THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

A happy life? Isn't that what we all want? So, presumably, we have a clear idea of what happiness is. Surely it's obvious, you may say: happiness is having everything you want. And since what you want costs money, it would follow that money is the password to happiness. So the happy man must be the one who earns the most money: the brilliant businessman, the top executive, the go-getter. Surely he's got all it takes for a happy life. What else is there? At any rate, that is what the successful people of this world tell us. They praise ambition up to the skies, and how they look down on the lazy one (good-for-nothing) who seems to lack this quality.

But if we are to go into this matter properly, we had better ask ourselves whether we have ever actually seen a happy man. If we ask other people whether they have ever met or seen happy people, they are sure to answer, "Of course we have." And we may be inclined to think the same way ourselves. Of course--we tell ourselves-- there may be rich people who are unhappy, but in the main, surely, riches and happiness are identical.
Anyway, these people look happy enough. When we see their palatial homes, their dinner parties, their servants, their chauffeured limousines, their pockets lined with money and precious stones, we are forced to conclude that--unless disaster strikes--they are the happy ones.
But this answer would be extremely superficial. If we want to go into the matter systematically, there is only one way to do it. We must go among people and ask them about themselves. It is no good asking one person about the other; we must ask each one how he himself really feels; then we might get closer to the truth. What do we find?

ASKING THE PEOPLE

Let us start by asking the rich--those who have more money than they know what to do with, who live in mansions and travel in the most expensive cars. What do they tell us if we can get them to talk with complete honesty and frankness? When it comes to the point, they will all let out the secret: they are not happy. They may have achieved wealth and riches in a strictly limited and limiting sense, but when it comes to happiness--they are still very far away.
Jealousies and lusts disturb their peace of mind; domestic troubles are rife; their wives are bored, their spoiled children grow away from them; their sons are insolent, their daughters rebel; they suffer endless troubles of this sort. And don't think that these troubles are incidental. Nothing of the kind; all of them develop from the situation of affluence itself. "No one dies with half his desires fulfilled''; so, dissatisfaction and frustration are the lot of even the richest person. We won't find happiness here.
Let us try asking others. Perhaps the middle-income bracket? These people generally work very hard and long hours for their money. Let's find out from them if they have somehow hit on the secret of happiness. But when we investigate, we find something very surprising.
They work hard all their lives, often getting stomach ulcers in the process, but they never seem to find time to enjoy their money. During their working years, they are always busy preparing for happiness. However, when their working life is over, they find they are too old; the zest has gone out of life, and they cannot enjoy their leisure. They did nothing in their lives but work and, without a day's work to do; they can hardly find any point in living. So when are they happy? Never.
Perhaps we'll find happiness if we go further down the social scale. Let's ask the workers. They work hard day by day, and sometimes nights, for their weekly wages. But they are never satisfied because they feel that they are getting a raw deal; they are missing out on all the good things of life. They feel they are being exploited by the rich. They--the workers--produce the wealth, but they are not allowed to enjoy it. Others rob them of the fruit of their labors. Is this happiness?
Surely not.
Where, then, do we find happiness in this world of ours? This was our question, and we found no answer. It seems we can hear only an echo resounding from all the world--"A happy life? There is no such thing!" This would seem to be an established conclusion, confirmed and re-confirmed whichever way we look at the problem.

FINDING A REMEDY

But then we have to ask: Why should God have created such a great and wonderful world so that everybody in it, everybody without exception, should live in misery and anguish? This cannot be the case either. There must be a way out. There must be some way of repairing this terrible misfortune which has befallen the whole of mankind. We must search for the remedy; we must find the key to happiness. We can be sure that God, the source of all goodness, must have provided the world with a way to happiness; it is only up to us to find it. But before we can find the remedy, we shall have to diagnose the disease. What is this epidemic disease, of world proportions, that robs us of all happiness in life?
The Bible, have already told us the answer. It is stated clearly, "Jealousy, lust and status-seeking remove man from the world." (1) The world, as God made it, is a happy one. It is we who have removed ourselves from the world of happiness to the world of suffering by means of these three evil desires. So we only have to run away from jealousy, lust and prestige--that is, to banish them from our hearts--in order to transform the world into one brimming over with happiness from end to end. Then, we will find that we shall not only have happiness, we shall have riches, too.
The Bible say: "Who is rich? He who rejoices in his portion." (3) They do not say that he is also rich; they do not say he is very rich; they simply say "He is rich"--period! The fact is that one who is not satisfied with his portion in life-- whatever it may be--is not only not happy; he is not rich. In material terms he may have millions in the bank, but he is not rich; he is poor.
What does being poor mean? It means not having what you need. If a person wants and needs something that he does not have, he is poor, however much he may have in the bank. We shall find, in fact, that the so-called "rich" man is much worse off than the "poor" one because his ambitions and needs are so much greater.
The poor man's needs are easily satisfied, but the rich man's desires and prestige-seeking are never gratified; they can never be gratified, because satisfying one need only leads to the next, ad infinitum. If we look at each of them as he sees himself--not as the poor man views the rich--we shall see that they are both very badly off; they both live miserable and frustrated lives; but, if anything, it is the "rich" man who is worse off than the "poor." But the one who has conquered his lusts, who makes do with a minimum and is happy with his lot--the one who needs nothing that he does not have--he is the rich man. No one else in the world is rich but he.

