"Happiness is a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, love, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources." (Wikipedia)
Hi, all!
I was pondering the concept of happiness today. I realized that moments of pure bliss are just that, moments. Short bursts of happiness. Complete and utter happiness is not a permanent state of mind. My theory is that we all have some sort of baseline happiness in our lives. You know, like when you're looking at a chart and you see the peaks and the valleys and then you see some sort of average line running straight in the middle. That would be our baseline happiness. Sometimes we are happier than average and sometimes we are not.
Does this sound depressing?
That we can't handle utter bliss all the time? Well, not to worry, you see, the middle will become higher up if the peaks are more frequent. They do not necessarily have to be really high as long as they are above average.
Since I was a child, I'm trying to find more of these smaller peaks of happiness to raise the average level of happiness. Appreciating the smaller things in life. Like the flowers blossoming in the city gardens. Very pretty. A beautiful song. A toys, A hug. A smile. You know, all these little things.
This is one of the more important thoughts I've had I think. And one of the most profound insights. I mean, if I am of the opinion that the only way I'm going to be happy is by winning the lottery, then I'd be destined for a life of misery because I very rarely play the lottery. But if I am of the opinion that I should be happy because I have good friends and family and enough sense to appreciate them, then I'm probably more on the track of happiness.
This is not to say that there are issues in my life. As for everyone else there are problems to be dealt with and stress to be handled, but if I just can stop for a while and smell the magnolias and the newly mowed lawn and watch the snail trailing a path (and maybe even save it from certain death by bike) then I don't think I'm a lost cause for happiness.
What makes people happy and is it safe, and reasonable to encourage them to pursue it? Yet we have never agreed on a single definition of happiness. Is it well being? Is it wealth? Is it the abundance of love and respect?
What do you think?
Again, what is happiness?
The term has evolved over the years, changing its meaning, encompassing more and more complex dimensions. What we all know and what is basic is the moments. Like the waves on the shore that are formed at the moment and lost in a moment. They exist for a moment, arising from the sea of life.
Happiness is an incomplete term, in terms of dimension as well as meaning. What people think as happiness is something else. Happiness, as in real-world-sense, may come from memories of happy moments, the anticipation of good and happy moments to come, and of course the happiness now. Comparing the three version of happiness, no one will argue that the moments we living now is the most important, and being happy now matters the most. I mean , that feels good.
So, what matters is living the moments. Because, each moment lived is lost forever. Each flicker of happy moment is blown into the darkness of cold nights stretched over an infinity of moments that wait ahead. If happiness were an eternal thing to carry, no one would be sad in the world, as each one of us had many happy moments in our life. But we cant hold even a moment of beatification as a memento of happy life .Its because, what matters is the moment NOW. Each moment is lived and lost. Memory is just a picture of the happy corpse.
One day you were very happy, say you fulfilled something you have been dreaming for a long time. You say you are the happiest person in the world. But, just then you return home to find your beloved mother dead. That happiness is lost. The moment of happiness was gone. Now you have the moment of grief. Its all moments. In time, the happy as well as the sad moments will be lost. All, you will have left is memories. Fucking pictures. You don't cry all your life over a sad moment lived. So you don't rejoice over the happiest moment lived.
What is even more intriguing is the nature of happiness and sorrow. While sorrows are more lasting than happiness which is extremely transitory, like bubbles in water, like sound in air, like orgasm, like the hit of heroin. Yet, everyone is busy ensuring happy moments. Everyone is investing his moments in hand, like black earned money is invested in useless lavish extravagances. Instead of living the moments, people are busy securing their moments to come.
There so much of worries for the moments to come, that we almost forget whats in hand. While making love, one is worried about the moments to come. About the years to come. Will she/he leave me? Will our love last forever? But no one sees what we have now. That they love each other now, at the very moment. Their souls plunging into deep sea of ecstasy. The moment will be lost forever. A similar moment will come, but why worry about that? Why let that happiness be the slave of social commitments.
If you still think that's all bullshit, choose one of them!
I was happy then.
I am so happy now.
If I do this I will be happy (world is not certain , remember!).
Well, if only someone knew what happiness is and understood it fully, I am afraid that every element of it would appear artificial and that we would be forgeting it very soon with the inefficient worldly tools. Like we have forged humanity .
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