is this peaceful condition in the background, if you will, that
allows for the little burst of joy. If you don't have this peace in the
background, you couldn't even enjoy your tea or your shower, you
see. Let's assume you have a serious issue, and then the enjoyment
of the tea or the shower disappears, if you have a serious issue
with a big-ticket item. So I am not saying, I am not preaching an
ascetic life, I am far from that, on the contrary I see life as a
celebration, and the running hot water, or the drinking hot water
with a little bag in it, they are part of the celebration. But what we
have to understand is that whenever we experience happiness, it's
never the tea bag which is happy, or the hot water, it is the
presence clearly; that's all we have to do. And also a distinction has
to be made between the needs of the body, the need for
cleanliness, for water, to drink, to eat, etc, to sleep. And also the
need for beauty, we are more than animals, all of that is absolutely
legitimate. I mean, as you drink your cup of tea you are not
harming anybody, or as you take your shower. So it's totally
legitimate; it's part of the celebration.
WIZARD: It could be your buffet in the Bellagio in Vegas. Or it
could be living on a mountaintop in Jamaica with no water.
FRANCIS LUCILLE: Absolutely, absolutely, it could be anything.
It could be anything. The life we live, expresses itself in so many
different ways, and who knows whether the guy in Jamaica on his
mountaintop is not happier than we with our cars and beautiful
homes, yes.
TRIP: You say there's no teacher and there's only a teacher for as
long as one takes oneself to be a student, and notwithstanding that
fact, I still feel you're one of the greatest spiritual teachers alive. So
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