The PATH: On Happiness, Unhappiness, and Wisdom
sent by J.W. Bertolotti | October 25, 2021
1. On Happiness
What is happiness, and how do we find it? Happiness can often feel like a destination, something existing in a place beyond this moment.
The philosopher Spinoza suggested,
Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.
Spinoza is in good company, the writer Leo Tolstoy said, “If you want to be happy, be.” Tolstoy stressed, “Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them.”
According to Aristotle, happiness (or eudemonia) is an activity. The act of happiness is an exercise of virtue. At the end of each of his treatises, Aristotle explained eudemonia is the activity of the soul in accordance with virtue. He goes on to define moral virtue as a “state of character expressed on choice, lying in the appropriate mean determined by the prescription that a wise person would lie down.”
Three Takeaways:
Happiness is a choice
Happiness is in the here and now
Happiness is shaped by our perspective
To quote the Dalai Lama,
“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do, and mostly live.”
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2. The Roots of Unhappiness
It can be challenging to discover what brings us joy. How about what brings you the opposite (e.g., unhappiness, frustration, misery)?
The writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky explained,
The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.
What is the source of your unhappiness?
Removing or simply reducing the source of unhappiness can be a big step towards greater happiness. Will any of us be able to completely remove all sources of unhappiness? Maybe not, but we can follow the advice of Theodore Roosevelt: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Sometimes the best approach is to add more of what brings us joy while at the same time working to reduce the activities that do the opposite. As the poet Rumi put it, “The middle path is the way to wisdom.”
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3. A Sign of Wisdom
What image comes to mind when you think of wisdom? Is your image someone smiling, dancing, and kind? If not, maybe it is time for all of us to rethink our vision of wisdom.
The philosopher Michel de Montaigne proposed,
The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.
Montaigne also felt there is nothing more notable in Socrates than finding time later in life to learn music and dancing and thought it time well spent.
The author of Awakening the Buddha Within, Lama Surya Das, paints this picture: “If it looks like wisdom but is unkind, it’s not wisdom. If it feels like love but it’s not wise, it’s not love.”
Maybe the activities that bring us true joy have much more to do with the path to wisdom than we realize.
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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful. If so, please consider sharing it with others.
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