Conditions of Happiness

S

Shinzenbi

Jedi
:) :D :lol:

Do conditions of happiness exist ?

Some people would say there are none, that it is a state of mind. Other ones that it arises from material conditions, spiritual fulfillment, having a goal… Many opinions, more or less interesting, and yet no answer.

One of the reasons why i ask this question is that unfortunately, very few of my acquaintances look happy. They are in despair. Some of them seem to be so sad that such toughts as « his/her case is hopeless. Only death can liberate him/her » regularly occur to me. It may look funny but having « empty eyes » in front of yours, hearing a monotonous and resigned voice, and seeing really heavy body motions like someone was 60 years older is not funny. The most desperate guys i've ever met are those who are in the expectation.

I’ve discussed it with a friend who told me that many men are deeply sad because they do not have any life goal nor any creative activity (both can be one and the same), so they never experience victory. We’ve also said that happiness should proceed from values and that in the current world, it is very difficult to manifest them. What we have is entropic antivalues.

A basic definition of happiness from Wikipedia is « a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. »
It is simple and i like it. If there exist conditions of happiness, here are some that make a lot of sense to me :

- Not to know the future
- Being silent, immobile and aligned (from an alchemist)

I'm not looking for a happiness recipe. I'm trying to figure out if there are objective conditions to it.

Please.
 
One condition that I can depend on to put me in a state of happiness is:
to be up to my eyes working on some project that has intrinsic interest to me.

An art project, music project, research project, cooking, you name it. Money in the equation seems always to prevent the happiness.
 
Try to imagine happiness 400 years ago. How were people then happy? I think there might be conditions, because I think happiness is also a byproduct of society. Depending on personality and essence impressions can differ from person to person. Problem is that there are too many concepts and associations in our minds that keep us from just being.
We are more concerned with having rather than being. And being is not necesarily about having felt in a certain way to consider oneself happy.
 
Happiness is one of those words that mean different things to different people. It is hard to find a precise definition, and in that sense it's difficult to say for sure if one's definition of happiness is useful Work-wise or harmful. One of the best discussions about the subtlety of the question is William Irvine's "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy " discussed in this thread: https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,31598.0.html
One the other hand, there is a short video by John F. Schumaker that discusses the very recent confusion regarding this notion in modern society:
 
Happiness is perspective/perception that shapes someones frame of mind. Even if unhappy things happen in your life you maybe sad or down for a bit but your default state is this frame of mind. Happiness is individual. Ones happiness may not be anothers.

How do you develop this perspective/perception?

1) experiencing life/wants
2) Work
3) Trails and tribulations
4) knowledge
5) Negativity and positivity ,,, Happiness is somewhere in the middle

I don't think there are conditions or a step by step guide of how to be happy it is an individual thing. You and life figure it out together.
 
For most people it seems that happiness is doing what "it" wants: eating toxic foods, aligning with narcissistic behavior, believing lies, pushing unpleasant thoughts under the rag and often just reacting to different neurochemical impulses. Our brains don't like cognitive dissonance but there's a difference between changing a behavior than justifying a behavior. The latter is always easier to do, thus more "happiness".

By that definition i don't mind being "unhappy". Then again, if happiness means cleaning your machine, looking at your behavior, doing conscious suffering, questioning different narratives, separating truth from lies and applying knowledge, then i'll do my best to be happy. Avoiding (chronic) stress is good, but the way people usually do it is with different coping strategies, instead of actually looking at the deeper internal (emotions, behaviour) and external (diet, social environment) causes.

Also the spiritual decline of our ages with it's materalistic worldview must make people really unhappy. I've never been so happy as today and the biggest reason is this network and the knowledge through it. When you just think of all this information about the infinite all-encompassing universe, Divine Cosmic Mind and your life as a religion and lessons, it makes you really humble... and happy! :)
 
Seppo Ilmarinen said:
Also the spiritual decline of our ages with it's materalistic worldview must make people really unhappy. I've never been so happy as today and the biggest reason is this network and the knowledge through it. When you just think of all this information about the infinite all-encompassing universe, Divine Cosmic Mind and your life as a religion and lessons, it makes you really humble... and happy! :)
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I agree, and this is because here we adquiere knowledge. And for me knowledge is happiness. For me is that simple as that. Yesterday I was re-reading one chapter in the wave about knowledge, the most important thing to be present, and to be present here and now is, for me, happiness. It was a conversation with the C's, so beautifully explained:

The following was one of their earliest explications of “Knowledge Protects”.

October 22, 1994

A: The only defense needed is knowledge. Knowledge defends you against every possible form of harm in existence. The more knowledge you have, the less fear you have, the less pain you have, the less stress you feel, the less anguish you feel, and the less danger you experience of any form or sort.

Think of this very carefully now for this is very important: Where is there any limitation in the concept behind the word “knowledge”? Being that there is no limitation, what is the value of that word? Infinite.

Can you conceive of how that one concept, that one meaning frees you from all limitation? Use your sixth sense to conceive of how the word, the term, the meaning of knowledge can provide with all that you could possibly ever need. If you think carefully you will begin to see glimpses of how this is true in its greatest possible form.

