Is Happiness The Only Thing To Live For?

[Lorcan]

I have been watching multiple videos of leo's and, multiple times, he has said that meditation is the best and most high quality happiness. Just simply being, and enjoying your exsistance.

So to speak, if everyone shares the common goal of happiness, why isnt everyone meditating. After all, happiness is the ultiamate goal.......... Or is it.

If you was given  an option to be hooked up machine that if you were hooked up to it you would receive infinite pleasure/gratification( the same gratification you got from meditatinh) what reason is stopping me from saying no.

Personally I would say no, but I just cant really put a definite finger on why. I mean surely there must be more then simply to "be" and enjoy "being" .

Is happiness the ONLY thing I should pursue, Have I be lying to myself this whole time, this happiness, is it genuine? Is it authentic?

Look  Im all for personal devlopmemt and mastering yourself etc, I cant say I disagree with it.

But what I found most intriguing is when leo said " the best use of time is simply sitting and doing nothing, Simply meditating and contemplating.

 

 

I really sat, stumped and thought.

A image popped into my head of the entirety of everyone on the planet, sitting cross legged neditating and contemplating. Everyone on planet earth was just enjoying " being"  .

And I thought, if happiness is the only thing that drives us and what we seek, is this what an ideal world looks like?

For some for reason. I feel like theres more then just exsisting and enjoying being. 

Hmm, Still thinking about this as I am writing this. Please share your thoughts down below. Would be interesting to see what you think about this.

 

Edited April 2, 2016 by Lorcan

[nbolt]

If happiness isn't the only thing to live for- what else is there?

[Natasha]

  @Lorcan I tend to agree with Leo. The higher the level of consciousness you possess, the less you have the need for DOING and the more you enjoy and value just BEING. 

The happiest person in the world answers questions (he is a Buddhist monk):

http://www.esquire.co.uk/culture/news/a4915/matthieu-ricard-what-ive-learned/

 

[Isle of View]

@Lorcan Think of happiness as a way of being, not a destination.

There is no inherent meaning to life. It is all in the realm of your assignment and your definition. 

Only you can know what will really fullfill you. 

Meditation and other spiritual practices can help you raise your way of being, how you approach or react to things, people, events, projects and how you handle your desires. 

It's a means to "re-set" yourself. To zero in and come in tune with your spiritual essence. 

Self-development on the other hand has to do with development. You see, you work on yourself, you develope who you want to be, what role you want to take on, in what circumstances you want to manifest yourself in at al. 

Self-development is very tiresome if you're not, at least to some degree, self-realized (i.e. didn't realize who you are and what you really want).

Happiness is just a desireable state of being. It's not the goal of life. Any toddler can be happy for no apparent reason. 

If it doesn't resonate with you that "the best use of time is to meditate", than it is not the best use of time for you. Or not always the best use of time. If Leo would meditate all the time, no videos from Leo would be uploaded anymore, but I am sure that since that video he uploaded a lot of them. Right?

So above all, find your purpose. Find what you want to express and what you would like to experience. And go for it.

Meditation can help you get there.

~Chris

 

Edited April 2, 2016 by Isle of View

[reez]

@Lorcan Think yourself you are gonna go on a road-trip. You have these stops you HAVE to go. You just HAVE to go there, I think that since life is a journey, happiness is just one of those places you want to go to when you are going on the road-trip. It's not the goal, but you HAVE to go there.

 I don't think happiness is the "meaning of life". I am a Christian and I believe God created us due to the wanting of not being alone. He wanted to create relationships with us humans, a connection to him and us. Which is why he created humans to be such as him, with feelings and their own thoughts/will. He doesn't want slaves to just "love him", he wants us to WANNA love him, the true love, that can't be forced. Therefore I also believe that we are supposed to create relations with other humans, just like the one God wants with us. We want that same thing with other humans, that is what I consider the main purpose with life. And with relations I don't just mean to have sex with as many you can, but relations that are lasting, and who can make you a better person. And since you are becoming a better person, you are also giving back to the people you have connections to.

You said in another thread that you liked "great people" and you named Jesus. Jesus walked among us humans and he made in my opinion, the world a better place. His goal was to take away all sin from us humans in order to make the world a better place. And he could only do so by connecting with other humans, and eventually die.

Tldr; In short I believe the main purpose of our life is to interact with other people in a meaningful way and when we eventually leave them, by moving away, ending a relationship or by death. We should leave the world better than when we were born into it. It can be just one person, or we can change the history forever, but making the world better is the goal, no matter how small of a change we do.

[Psychonaut]

In the core of every human desire is magnification of happiness.

May it be through emotional stability, soothing words, excitement, the euphoria rush from hardcore drugs, the beauty of music etc...

The key to understand happiness is that every being has a different way of achieving happiness and all ways are okay.

For example I am the most happy when I take acid, the pure bliss and peace it gives me is indiscribable. But is this the only and one way? Absolutely not. I have had friends that freaked out on acid because they couldnt distinguish what is reality and what is not.

Happiness has many facets and can't be really defined in words. It is every beings own responsibilty to take care of their own happiness.

