There are certain people who work hard to attain such states of mind. Most 'always-happy people' however, are a little ignorant.
The ideal human state is not happiness --- but peace, neither happy nor sad, not agitated, at ease with oneself, with the world. It can only come when you become spiritual and aloof from the world. As long as you remain part of this physical world, you cannot remain free from its ups and downs. Noone can remain happy when the 'down' comes. No amount of material success can guarantee you happiness forever. That is why people turn to spiritualism.
i find that happiness consists in realising that you have everything that you need. that is a good recipe for living well. not all happy people are ignorant, it's just that non ignorant people are not as easily satisfied.
Not one single person who's lived a quality existence has been "always happy" because people are not always any particular emotion, or the absence of emotion. What's weird are cultural memes of "ideal" states of being. "Transcedental existence" is an oxymoron. Who knows why, or disputes this?
Us in the Western world seem to put great emphasis on money leading to happiness be it to buy new clothing or to go on holiday. We're constantly bombarded with the idea that material wealth equals emotional wealth. Sometimes this may be the case. A holiday might make you as happy as larry and those pair of trainers you've always wanted might put a smile on your face for a day but I believe Buddha1 is close to the mark. As his name suggests, the Buddhist way of thinking is that enlightenment comes from contentment i.e. having no worries and being a good person, etc (I'll admit I haven't read the great works of buddhist teachings and I probably will read up on them soon...ish). In todays world, it is quite difficult to have no worries what with bills, food, crime, etc but we can find some inner happiness by being the best damned people we can. I won't advocate the fact that I'm the best person in the world but I do feel pretty dang good about myself when I help someone out, stranger or otherwise. Although the initial motives for helping someone is selfish, it does put that little bounce back into your step and two people have gone away satisfied. Also, achieving a goal, short or long term, can make you feel fantastic. Maybe that's what it's all about...I'll have to ponder on that Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Anyway, that's what I think and it works for me. Feel free to piss on my campfire.
/agree overall, Thor. Thx. One bone of contention tho.. Buddhism is supremely flawed, from the Four "noble" truths onward. I'm pissing on the wrong campfire, I guess. Sorry... If anyone wants to debate the pros and cons of that religion it probably merits it's own thread. Greetings
I agree that Buddhism is flawed, no doubt about it. If it was not, there would be more people following that path. The lifestyle and mentality put forward is not for everybody, not even myself. But the theory behind it is something well worth thinking about.
By the time I found out answers for all the questions that life put up, they changed the questions. I think the process of getting towards your goal, and the feeling that you're going towards it gives you much more happiness and satisfaction than reaching there. When you reach there it is not the same as how you'd always contemplated it to be. And on the way to achieve (what you consider) success, you'd have lost so much that was very important for you to want to strive for that goal, in the first place. .....without which success would just not mean the same thing for you anymore.
how can you know'happy' unless you know 'sad'?.....notice many mystical schoolsof thought preted there's a stat of PERMANENT happiness. isn't that idea absurd? can you imagine such a state? it would be dead, static. the whole point of lifeis its changeability. its dynamic process. so much so, not only dowe alternate moods. feelings, emotions, constantly, but also one starte of happiness will be different from other states. ie., happiness when felt wll be uniqie, as will sadness, ecstasy, bordeom. so its all creativity in action isn't it? notice how secular culture tries to pretnd also one can be always happy. ifyou just follow their authority and do abc youuu TOOO can be 'successful'. a happywappy little eternal consumer, and if you get 'sad' they got the 'anti-sad' pills awaitin fo ya!
It is said that a person's happiness is almost exclusively a function of his attitude, not his circumstances.
Well, kick 'em in the balls, then they won't be so happy! ...and then you'll feel better, huh? Baron Max
There are two forms of “happiness” – even if the term has not been defined precisely here: 1- Happiness derived from naiveté and ignorance. There is no one more easily pleased and satiated than one who is totally unaware of what is happening, except from a very simplistic and limited perspective. Children and fools are always the most happy, as are animals. They do not know enough to know better. Contentment for them is based on the simple act of alleviating physical need. 2- Happiness derived through distraction/inebriation. Here the mind self-medicates to forget its unavoidable end - What Heidegger referred to as being lost in ‘theyness’. The awareness of self is coupled with the inevitability of ones own place in the universe as self-consciousness is the ability to perceive ones self as a phenomenon which has a beginning and an end and is defined by self-identifying parameters. This place is far too terrifying to be accepted fully – Nietzsche described it as staring into the void which stares back. The remedy for this is distraction, in all its forms: entertainment, ambition, worldliness, ideals, hope, religion, creativity etc. As a mental state happiness can be defined as the ephemeral condition of satiation. Since Need is what defines life, in general, and all conditions of satiation are temporary and are quickly replaced by a new desire and need, happiness is a condition that if realized completely would mean life’s obsolescence. Unhappiness/Need/Suffering is what drives human ingenuity and creativity and progress. The characteristics most associated with contentment, as much as this is humanly possible, is that of inertia and lack of ambition and interest since the opposite reveals an absence which requires addressing.
on a bright side....or dark side....imagine this: A baby is born in the city of Hiroshima, on that very second that the bomb drops down and kills the baby, the baby is happy to be alive and then instantly dies. So this hiroshima baby has always been happy...*sob*.... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! .... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ....
The way I see it, the biggest problem with happiness seems to be that we may have preconceived notions of what happiness *should* be like. These notions, however, may, upon careful scrutiny, reveal that they are irrational and that there is no reason to believe them to be true.
