I like to revisit what I believe to be our primary purpose in living our lives. I write about it in various ways to provide different perspectives in the hope that at some point it makes us think about it and consider it.
That our happiness is not a frivolous flyweight fantasy but is indeed a legitimate and satisfying purpose for our lives.
One must practice the things which produce happiness, since if that is present we have everything and if it is absent we do everything in order to have it. ~ Epicurus
Happiness seems to come in moments when we feel no internal conflicts and we feel at harmony with self and the world. We accept all that is and our place in the scheme of things including our desires and our judgements. Very much like children.
It does not mean that we have thrown away our responsibilities and are carefree in that sense but that we are not in conflict with those responsibilities and their demands. It also does not mean that we do not have external conflicts, issues, doubts, fears that arise from the shear fact of living.
We have fully accepted our human condition and found the ability to love ourselves and forgive ourselves especially when we screw up. We have also learnt not to take ourselves too seriously and realize that both the highs and lows will indeed pass with time. We have learnt to extend that same love and forgiveness to others.
Happiness does not come automatically. It is not a gift that good fortune bestows on us and a reversal of fortune takes back. It depends on us alone. One does not become happy overnight, but with patient labor, day after day. Happiness is constructed, and that takes effort and time. In order to become happy, we have to learn how to change ourselves. ~ Luca and Francesco Cavalli-Sporza
Your thoughts?
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Excellent. No matter how enlightened you get you still have to do the dishes. Excellent Peter. Have a great evening. :)
I like that Sandee :)
without health happiness is much harder though...
smiles, bee
Yes but not impossible Bee :)
you know peter.. ever since i saw that video "what we are"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
a15KgyXBX24&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww
%2Egoldyworld%2Ecom%2F
i cannot help but question the validity of happiness,, and i seem to be gravitating more towards whether or not i am contented with myself,, and my life at any given point in the day...
i think contentment is much easier to achieve,, and maybe a "baby step" in the return to happiness... but i am at least for today contented,, and that is good enough for me.....
Paisley contentment and happiness have the same root. Just different names
Very nice Peter...
We live in a world that often gives us a message that we should not be content, or that we can't be happy unless we have a particular prestige, power, or possession.
Much of humankind seems to be searching for happiness in the wrong direction... outside instead of inside!
Thank you for this insight peter,
Jen
Agree with you Jennifer. There is nothing wrong with outside goals as long as we seek the source of true enduring happiness
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