Q: (L) Does this include knowledge learned from books?

A: This includes all possible meanings of the concept of the word.

Can you think of how it would be that simply with one term, this one word could carry so much meaning?

We sense that you are not completely aware. You can have glimpses of illumination and illumination comes from knowledge

If you strive perpetually to gain and gather knowledge, you provide yourself with protection from every possible negative occurrence that could ever happen.

Do you know why this is?

The more knowledge you have, the more awareness you have as to how to protect yourself. Eventually this awareness becomes so powerful and so all encompassing that you do not even have to perform tasks, or rituals if you prefer, to protect yourself. The protection simply comes naturally with the awareness.

Q: (L) Does knowledge have a substance or an existence apart from its possession or its acceptance?

A: Knowledge has all substance. It goes to the core of all existence.

Q: (L) So acquiring knowledge includes adding substance to one’s being?

A: Indeed. It includes adding everything to one’s being that is desirable. And also, when you keep invoking the light, as you do, truly understand that the light is knowledge. That is the knowledge, which is at the core of all existence. And being at the core of all existence it provides protection from every form of negativity in existence. Light is everything and everything is knowledge and knowledge is everything. You are doing extremely well in acquiring of knowledge. Now all you need is the faith and realization that acquiring of knowledge is all you need.

Q: (L) I just want to be sure that the source that I am acquiring the knowledge from is not a deceptive source.

A: If you simply have faith, no knowledge that you could possibly acquire could possibly be false because there is no such thing. Anyone or anything that tries to give you false knowledge, false information, will fail. The very material substance that the knowledge takes on, since it is at the root of all existence, will protect you from absorption of false information that is not knowledge.
There is no need to fear the absorption of false information when you are simply openly seeking to acquire knowledge. And knowledge forms the protection — all the protection you could ever need.

Q: (L) There are an awful lot of people who are being open and trusting and having faith that are getting zapped and knocked on their rears.

A: No. That is simply your perception. What you are failing to perceive is that these people are not really gathering knowledge. These people are stuck at some point in their pathway to progress and they are undergoing a hidden manifestation of what is referred to in your terms as obsession. Obsession is not knowledge; obsession is stagnation. So, when one becomes obsessed, one actually closes off the absorption and the growth and the progress of soul development, which comes with the gaining of true knowledge. For when one becomes obsessed one deteriorates the protection therefore one is open to problems, to tragedies, to all sorts of difficulties. Therefore one experiences same.
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To be protected by knowledge it is like a light inside and this is happiness. You can be sad, but sadness is another subject. Knowledge is the core of happiness.

This extract was from the Wave, chapter 10.
 
Shinzenbi said:
A basic definition of happiness from Wikipedia is « a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. »
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In the quest for happiness, I think perhaps being constantly happy all the time is not something we should necessarily be aspiring to. Emotional ups-and-downs, dilemmas, and problems are what give us opportunities to work on ourselves.

This is a quote on suffering from Georgi Ivanovitch Gurdjieff: The Man, The Teaching, His Mission by William Patrick Patterson (Fairfax: Arete, 2014. pp.47-48):

November-December 1915. Moscow.
[. . .]
Gurdjieff again brings up the subject of suffering and adds the idea of the emotional center. Uspenskii says he realizes that something new can come only through feeling because the mind is obviously too limited. "So how to awaken feelings?" he asks.

"The only way is by suffering," says Gurdjieff. "The emotional center is composed of two halve, one positive, the other negative, of pleasant feelings and unpleasant feelings, of joy and suffering. In the positive part our possibilities are very limited. We cannot increase the power of enjoyment. If I put a lump of sugar in my mouth, it will taste sweet, that is, pleasant. But if I put ten lumps of sugar in my mouth, it will not be ten times sweeter. It is impossible to increase the sweetness."

"But suffering can be increased. Our power over suffering is much greater than over enjoyment. Consequently we can intensify the work of the emotional center only by intensifying suffering."

"But you say at the same time," says Uspenskii, "that we must 'sacrifice suffering,' free ourselves from suffering."

"Yes, at the same time it is necessary to sacrifice one's suffering," answered Gurdjieff, "but this is a very different kind of suffering. A man may suffer all his life and may get nothing from it except new sufferings. And he may suffer for a comparatively short time and receive a great deal for it."
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Shinzenbi, in my opinion, happiness is a choice one makes.
You can choose to be happy, despite life's difficulties.
 
Seppo Ilmarinen said:
For most people it seems that happiness is doing what "it" wants: eating toxic foods, aligning with narcissistic behavior, believing lies, pushing unpleasant thoughts under the rag and often just reacting to different neurochemical impulses. Our brains don't like cognitive dissonance but there's a difference between changing a behavior than justifying a behavior. The latter is always easier to do, thus more "happiness".

By that definition i don't mind being "unhappy". Then again, if happiness means cleaning your machine, looking at your behavior, doing conscious suffering, questioning different narratives, separating truth from lies and applying knowledge, then i'll do my best to be happy. Avoiding (chronic) stress is good, but the way people usually do it is with different coping strategies, instead of actually looking at the deeper internal (emotions, behaviour) and external (diet, social environment) causes.

