In pursuit of happiness.
I've been down this path. It mainly starts with believing that happiness is supremely good, and needs to be attained over all else.
One can get lost in the myriad of ways one supposedly can attain this facet of humanity. But, that's fools gold. We all know that happiness is not attained directly. Only through an indirect method is happiness attained. Schopenhauer talked about this to great lengths. He never denied that we cannot attain happiness, even.
So what are your thoughts on the matter of happiness?
One can get lost in the myriad of ways one supposedly can attain this facet of humanity. But, that's fools gold. We all know that happiness is not attained directly. Only through an indirect method is happiness attained. Schopenhauer talked about this to great lengths. He never denied that we cannot attain happiness, even.
So what are your thoughts on the matter of happiness?
Comments (38)
"Someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to"
Sounds simple, and though I agree with that definition its not that easy to acheive on a regular basis.
Indeed. It seems like a hard bargain.
Indeed. It seems the two are intrinsically linked. How do you reach a stable equilibrium?
I never quite get bored. Isn't the world entertaining enough on its own?
Do you agree with Schopenhauer?
Haha. Well, I suppose one can always be content with one's life. Now, where's that boredom you spoke about?
Oh dear. We must banish it forever. Care to join me?
Oh, another one of those questions we can always ponder about; but, never fully know.
In order to be happy one needs to accept the deal happiness offers. Life probably won't provide happiness exactly on the terms one imagines would be perfect.
I know people who are unhappy because the deal life offered for happiness was like, 12% off from what they thought they needed.
What deal is that?
I think happiness is hard to describe. It seems to be just a personal feeling of positivity and lightness or maybe elation.
But it does not seem to be evidence of value nor have a relationship with fact. Happiness does not prove that what your doing is good or that it has intrinsic value.
You could pursue happiness for its pure sensation but I don't know if you will find happiness by exploring reality or the truth.
It may be that you have to attain happiness independently of what is happening around you. I am not convinced that the facts of reality justify happiness. But it is a problem to say what emotions are justified in response to what if any.
It is possible that happiness may arise when you have achieved values and goals you have. Personally I don't think I can be happy unless I am in a situation of truth and authenticity. Overall I think it is quite elusive
Whatever deal life offers that includes happiness. Like,
"Dear Posty McPostface:
"Here's the deal. You will go to college, major in philosophy, graduate quosdam laude (with some praise), and get a mid-level management job in a bio-engineering food factory where you will be totally unable to use your philosophy degree. In fact, the less you think philosophically, the happier you will be there. None-the-less, you will enjoy a nice, sophisticated, but fairly quiet life. You will have a happy life for 23 years. Soon after the 23rd year of bliss you will be run over by a robotic truck. Death will be pretty much instant. Once you are dead, you will stay dead. Finis. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. Kaput.
"That's the deal. Enjoy college and enjoy the engineered food business. It will be voted 24th among the 100 best places to work in 2029.
Yours sincerely,
Life"
That was awesome.
Some international authorities have even designed a set of degrees they have called ‘the ladder of happiness’ in order to gauge which people are the happiest. They conducted several investigations and different questionnaires. The results were a surprise for everyone. It was found that the people of the United States are the most miserable and the most unhappy, and that that country came to stand at the bottom of the ladder, even though we are all aware of the extent of welfare which the individual American enjoys in their country.
It was also quite shocking to learn that the people of Nigeria obtained the highest degree on this ladder of happiness, thereby indicating that they are the happiest people in spite of the extreme poverty they are suffering!!! These are the results of a survey conducted by the American Newsweek magazine on the happiest peoples in the world .As mentioned above, on top of the list, which included sixty five countries, came the Nigerian people who are impoverished, most of whom are Muslims, followed by the peoples of Mexico, Venezuela and El Salvador, while the developed countries, on the other hand, to the surprise of the authors of that report, occupied a low position on their ladder of happiness.
We may reflect for a long time on the confession of the Americans who were interviewed in the report; that happiness is not about riches and money , which seems a surprising remark in such a pragmatic society that was founded on the extremist forms of capitalism. These results prompted the same magazine to investigate the phenomenon of the spread of religion in the United States .A new questionnaire was formed concerning the American’squest in search of happiness through casual meditation formulas, which are taken as doses for treating tired souls.
source: https://www.path-2-happiness.com/en/the-path-to-happiness-the-path-to-happiness-the-concept-of-happiness-and-its-reality
Funny thing is, during the changing moods in my adulthood I've never wanted to be different, even when I was depressed.
Happiness as distinguished from elation, on the other hand, is more akin to contentment. We may not have everything we want, we may feel sad or bad about some things, but we are also doing alright. We can accept the bad with the good.
I'd say misery is the opposite of this kind of happiness -- where we are unable to accept our current conditions of life. But this differs from elation in that we can be miserable yet elated -- we can set unrealistic goals for ourselves, fulfill them, yet be attached to a new, harder, or higher goal. And hence be dissatsified and miserable with life as opposed to happy.
And we can be happy thought we are not elated -- we didn't get everything we wanted, but we can accept the situation we happen to have now.
I think it can be personality driven. But I don't see inherently how acceptance is a better mode.
If someone wants to be miserable and elated, there's nothing you can do to persuade them to think or feel differently. Such changes only happen because a person changes. But the distinction should still be recognizable, all the same -- there's a meaningful difference.
I can agree with that.
Quoting Moliere
Agreed. Though a lot of this is how you characterize it. Miserable might be the wrong word, and not capturing what is really going on by not accepting the situation.
Sound advice. I wonder why people don't pay attention to it? They seem possessed with the idea of obtaining happiness over all else over the detriment of never attaining it.
Well, sure. Schopenhauer talked about happiness being a state of equanimity between conflicting desires. It's not a matter of preference than to want what is least painful.
opposite of happiness Every single human wants to be happy but it is just chemicals in the brain that
brings that happiness The love of someone brings more happiness than anything else in the world
Indeed. Now give me back my avatar, hehe.
Happiness doesn't need to be attained, but savoured.
The pursuit of happiness over all, denies happiness - as the pursuit of victory over all denies enjoyment from playing.
Some things came easy to him, some harder. "Someone to love", well, he was popular.
Something to do... yes, he had he means and the motivation.
Something to look forward to... what brand new, novel experience do you give to a man who has everything?