The Meaning of Happiness

[Guest guest]

To the vast majority of people in the world, the topic of happiness is both

mystifying and complex. Philosophers in the west have thought about it for

the past two an a half thousand years; psychologists and sociologists have

experimented and conducted polls on it for the past hundred. Still there is

little consensus and, if anything, there appears to be less happiness in the

world today than ever.

 

To the Advaitin, on the other hand, the subject is ever so simple. There is

only the Self and, accepting that we can never speak of this objectively, by

definition, we can say that the Self IS happiness. And that is really all

there is to it.

 

On the face of it, therefore, it is not really such a suitable topic for the

Advaitin group and it is not likely to provoke much in the way of

discussion.

 

Accordingly, I thought that I could open things out a little by also

covering the question of 'meaning' and 'purpose' in our lives. Again, in the

world in general, there are likely to be almost as many ideas and answers to

these as there are people. As far as the Advaitin is concerned, of course,

there are no people so perhaps this does not count for very much!

Furthermore, we know that concepts of meaning and purpose are simply that -

ideas in mind. As such, their value is, at most, in their utility as tools

to take the mind to the brink of understanding. Once there, all ideas must

be surrendered so that the final leap can be made, extinguishing forever all

identification with ego and mind.

 

So, that's about it. End of topic for March!

 

Seriously though, that does just about summarise everything. Nevertheless,

for the sake of having some material potentially to discuss, or at least to

go through the arguments in a little more detail for any newcomers to

Advaita, I will post three short essays on 'The Meaning of Happiness'. Part

1 - Meaning and Purpose. Part 2 - Pleasure and Happiness. Part 3 - Desire

for Objects. I will post the first on March 1st and the others as comments

run out or if comments start to pre-empt the later essays.

 

Best wishes,

 

Dennis