A Simple Question
posted by Everythinging | November 1, 2010
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IcerocketHow do you deal with the notion that your efforts at being happy might be the biggest impediment to you actually realizing this happiness?
You might say stop trying, cease your efforts--but this just becomes a new effort in itself. For example, you can't force yourself to relax. It just happens, or it doesn't. You can investigate the circumstances which preceded your relaxation and try to recreate them, but now you're trying to exert control which is antithetical to relaxation.
You might say focus on the happiness of others--but why are you doing this?
Change the world, change yourself... these are two sides of the same coin. Who is doing the changing and who is the changed?
You may think it is selfish to be concerned with your own happiness. To this I say that humans are both selfish and generous, and only a miraculous feat of self-deception can convince you otherwise.
The only "answer" to this main question is uproariously funny and would never survive being hacked to pieces by words.
Comments
Dynamic Tension
— Nov 02, 2010
The theory of Dynamic Tension (Carlos Castaneda, Don Juan books) ... That you must try and not try at the same time... or really one at a time... Or like Dynamic Jazz Tension master Charlie Parker said: "You practice, practice, practice and then forget it all and just play"....With happiness, I find most of us have to really work hard at being happy. And then our happiest moments are when we're not trying. But would these moments happen if we hadn't done all that hard work of trying? I'd like to think not. But maybe that's because it makes me even happier to think that I might have had some small part in creating my happiness. Maybe because my Mom read me these words from the Urantia Book when I was just 8 years old....
"Effort does not always produce joy, but there is no happiness without intelligent effort."
Jinjee
Peace begins in our own hearts
My piece of the puzzle: Raw Food And Emotional Balance
http://www.TheGardenDiet.com
Dynamic Tension
— Nov 02, 2010
The theory of Dynamic Tension (Carlos Castaneda, Don Juan books) ... That you must try and not try at the same time... or really one at a time... Or like Dynamic Jazz Tension master Charlie Parker said: "You practice, practice, practice and then forget it all and just play"....With happiness, I find most of us have to really work hard at being happy. And then our happiest moments are when we're not trying. But would these moments happen if we hadn't done all that hard work of trying? I'd like to think not. But maybe that's because it makes me even happier to think that I might have had some small part in creating my happiness. Maybe because my Mom read me these words from the Urantia Book when I was just 8 years old....
"Effort does not always produce joy, but there is no happiness without intelligent effort."
Jinjee
Peace begins in our own hearts
My piece of the puzzle: Raw Food And Emotional Balance
http://www.TheGardenDiet.com
Dunno, cos...
— Nov 02, 2010
Is a flower happy?
— Nov 02, 2010
"Anyone can be happy, what'd be the point of that?" Is a feather happy? Is a feather light?
i love this
— Nov 04, 2010
thanks i love this blog!
theres a church on my way to work that puts a different message on their sign each week and this weeks' is something like 'humility is thinking of your self less.'
i was struck when i first read it because i had been the night before reading in a book by samael that 'if one has true longings for becoming fully awakened-this is the beginning-one must not forget oneself, not even for a moment'
i guess to criticize the first advice in the context of the second is a mistake because the definition of 'self' is different in each case, but anyway i like what you said about people being both generous and selfish
clrs
This has crossed my mind recently as well, sorta.
— Dec 16, 2010
The sorta part is about religion. Why do most religions promise a happy after life ( well with the usual if your "good" clause you can have a happy after life.)? More importantly, why do most of the religious believe this life is a hell filled with woe and suffering? I think the conclusion I've come to is that this life isn't a hell at all and is in fact a precious gift and that no matter what comes from it I need to appreciate it and be grateful that I lived at all, whether I'm happy or not. I realize this sounds simplistic but the shift in emphasis is meaningful, if not profound.
