Warning: long blog.
Question of the day: Is happiness the purpose of our life?
I don't mean just the infactuative pleasures, but what people genuinely regard as a happy life: Watching good movies, reading good books, poetry, theatre, sharing valuable time with the people you love, following your passion, being creative, logical; helping others etc...
All of the above is what I would call an 'Indigo Happiness' or a 'Cultured Man'. Everytime I go to Chapters/Indigo, these messages are bombarded at you. See, I used to adhere to that view too, until couple of years ago I volunteered for people with disabilities. They don't watch/read good movies or books, they lack a sense of value so they spend time doing whatever pleases them[most of the time], I don't know WHAT their passions are, they are not that creative nor logical, and they certainly don't have the capabilities to help others when they can't even control their bladder. They are not, and will not be a 'cultured' people.
But they do have a sense of belonging, and they are, as anyone who has worked with the disabled would know, inherently and fully human. Of course that is why we work so painstakingly(literally) to help them to think, to increase their hand-eye corordination, to interact with people, to experience society. But do we do this because we believe that they will be happier by doing this? I don't think so. Most of us just feel an uncontested moral duty, and perhapas even a reward from helping the poor and the weak[I'm referring to the secular, generally] In fact we, the volunteers, think and respect whatever makes the disabled to be happy... to be happy[whatever that means].
So, we don't need the soophistication of our intellect to be happy. After all, philosphers and scientists aren't the happiest ppl in the world! [I may alittle bit biased, but u get the point]
People often refer to the post-modern ignorancy: "Whatevery makes you happy!" But we've seen from the duty of helping the disabled that we believe in something greater than the happiness of an individual to drive forth our lives. In fact, if someone cannot experience this other quality of life that we value so much, then we often feel obliged to help them experience it.
I'm not attempting to find the purpose of humanity nor of each individuals, for only God knows. and perhaps this may not have been the best of example of our instinctive desire for something other than pleasure. But I am attempting to warn people, whatever their religion or philosophies may be, from the "Indigo Happiness"; It is not the purpose of our lives.
Happiness, is not bad. It is just that the happiness we generally speak of is not, and must not be the whole of humanity. The danger of the 'Cultured man', is that our purpose shifts as the culture shifts, from one generation to another. I think most of us, at least those of us who are spritual, understand that there is a pilar of truth to our purpose, and without this pilar, man is, and will be, lost in a world of his own creation. Perhaps I am just trying to redefine the happiness of today. But if, by happiness we mean the "Indigo happiness" or the "Cultured Man" that I have referred to, our happiness is an insufficient fund to the bank of our existence.
We have something, if not greater, more human, more liberating to find our purpose in, than the pleasures, wheter of the body or of the mind. To discover it, is his own journey [or her:P]. Whether that be God, morality, universal-discovery, progressive existence or anything for that matter, one thing is for certain: Once you have experienced the luminous truth, you will never be satisfied with the futile shadows of the dark and the eventually, lonesome cave.
--
"If you don't want a house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such thing as war. ... Cram them full of noncombustible data, choke them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change. Don't give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy... I know, I've tried it; to hell with it. So bring on your clubs and parties, your acrobats and magicians, your daredevils, jet cars, motorcycle helicopters, your sex and heroin, more of everything to do with automatic reflex. If the drama is bad, if the film says nothing, if the play is hollow, sting me with the teremin, loudly. I'll think I'm responding to the play, when it's only a tactile raction to vibration. But I don't care. I just like solid entertainment."
-Fahrenheit 451-
We are more than what other tell us we are.
-That is the function of my seoul today-
Why is Coffee Dumm so great?
