What does it take to be happy?* Is happiness the goal of life?*
why are so many people miserable in the world?* Are animals
happy?* Why do we think happiness is something we deserve in
life, and that we are somehow less of a person if we're not
happy? The question of how to be happy is a modern question.*
Sometime in the past few hundred years, happiness came to become
a measure of success in life.* One of the foundations of the
United States of America is, Life, Liberty, and the _Pursuit of
Happiness_".* There is not a guarentee of happiness, but rather,
that we have the right to PURSUE happiness. And so, here you
are, and here I am.* Let's talk about the pursuit of happiness,
the chase, the ever-seeking of the ever-elusive goal, the
life-quest. --- Happiness comes in many forms in life.* There is
a pure happiness, one that has all the qualities of Sainthood:
unselfishness, love of all people, animals, plants and things, a
peace beyond measure, an otherworldly glow surrounding the
person.* This can be an attainable goal, should one choose to
dig deep into the depth of the soul, go through the trials and
tribulations of seeking to discover, experientially, one's own
true nature. There is also a form of happiness which is on the
surface, more of a shell of happiness surrounding an unhappy
core.* This form of happiness can express itself in a myriad of
ways.* Acquisition of bigger and better things can bring a nice
glow to the face, a spring in the step, some pride and
satisfaction, but the life-cycle of such happiness is
short-lived and fleeting.* This can hold true not just for
acquisition of items, but also many forms of love are of this
nature.* the often-glorified intense relationship that has
mountaintop highs and devastating lows strikes me as quite
manic-depressive in its nature... a love and a happiness that
would burn itself out in a few weeks, months or years...
certainly not the type of happiness that a lifetime can be built
with. This second type of happiness, which is the more familiar
form, as it is the style of happiness that most of us, including
myself, are more familiar with, also comes in the form of
fantasizing. Images form in the brain, which contain the perfect
archetype of a person, place or thing that will provide
happiness.* There is the lottery ticket, the road-to-riches
which rarely works but fun to fantasize about.* There is the
perfect woman or man, or at least the mental image of it, which
can actually cause great unhappiness, but images of a life
together with that perfect man or woman, or the perfect house,
or the perfect society, or the perfect friends that can keep us
going during a rough patch,* and give us hope for the future,
are sometimes utilized as an escape from the present-day reality
that faces us, a mental vacation from the present moment. THE
PRESENT MOMENT What is the present moment?* Where and when is
"NOW"? "NOW" is elusive, escaping analysis at every turn.* One
moment now is here, and then now is here again, but the previous
now is gone, the next now not yet here. The past stretches
backwards through all eternity, and the future is lying in wait,
possibilities and potentialities which branch out in infinite
variety and "could-be"'s. Strictly speaking, one never "lives in
the past" or "lives in the future".* One is always living in the
present.* Your body is here now - the air you breathe is the air
in front of you at this moment, getting sucked into your lungs,
and then out again.* So, everything lives in the moment, in the
now. The brain also works in the now.* The synapses are firing
at this very moment.* The senses are sensing right at this very
moment.* The nerves are feeling right at this very moment.* You
are digesting your food, your various biochemicals are pumping
out in all their variety, providing a sense of calm, or a sense
of anxiety, or a sense of sadness or happiness.* So, physically,
one is here now. But... ------- But, what of the mind?** What
are you thinking about?* What images are forming inside of your
mind's eye?* What mental verbal thoughts are occurring?* What is
going on in that inner chatterbox, that inner musician, that
inner artist?* Is a song playing in your head?* Are images of
past happiness, future happiness, past sorrow, or future horror
flashing before the mind's eye? Can you control the images in
your mind? The images flash forth in your mind, bubbling up from
who-knows-where, maybe of their own accord, maybe inspired by
something happening in the outside world.* But these images are
on-going.* Someone does something you do not like, and maybe you
instantly conjure up a picture of this person in the most
horrible light.* "Oh, he meant to hurt me: he knew what he was
doing!" Very creative thing, the mind.* Comes up with all sorts
of fantasies. But it's an image: a fantasy.* Speculation is a
fantasy.* Instead of dealing with what is actually happening, we
make decisions about things and people and situations based upon
an image in the mind, which can cause great unhappiness. LIVING
IN A DAYDREAM There's nothing wrong with daydreaming,
intrinsically.* Daydreaming is a lot of fun, and again, a mental
vacation is nice from tiem to time.* But it is not a substitute
for an everlasting happiness.* Daydreaming, mind you, goes
beyond the bored schoolchild sitting in a classroom, wishing she
were somewhere else. WE ARE ALWAYS DAYDREAMING! Except for a few
brief moments of lucidity, most of us live in a world that
resembles reality, but it is not reality.* The now is filtered
through our mind's eye, and weighed and measured through our
memories.* There are many colors of glasses besides
rose-colored.* Some of us wear magnifying glasses all of the
time, and blow little things out of proportion, reacting to a
now that's one-part now to ninety-nine parts mental. Some of us
wear gray-colored glasses, seeing the now as dismal and prone to
death and destruction and worst-case scenarios. But in any of
these cases, it is not now that rules one's experience of
existance, but an image of the now that's been poorly copied and
brings a distorted image of reality to life, causing
unhappiness. Most of the time, we're thinking of what we need to
do next, or about things that have already happened, and
daydreaming our way through life. HAPPINESS IS NOW
------------------------- Happiness is appreciated what's right
in front of you.* Happiness is experiencing "now".* Happiness is
not only absorbing yourself in the moment but also appreciating
the "distractions" which add to the color and spice to daily
existence.* Happiness is gratitude to even having existence, to
BEING rather than complaining.* Happiness is both solitude and
company.* Happiness is both sleep and awake.* Happiness is both
having and not having.* Happiness is not either/or: it is
both/and. Consider the lillies of the field -------- END
[typewritten Oct 16, 2002. I found the papers in a box today
full of old writings and put them online, March 30, 2015.* I
stand by every word 12 years later, as if I had written them
just now.* I'm surprised that I wrote about this subject before
because I don't remember ever writing this, but I did, on some
beautiful 8 1/2 x 14 fancy typewriter paper, 11 years and 6.5
months ago. -Kenneth Udut]
