on happiness vs misery ...
Freedom is the very essence of life, freedom to choose as we may and gather the consequences of our actions (check with any farmer on this topic for clarification)
Let's for a minute agree to certain other things and take it from there:
1. We are all humans looking for happiness as our own ultimate goal.
2. Opposites must exist in order for things to be there in our universe: sweet and bitter, day and night, high and low, south and north, positive and negative, make and female, etc. name it and it must have an opposite; opposition is what makes the world go round, with both extremes in complete opposition and an entire continuum in between for us to choose.
3. We all make mistakes due to the nature of our freedom (sometimes we choose the right and sometimes the wrong things, though making choices is always the right thing to do, to exercise our freedom.)
From 1 and 2 one must conclude:
4. There must be an opposite to our ultimate goal of happiness; This must be misery I want to call it (you choose your word if you may), I can't think of any other word to express the opposite (unhappiness I suppose it could also be a synonymous). Our ultimate state in life whether daily, whether one believes in the after life or not, is to be either one or the other or somewhere in the continuum; being both extremes at each end of the spectrum, and being our lives a daily constant movement of change between them. If one believes in the afterlife this concept also projects all the way there, where happiness or misery will be our end results. I believe that many philosophies of life, religions, etc agree to this point and yet we all call it by different names, Heavens and Hell, Happiness and Misery, Yin and Yang, Patala and Nirvana, etc. yet it seems to me that the idea is the same; whether that condition is a condition of this life only or also the next life will depend on that belief. The bottom line is that there is a goal and there is two ends to it, one opposite to the other, happiness on one end and misery on the other.
In order to make right or wrong decisions it must exist some sort of a law to which we must measure against, otherwise there is no right and wrong, and if there is no right and wrong then there is no happiness nor misery and if there is none of them then we must not exist either, but as Descartes said: cogito ergo sum. Whether that law is internal (given by our nature and called conscience or inner moral compass) or it is commanded by God is irrelevant at this point, the bottom line is that there is something we must follow that determines when we make a mistake or when we get closer to happiness or to misery. It cannot follow that there is such a thing as a free for all where no matter what we do it is all good and ok, I haven't found yet one single intelligent path or philosophy that agrees with this view; not anarchists, nor libertarians talk so unintelligently as a life without parameters but rather they talk about government and that is not my topic here. I propose that often many writers and philosophers who advocate freedom are simply misunderstood in their defence of it. I stand with each and every thought of absolute respect for individual freedoms, even as a believer in God I say that even God himself must respect our freedom as He is the one who gave it to us to begin with.
It is only to the ignorant that freedom must mean no consequences, a free for all world where one does as it pleases; nothing will follow from the use of that freedom, nor our decisions will have anything to do with our future. One of my favourite characters in society, the farmer, knows too well this principle, that one only sows what one has planted; if I want oranges I cannot plant potato seeds and expect oranges as I will only get what I have planted, potatoes; any naturalist also understands it and any scientist specially understands it; if you don't, maybe there is something to learn and ponder about for a bit, just let me say that millions of extremely intelligent people in this world have come to this very same conclusion based on experimentation and observation, a very clear scientific fact if you may, that by doing A only B follows and by doing C only D follows.
We now have that:
1. There are Laws around us everywhere, from laws of nature to laws of physics, laws of electricity, etc.
2. Consequences (call it reward or punishment if you may I rather call it simply reap what one sows) follow from simply applying such laws on our experiments (daily lives.)
How do we achieve happiness given that mistakes bring us misery? easy, the concept of change is what is necessary, to some it starts with Yoniso Manasikara, with introspection, with a humble analysis of our actions in relationship to others; in my Christian upbringing I was taught about the admission of error it was called. The next step goes a bit deeper even, as change is required, not surface change, not habit change but rather a change of heart; the Greek word is metanoia, for those familiar with science and nature this will sound familiar as it speaks to that deep change, to a literal transformation rather, not mere outward changes, not a change on simply habits but a deep transformation. In my Christian background we call it repentance, yes a word so often misunderstood and misused yet its true meaning being so much deeper than feeling shame or remorse from getting caught, or paying a penitence for forgiveness; a true change of heart. I love the Buddhist approach to life and mistakes: because they are unavoidable, yes, one needs not "stress" about them if you may but rather calmly learn to transform on this path of purification.
