The greatest source of happiness
published: August 30th, 2008
The greatest source of happiness
image: smithsonian institution
The greatest source of happiness is to be able to do what you want to do. Like freedom it comes with responsibility. The hedonist’s charter wont be found here. True emancipation is found only in the fulfilment of one’s ideals or objectives.
Given that such an option exists it is important to find out what you want, then spend your life pursuing that very thing. The defining characteristics of a life well lived are the things that you elect to pursue. They must not infringe upon the integrity of others, so no scrambling to the top of the pile and never mind whose fingers you crush under heel. No expensive tastes whose bill is picked up by those with whom you engage.
You must pass almost unnoticed and try not to leave a discordant note when you do so.
Creativity is the greatest of gifts. Try to create something worthy and strive always to create something new, not new for the sake of fashion but new because we occupy a state collectively of ground already covered. Learning is the ability to assimilate the already, the ultimate objective for anyone who treats their life with some degree of respect is to find themselves in a process that is unique. To think thoughts never before thought and to do things never before done.
Vision is a great thing, to be able to perceive things that are peripheral to the mainstream of human affairs and to not dismiss them as trivial or insignificant. It is easy to become immersed in the soap opera of daily affairs, the bills, the neighbours, the career and so on but try not to become totally submerged by it. This way is a path to dis-satisfaction.
There is a compelling case to be made for worldly success and yet an inner emptiness. Do not become the man or woman in the fast car, the big house and the never ending wardrobe who has lost the inner compass that defines the very individual that we are. Be true to your principles and if you don’t have any then make getting them a priority, be clear about what you will have and wont have in your life, what you will do and what you wont do.
Their have existed various codes of conduct in our common heritage. The Japanese used to venerate Bushido or the way of the warrior, in Europe there was the code of chivalry to name two. Each a coda, a pedigree, a template upon which to establish a life well lived. The objective within this was to shine, to shine magnificently in the darkness and to be a pinprick of light within the murkiness of confused human dealings. This should be your objective, not to become a warrior but to have a specific mien or demeanour, an address about your life that separates you from the herd or the crowd.
What is wrong with the crowd? Nothing, they live their lives according to the vagaries of fashion, the instant gratification their undisciplined senses demand of them and they are played by the world like a fish on a line. To escape that requires a particular kind of focus, a particular and rare kind of desire, to explore the hidden continent of one’s inherent capacity for growth or development.
If these words resonate with you then good. Know you’re not alone. If they don’t, it doesn’t matter, you wont have read this far anyway.