If happiness can be (according to some ways of thinking) independent of all things, and internal. If one attains it, how would it affect his or her behavior in the world?
It’s all in the question. Cross-posted from my fb group “Philosophy Café”.
Ways of thinking in question – Buddhist and philosophers arguing in favor of achieving happiness by reason alone.
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Personally, when I find myself happy I have a brighter outlook on life and everything in it. I deal and cope with things better.
According to some researchers your happiness (feeling of well-being) depends on your genes (50%), your circumstances (10%) and your conscious thinking and behavior (40%). In order to maximize the last factor, you also depend on how you interact with other people (expressing gratitude, showing forgiveness, performing random acts of kindness, sharing your optimism etc).
All things are possible and achieved by the way one Thinks…..This is LIFE .
So the simplicity of all this is to think the way of Life and Life you would become.
I wouldn’t characterize the Buddhist approach as “achieving happiness by reason alone”. It’s not a thought process. It comes from insight into the nature of one’s self and things.
Unhappiness (Buddhists use the Pali word “dukkha”, which roughly means “unsatisfactoriness”) is a result of overly identifying with the ego. The ego is a thought process, a psychological division between an imagined self and an external world. The self that comes of that division is necessarily a troubled one; it’s a tiny, fragile speck in a vast universe of flux. Existential angst is part of the package. The self lives its brief life struggling to consolidate its position (a hopeless task), chasing after sensory pleasures and distractions, and trying to keep pain at bay. It becomes an endless game of “I’d be happier if only This or That were different about my life”, but that never actually turns out to be true in the long run.
The core of the problem then, from a Buddhist perspective, is that one is invested so completely in the welfare of that tiny self, which is little more than an idea. The idea of self has some provisional utility, but mistaking it for who we really are and living in service to it is a gross misunderstanding.
Happiness is release from that misunderstanding. One can’t reason one’s way to that release. There are plenty of modern thinkers who acknowledge the fundamental unreality of the self. but nevertheless live to serve it. The illusion is too deeply rooted and habitual to be reasoned away.
But leaving aside the methodology of release and to more directly answer your question of how that release affects behavior in the world, breaking through the illusion of self radically alters one’s perceived relation to the world. Acquisitiveness—the continual struggle to find what’s missing in one’s life—gives way to generosity. Self-serving gives way to concern for the welfare of others. What’s important is no longer satisfying one’s own desires, so all of the energy that formerly went to that endeavor can be redirected to the benefit of everyone.
To be independant of “all things” and happy on the inside, IMO one would have to completely and utterly detached from all things external…as in off the grid…punched out….and probably alone. That way, nothing can affect this person as anything external that brings you happiness ultimately comes with a price and often an emotional price.
IMO it’s all a fallacy and a cop out to say I am happy inside and to do so is again IMO impossible to achieve. You can’t live without some form of interaction with your external world and life is full of disappointments and no mater how Zen you make your internal view of this world around us, some turd will drop in your lap at some point in time and there goes your hap-happiness. That’s usually when these happy types go postal.
If one attains such an internal happiness, one would stay calm and happy whether he wins a billion dollars or loses all his lifelong savings. You might say that he has become stoic too, or even insensitive to outer events. You will see such a fellow smiling calmly while watching a great spectacular opera or a devastating storm. He will be a man of all weathers, unaffected by the change.
I do not know if such a person will ask for help or seek to help out others, since we help people who are in distress, and if the person cannot detect his own distress, i don’t know how he will detect others’. He will have achieved eternal happiness and have no ambitions or missions in life.
If I could just make one more quibbling point: it’s not really a matter of “internal” and “external”.
If one has created a situation where there’s some calm, happy being on the “inside”, out of tune with the turmoil of the “outside”, that’s delusion, not happiness. Happiness comes from getting beyond the perception of internal and external altogether—no “me” in here being happy while the world out there is in turmoil.
Happiness isn’t the opposite of pain. If you set up that duality in your mind, then there’s no hope for lasting happiness, because pain is inevitable. Happiness can’t be putting one’s self out of the reach of pain.
Happiness is inner balance and peace. I think that it can be achieved and it does deeply affect the way one interacts with the world.
Happiness is a decision. We can decide to be happy pretty much regardless of circumstances. What is the impact on the individual? It varies somewhat from person to person, but in general it makes him impervious to the vissitudes of life. Hardship may make him work harder, but he is still kind and cheerful to others, to give an example.
@CaptainHarley No “thanks” required, sir. Think I’m gonna have to keep an eye on you. You’re proving to be a rich source of wisdom. I’m finding myself looking forward to your posts.
@SABOTEUR
Great book that is!
I do believe we create our own reality by the thoughts we keep.
While it is true we can lessen our ‘suffering’ immensely by the thoughts we keep/have about any situation we or the world might perceive as negative.
It is also true that no state of being can ever be a constant, it is impossible. So, while we may not actually be ‘happy’ about something, we can make peace with what is instead of fighting ‘reality’, which is where unhappiness usually arises from.
We may not like a certain situation but it is when our minds/egos start in with all the reasons it should not be as it is, why it is not fair, how we don’t deserve it…blah, blah, blah…this is where ‘suffering’ comes in.
I like the mantra of ’ pain happens, suffering is optional.’
Easier said than done but true never the less.
@thorninmud thank you for a great response. Although I meant this as “for example of these ways of thinking – look at Buddhism and, <—comma I didn’t include ) philosophers arguing in favor. My fault for expressing it in a vague way however. But nice to see your last paragraph directly giving a response.
@CaptainHarley especially and others have covered my response as well and made a wonderful contribution to this discussion – much lurve all around! :)
@Cruiser especially nailed a few considerations of effects – thank you.
I’ll think further and answer in more detail when more time arises.
“Easier said than done” is correct, @Coloma. There once was a time when I was more than willing to relate to anyone listening my personal “somebody done me wrong” litany. Had an epiphony one day when it dawned on me I did greater harm to myself emotionally than any so-called “injury” inflicted upon me by someone or something else. This is when I began my ongoing quest to master self (as opposed to requiring everyone/everything to meet my expectations).
But changing one’s perspective to such an extreme takes practice. It’s not just a matter of reading a self-help book, going to church or memorizing positive thinking quotations. It requires understanding how thought works and the consequences associated with habitual thought patterns. It’s learning the principles and endeavoring to mindfully apply those principles until the practice become habit (or becomes “second nature”).
You’re may not always be happier as a consequence, but you most certainly won’t succomb to feeling miserable for any length of time because you understand it’s you who’s responsible for how you feel.
You understand that there’s no need to feel miserable because there’s ALWAYS an opportunity to make another choice concerning how you feel.
@CaptainHarley – Only 40% of our happiness seems to be a decision. Plenty of evidence.
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