Also the spiritual decline of our ages with it's materalistic worldview must make people really unhappy. I've never been so happy as today and the biggest reason is this network and the knowledge through it. When you just think of all this information about the infinite all-encompassing universe, Divine Cosmic Mind and your life as a religion and lessons, it makes you really humble... and happy! :)
Click to expand...

Perfectly put. And great additions by loreta and Mal7. Couldn't have tied it all together better myself. Thanks!
 
That's a topic I have discussed at length with a friend of mine, who always maintained that I seemed to be unhappy (which might have been true at that stage).

My reply to that was usually along the lines, that my main goal was not happiness, but Truth, and that to get to the Truth was a difficult and at times painful process, and that this was not necessarily leading to happiness.

Today I am not so sure anymore if the above is necessarily the case. First of all, there is a semantic problem, as some have already alluded to. Happiness is difficult to define, and there might be different aspects of it. We certainly don't want to acquire the flat, detached and egotistical sort of "happiness".

But I feel today, that the way to undig the Truth must not necessarily lead to unhappiness. As others have stated, it is probably more of a conscious decision, whether or not one feels "happy" or not.

I read Csikszentmihalyi's book Flow: The Psychology of Happiness a while ago. It's quite worth a read. In this book he puts a lot of emphasis on "Meaning", which leads to "Fulfilment", and this for me is in a sense a better description of what I would like to achieve (aka "happiness").

Or, as the Cs have put it, to acquire a "happy-go-lucky attitude" ...
 
It seems that so often in the 'real world', people think that happiness can only manifest in one way - you have a smile on your face and and are always chirpy. That happiness is easy and comes cheap. I don't think it does and that it's little more than an addiction to a state of mind that often supports an illusion. I mean, how many people often seem or act happy when in reality it's a mask or coping mechanism that allows them to survive or be thought well of in this world?

I do think that truth can eventually lead to happiness, but a more balanced understanding of it. At first, when we find out the truth about ourselves or others, it's perfectly natural to be angry or saddened by it but then comes acceptance which reminds me of Laura's current siggy:

He who learns must suffer
And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget
Falls drop by drop upon the heart,
And in our own despair, against our will,
Comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
Agamemnon, Aeschylus
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Through the pain of suffering comes wisdom. The acceptance of the truth may lead to an inner calm in the storm from which a deeper relationship with and feeling of joy may be given birth to.

As others have said, true happiness or rather joy and contentment takes work and I agree. In the end, it is more rewarding and is built on a stable foundation. It's not subject to the whim of outside forces, but is to a large extent, steadfast. To me, being joyful is akin to being at home with oneself. It's not a place one can run to or hide from the world as the common definition of happiness is often understood, but rather something that one takes with them wherever they go.

While one can certainly feel sad and angry at times, I think that joy sustains and nourishes us through those times. Perhaps, at least at the beginning of our comprehension of it, it's the very small voice inside that says to us "Keep going." Anyhoo, for what it's worth.
 
If we look at the etymology of the word "happy", it comes from "hap/happ" which meant chance or good fortune. It seems that originally happiness was tied to good fortune. Considering the hypothesis that reality in its very fabric has a significant chance element or hazard built in to it, the original meaning of happiness implies situations where the roll of the dice was in our favor.

From this perspective, it becomes obvious that we cannot always be happy since it is based on chance that we do not control. The stoics used this basis to come up with the philosophy of following virtue (Greek Stoics) or composure/tranquility (Roman Stoics) instead of happiness. The idea is to strive to develop the ability to bear with inner composure whatever reality may provide while practicing discrimination and virtue. This increased ability to bear reality with composure is growth of being in the 4th Way.

I wonder if the obsessive pursuit of happiness which Schumaker alludes to ( thanks for sharing the video, mkrnhr) is due in part to the corrupted new age adoption of some Eastern teachings like Tao or Zen. Per my understanding, such traditions focus to strive towards direct experience of reality as it is with minimum to none mental representations. When we are in the middle of experiencing something completely, is there a thought of "I am happy"? Or does this thought come later along with the urge to recreate the state since it feels good? My personal experience is that when fully present in an activity or situation, there is no mental conception of being "happy"; it comes later as a recollection.

It looks as though the modern obsession with happiness makes happiness more of a mental construct divorced from the totality of real-time experience as well as its original context of having good fortune. So, I do not think there are objective conditions for happiness that humans can control or create.
 
John F. Schumaker also wrote a book, In Search of Happiness: Understanding an Endangered State of Mind, which Laura discusses here and quotes excerpts from the book. I thought it was a very interesting book.
 
Nienna said:
John F. Schumaker also wrote a book, In Search of Happiness: Understanding an Endangered State of Mind, which Laura discusses here and quotes excerpts from the book. I thought it was a very interesting book.
Click to expand...

The link provided doesn’t seem to work, for some reason... ? :( :halo:
 
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