Edited April 3, 2016 by Psychonaut

[charlie2dogs]

Happiness is a state of being, not a goal to seek to satisfy the identity and ego.  Self realization is happiness, joy, peace, reality, and your understanding of who and what you are, and reasons for being here, living without regrets, living the now and not the past and future,  experiencing the moment of now in a conscious, aware, present state of being.  Unhappiness and misery do not and cannot exist in this space of being.

[Nathalie]

@Lorcan Maybe we need first a definition for "happiness"

for me it's only an ephemeral mood state like sadness, anger, excitement jealousy etc.. It comes and goes.. From this point of view, it can't be a goal at all because it  would exclude every other feeling.. It seems absurd to me, because in this case you would have to avoid everything what doesn't make you "happy" and this is the best way to achieve unhappiness.

Why do you practice self development?

I do it in order to be able to recognize my hidden mental structures (due to education, relations, culture etc), to recognize the moods and feelings which come up and being able to acknoledge them without identification with them, it gives me certain sense of freedom that I like.

Personally, I began to meditate because I was curious where it would lead me.. And I still proceed because of this profound peace that I feel and that seems to deepen endlessly..

Since I go this way of self development and meditation, I really can appreciate the present moment with its aliveness, independently how "I feel" in this moment.. Crazy isn't it?

So why do you practice? Maybe this question more is important than what Leo says or minds.. Am I wrong?

[Leo Gura]

22 hours ago, Lorcan said:

If everyone shares the common goal of happiness, why isnt everyone meditating. After all, happiness is the ultiamate goal.......... Or is it.

Because they are too ignorant to foresee that their existing strategies for happiness will not work.

Everything anyone ever does is motivated by the seeking of happiness.

Think about it.

Hitler started WWII to increase happiness.

The only problem is, some strategies for happiness do not work as well as we originally think.

In fact, ALL strategies for happiness outside of BEING will never work.

There really is only one path to happiness. The problem is, it's too counter-intuitive and unorthodox for people to swallow. So their choices of path ultimately are limited to the lesser of the paths of suffering.

And thus we see why so few people are truly happy.

[Nathalie]

9 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Hitler started WWII to increase happiness.

 Really??

But yes, it's right, a lot of people are looking for happiness, in material things in other people, good weather.. what ever.. and it can't work.

Happyness never lasts it's only a release from suffering. One could say suffering arises from the looking for happiness.

In my point of view, if one chose to develop himself : is taking a path that leads to excel the will, in order to accept what is and find peace.

It's the reason why I said, we need a definition of what you call "happiness". If happiness = peace and freedom in a higher level.. yes. ok.

 

 

[Magnifico]

13 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

The only problem is, some strategies for happiness do not work as well as we originally think.

In fact, ALL strategies for happiness outside of BEING will never work.

But what in our human nature let us then believe that happiness come frome those "Strategies for happiness" (how you call it)? Is it because every human is taught that this excitement (which you get from these "other strategies for happiness") is happiness? That from the beginning ouf our birth we were subconsciously taught that a good marriage or a big house or sth like that makes us happy, but in fact happiness only comes from being aware in the presen(=just BEING)? Am I right with that ?

[Isle of View]

@Leo Gura

Agree, and also happiness is a part of our native state as beings.

When we grow up we get programmed and indoctrinated into the concept of lack. That's where the struggle for happiness begins. Whereas all we would need to do is unveil the programming and indoctrination (or transcend it) in order to reclaim our natural ability to be happy, as well as to emanate love and understanding.

There is really no way to happiness. The only thing that needs to be "done" is seeing through the veils of indoctrination and obstructive agreement.
It can be quite a process. For some it can take a very long time. Some are so dependend on outside confirmation and validation that they'll not even start, let alone reclaim what is truly theirs. 

~Chris

[charlie2dogs]

It is better to be happiness than to seek it.

[Leo Gura]

On 4/4/2016 at 4:50 AM, Magnifico said:

But what in our human nature let us then believe that happiness come frome those "Strategies for happiness" (how you call it)? Is it because every human is taught that this excitement (which you get from these "other strategies for happiness") is happiness? That from the beginning ouf our birth we were subconsciously taught that a good marriage or a big house or sth like that makes us happy, but in fact happiness only comes from being aware in the presen(=just BEING)? Am I right with that ?

There are several layers of reasons.

Yes, modern society totally screws up your mind and your sense of perceptive. From the day you are born your parents only give you love if you act the way their egos like, and they deny love as soon as you act against their wishes. Which then trains you to seek love from outside yourself.

But more fundamentally, you seek happiness through external strategies because the ego is terrified of looking inward. If the ego ever deeply looked inward, it would discover that it doesn't exist. So the ego's entire survival depends on the pursuit of external stimulation and denial of inner reality. The ego is like a shark that must keep swimming to oxygenate its gills, or it suffocates. << That's a pretty accurate description of human egos.

[Gmork]

 If you agree that we are immortal 'soul', we live to get knowledge and to gather experiences. If you have happiness in your life its nice, but you dont need it, and sometimes its nice lesson not to have it, perhaps you need that lesson in this life.

If you do stuff the right way and you use your 'karma' to learn you will be happy when you need it.