DIRECTING ONE'S AMBITIONS

Who is this man? Let us take a closer look at him. We said he has banished desires and ambitions from his heart. Does that mean that he is a weak-kneed person, without energy, without "drive"? Is that what we call life? Is he like an old man, with no goals, no desires, with all his vital energy spent? Could this be what we mean by a happy life?
No! Certainly not! Nothing could be further from the truth. What we mean is this:
There is no happiness in the world in material things; there is. Only happiness in spiritual concerns. The one who enjoys a rich spiritual life is happy. There is no other kind of happiness in existence.
We see this in individuals who understand Bible. Those fortunate people who devote their whole mind and desire, enthusiasm and ambition, to the pursuit of Bible and wisdom--they experience what true happiness means in this world. We are not talking about the world to come; we are talking about this world--here and now. Of course, there is no happiness without goals, drive, and ambition; indeed, these things are life itself. But it all depends on what the goals are; to what ends the drive and ambition are directed.
Happiness is when the goals are attainable, when they depend on no one else for their fulfillment, when they are independent of those self-frustrating urges called jealousy and status-seeking. When can that be? Only when the ambition flows from love of Bible, love of wisdom, love of admonishment -- the desire for true ethical living.
This kind of ambition can be realized by ourselves alone. The more energy, the more drive, we put into attaining these goals, and the happier we shall be. We shall be the happy ones of this world. This is the meaning of the Bible, "This is the way of Bible: You will eat bread and salt and drink water by the measure and make the floor your bed--and labor in the Bible"--that is, if you are ready to do all this because of your tremendous enthusiasm for Bible; if all the things that the world holds dear mean nothing to you because the only thing that matters to you is your progress in Bible, then--"happy are you in this world." (4) You are the happy one in this world; you, and nobody else. This is the Bible-truth about happiness.

Ultimate Happiness

As in every thing else you are the source of all your attributes of emotions! It is just like you are a tree and the emotions are your fruit. The quality of the tree will determine the quality of its fruit. The quality of your happiness will depend on the quality of your actualized humanness which is the real you. It is the fully developed potential in you that can experience pure happiness. And I am talking of a person as in the fully actualized humanness potential.

'The value of a human being is
not judged by what one says, nor is it judged by what one does, it is
judged by what one actually becomes.' It took me some time to
understand this statement which means to speak well is good, to do
well is better and to become good is best. For one may speak good to
impress others or out of fear etc., to do good one may do it for some
ulterior motive like vanity. In the case of teaching positive
psychology one does good to become happy and feel good. So the purpose
of doing good is selfish, even if the act itself is selfless. This
still creates some background guilt as doing premeditated acts of
goodness for selfish motives takes the selflessness out of the act.
By becoming good to the core your whole life, every minute of it,
all that you say, all that you do everything is pure selfless
goodness. You no longer need to indulge in single acts of kindness
to feel good. You become the very embodiment of pure happiness.

Positive psychology education is a better step in the right direction.
As doing good, even with a selfish motive is better than not doing
any good at all. However becoming selfless is an altogether different
matter. Since time immemorial the ultimate aim of education has
been self mastery, where the self is selfless - the pure
person (being). Where the person knows, understands and becomes the
pure self without the self being hidden in any layers of a self
image. It’s like holding an apple in your hand and tasting it verses
looking at an apple in the
mirror and believing that the image is the real thing.

According to my hypothesis as there are four levels of the mind there
are four levels of perceived self’s as follows:
a) Premature self image (-2) where the self feels omnipotent and
omnipresent. As in 'I am everything all others are nothing' this self
image manifests in dictators, tyrants, criminals etc.
b) Immature self image (-1) where the self feels confused between
omnipotence and helplessness. As in 'I am not the best today but I
will be and I deserve the best.' This self image manifests itself in
corrupt people.
c) Mature self image (+1) where the self feels confident and equal to
the best but where the self is first and every one else is second
though equally important. This self image manifests itself in the
significant section of law abiding citizens who never the less
struggle for more and more of everything.
d) Super mature self (+2) (note there is no image at this level of the
mind) where the self feels humble. Where the person feels everyone
else as one family irrespective of caste or creed etc. The self feels
every one else as number 1 and his own self as second. At this stage
the person knows, understands and is his pure self. A selfless
person who loves and respects everyone equally and places his own
interests below that of others. All his acts are selfless. His
happiness stems from living a pure guilt free life.
Thus my definition of self falls within the paradigm of science. A
self that can be defined in numbers- +2! Our true self is the one
that is perceived by the super mature level of the mind.

Notice there is no talk of self mastery in this article. The problem
remains that mainstream education still stays away from defining the
self. As the self is still cloaked in mystery as in 'the self is
immortal', 'the self is the same in everybody', 'the self is part of
God etc. No wonder science cannot define the self within the paradigm
of science and so rather than define the self and create education
for self mastery, mainstream education has scaled down the goals to
mere well being and happiness through single acts of selflessness
even though this act is for selfish means and it creates a tainted
happiness.

A significant section goes through life with a restlessness that we
cannot understand. In the Sufi tradition it is said that God created
the universe because God was a hidden treasure and He wanted to be
known. Perhaps we are indeed made in the image of God. Our true self
remains hidden under a layer of brain washed self image. The true
self perhaps wants to make itself aware and be known.
It is the restlessness of the true hidden self that we feel so
restless. It’s like an iceberg. We look at the portion above the water
and smoothen out the rough portions that we can see. We even try to
push around the top. The top shakes and even moves a little. And the
portion below continues to function unknown, cloaked and un-mastered.
Not surprisingly we go through life struggling and striving. The
sweat and tears are ours; the agenda belongs to the below the radar
mind and our self image.

THE ULTIMATE HAPPINESS THAT EVERY INDIVIDUAL CAN REALISTICALLY ASPIRE TO IS CREATED BY BEING AT THE APEX OF ONES EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE.BY BECOMING WISE.