Is Happiness Conditional Or Unconditional?

[Nito]

I've been a stressed out, anxious, overthinker, and very unpassionate person this past year, and so I decided to watch Leo's recent video on happiness to learn how to become happier.

In the video he claims that happiness is conditional i.e: you need certain conditions to be happy e.g: you can't be happy if you have bad relationships in your life/you can't be happy just sitting in a room meditating all day... and this makes a lot of sense to me

However, I've also been watching Leo's older videos on meditation and mastering your emotions and Leo always used to say that meditation and mastering your emotions will allow you to be happy without needing anything.

After finally getting serious with meditiation and mastering my emotions recently I feel so amazing which makes me seriously unsure what is true... whether happiness is conditional or not.

It really makes sense to me that happiness would be unconditional since if Leo used to say these kinds of things about meditation and mastering your emotions, means that he was experiencing that "unconditonal happiness", meaning it was real?

Apologises if this post doesn't make much sense, it's my first time making a post on any forum for a long long time, appreciate the replies I get! 

[UpperMaster]

Conditional. If you have health issues it's hard to be happy. I have seen this with people I love in my life (+Leo also addresses this). That's not to say you can't learn ways to be happy. I am very sure that people can develop some emotional mastery to help them become more happy more consistently. But if some conditions are not met, like having good health etc etc it's much harder to be happy. 

No apologies needed post makes sense. Welcome to the forum, we're happy you are here.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

Not only is it conditional. But we are all just a mere slaves to our emotions. That's what makes the process of trying to get happy so difficult. "Emotional mastery" can only get you so far

[Thought Art]

Leo is learning all the time. I think his views did change.

[Raze]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0A6Rw7KnvA

[Nito]

@UpperMaster Yes I believe you're right, I had the same suspicions about happiness, that it's easier to be happier if you learn techniques like meditation and emotional masrtery but that some conditions like health will take away from overall happiness. So the best thing we can do is improve both the conditional things and you could call the other things spiritual techniques Ig lol.

And tysm for the welcome. Im excited to meet people who follow Leo, people who are just as serous about self actualisation as I am, gets too lonley on this journey lol, people my age, at 19, are a completely different breed to me, and I try say that with no judgement, but even that is something I'm learning!

[Nito]

@NewKidOnTheBlock Is it ok if you explain your comment more? The entire thing please and specifically when you said " we are all just a mere slaves to our emotions"

[Nito]

@Raze Shinzen Young is the goat it seems haha

[Nito]

@Thought Art Yeah absolutely it's cool to see his improvements

[Whitney Edwards]

2 hours ago, Nito said:

However, I've also been watching Leo's older videos on meditation and mastering your emotions and Leo always used to say that meditation and mastering your emotions will allow you to be happy without needing anything.

Your emotional plane is your scope for happiness. If you are originally in a bad emotional state, it will be harder for you to be happy in any situation. No amount of money or success will make you happy if you inherently don't feel good to begin with. So mastering your emotions is likely the first step. To conquer your inner demon. 

2 hours ago, Nito said:

In the video he claims that happiness is conditional i.e: you need certain conditions to be happy e.g: you can't be happy if you have bad relationships in your life/you can't be happy just sitting in a room meditating all day... and this makes a lot of sense to me

Yes. Once you're emotionally stable, you'll need certain external conditions to be happy. This is practical advice. You can't just build your emotional state through meditation and simply rely on it forever. The meditation is to build emotional resilience and a state where you can experience happiness. It's like a baseline. 

An example of it would be like this — you need basic nutrition to be at least able to go to the gym. If your nutrition is lacking, the gymming will make you feel tired and you might give up. You cannot do strength training if you are feeling weak and you would end up with sore muscles because your body isn't in the perfect condition to do certain exercises if you have health conditions. 

So first you will need to have a baseline health where your nutrition and general health statistics are near normal to be able to visit the gym consistently. 

Now once your health is normal, you can visit the gym and improve your fitness levels and get even stronger and healthier. Just being healthy won't help or upgrade fitness levels.. 

Hope you got it. 

