EXCERPT

HAPPINESS

DESCRIPTIONS:

My opinion is that you never find happiness until you stop looking for it. My greatest happiness consists precisely in doing nothing whatever that is calculated to obtain happiness: and this, in the minds of most people, is the worst possible course. Chuang Tzu

THE COMMERCIAL VIEW:

We are propagandized to believe that we need to attain certain attractive human and material conditions before we can be happy. The premise is that when we obtain these conditions, we will be happy. Until then, we are destined to remain empty and unfulfilled. It is as though we are somehow inherently deficient, and can only be complete by the addition of some one, or some thing.

THE TAOIST VIEW:

The Taoist view is entirely different. They believe that we limit our capacity for happiness by making it dependent upon something outside of us. By establishing commercial and other external conditions for personal satisfaction, we create costly dependencies and miss where it really is. We doom ourselves to a life of anxiety-filled struggle and frustration. We will never be truly happy when we are always looking for some one or some thing to make us happy. No one or no thing can make you happy. Those that believe so are always chasing a mirage and are never content.

Taoists have a far more liberated and empowered view of happiness. The logic is simple: Since the Tao is everywhere; the opportunity to be happy must also be everywhere. With faith in our inherent completeness and inner strength, we can be in good spirits anytime, anywhere, doing anything.

This includes mundane activities without any artificial, external dependencies. All we have to do is not force (wu-wei), be at peace, and live in harmony with the graceful flow of the Tao.

THE HEDONISTIC PARADOX:

Taoists believe that we cannot force happiness. In fact, we cannot even directly achieve it. Almost like your shadow, happiness moves away from you if you chase it, and moves toward you as you ignore it.

This is the same conclusion reached by Western philosophers in the concept of the hedonistic paradox. Here happiness cannot be pursued directly. It seems only to be derived indirectly from worthy activities.
Chuang Tzu especially warns that the minute we establish the polarities of happiness and unhappiness and establish the former as an object to be obtained and the latter as an object to avoid we have become deluded and alienated from happiness. He is saying that by setting an objective, we are narrowing where happiness is found. Instead, his idea is to not categorize happiness, but find it in non-seeking and non-action everywhere by being at one with the Tao. So paradoxically, happiness requires not striving for happiness.

(From the West: It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters in the end. Ursula K. LeGuin)


PRESCRIPTIONS:

Feel yourself being quietly drawn by the deeper pull of what you truly love. - Rumi, the 13th century Persian-Afghan poet and philosopher

RETHINK YOUR CONCEPTS OF HAPPINESS:

If you hold a conditional view of happiness, that is if your happiness depends on some one or some thing outside of you, rethink the linkage. If you make a person, place or thing a condition for your happiness, you will forever be held hostage by those very conditions. Why set up these unnecessary and burdensome requirements? Why make yourself so dependent? Why put such power into someone elses hands? And that someone may or may not have your best interests at heart. In fact, they may get a sadistic delight in tormenting you. Why limit your joy to such a small piece of life? Why cheat yourself and others from countless opportunities for shared joy? Decide if you want to be a master or slave.

LET GO OF YOUR ARTIFICIAL CONDITIONS FOR HAPPINESS

Do yourself a great favor and break all of your self-imposed dependencies for happiness. Liberate yourself. Detach your idea of happiness from all externals. Look within. Thats where your source of happiness has always been and always will be. If you cant find it there, you will not find it anywhere. To prove this, recall the times you were in some very pleasant place doing something enjoyable, and yet you were numb to it all. Conversely, recall the times when you were in an unpleasant situation, but inexplicably still remained peaceful or even joyful. This proves the essential primacy and power of your inner world.

CREATE AN EMPOWERING CONCEPT OF HAPPINESS:

Create a new concept of happiness that is unconditional - without temporal or spatial restrictions. Expand the time and territorial range for your joyfulness to include the totality of your life. View happiness as a natural by-product of living authentically, naturally, spontaneously, and fully in the moment. Develop a positive expectancy about your future. Feel liberated and empowered because your happiness is self-generated.

DO WHAT YOU ENJOY:

You may be tempted to be opportunistic, and work at something that is distasteful to you strictly for the egoistic or monetary gain. If so, remember these words from Lao Tzu:

In work, do what you enjoy. - Chapter 8 of the Tao Te Ching

What a common sense idea: Do what you enjoy. Of course do so within the bounds of decency and legality.

(From the West: Happiness is not a destination; its a way of traveling. Unknown)