On this I must agree with all of my agnostic friends, that the desire for future happiness, or reward, should not be a reason good enough to do any good deeds in this life, as the merits of doing so can be felt right now and that should be reason enough to do them, because they are good not because of a future reward. On this path of life let us all walk on our own different paths perhaps yet with the same direction towards happiness and as we encounter each other let us celebrate on our accomplishments, let us all cheer each other as we put forward our best efforts my dear fellow travellers.
In order to make right or wrong decisions it must exist some sort of a law to which we must measure against, otherwise there is no right and wrong, and if there is no right and wrong then there is no happiness nor misery and if there is none of them then we must not exist either, but as Descartes said: cogito ergo sum. Whether that law is internal (given by our nature and called conscience or inner moral compass) or it is commanded by God is irrelevant at this point, the bottom line is that there is something we must follow that determines when we make a mistake or when we get closer to happiness or to misery. It cannot follow that there is such a thing as a free for all where no matter what we do it is all good and ok, I haven't found yet one single intelligent path or philosophy that agrees with this view; not anarchists, nor libertarians talk so unintelligently as a life without parameters but rather they talk about government and that is not my topic here. I propose that often many writers and philosophers who advocate freedom are simply misunderstood in their defence of it. I stand with each and every thought of absolute respect for individual freedoms, even as a believer in God I say that even God himself must respect our freedom as He is the one who gave it to us to begin with.
It is only to the ignorant that freedom must mean no consequences, a free for all world where one does as it pleases; nothing will follow from the use of that freedom, nor our decisions will have anything to do with our future. One of my favourite characters in society, the farmer, knows too well this principle, that one only sows what one has planted; if I want oranges I cannot plant potato seeds and expect oranges as I will only get what I have planted, potatoes; any naturalist also understands it and any scientist specially understands it; if you don't, maybe there is something to learn and ponder about for a bit, just let me say that millions of extremely intelligent people in this world have come to this very same conclusion based on experimentation and observation, a very clear scientific fact if you may, that by doing A only B follows and by doing C only D follows.
We now have that:
1. There are Laws around us everywhere, from laws of nature to laws of physics, laws of electricity, etc.
2. Consequences (call it reward or punishment if you may I rather call it simply reap what one sows) follow from simply applying such laws on our experiments (daily lives.)
How do we achieve happiness given that mistakes bring us misery? easy, the concept of change is what is necessary, to some it starts with Yoniso Manasikara, with introspection, with a humble analysis of our actions in relationship to others; in my Christian upbringing I was taught about the admission of error it was called. The next step goes a bit deeper even, as change is required, not surface change, not habit change but rather a change of heart; the Greek word is metanoia, for those familiar with science and nature this will sound familiar as it speaks to that deep change, to a literal transformation rather, not mere outward changes, not a change on simply habits but a deep transformation. In my Christian background we call it repentance, yes a word so often misunderstood and misused yet its true meaning being so much deeper than feeling shame or remorse from getting caught, or paying a penitence for forgiveness; a true change of heart. I love the Buddhist approach to life and mistakes: because they are unavoidable, yes, one needs not "stress" about them if you may but rather calmly learn to transform on this path of purification.
On this I must agree with all of my agnostic friends, that the desire for future happiness, or reward, should not be a reason good enough to do any good deeds in this life, as the merits of doing so can be felt right now and that should be reason enough to do them, because they are good not because of a future reward. On this path of life let us all walk on our own different paths perhaps yet with the same direction towards happiness and as we encounter each other let us celebrate on our accomplishments, let us all cheer each other as we put forward our best efforts my dear fellow travellers.
Comments
Post a Comment