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In that case scenario.. If eating that pizza did in fact elevate your mood . nourish you... and you enjoyed the taste.. .. Then it did make you happy.. Temporarily at least. You can't deny that. The state of "being present with whatever is present" and not longing to change our present circumstances is what you defined happiness as.. But that state is not induced for free.. And it doesn't last. Unless you can get there through meditation and are able to extend it for a long time. Then props to you. But I wasn't able to do it or figure out how this would work.

Alright.. Beyond just working.. Eating.. Shiting.. And fucking.. Getting old.. And getting sick.. And dying......... What is it really all about? What takes you beyond the mundane? What gives you real serenity and peace of mind? I don't know if you have noticed yet.. But the "classical" approach to happiness =pleasure just doesn't work. If you just get all the money and all the sex and all the yachts and houses etc..... Sure that is a relatively better condition than begging for food as a homeless person... So there is definitely a direction towards happiness.. But you don't actually believe that's what life is All about don't you? Also ... There is what's known as hedonic treadmill... as a person makes more money.. expectations and desires rise in tandem.. which results in no permanent gain in happiness. Because now what used to make you super happy barely dabbles with your senses anymore. So you have to chase something bigger and bigger.... And it never ends. Also we live in a world of duality. There is no night without day. No cold without hot. No high without a low. You can't just capture your happy moments and play them in repeat forever.. Life flows.. Everything passes. Impermanence is another thing. No matter what you do and where you go.. You are always back to baseline. Think of all your happy moments in the past.. All gone as if never even happened. Now you have to chase them again. And so on. You are literally haunting a mirage and you know it.. But you keep doing it anyways. Because you can't help it. The programmed "needs". You "need" stuff constantly. You need air.. Water.. Food.. Safety.. Comfort.. Pleasure.. Approval.. Meaning.. Purpose.. Value.. Etc etc. The last three ones are not found out there somewhere. So you have to make them up. And you deep down know you are making them up.. So you never actually find them. Just few thoughts. Share some insights about the nature of happiness.. Desire.. Attachments.. The human condition.. Etc.

@Gesundheit it's not just me.. Everyone are searching for what's right in front of them.

I found this random video while searching for the ultimate truth lol

Exactly. I never bought the notion that Truth =love and goodness (exclusively). It just doesn't match with straight up "reality". So when a Guru is preaching that "happiness is your true nature".. Don't they know that life includes cruelty and (sometimes) unimaginable amount of suffering and misery? You wouldn't expect such wise people to be blind to that. I guess it has to do with "you create your own reality" type of thing. So Truth can be whatever you insist on imagining It is.

So about the difference between the waking reality and dreams... First of all... It's not possible to distinguish the two.. Unless you go lucid on a dream. But for now.. You can't tell which is which. That is.. You don't know if you are dreaming or awake right now. You might have just woke up from one dream to enter another dream. And this might go on endlessly. Which is interesting because it kinda show that there is absolutely no difference between dream and "reality" in terms of phenomenonal experience. The same thing.. Sights sounds and different kinds of perception are identical. Except maybe in the dream state its kinda unstable and dark.. And there is a huge lack of consistency. All of which are the opposite in the waking state. It's pretty solid and consistent. But dreams only seem inconsistent after you wake up and compare them to the waking world. So it's not highly unlikely that this world too might be highly inconsistent relative to a higher order of reality that you might wake up to. Interesting. The dream argument (similar to simulation theory argument) is that the act of dreaming provides preliminary evidence that the senses we trust to distinguish reality from illusion should not be fully trusted.. and therefore.. any state that is dependent on our senses should at the very least be carefully examined and rigorously tested to determine whether it is in fact reality. But my answer to that is that dreams are all there is. Who said that dreams aren't real? They are 100 %real since we experience them. They are just different kinds of reality. As in they come about (generated) differently than the waking world (as assumed) but they are phenomenally identical as I said. Which means there is no such thing as illusion vs reality. It's all just different kinds of reality

@Vibroverse in your question.... you already assumed that we have two distinct things.. Dreams.. And reality. You already assumed the difference and then you ask if there is a difference?? Of course the answer is yes and no. That's why it's better to not categorize the present moment and then you have direct access to absolute Truth exactly as it is.

There is no dream or reality. There is what you are experiencing right now. What is it? I don't fucking know.

How did you do it?

?Alright.

True ? When are you gonna stop quoting yourself tho? Lol jk

@mandyjw @Nahm is it just a different way of saying "feeling good /better is all that matters"?

Well it's not just 'fun'. It's 'important'. At least for those who find it so.

One day.. A guy called Isaac Newton (who had a crush on knowledge) asked a (seemingly) silly question : why does the apple fall on the ground and the moon does not fall???? That question is the cause for all the crazy technology and advancement we are experiencing in this Era. (not sure if it's folklore but interesting to think about lol).

@seeking_brilliance I see. In practice I have to learn how to be comfortable with it tho. Or simply disentangle yourself from the issue of knowledge entirely and rest your mind.

@mandyjw OK thanks. That makes sense. Only thing that trips me up is the notion that "it's false because it doesn't feel good". Aren't these two separate things??

@seeking_brilliance ofc

Yes of course I want to feel better. I can go party and get drunk rn and feel better.. What good is that in the long run??? I'm still a fragile human being who is sensitive to all sorts of suffering.. Sickness.. Death etc... What is your conception of "feeling better"? Chasing a temporary fix (high) doesn't work..

@seeking_brilliance are you comfortable with not-knowing?

I do believe there is a correlation between happiness .. Pleasure.. Pain.. Suffering.. Etc. Tbh there is no such thing as what you call "causeless" happiness. Unless you can explain it to me.. Maybe will change my mind. But I do think happiness is a condition. And just like all conditions.. Temporary and unsubstantiated. It's not like you can be happy all the time. You have to experience pain and suffering. In fact I'd argue that happiness is only 20% of life (generally). While 30 % is suffering. And the rest 50 % is mundane and boring (just another day). Tbh I'm leaning toward a depressed nihilistic view on life recently. But this nihilism also has been a great pain-killer. I was walking home one evening earlier this year.. my existence shifted with a single passing thought.... I was chronically stressed at work.. overwhelmed by expectations.. grasping for a sense of achievement or greater purpose and tip-toeing towards full-on exhaustion. Then it hit me: “Who cares? One day I will be dead and no one will remember me anyway.” I can’t explain the crashing sense of relief. It was as if my body dumped its cortisol stores. I looked at the sky and thought: “I’m just a chunk of meat hurtling through space on a rock orbiting the sun In the middle of the nowhere. Pointless.. Futile.. meaningless.” It was one of the most comforting revelations of my life.. To discover that real happiness along with other kinds of illusions are indeed illusions. Please dont get upset or anything.. Im just sharing honest opinions on hope for clearer communication. Don't know if you ever went through a nihilistic phase in your life. But I'm stuck in one atm . It's kinda like when you are so autistic smart that you simply can't buy the BS that people use to comfort themselves in this dumb meaningless weird existence.

Yes. "it" being chasing money and sex and whatever else material gains in order to achieve happiness.

Don't know what that means lol. Yeah I think God CAN hide from itself because it's absolute.

Agreed. Ok lol. I understood what you said btw. Just not sure how it's linked to the post you quoted.

Let me ask you this.. Is it 'you' who is no one outside of him or 'me'? (relative me vs you :Leo vs Akshay) Because you are saying it works like a dream where there is only ONE Dreamer dreaming the WHOLE THING....So you are not open that simply there can be two dreamers or 7 billion separate dreams?

@mandyjw don't go full 'Nahm-mode' on me and explain yourself lol...