The “I-gotta-getties” and the “I-need-it-nowies”

One day, when they were first and second stagers, Avatar Adi Da talked with His older daughters, teaching them how to locate the feeling of the Mystery. He helped them see that they can exercise that Happy feeling, no matter what is coming up for them.

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Avatar Adi Da asked His daughter, “What is it that you really like?”

She thought for a moment and then answered, “Pandas!”

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Avatar Adi Da said, “What if you had an infinite number of pandas, as many as you wanted—would that make you Happy?”

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“Yes!” said His daughter, smiling a big smile.

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“But what if you could only have pandas?” Avatar Adi Da asked her. “Nothing else! No people, no toys, no books, nothing else around you except pandas!”

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She began shaking her head and firmly changed her answer to, “No.”

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Avatar Adi Da then asked, “Well, what would it be that you could have—and have nothing else at all forever but only that one thing—that would make you Happy?”

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His daughter looked at Avatar Adi Da quietly for a time and then she said, “You.”

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“You mean me—this body here?” asked Avatar Adi Da. “No,” she said, “my True Heart--Master.”

“Who is that?” Avatar Adi Da Asked. “Do you mean Happiness?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“Well,” asked Avatar Adi Da, “how do you get That?... Where is the Happiness then?”

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His daughter touched her heart and said, “Right here!”

“That’s right!  And when you feel that Happiness, you forget about everything else.” Adi Da opened his arms to the room. “You forget about all of this.” He slapped His knee. “You even forget about the body. That’s the Big Place—the Happiness Place. And it’s very Big! You don’t need anything else when you are There. You don’t need toys, or books, or TV, or sweets. You don’t even need a panda!”

Avatar Adi Da looked at His daughters. “Or a polar bear! Or a Woody Woodpecker! Or an E.T.!” He said, listing their favorite stuffed toys.

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He smiled at the little girls. “There are no pandas in the Happiness Place.”

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Avatar Adi Da continued, “A lot of grown--ups are in trouble because they are un--Happy and ‘thinking’ that they need things to make them Happy. They have the ‘I--gotta--getties’ and the ‘I--need--it--nowies’. But these people are only thinking they are un--Happy. So, what you must do is realize that you are only thinking you are un--Happy. And, instead of doing that, just remember that, before you started thinking you are un--Happy, you are already Happy. Already!” said Adi Da loudly.

Then Avatar Adi Da looked at His daughters. “You can feel that right now, can’t you? That you are already Happy?”

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“Yes!” they said.

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“Well, then,” said Avatar Adi Da with a smile, “that is the practice!”