Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Happiness
For much of my life I’ve felt that the purpose of human birth was to be happy – to be in a state of genuine, unfettered, unbounded happiness that comes from feeling connected, in the flow, seeing the perfection of it all. When in this state I’ve thought, “this is it - I just have to work to maintain this – this is the natural, ultimate human state.”
But now I have a somewhat different view, because as a particular emotional state happiness will always be transient, and the life situation of some people makes it all but impossible to feel truly happy in the midst of their suffering. The true purpose of human birth is to become free. And a state of freedom needn’t be accompanied by happiness. Rather freedom is characterized by acceptance and equanimity in all situations. Not necessarily devoid of emotion, but free of the desire for a state of happiness.
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Reviewing this post 3+ years later I have to say I affirm everything in it. Interestingly, I was having a discussion just a few days ago with a Buddhist teacher friend about whether happiness was a characteristic of someone who has reached nirvana. He expressed the view that such a person is neutral, showing little emotion. I disagreed and said that a realization of Oneness is overwhelmingly blissful, which is a the supreme state of happiness - actually another dimension of happiness. I was probably influenced by a book I read earlier this year, "This Life is Joy".
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