I have been coming to the conclusion for a long time
that happiness is easy, as long as we are willing to
change our various forms of additiction to
unhappiness, which requires that we know ourselves to
some degree. It's the old half full/empty choice and
a lot of gratitude. It is laid out in many books,
including the latest "How To Be Happy No Matter What"
from the "Don't Sweat the Samll Stuff" author;
"Santiy, Insanity and Commonsense" by Suarez (I
think); "The Handbook to Higher Consciousness" by Keys
(sp?) etc., etc.
Nancy
Western WA
--- jeff owens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> In Pursuit of Happiness
> (Better Living From Plato to Prozac)
> Mark Kingwell
>
> If the history of western civilizations thoughts on
> happiness
> is of interest then this is the book to read. I
> found a lot
> of interesting background and a few new ideas. Here
> are some
> quotes and comments:
>
> we cannot judge happiness except on the scale
> of an entire life.
>
> This is a useful concept to differentiate between
> pleasure
> and other short term feelings that are sometimes
> called
> happiness.
>
> At one point the book tried to define happiness by
> what
> it isn't. I found this "ZEN" like approach
> complimented
> the traditional definitions and provided useful
> direction.
>
> Myth 1 - Happiness is easy.
> Myth 2 - You can buy happiness.
> Myth 3 - Happiness is simplicity itself.
> Myth 4 - Happiness is immoral.
> Myth 5 - Happiness is madness.
> Myth 6 - Happiness is elsewhere.
> Myth 7 - Happiness is your birthright.
> Myth 8 - Happiness is fixed.
>
> Our culture seems to accept these myths at times
> without
> noticing the contradictions and flaws. We think
> happiness is
> related to achieving some goal (elsewhere) or that
> having
> more money is the answer. Of course, they may play
> a role
> but they are not happiness.
>
> Much of the book talks about our expectations and
> how
> that causes problems. For example, if our culture
> defines a unrealistic state of happiness and then
> encourages
> everyone to chase it.. what happens? We have a lot
> of
> unhappy people thinking happiness is somewhere else.
> That is exactly what we have today.
>
> In the end the author doesn't have any grand
> conclusions
> and leaves each of us to find our own answers. I
> was
> a little disappointed by this and felt we do know a
> lot about happiness. Oh well, each book has a few
> ideas
> and we can harvest those and enjoy them.
>
> If we look at ecology we find it fits here nicely.
> The
> diversity and chaos is indicated by myth 8
> (happiness
> is fixed). The idea of conservation and limits
> sneaks
> in with myth 2 (you can buy happiness). The idea
> that
> happiness is elsewhere (myth 6) says we can run away
> from
> our problems and not connect to the land. In other
> words,
> we build happiness under our feet. The idea that
> happiness
> is easy, wicked, or simple all push us towards
> irresponsible
> actions. The responsible ecological lifestyle is
> just
> an awareness of how the world works and the limits
> we all
> face. It isn't hardship and is compatible with our
> quest
> for happiness. This is one viewpoint anyway.
>
> One of the chapters talked about solitude and how
> most
> of us are powerless in the face of large volumes of
> information. This condition has appeared in the
> last 100
> years and requires that we guard our thoughts and
> attitudes
> about happiness. Unfortunately, the author did not
> provide
> and answers, he just described the problem.
>
> This same idea pops up in many of todays books and
> i'm
> now reading one with the title "Rich Media, Poor
> Democracy).
> A review is coming.
>
> Feel and be aware of this moment.
>
> jeff
>
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