[Ishanga]

Yes and No.. The only Basic Condition to be in a constant state of Peace, Happiness or Bliss is a HIgh Level of Consciousness.. What this means is Your Living mostly in the NOW, not ruled by the Past/Memory (this takes away all trauma, and is multi leveled), or Future/Imagination, You still use these faculties but they don't rule You, You rule them, most ppl are Ruled by their Memory and Imaginations..  Your Completely Accepting of What Is, this stops all Stress Response, you cannot be Accepting and Stressed out, only when You are Resisting What Is does the Stress Response happen..Next is Responding to Life rather than Reacting, this means You Respond to whatever is happening in Your Life Equally, rather than to just what You Like or Love, if You do this then the Intensity of Your Life Experience will increase vastly..  As well Your Internal Energies (Kundalini) has to be actively Intense and centered in the higher up Chakras..

Once those things are inplace You are Blissful of Your own nature, this doesn't mean Your incapable of Pain or even Suffering, it just means it is Your Choice of How to Experience Life in any given Moment, if You want to be Happy You can, and its unconditional, not dependent on any External Event... 

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

34 minutes ago, Nito said:

@NewKidOnTheBlock Is it ok if you explain your comment more? The entire thing please and specifically when you said " we are all just a mere slaves to our emotions"

All our actions and decisions are ultimately based on emotions, you can't escape them. Even if you ignore certain negative emotions to, for example, push towards a goal you've set for yourself, you are doing it so that you feel better in the future. Everything is about feelings in our lives. Therefore, it's best to acknowledge your subservient position to your emotions (I mean it's not like you have a choice anyway) rather than denying this fact

[Leo Gura]

People cannot even being to comprehend what horrors reality has in store for you.

Whatever happiness you have, cherish it, because it can be gone in a flash.

I do not teach unconditional happiness any more because it is a fantasy.

Edited January 16 by Leo Gura

[bazera]

@Leo Gura

Quote

People cannot even being to comprehend what horrors reality has in store for you.

Isn't Awakening increasing the baseline ability of happiness / ability to accept reality as it is?

[Thetruthseeker]

I thought Leo explained this really well in his ultimate guide to happiness video. 

it’s hard to be happy in a war zone 

[gettoefl]

There is joy, there is happiness.

joy is first thing in the morning and happiness is last thing at night.

Former is who you are and unconditional and later is conditioned, what kind of day you had.

Joy is what you bring to the table and happiness is what that joy effects in the world around.

[JJfromSwitzerland]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

People cannot even being to comprehend what horrors reality has in store for you.

Whatever happiness you have, cherish it, because it can be gone in a flash.

I do not teach unconditional happiness any more because it is a fantasy.

Alright, so if we are oneness/god, does it mean each one of us still has do go through all of the suffering each human undergoes (as well as happiness)?

[UnbornTao]

 

 

What are we referring to by happiness here, for real? Is it getting what you want? Can you be happy whether you get it or not?

Edited January 16 by UnbornTao

[Xonas Pitfall]

Happiness in your "human form" is 100% conditional. To understand this, it’s best to observe yourself as an organism. An organism cannot grow, live, or sustain itself without the right conditions. Some animals need cold winters, others are more social and depend on having a group or tribe, and some require very specific reproductive strategies, etc. We are the same. And because we are one of the more complex organisms, our needs are far more niche, precise, and heavily conditional. Just turn off your heating or electricity for a day, and you’ll quickly see how conditional your happiness and well-being truly are.

The more "meditative" or "enlightened" type of happiness is often described as unconditional. In this state, you’re in such a high state of awareness that whatever conditions you’re in, you recontextualize them as part of understanding yourself as an observer of reality, or as one with oneness, God, or existence itself. You’re so completely detached from your human self that it wouldn’t matter if you cut off your arm right then and there. You’d just perceive it as part of "exploration, understanding, and Love." That’s often what drug addicts, especially heroin users, experience. If you ask them why they keep running their lives the way they do and continue taking heroin, they’ll often say, "Well, it’s because heroin takes it all away and makes it feel good." These states are beautiful but highly dysfunctional and dangerous to your human self.

However, this state is incredibly difficult to maintain, especially if you still want your human self to function and participate in "human society." It’s so impractical that it’s almost useless to think about unless you’re planning to fully commit to the path of a monk or yogi who meditates 24/7 and is supported by others in a monastery.

If you don’t plan to go down that path, then yes: happiness is 100% conditional. You need to accept that and carefully define the conditions, preferences, and actions you want to build your life around in order to feel good.

[Vibes]

5 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

People cannot even being to comprehend what horrors reality has in store for you.

What's up with this wanting to spread your suffering with others thing? I thought you were above that.

Edited January 16 by Vibes